Final Decision

by Caroline Mon May 21, 2007

I have decided to go to Ohio University's Honors Tutorial College of Business. I must admit, I am still grieving the fact that I will not be attending King's in the fall, but for right now I really feel like I need to be at OU. Financially it is definitely the better option, not only because of tuition and room and board, but also because of the cost of living. I still have so much respect for The King's College and I want to stay in touch with them over the years.

I am really excited that I don't have to take general education next year! I get to focus on exactly what I love to do—business. I sent in my room request and hopefully I will be living in a quiet study 24/7 dorm. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I chose OU HTC for the education and that is what I need to be focusing on. I am really excited for what OU HTC will help set me up for in terms of graduate school and job potentials after I graduate.

School is still not out for us. We don't get out until June 5th and we don't graduate until the 10th. That seems crazy! Most everyone that goes to a different school is either done already or close to being done and I feel like I am not even close!

Freak-Out Mode

by Caroline Thu Apr 5, 2007

I am really starting to freak out. I can't make a decision on the whole college thing. Okay, here's the story. As you all know, I didn't get the Founders' Scholarship at The King's College, but I can still take out a loan, right? Wrong. My mom is actually getting an education degree at Wright State University right now, so in order to pay for that we had to take out a loan. For a normal loan, you have to show collateral, just in case you are unable to pay the money back, the bank knows they will get their money somehow. However, since we have this loan out for my mom, there is no more collateral to show for me. Okay, well since I am an undergraduate student there is something called the PLUS loan, Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students where parents can take out a loan for their children to go to college and they don't have to show any collateral for it. Perfect, right? Well, it is federally backed and for some unknown reason to me, The King's College does not accept it. That's a problem.

When I first discovered this I was devastated because I thought The King's College was out of the question, meaning I would be attending Ohio University. I wasn't devastated about the fact that I would be attending Ohio University, I was devastated about the fact that I didn't have the choice. Well, I talked to my student representative at The King's College and she said I had two options. One, I could pay monthly installments or two I could increase the King's Gate loan. Well, I talked to my dad and he said we couldn't swing the monthly installments, so the question is, can the King's loan cover the entire amount I need? So my dad said he would work on all of this while I headed up to OU for the beginning of my spring break.

I stayed for four nights with a friend of mine who is a sophomore there and on Monday I was able to observe a couple of the business classes and I met with Dr. Frost. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Dr. Frost and the HTC business program at OU and the two classes I observed. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, took notes and felt more than welcomed. But, the thing is, something is still holding me back. I can't place my finger on it, but as much as I love HTC Business at OU, that is about it. The campus is the typical college campus and everything, which is lovely and I like it, but a part of me still wants to go to King's. The whole weekend I kept on seeing or hearing things that reminded me of the King's College. When I got home my dad faxed a letter of to King's explaining our situation and then told me he found a loan that will probably work for me if I think it is worth it. So now I have my options again, but I just can't imagine telling Dr. Frost that I am not going to HTC OU, because I really do love the business department. But then I think, okay, I'll go to OU and I get really sad that I am not going to King's. What should I do? I don't know, but my deadline is approaching quickly and I am reaching the freak-out mode.

Trying to See Through the Fog

by Caroline Thu Mar 15, 2007

Well, I didn't get the Founders' Scholarship at The King's College. I'm really bummed because

1. Now I have to make a decision on where to go to college and I am still lost
2. I didn't realize how much I loved The King's College until I found out that I might not be able to pay for it
3. I don't even know who got the scholarships, so I can't be specifically happy for my new friends

The King's College's president talked about how important resilience is, so I guess I can really learn if I have it. I was surprised at how bummed out I was that I didn't get the scholarship. Now I know where I want to be, but I don't know if I can afford it. I know there are ways to figure that out, but just not getting the scholarship has made me start to second guess everything. My parents are really worried that if I go to The King's College I won't be able to get my MBA either a) right away like I would probably be able to do at Honors Tutorial College at Ohio University or b) at some really prestigious school like University of Chicago. I think I am going to head up to OU for a few days during my spring break to see if I like it again. I've been there a few times before, but I figure to do it justice, I should give it one more shot. I remember going last year during spring break and I really did like it, so maybe King's just blew me away so much that I am forgetting how much I really do like OU too.

Anyway, my school goes on trimesters and because we had a late start this year, due to the massive kindergarten building they built (I'm not kidding it is something like three city blocks long or something), we just finished our second trimester. Everything went really well, although it was extremely stressful. Whoever said junior year is the hardest year of high school lied. Well, at least in my case, but I know I chose the difficult schedule, so it is all my own fault. However, all that is behind me now and I am actually pretty pumped about this trimester. My last trimester of high school. Forever. I have been on my high school's student newspaper for three years now and today our advisor sat us down to talk about our last three editions together. Four of us are three year veterans and it was funny, really because my advisor said "You've finally reached the point in your high school career that you have been waiting for all along, but never thought would come. The time when you are almost done and will finally be able to leave. The thing is, now that it is here, you're scared." I think that is so true! I'm sure I'm not the only one because the four of us all laughed when he said that, which made me feel better because I know I'm not alone. Then he talked about if we were to have an alumni group what we would all be like in ten years which got me thinking. The other day at breakfast my dad was saying that when I choose where to go to school I have to think about what my goals are and where I want to be once I am finished. The looming future is a little scary and I'm not going to lie, having to decide where to go to college now, as an 18 year old (my birthday was on the 13th by the way :)) to set-up the rest of my life and decide what I will be doing, who I will be doing it with and where I will be doing it is quite frightening. But people do it all the time, so I am sure I'll be fine. Right?

Survey Says Success

by Caroline Wed Feb 28, 2007

This past weekend was amazing! I finally was able to go to New York City and visit The King's College. It was better than I could have ever imagined. I got called back for that scholarship, the one where I wrote a five paged paper on "Where is the Empire State Building?" and had to do my "creative presentation" on it. I chose to do a dramatic interpretation of what I wrote, by pulling out the highlights and writing more, in-depth personal stories about my experiences with the Empire State Building. I was the first person in my group to present (there were 35 founders, and four will get chosen for the scholarship, they broke us into groups of 13 to present our pieces) and in the middle we had a break. The next thing I know Elijah, who presented after me, comes up to me and asks me if I have a blog! That was really cool, because he had researched The King's College and found this. Pretty neat, I thought. Anyway he and everyone else there, competitors, students already going to King's and the faculty were awesome. Everyone was genuinely nice and everyone tried to help out everyone else. I've decided if I get the scholarship I am definitely going to King's and if don't then we'll see. But this trip got me pumped up about The King's College and I can't stop thinking about it!

And Then There Were Two...

by Caroline Fri Feb 16, 2007

I got into Ohio University's Honors Tutorial College for Business! I am so excited. I have officially decided that I am choosing between that program and The King's College. Speaking of which, I am competing for that Founders' Scholarship the weekend of February 23-26...I have to have a creative presentation prepared of my essay. Katelyn from The King's College called me today (she is a freshman there and works in the admission's office) and we talked for a long time about classes, Business, the snow and everything. I put a $250.00 down deposit on King's. That is probably a pretty important thing to tell. I have moved from deciding between five colleges to two all within a matter of days, that is CRAZY, but exciting at the same time!

It is a Never Ending Process...

by Caroline Wed Jan 31, 2007

I got called back to defend my essay for the Founders' Scholarship Competition, which is really exciting. I'll head up to New York City at the end of February to do that. While we are there The King's College wants to show us NYC and I get to go to a Broadway play and see Mary Poppins! I am really excited about that, although I do have to make sure to remember I won't be able to afford those luxuries when I am actually in college. My mom told me that she literally sold her blood in college so she would have enough money to buy a hamburger. That is insane!

The interviews for Honors Tutorial College went really well. I am actually pretty excited about that program. The super cool thing is that if I get into HTC (they only take 8/20 people for journalism and 4/ I'm not sure how many for Business...so it will be difficult) but if I do get in, the only general education courses I'll have to take are freshmen English and junior English. Even cooler is that I already tested out of freshmen English with a 4 on the A.P. Language test...so that is pretty awesome.

I am applying to Scholars at Ohio State University. I still really want Honors, but I might as well apply for this too. I have to write another essay. Tonight. Yeah, I better get on that.