The Pendleton Panther

This Friday I leave to go to Los Angeles for the weekend. I fly in the afternoon on Friday and get back on Monday. I am going to attend a recruiting camp at Loyola Marymount University.

I am hoping to go to college in California next year, and LMU is an option. In addition, there will also be coaches from other colleges in California. It is a good opportunity to showoff myself and gain some interest. I have been to LA only once before, but I never really left the hotel room, except to play the soccer games we went there for. So I never got a chance to see Los Angeles, Hollywood, the beach etc. I am highly anticipating this weekend. It will be great to play some soccer and get a tour of the campus at LMU on saturday, and then have a good time in the evening and on sunday maybe get a chance to do some sight seeing.  I am very excited.

If all goes well I can impress some coaches and open some opportunities for next year.

USF Campus

The University of South Florida texted all the teachers and students that are on campus, alerting them of a possible gunman. This took place Monday, October 5, 2009 at 2p.m, In Tampa, Fl where the University of South Florida is located. The text message that was sent said, “EMERGENCY: Armed intruder on Campus. Stay inside. Lock doors. Emergency personnel responding.” (CBS News). Policemen said that they received a phone call saying that there was a gunman standing outside the library on campus. Nobody actually saw a man holding a gun or threatening anyone, but the police still investigated and are trying to get to the bottom of what had happened. There will be updates with any information or news on the investigation. But for now, students should be very careful and always very alert to situations like this which we hope wont happen very often in different schools or public places.

Colleges are a big concern for all the seniors right now, and with all the applications being submitted, the only thing that is left to do is waiting. Well, I didn’t just simply waited, I went ahead and visited 8 colleges in 2 weeks, which left me with an unforgettable experience. First of all, I went to New York City for a week and I had seen 5 amazing and well known colleges there: Princeton, Yale, Columbia, NYU and Vassar. Although each of the schools attracted me in a way I got very high impression about the Ivy League colleges. Entering the doors of the library felt like a sacred chapel with millions of books that are bursting with knowledge. The weather however was normal for New York in the winter: cold and really windy. The second week of my trip I went to California, which is known for an amazing weather and people. It was my first time ever in California and I can tell that I fell in love with Los Angeles. Universities that I had visited there were USC, Stanford and Occidental, and although all of them were different, I think they were definitely worth exploring. I am very glad that this unforgettable experience had taken place in my life.

As a senior in high school, I am one among many in Pendleton to be graduating this year and moving on to college next year. For a lot of us, college may seem scary and we may be worried about it, but I am sure it will be very different than we think. Also for those of us who live away from home to attend IMG, there is a huge advantage. We have already gotten used to being away from family and friends and living on our own. One of my biggest worries is how I will do in school and the challenge I will have balancing my time with athletics and still being able to have time outside of my sport and studying. Because most all of us from Pendleton will be playing a sport in college, the good news is that most schools provide tutors for their athletes free of charge. I think this will be a tremendous tool to help athletes learn and do well in their classes. Time management will be very important. It will be difficult to balance several hours of sport each day with studying, but hasn’t IMG prepared us for this? I think with proper time management and use of resources for studying, college will be an enjoyable experience.

The school year comes to the end, and February is the best month for students to start visiting colleges, which is exactly what  I am doing right now. New York is an amazing city, full of opportunities, that has a lot of colleges for any kind of student, and that’s where I traveled in hope of finding a perfect college for myself. New York University was the first one on my list for visit, and one of the most attractive points about it for me was the fact that it is located in the middle of Manhattan, where the life is constantly boiling. I have to say that this university  is kind of hard to comprehend after just one visit, but for those who had ever visited New York City, it’s easy to imagine “the face” of this university. The fact that this university offers so many different courses is truly amazing, especially after I found out that the student faculty ratio is 11:1, which is almost unbelievable for the university of this size. Overall, I was really impressed by NYU and I am really looking forward to hearing from them.

Kids need to go to college where they want to go.  You finally have a choice to choose where you want to go for the next four years.  It’s not like public school where you can’t choose and have to go where your district tells you you have to go.  Most parents try to pressure their kids into going where they want them to go.  That’s not the way it should be.  Kids should be able to pick where their going to feel most comfortable.  Where their heart is telling them to go.  If you are able to do that then they will more than likely be happy at that place and be able to do well at school.  You need to go somewhere where they have the programs you want to study, and all the other classes that you want to take.  If you don’t like a big place then don’t go to a big college.  Go to a smaller place where you will be more comfortable.  And vice-versa.  Kids, choose where you want to go to college.  Don’t let other people make your decision for you.

The next step for many of us at IMG is college. For those few of us who will go on to play pro in a sport congratulations but the fact of the matter is that more than 3/4ths of us will never play professionally in our sport. College is a big step for everyone. Choosing a college is an even bigger step. I always hear kids talking about why they chose a college and I never hear anything about the academics in the college. I have decided that if I go to college, I will get a degree in education. I have many friends that are going to college because of the baseball team or because the dorm rooms are nice. I have yet to hear a person say I am going to college for something like engineering. So I started wondering, is this because kids do not know there options for degrees in college? Then it hit me that we never talk about the choice we will have to make. Don’t you think this is under educating us? How are we supposed to know all the different types of degrees? It is a problem that I think should be addressed by our school especially being a college prep school.

For every high school student the process of applying to colleges and figuring out where you will spend at least the next four years of your life is long and sometimes frustrating. Now many of the applicants hope for some sort of scholarship, whether you are an athlete or an outstanding student it seems money is the ultimate deciding factor on telling you where to go. A recent study has come out with a list of the ten most expensive colleges in the nation. Coming in at number ten is Wesleyan University costing $38,934 a year followed by St. Johns College and Columbia University costing $39,154 and $39,326. Seven, six, and five are Colgate University at $39,545, Carnegie Mellon University at $39,564 and Bucknell University at $39,652 per year. Now we get into the colleges and universities that are costing over $40,000. Number four is Vassar College $40,210 and number three is Kenyon College, costing 40,240. The top two pricey schools are Sarah Lawrence College costing $40,350, and the number one most expensive school is George Washington University raking in $40,437 per student. Now these schools are way too expensive and there is no reason why our education system should charge that much for a year of college.