As a high school senior, I’ve been asked the same recurring questions for years: Where are you going to college? What are you going to study? What do you want to do with your life? While some students are blessed with having everything figured out, I was not. Throughout the first half of my high school career, I had no idea what the answers to these questions were, so they have ridden me with on-and-off stress over the past few years. In the fall of my junior year, though, I finally discovered what I wanted to do with my life—or so I thought.
Through journalism, I had started getting into designing things like infographics, and I really enjoyed the creative process, so I figured that graphic design might be my calling. I also wanted to have something business-related under my belt, and I knew that getting a minor in something like marketing would be beneficial for the aspect of graphic design I wanted to pursue. Along with figuring out what I wanted to study, I thought that the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) would be a good fit for me. It was the only college I was familiar with, and upon researching, I knew that they offered a graphic design major and a marketing minor.
As my senior year started, however, I had the hard-hitting realization that my plans weren’t set in stone after going on a visit to the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) and doing a job shadow. My job shadow showed me that, although I enjoy graphic design, it probably wasn’t going to work out. Instead, I thought maybe I should major in marketing, but the four-year plan showed me that I would be taking classes I wouldn’t enjoy in the slightest. Then a last-minute visit to UNO had me rethink things because of all the different insights I saw. After both of these experiences, I was panicked, and all of a sudden, I was stressed again on deciding what and where I wanted to study. Fortunately, I found a way to fight my way through the stressful process— and I think the process I used could potentially help a lot of others.
If I was to tell anyone about what the first step to figuring out where they want to go to college is, I’d say it’s going on college visits. Going on visits gives a lot of information on the college and lets attendees see the campus and (most of the time) the dorms. Since I thought I was going to UNL, my mom and I scheduled a visit there first, but then we decided to visit UNO on a whim. Both visits showed me a lot on how I viewed going to college and made me debate whether or not I really had things figured out.
At both visits, my parents and I were given multiple presentations on majors, opportunities, tuition and fees, student-life activities and much more. There were major-specific presentations and an information fair that we had the opportunity to go to, along with tours that included the campus, the facilities and the dorms. UNL also offered lunch at one of the on-campus cafeterias and more presentations along with an optional college-specific tour.
Both visits really gave me a feel for the universities overall, seeing the campus and facilities. I enjoyed that UNL’s visit was more in-depth, but I did find myself getting tired throughout the long day. I also liked that we were able to see what eating in the on-campus cafeteria was like, especially considering UNL requires all first-year students to have a meal plan. On the other hand, I was glad that UNO’s visit was condensed because it didn’t take an excessive amount of time and still gave a lot of information. Although I wished that UNO gave us an opportunity to tour major-specific buildings (my mom ended up helping me coordinate a private tour of these buildings later), I really enjoyed the campus and had an almost at-home feeling walking around. I could see myself studying there next year, which was a surreal experience for me.
The visits also gave me insight into my major as I was able to talk to a couple students from UNL’s College of Journalism and Mass Communication. One of the students talked to me about my major, and after I told her my interests and what I wanted, she told me that advertising and public relations honestly might fit me better. After hearing about it, and that it was basically marketing with less math and more creativity, I realized it was exactly what I wanted to do. I’m extremely thankful that I came across this interaction, and I think that many other students can have similar benefits from simply attending college visits.
After these visits, I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, though. So I decided to create an in-depth pros and cons list of the universities I was debating between. I went through the books and pamphlets I had received on my visits and reminded myself of everything I saw and experienced at both before I created lists for each. There were many pros for both—the journalism colleges, student life activities and other opportunities—and I tried to make sure I had written down as many as I could think of so that I could take everything into account. By the time I was done, my list of pros for UNO was longer than UNL’s. However, I still had another step to take in my decision-making process.
From there, I decided on my top three priorities, which were the journalism and communications colleges (where I planned to study), the price and the dorms. This way, I could find which university had the majority of what was most important to me. In this instance, UNO had the majority, and I decided I should go there.
Although I thought I was going to attend UNL to major in graphic design, college visits and a trusty pros and cons list helped me decide that maybe it wasn’t meant for me. However sad this realization made me because of how much I had wanted to go to UNL in the past, I now know that UNO is a better fit for me, and now I can enjoy the rest of senior year knowing that this decision is out of the way. So, for those students struggling with these decisions—or even those who think they have it figured out—take time to really think, and then you too can feel confident that you truly know the answers to those burning, recurring questions.
