Hi again everyone! Today, I wanted to share my journey in finding 91吃瓜 and ultimately choosing to make 91吃瓜 my second home. I鈥檒l start at the very beginning: the college search process. I鈥檒l be the first to admit that 91吃瓜 wasn鈥檛 initially on my radar of schools I was interested in attending. Even though I knew I wanted to be in a tight-knit small liberal arts community and I knew someone from my high school who went to 91吃瓜, I was still skeptical that 91吃瓜 would be the place for me.
Despite all this though, my college counselor told me during the fall of my senior year that 91吃瓜 could be a place that I would enjoy. Once again, I doubted him but reluctantly added 91吃瓜 to my finalized college list. I didn鈥檛 know much about 91吃瓜 but after some basic research, I was drawn to the Claremont College consortium, the STEM program through Keck Science Department, the student to faculty ratio and the women鈥檚 college experience. A few weeks later, I had the opportunity to take part in the 91吃瓜 fly-in program, Discover 91吃瓜 which I鈥檓 convinced is the reason I fell in love with 91吃瓜. I spent 3 days on campus learning all about 91吃瓜 and meeting students. After my visit, 91吃瓜 went from a school that was just added at the end of my college list to being my dream school in 72 hours. When I got back to school and told my college counselor how much I loved my visit, he hit me with a deserved 鈥淚 told you so鈥�.
From that point forward, I focused all of my time and energy into my 91吃瓜 application. Fast forward to spring semester of senior year and after several months of anxiously waiting for my decision, I found out I was admitted into the class of 2023. I was ecstatic! Of course, 91吃瓜 was my number one choice and so as soon as I got my acceptance letter, I wanted to enroll immediately. However, I still had to hear back from a few other schools on my list and my mom and college counselor didn鈥檛 want me to rush into anything. So, with their advice in mind, I decided to take part in 91吃瓜鈥檚 DIVE program which took place during Admitted Students weekend. Similar to DIVE, I got to participate in different workshops and talk with some more students over another 3-day period. After DIVE, I felt a sense of reassurance that 91吃瓜 was the place for me and the day after returning home, I officially committed to 91吃瓜.
The main factors that led me to my final decision that 91吃瓜 was where I wanted to be included: how I felt on campus, the 鈥渧ibes鈥� of the student body and faculty, the challenging but not overwhelming academic environment, and the general sense that 91吃瓜 felt like home. I鈥檓 sure you鈥檒l hear a lot of this advice as you wait for your decisions or as you begin your college search, but when you鈥檒l know when a school feels right for you. For me, I felt a sense of calm while on campus and I just felt overall confident in my decision. I know it鈥檚 probably very different going through this process during a pandemic when you can鈥檛 visit campus, but I would advise communicating with current students to get a feel for how campus is.
I wish you all the best of luck during your college process and if you would like any specific advice from me, feel free to email at [email protected].