What To Do Once Accepted (Veteran Voices)
What To Do Once Accepted (Veteran Voices)
Transcript
Some financial aspects that I wish I'd known prior to the admissions process to any of the schools were some of the distinct characteristics of where the universities are. If I went to Colorado University, which I was looking at, I would have needed to have a car. And I would've been driving around. And then I'd need to consider how much money am I going to need for insurance, and all this other stuff.
I ended up moving to a very large city and realized I don't want a car-- parking and everything else. But now I'm using the subway everywhere I go. And there's taxis here and there. There's just certain distinct things, I guess, about each locale you go to. You're not used to spending money on those if you're not from there.
So me coming to New York City, I found out that just about everything costs money. And even if you don't want to spend money, somehow you just spend money. And that would have gone a long way into me planning my finances when applying to the university. There's something-- there's the known unknowns and then the unknown unknowns. And there was a lot of unknown unknowns that I could have easily found out by just asking about finances to somebody that was going to school there.
I do believe that I chose the best fit college for me. There definitely could have been at least two more that could have been a good fit. And I don't think that there is just one school that's just perfectly right for you and no other school will work.
Any service member should know by now that you make the best with what you have. And it's not necessarily the MOS or the rate that you have. It's the people that you're around and how you make it work. I would definitely say not to let that fester in your mind-- oh, I should have gone to this school or that school. Just own your decision. And just get good grades.
I think to say that there's only one right fit for you is not correct. But I did choose the one that was right for me, given the circumstance-- where I was living, where I got into. So I think once you figure out where you get into and which ones are an option for you, then you'll make the right decision. You go visit the campus. You talk to all the people that are going to school that you know there. Or you just reach out to other student veterans that are in school and get their sense of it.
And then you make your choice. But I think once you make that choice, it's pretty clear. At least for most people that I know and from my own experiences, that once you decide on which college you want to go to, you're set. And you know that that was the right choice for you.
I ended up moving to a very large city and realized I don't want a car-- parking and everything else. But now I'm using the subway everywhere I go. And there's taxis here and there. There's just certain distinct things, I guess, about each locale you go to. You're not used to spending money on those if you're not from there.
So me coming to New York City, I found out that just about everything costs money. And even if you don't want to spend money, somehow you just spend money. And that would have gone a long way into me planning my finances when applying to the university. There's something-- there's the known unknowns and then the unknown unknowns. And there was a lot of unknown unknowns that I could have easily found out by just asking about finances to somebody that was going to school there.
I do believe that I chose the best fit college for me. There definitely could have been at least two more that could have been a good fit. And I don't think that there is just one school that's just perfectly right for you and no other school will work.
Any service member should know by now that you make the best with what you have. And it's not necessarily the MOS or the rate that you have. It's the people that you're around and how you make it work. I would definitely say not to let that fester in your mind-- oh, I should have gone to this school or that school. Just own your decision. And just get good grades.
I think to say that there's only one right fit for you is not correct. But I did choose the one that was right for me, given the circumstance-- where I was living, where I got into. So I think once you figure out where you get into and which ones are an option for you, then you'll make the right decision. You go visit the campus. You talk to all the people that are going to school that you know there. Or you just reach out to other student veterans that are in school and get their sense of it.
And then you make your choice. But I think once you make that choice, it's pretty clear. At least for most people that I know and from my own experiences, that once you decide on which college you want to go to, you're set. And you know that that was the right choice for you.