My Study in The US

Confusion and fear was what I remembered about selecting the university I wanted to attend after graduating high school. Here was my problem, I went to an American boarding school in England and I took the full International Baccalaureate Program (IB) in high school. Upon graduation, my college councilor was very unhelpful and he even mentioned that I was never going to go to university, boy did I prove him wrong. Although several British University was on my radar, such as Cardiff, St Andrews, and LSE, I was more interested in pursuing my higher education in the US. Why? Well simple really, it was my lifelong dream to attend a University State side. My father graduated from Cornell, and my mother always dreamt of attending MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) so the dream was fully engrained in my DNA. Also, I knew that I was going to get the best college education my parents can afford.

So the decision was not easy, I looked through the Peterson's database, which at that time was a gigantic book my parents decided to invest in to insured I made my decision sooner rather than later. Then I selected 10 Universities which I thought I wanted to go to, namely, Boston, Cornel, Tuffs, Michigan State, Northwestern, etc. I applied to all of them and my application was based on the criteria of, how much can my parents afford, and most importantly what my network was going to be like when I get there. As with every application, not all was approved but I felt my acceptance rate was in the range of 75%, so not bad overall.

Before acceptance and rejection letters started to come through the mail, I decided to have a look at a couple of my first choice Universities, namely Boston University and Cornel. Upon my arrival in Boston, I was immediately greeted by 10 friends from my high school days. All my friends were selling Boston as the best place to go to University because and it was just that. I bought into their sales pitch as they showed me how cool the city was to live and learn. The culture, the nightlife, the education, and the international feel to the city got my senses wanting more of this new life. It was one of the best decision I had made in my life. So Boston University it was as the other locations did not compare in meeting my psychological comfort zone.

The first year as my studies began, so did my network of friends. It took me around a year to know all the key players in this student city. There my life truly began, the American way. I must say that it still remains the best times in my youth, as learning to live independently from the comforts of home and boarding school provided me with new challenges as well as great things to look forward to.