My story - Teach your parents about the college process

My college search began the summer before my junior year of high school. My childhood friend and I went to our first college fair at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan.

As soon as we stepped into the large room where the fair was held, we got so nervous. We were nervous for lots of reasons: We were both going to be the first in our families to go to college; it was our first college fair, so we didn’t know what to ask; we didn’t know about any of the colleges that were present; and we didn’t even know what we wanted to study. All we knew was that we wanted to go to college.

In any case, we filled out prospect cards, grabbed information and made up questions as we went along. It was great! We were so excited. When I returned home, I was anxious to show my parents all of the information I picked up. They were just as excited as I was, but for some reason, they looked sad.

When I asked my parents why they seemed gloomy, they admitted that they were going to be sad to see me go. They were also disappointed that they couldn’t assist me in my endeavors, for they knew nothing about the college process. My parents had never experienced it before.

I assured them that we would each learn about the process together, and that all I would ask for was their support.

As my senior year rolled around, things got hectic. My class schedule was intense, I worked part-time at the Gap, and I was involved in several clubs. Keeping up with applications and colleges made things nerve-wracking. I began to doubt myself.

I was a good candidate for admission to many of the schools I applied to. But although I was in the honors program at my high school, worked and held various office positions at school, I was still very worried about getting accepted to college.

I was able to get accepted to many of the colleges of my choice and had received good financial aid packages.

I was glad to know that all of my hard work paid off. I was lucky enough to qualify for the Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP), which assisted me both academically and financially. I was very grateful for the program!