Ed's Story - A Major Decision:
I would like to discuss the way many students choose their
college major by sharing my personal story with you. When I was a senior in high
school, I was approached by my guidance counselor and asked if I was going
to college. Up until that moment of my life, I had only thought about it once
or twice. No adult had ever talked seriously about college with me. The guidance
counselor stood there awaiting my response.
I took a few seconds and imagined that I was looking up into the sky and
flipping a coin. I hoped that I was making the right decision. I turned to
the guidance counselor and said, "Yes, I would like to go to college." In
about thirty seconds seconds, I had made a decision that would affect the rest of my life
with nothing more than a question and an imaginary coin toss. Thinking I was
out of the woods and happy with my decision, I just stood there in the
hallway staring at my guidance counselor.
Having the expectation of returning to my teenage life, it happened again.
The guidance counselor asked another question with expecting an
answer on the spot. I remember it clearly . . . a simple question that would have
a ripple effect in my life for the next 6 years. What I thought was a simple
question was actually a very complicated one in hind sight. But nonetheless, the
counselor asked, "What is your major going to be?” Again having nothing to
draw on other than what I had seen on television, heard from my friends and
possibly read about in science class, I quickly responded, "Aeronautical
Engineer!” In that moment, I had started down the path of attending college
with no more research or discussion other than those two questions asked by
someone who cared about my future.
Over the next couple of months, I applied to colleges that my guidance counselor
believed had good engineering programs. It is
funny how the counselor had no concern as to how much the school would cost
or how my parents were going to pay for it. After getting excited about
several great engineering schools, I approached my parents and informed them
that I was going college and what the cost was going to be. My parents sat
across the table from me with a puzzled look on their faces and stated, "Let’s
see what schools you get accepted to." They also established a list of
colleges they wanted me to apply, along with the guidance counselor's
recommendations.
Let me explain how my parents made their list: "This school is close to your
Uncle, this school is close to your Aunt. Let’s call them and
see if it is alright for you to live with them while attending college."
During this process, there was no concern if the school even had an
engineering program.
Realizing that my parents were sending me a message that the cost of college
was a concern, I went to my guidance counselor and asked how I was going to
pay for college if my parents could not. The guidance counselor asked
approximately how
much money my parents made last year. Within thirty seconds his
response was, "Well, your parents make too much money and you will have to
take out loans or pay for it with savings." The next statement was probably
the worst advice ever given to me: "There is no need for you to come to the
Financial Aid Night, or to fill out the financial aid forms, as you will never
qualify."
So, off I went and applied to colleges without financial aid forms and was
fortunate to be accepted to many great universities around the country. Along with the
acceptance letters came the cost of attendance. As I showed these acceptance
letters to my parents, I was informed that I would have to come up with the
money on my own to attend college.
I sat down with all of my acceptance letters and put them in the order by
cost of attendance. You probably can guess . . . it was from the least expensive
to the most expensive. I then went through the list to see if any of them
were close to a relative. So there you had it. I was going to a college in
the southwest, close to Aunt Grace, and yes, lucky for me they had an engineering program.
I left for college in early August. The day I arrived at the university,
it felt like an oven, 113 degrees. I headed over to the financial aid
department and they handed me an application for a student loan and in
fifteen
minutes, I was the proud owner of a loan for college with payments starting
in 6 months. Now remember, I attended college in the mid 80's and it was a
lot less expensive then. Tuition was $4,500 plus books, housing, etc. Which was a lot of money for a full time student that had no plan
of working during college.
In that one moment my highest goal of studying hard without having to work
seemed to be gone forever. For those of you that
experienced the recession of 80's, you know it is similar to today's. The country
was going through an economic struggle and interest rates rose to double
digit highs, which also included student loans. Within 6 months, I had a job
working from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM as a security officer at minimum wage (for
those of you wondering, minimum wage was in the $3.35 per hour range). It
started as a part time job at my request, but by my second year of college, it
was full time and I could barely make the student loan payments.
Let’s get back to the topic at hand, my college major. So there I was
accepted into a major university, a large loan that I had to pay and a full
time college course load. Does anyone else see a problem with this plan? At
the time, it made sense! I discovered a very interesting fact about
engineering: it is difficult and your calculations had better jump off the page and
create a visual picture in your mind. I could do the math, but my mind did
not see a visual representation of what it looked like or meant. During the
first semester, my grades quickly went down and I received notice that I was
on academic probation. I continued in the program for a second semester but
was asked to leave and look for a different major. Having a low GPA, I did
what everyone else in my situation does: I went to the Liberal Arts College
and spent a semester getting my grades up high enough to transfer to a new
major.
This time, I picked Computer Science. This was the days of FORTRAN, Assembly
Language and Compilers. You probably guessed that the "1's and 0's" never
spoke to me. I again was asked to leave the program. So, there I was two
years into my college career with a barely acceptable GPA, and no closer to
a degree or knowing what I really wanted to do.
Lucky for me, I had a professor that saw that I was struggling and took the
time to sit down with me to discuss my future. After several conversations,
he asked me this simple question, "Put everything else aside. What do you
want to study and do with the rest of your life?" We spoke several times
over the next week and had some great conversations. With his help, I decided
on the College of Public Programs. Low and behold, I excelled in the program, met my
wonderful wife and finally graduated. Sounds
like a great outcome, and it was.
Now let’s look at what it cost me. I had to changed my major five times, added an extra two years to graduate. Those two years increased my student loan balance approximately $10,000. This was an expensive lesson to learn, something I should have done before going to college. How expensive would this mistake be today? I would hate to fathom that.
For those of you that have had the opportunity to attend
college, I would bet that each of you know somebody who had a similar
experience as mine. Based on the complete lack of my own college planning, I
recognized the need for a program to help families and their students pave
the way for their college education.
I only wish there had been a program for me during my high school years, or even earlier, that provided the service that College Planning Association offers. Helping families begin the process as early as middle school empowers the student and parents to be fully prepared when it is time to leave home for college.
Review the many informative pages of this site and see how College Planning Association can help you with plan for college planning and beyond.
Ed - Arizona State University Graduate
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