Maybe it’s a little premature to talk about graduation, but my stomach has been churning since the quarter began. You see, I started looking at post-Sinclair universities in January, and it’s a tough world out there. For the first time in my life, I’m nervous about applying to school.
One reason is the relative scarcity of my field of study. I want to study media convergence, or the ways radio, television, print and the Internet can work together to convey messages. When I searched “media convergence degree” on Google, I only got 228,000 results (compared to 4.59 million results for “media convergence”). Of those results, the ninth was the first to actually be a degree at a university. I’ve searched for weeks and found only a handful of schools that take this degree seriously.
Another reason I’m nervous is the cost of a four-year school. I found a media convergence-like program at the University of Dayton. However, their $28,690 tuition and fees really intimidate me. My family didn’t even make that much last year! How can I justify paying that much for college?
The thing that really makes me sweat is the pressure. Once I graduate Sinclair, I feel like the burden will be on me to succeed (though I’m sure in reality this is already the case). The thought of spending tens of thousands of dollars on a little-known degree and possibly screwing up makes my head spin.
So I need to not screw up. I need to find an affordable school. I need to get scholarships. I need to get grants. I need to keep a high grade point average.
Which means I need to study. I need to do well this quarter. I need to do better next quarter. I need to turn in that 20 point assignment because if I don’t I could get a B instead of an A, which would drop my GPA, which would mean less scholarship money, which means I’ve failed already!
AAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!
…
Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to ramble. I’m just having a case of four-year school flutters.