If, a year ago, someone told me that I'd be attending Rutgers University as part of the class of 2020, I would've scowled and shushed them rather harshly before proceeding to fall into a very bad mood.
The fall of 2015 was filled with me picking universities to apply to, filling out forms and applications, and stressing over essays. Rutgers University wouldn't have even made my list if my father didn't insist upon me absolutely having to apply to the state school. With a sigh, I filled out the application, wrote the essay, and sent it off. While I put my best effort into it (as I should have, the application fee was $65), I really didn't want to think about what would happen if I got in. I'd be persuaded into attending, as it was the most cost-friendly option for our family as residents of New Jersey, and because it was geographically the closest to my parents and sister. I wouldn't be able to get the Typical College Experience™: no supervision, cool professors and classes, parties every weekend all with my parents only fifteen minutes away, right?
At least, that's what I thought.
The fear of this possibility becoming a reality is what led me to dig a little online about the university. However, instead of finding material to further my dislike of the university, I found a cornucopia of positive experiences and exciting stories about it instead, sparking my curiosity. What was it all about? I thought it was just another university with your regular monotonous professors and your high-school-like weekends at home with the parents. No excitement. No novelty.
However, contrary to everything I believed up until that point, Scarlet Knights, while highly intelligent and academically distinguished, were actually independent, responsible, fun-loving people at a university which encouraged all of the qualities above. They didn't go home every weekend; just enough to snag some of mom's cooking every once in a while. They weren't stuck-up bookworms; they had the wildest parties and the most exciting campus imaginable, surrounded by the city of New Brunswick and only an hour away from New York City and Philadelphia. And the university itself? Equipped with top-notch professors and staff that genuinely cared about imparting good education, and some of the coolest classes and seminars I've ever heard of (a seminar on Harry Potter and Potion-Making Science, anyone?). My earlier dismissal of the university was founded on how far I'd be from the Typical College Experience™, how close I'd be to my family, and how boring the I made the university out to be in my head, without any real research.
Oh, what a mistake that was.
Visiting campus for scheduling my classes in the fall solidified my new opinion about my state school — it was, and is, amazing (I mean, for a university that turned down an invitation to the Ivy League, it had to be). And, as a member of its Honors Class of 2020, I couldn't be more proud and more excited to announce that I will indeed be attending Rutgers University.
