My College Choice Process Essay

My College Choice Process: Attending a Public, Four-Year University

Background

As a low-income student in high school, I used my application fee waivers, to apply to four Cal State Universities and four University of California schools. I did not apply to any private universities, for the simple fact that I lacked guidance and information about the schools as well as the probability that I would be accepted to such schools. When I was denied from my top choice (the University of California, Los Angeles), I decided to attend the best school I was accepted to—the University of California, Santa Barbara. In the following section, I will discuss the individual, societal and cultural influences in my college choice process that led to my decision to attend UCSB.

My College Choice Process Influences

Individual Influences As Tremblay (DATE) notes, the schools students choose to apply to are reflective of the type of high school they attended. Because I went to a low-performing public high school, it comes as no surprise that I only applied to public schools. While I was not exposed to many private universities anyway, I felt distant from the idea of a private school. I did not feel like it was somewhere that I would fit in. While I did not choose to apply to private schools, I feel that it was because of my well-roundedness in my high

Because my family struggled financially, we were evicted from many homes and were dependent on government aid for a large part of my childhood. I saw the opportunities my parents lost because they did not have high school diplomas, let alone a college degree. I knew that obtaining a college diploma would help me move up in status. Because of my experiences in society as someone who was poor, I was motivated to create a better life for