Creating a College List (Veteran Voices)

So from the beginning, researching what college to go to is-- or was a very scary experience. Because while I was a senior in high school and all my classmates were doing this research, I wasn't. I was hanging out and probably partying and celebrating that I was soon leaving to boot camp. So that was easy for me.

Now in the back end, after I got out of the military, you know, what school you're going to? And that was very scary because now I'm older, and I still don't know what this looks like.

And so I did some very quick research online and quickly got overwhelmed because there are so many schools and so many options. I mean you can literally go anywhere. You can even go out of the country if you want to. And that was quickly overwhelming, and I wanted to skip it and not do it just because I had no clue where to begin.

And how do you categorize them? And how do you-- where do you start? And so I started talking to just fellow veterans-- or at the time, they were civilians, but they were in the service-- that had gone to college. And I was sharing my hopes and dreams of one day attending a school anywhere really. I didn't really know.

And I met alumnis naturally from different places. And they shared their experiences and why they picked that school. And then I started thinking, well, if here in the office I can talk to five alumni, then I imagine that I can-- perhaps for me personally the weather affects a lot about my mood.

And so I really wanted to go to a city where-- well, first of all I need to go to a city. I knew that I needed to live in a city. That's just what worked for me, and that from the get-go determined that I was either going to go-- you know, just a certain amount of places.

And then from there, I needed to know, what is the school like? And why did other people chose that-- choose that school? And what are the options as far as majors and extracurricular activities? And what does that school stand for?

And then I was able to talk to alumnis that I reached out to. And they are so happy and more than willing to help and share their experiences as far as how they chose that school. And that really informed my decision because I narrowed it down. And then the schools that I chose I was able to visit without a tour or without-- just to kind of get a feel and be on campus and see what that was like.

And that was very overwhelming as well. But I imagine, once you know find your group of people that you can connect to, then I imagine that the campus wouldn't feel so alien or huge. And so that really was what worked for me.

I only applied to one school out of the bunches that I'd gotten. Because as an adult situated in Atlanta, I would have to uproot myself to go to any of these other schools. And I didn't think that they were worth doing that for me.

I had-- I knew-- I had the opportunity to apply to a school far away from home that was a prestigious institution. And thinking about where I came from and where I am now, it's a long journey. But it's one that I thought was worth making.

I knew because of this community college that I went to that I could just literally walk onto the local state university. And I didn't really have to apply. With my grades and with the school that I was coming from, it would be a shoo in for me to just go to the local state university and get a degree from there.

So I didn't really apply to the state university because I knew that I wouldn't have to do much in terms of prep for that. Just show up, do the application, and then, you know-- they basically-- they're very good school. But they're not an elite university that has gates that you have to go through.

So yeah. I only applied to one school. So it was, you know, either here or bust. And thankfully, I got here. But you know, maybe that's not the right path for everyone to take. Maybe-- maybe they should take more. But you know, in my unique situation, I wasn't willing to uproot myself unless I was going somewhere that I thought was worthwhile.