This past year, I was extremely vocal about my college decision process. I took to social media, and pretty much committed to going to The University of Alabama early 2015. After I applied, I had a change of heart. Originally, I was going to wait for my decision from Alabama before applying to other schools, but that was not the case.
In August, about a month before hearing back from Alabama, I realized that I needed options. Although my heart was set on moving to Tuscaloosa, I know myself, and I knew that I would have wanted to have options. I quickly came up with those options. Utah State University, University of South Florida, University of Washington, California State University and New York University. I ended up receiving free application waivers from those schools, and I applied to all of them.
Almost immediately I heard back from Utah State, and not surprisingly I got in. I was really excited, because although never visiting I knew I would fit in well, and loved how diverse the campus is there. My next college acceptance letter would come from Alabama. NYU was a definite reach for me, and would be the only school I was deferred from, which doesn't hurt me at all. I am still currently waiting to hear back from California State, University of Washington and University of South Florida, which I believe will be all acceptance letters.
Back to Utah State. I ended up falling head over heels in love with it. It killed me thinking about having to decline my acceptance. It took me almost two months to commit to Alabama, simply for the reason that I found such a huge love for a school, that was on a totally different side of the country. Utah had so many things that I loved. The diverse campus, the beautiful mountains, I could go on forever about what I loved about the school. The campus life is great, and was voted number one college town a few years ago, the school is great. Ultimately, it came down to one thing. Opportunity.
My major held me back from going to Utah State. I plan on majoring in Telecommunications and Film with a double minor in Sports Broadcasting and Political Science. Alabama is such an incredible school for all three of those. Utah State is also. I took to the internet and did a simple Google search of the percentage of people who get jobs right out of college for my major from each of those schools, and Alabama won that battle.
It absolutely killed me to defer Utah State. I could definitely see myself moving there, and starting a life. However, I am incredibly happy with my decision to go to Alabama. The amount of excitement I have cannot be contained. Moving with my best friends, going to one of the best public schools in the country and getting to yell Roll Tide is something I now would not give up for anything in the world. I look back at my college decision process and realize how easy I made it out to be on the internet, and now everyone knows how truly heartbreaking it was for me.
