The One Where She Goes To College

Your Mom goes to College 

      Heyo peeps, happy August 1st! 4 more months until 2020 ahaagga wow time flies when you're life's falling apart. Also I'm trying to make my posts shorter from now on because I know you all have better things to do than read my boring posts. So anyway yeah I tried to condense this one.

     College! Being on your own! All so exciting! My last post was about IB and high school blah blah blah. Been there done that. So now I'm a big girl and am on my OWN. ADULTING. IT'S WEIRD. So I figured a lot of people have asked about college tips and stuff so I'll cover some basic things to keep in mind to make the process as easy as possible. Also, some people have reached out and have asked about the whole college experience and stuff so I'll add some of that stuff in here too.

     So I started applying to colleges in the middle of August. Overall I applied to seven schools; Auburn University, Flagler College, University of Florida,  Florida State University, University of North Florida, Stetson University, and University of South Florida. (PLEASE NOTICE I PUT THEM ALL IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER BECAUSE THATS JUST HOW I AM)  I ended up getting accepted to ALL of the colleges I applied to!!!! Pretty exciting but nerve racking at the same time because that meant I had to choose between seven different schools. Not going to lie, my SAT and ACT scores were  not the best. They really weren't, but then again I didn't study at all. That I will have to say is one thing I regret and wish I took more seriously. SO if you haven't taken the SAT or ACT, then study for it!!!! Sit down for about two hours each weekend and study! My personal opinion is that the ACT is much easier than the SAT. It is more science and math based, which I'm actually not that great at. For most people, the ACT is hard because of the time restriction. You really have to know how to manage your time when taking the test because its so easy to loose track of how much time you have left and then never finish the section. The SAT is more reading and writing based, the stuff I'm usually good at. There is just so much reading and it gets tiring after a while. Especially if it's not that interesting. You can take each test as many times as you want. I took the ACT two times and did better the first time than the second. The SAT is took three times and did better the second time. One really nice thing about the SAT is that most colleges super score your results. If you get I think its 1290 on the SAT, along with various of other requirements like service hours, ACT etc., then you are eligible to receive bright futures. If you are in the IB program, then I know by getting your IB diploma then you can receive the top level of Bright Futures. So if you don't think you're going to get your diploma, this is always something you can fall back on. 

     So my biggest tip to keep in mind while applying to school is work smarter, not harder. By this I mean, try to apply to your schools through Coalition or Common App. This saves you so much time, frustration and redundancy. instead of filling out each application individually, you can put all of your basic information into either one of these sites and it will send your info to all the schools you want to apply to. Granted there are some schools that don't use Coalition or Common App, mostly private schools, so you will have to apply through their website. Another thing to keep in mind is you're going to have to be putting in a lot of personal information as well as school stuff like grades, test scores, sports yore involved in etc. I suggest writing all of this on paper so then you don't have to keep going back to look the stuff up. It also helps you remember what you put on other applications. Another thing to think about when filling out applications is the essays. Most big universities all have the same essay prompts to choose from. Don't write a new essay for each application!! That is such a waste of time! Use the same one if you can. If not, then maybe change it up, or try to use something that you've written before. When writing my essays, a lot of my ideas and parts of the paper were from othering things that I've written. This made the process so much easier and it didn't take long. So after you fill out all of your applications and send in all of your important papers, make sure you check your emails regularly because there might be something else you need to send in that they school asks for.  It also sometimes happens that the school needs verification of stuff like residency and that you're basically like a real person. 

     After you fill out your applications its pretty much just waiting to hear from the schools. In the meantime, it's good to start looking and filling out scholarship applications. It's a good idea to go to your schools website to find them because then you know they're not a scam. Also if you go to other schools websites, they might have some different ones. You can also look up scholarships that would apply specifically to you, like if you wear glasses, are a certain race, if you're a first generation college student in your family. Literally anything. There's scholarships for anything, you just have to take the time to find them. Most require an essay, but they typically aren't that long. Try to use ideas or essays that you already have written. It make things a lot easier. Apply to as many as you can. Even if it's not that much money because in the end, it all adds up !! 

      So I got accepted into FSU for the summer term. I had never been to summer school. Ever!!! FSU is the only school I didn't get in for fall ofc, my luck. I was so disappointed and discouraged at first. I though wow am I not good enough to be accepted in the fall?! I do have to say that by coming here early, I get some of my classes out of the way, I get to meet some more people and I can get to know the campus before the fall people get here and I'm not wondering around like an idiot. I does totally suck basically having to miss my entire summer to be here. I'm not going to lie, I got extremely homesick. It's hard being away from home, I don't know if it's because it's just summer and I'm not ready to be here, or if its because I don't have any of my friends here or what. I talked and face timed to my mom every single day for like two hours! I just really missed my mom and my cat and dog and my own bed. The one thing that was so hard to get used to is the bed!! Seems weird but at home I have a queen sized bed nice for stretching out and sharing it with my cat. At college, you have a twin sized bed! Totally different and much smaller than I'm used to. I was so scared I was going to fall off during the night, and that would be a pretty big fall. The bed is so high I have to use a chair to get on top. Another thing that is hard to get used to is living with someone else! I never shared a room with anyone before, let alone a stranger, so this took some getting used to. When going the bathroom, instead of locking one door, you have to lock two, so then your suit mate(s) don't walk in on you. You also have to remember to unlock the door when you're finished or else your neighbors might be a little mad. 

     Because I don't want to bore you with all the minor details of my experience because then this post would turn into a book, I'm going to end it here. I'm going to try and do a Q&A on my instagram so if you're wondering about what it was like to be here or have any questions, go scootch yo bootch over to da gram. -Maya  

Reynolds like Reynolds wrap wow I'm so funny 

FSU has a lake that students can go to for free with kayaks,
canoes, paddle boards, rick climbing, volleyball, archery and
all that cool active nature-y stuff