Why is attending college so important? How do you get there? What is it like when you get there?

There are different reasons why attending college is so important. Everyone is different when deciding what they should do after graduating from high school. Some people do gap years, meaning they take a year off from school. Others attend a two-year school, and some attend school for four-plus years. There is absolutely nothing wrong with any one of these options. I’d like to tell you about what you need to be able to take one of these steps towards college.

For one thing, completing high school successfully is the most important thing you need in order to attend college. Having a strong high school diploma is necessary to attend college. You want to be able to show college deans and college representatives that you have good grades and a high GPA.  Good grades can lead to getting accepted at the schools you want to attend and possibly scholarships to those schools. A college education can lead to great careers which leads to great pay. If you aren’t able to get as many scholarships as you would like to college, but you end up having a great career that pays good money in the future, then you’ll be able to pay student loans off in no time. What matters is that you get your high school diploma (with the best grades you can get).

Applying for college is another important thing that is needed in order to even get into a college. You can’t just graduate from high school and pick a college to attend. It takes time to apply for colleges and it also takes time to get accepted. This is why it is important to set aside time or even pick specific days that you will spend applying for colleges. You will also need to decide beforehand how many to apply to so you can space your time out to apply to each one. You will want to know by the end of the school year you’ll know what college you’ll be attending in the fall.

My experience in applying for colleges was very difficult. It was very overwhelming. At my high school, we were told to choose 15 colleges to apply for before the end of the school year. I procrastinated a lot so I wasn’t even able to apply to all 15 colleges. I ended up only applying to eight (which is still a big number). The colleges that I chose were Atlanta Tech, Atlanta Metro, Georgia State, Georgia Gwinnett, Savannah State, Tennessee State, Kennesaw State, and the University of West Georgia. One of my school counselors sat down with me one day and started going over different colleges that I was interested in and for the rest of the week that’s what I worked on.

When getting into college, it’s like living on your own. You have to pay for your tuition, other bills, food, and sometimes have a job on top of your school work. Having responsibility is important to be able to live on your own and handle all of these things. If you do have a job in college, you’ll have to pick times that are good for you to study either on days off or after work. Sometimes, this leads to you having to make sacrifices.

Making sacrifices in college is a very important decision that you have to make in college. Staying up late at night to complete a task, assignment or quiz are some of the types of sacrifices people make when in college. They know if they want to get a good grade on the assignment, they have to put in the effort and strive for the best. My older cousin just graduated from college last year, and he always would tell me that he had to make sacrifices. He was an athlete, so he had to stay up late nights to complete tasks, wake up early mornings to go to class, go to work, and also attend his track practice.

Hopefully, these tips have helped you out. Getting your high school diploma with the best GPA you can shoot for and setting aside time to apply for the schools you would like to attend requires being prepared. Once you get to college, you can take what you have learned about responsibility to be able to juggle being on your own and succeeding in school. College can be very beneficial and can lead you to many different things in your life, such as a well paying job, so I hope that you shoot for college!