To Choose or Not to Choose: That is the Question
Posted by Sharon Cece on December 23rd, 2008
The $64,000 question (or perhaps the $64 million by the time my kids finally go to college) is “What college should I choose to attend“? It is an extremely important question, since your alma mater will be part and parcel of your life forevermore. This blog is case in point: even though I’ve graduated from FSU I’m still representing FSU in this forum and a number of other ways. Which I know has you begging the question, Why FSU?
As it happens, I applied to a number of colleges both when I was starting out at 17 and again when I decided to finish my degree at 38. Now, admittedly I chose a county college 25 years ago primarily because I was broke and, well, it was cheap. Good, cheap education– by and by something no 17-year old can turn down. A few years later I transferred to FSU out of sheer adventurous spirit, the Sacagawea of the Educative Expedition.
And, as I’ve pointed out in previous articles, left with 96 credits under my belt sans degree.
Okay, fast forward, oh, fourteen years or so. I’m ready to take the plunge and finally finish that degree. Back to the $64,000 question.
Number one in the list of my “choosing” criteria was locality. Since I now live in the Academic Mecca (Duke, UNC, NC State, Campbell University, East Carolina… just to name a few) I was fairly sure I would pick a program from the local zone to finish my degree. I sought information from three of those and had sticker shock from two; the third, NC State, was conveniently located and cost effective, but did not offer the program I was seeking.
Concurrently, I inquired about FSU programs, never believing I would end up back there but did so out of sheer sentimentality; as well I considered two other “online” schools, one a well-known online university that is in fact featured on this website. So all told, I requested information from six college programs– three brick and mortar, three online.
Looking back, all of the information I received was very helpful in making a choice (in other words, the costs of some colleges alone were enough to help me make a decision, that being a whopping YEAH RIGHT). It’s easy to eliminate a college simply because you can’t afford it! Which left three finalists. Well, really one finalist. FSU was probably my only choice deep down, and I requested information from the other schools simply because I felt it’s what a practical person should do, which is to consider many options. I felt six was a good round number for inquiry and I’m glad in retrospect that I did entertain other options, if for no other reason than simply to be able to remark with aplomb, “Why, naturally I considered many other schools and after careful consideration decided on…..”
Good luck!
