Oh yeah, that applying-to-college thing.

I remember going into my senior year of high school, realizing that this year would be the last time I would walk down those hallways. I would also have to decide where to spend the next four years of my life and what to study. After fifteen college visits, I had narrowed them down to my top eight schools and was prepared myself to start applying. On top of making one of the most important decisions of my life, it was my senior year! I was supposed to be having fun and finally celebrating ruling the school. So instead of writing and rewriting and rewriting college essays like all of my friends were doing, I was trying to enjoy my last year. It didn’t go so well when I decided to actually pay attention to all of the essays and short “personal memoirs” and “personal statements” that I had to write.
After all of my procrastination and staying up way too late make the deadlines, I was done. I thought the hard part was over. I was wrong. The hardest part of the college application experience was not the multitude of visits, creepily happy tour guides, miles and miles of applications, proofreading personal statements, or looking at exactly how much you would be paying for one year of school, but the next five months of waiting for all of your (hopeful) acceptances.
Fast forward to early April, and I had all of my college letters back except for one: Clark University. When I first visited Clark, it was late August before my senior year. If anyone is from New England, you know that late August is the most humid time of year. It was hot, humid, and I was not in the mood to go trampling around some random campus. I had heard of Clark through a family friend, who had extremely high reviews. Needless to say, I was not impressed when I first came here. I thought the dorms smelled weird, it was in the middle of a ghetto, and the only students that went here were hippie freaks. The only thing I actually liked was the tour guide’s major; International Development and Social Change. Instead of the normal Biology, History, or Calculus majors, this one actually interested me. Against my better judgment, I applied. So the fact that Clark was going to be the last college to send me my acceptance notice didn’t earn it any extra brownie points. I was extremely happy when I found out I got in, since my last notice stated that I was on the waiting list (aka college purgatory).
There was a lot of argument over which school I would be attending and I finally decided to visit Clark one more time on Accepted Students Day to make up my mind. I was on campus for exactly two hours before I told my mom that this was the place for me. I can’t exactly say what happened, but I knew that I wanted to sign the papers that day. So my mom and I rushed over to Financial Aid where we signed all the official documents. As we were leaving, the secretary (with a genuine smile on her face) said to me, “Welcome to Clark University!”, and I knew that I had made the right decision.
When looking for your perfect college, you need to remember one thing: there is no Utopia University. Every school is going to have its pros and cons, and Clark is no exception. Yes, Main South is not the best neighborhood, but the cultural diversity is amazing. There are awesome restaurants from every single corner of the world. The people here have the most diverse backgrounds and amazing stories. Not all of the dorms are brand new, but the students living in them will be my friends for the rest of my life. Sometimes I think about the person I would be today if I went somewhere else. I can honestly say that today, I’m proud to become the person I am, and I wouldn’t feel that way if I hadn’t come to Clark.

- Rosie Goldich, Class of 2014, Majoring in Political Science with a Minor in Economics