Finding your home away from home consists of an endless amount of options and considerations you have to weigh and value before picking your school. The stress of it is indescribable. I’m here to tell you, pick your head over your heart.

I know, I know, everyone wants to voice their opinion in YOUR decision. The biggest difficulty really stems from people around you. Your parents and relatives want nothing but the absolute best for you so they will persuade you to pick nothing but the best. The greatest fault in that is, the absolute best might not be your absolute best. All our lives we have been shaped to believe that listening to your parents will produce the best outcome whether we like it or not. More often than not, our parent's opinion and instructions benefit us. In picking a school, this is not the time to follow their instructions. This does not mean you completely disregard everything they say but remember you are the one picking a place that you are going to create a new life in. FOR THE NEXT FOUR YEARS. YOU are going to be paying for it and living there, not your parents. I am not trying to say disregard everything your parents or relatives say, just try not to make a decision solely based on what they’re telling you to do. Allow yourself to be open-minded and don’t feel like you have to go where they want you to go because they’re your parents.

Some of the most ideal people to gather information from in my opinion are current college students and your teachers. Guidance counselors are great, but they’re managing you and the rest of your grade so they’re information becomes pretty much rehearsed and is less from the heart (sorry guidance counselors of the world). When thinking of a teacher, it should be someone you trust and a teacher who loves their job, and you. Everyone knows the difference in the teachers that do it because of the benefits and the ones that do it because they love it. The teachers that do it because they love it, are the ones you need to go to. I will never forget the number of in-depth conversations I had with my favorite teacher, Mr. Salvo. He is the one that gave me so much inspiration when it came to choosing. He took part in making me realize your own head over heart is the way to go. Your teachers will share experiences with you and will stress the fact that college they picked is what led them to possessing work they love. Talking to current college students can list the negatives and positives of their decision process and the school they’re of choice in seconds. This is entirely because they freshly experienced the process you’re stuck in and are currently living the next chapter of your life at that moment. Gaining opinions from future college kids is almost like talking to your future.

Head over heart is something that everyone feels. My advice is to go with your own head because your heart can adjust. The best way to decide which school is your best option is to put everything down on the table in front of you. Make pros and cons lists of every fact and statistic your school represents to you. This will help in realizing which of the schools you fell in love with makes the most sense. The school that is going to leave you with $120,000 of debt in the end of your four years that your heart is drawn to, is not the one for you. It is, in fact, possible to find an affordable school that gives you the same feeling your “dream school” does. The big name schools that give you nothing and cost close to a million dollars are no different than the ones that are giving you scholarships and are less known. Picking your second best option when you realize you can’t afford the first is using your head.

I know because I thank my head every day. My heart said Alabama and my head said you don’t want to be paying for four years for the rest of your life. Thanks to the thing between my shoulders, I found myself at the greatest institution possible. The University of Rhode Island makes me the happiest I’ve ever been and above all I’m glad it’s something I can afford. Pick the smart school, not the name one.

"Don't disregard your second option because sometimes your second option, is your best option."