Boston College Top Questions

I completed my freshman year at Salve Regina University and I transferred to Boston College for the fall semester my sophomore year. Making the transition was difficult, but end result made it worth it. Deciding to transfer was the biggest risk in the past nineteen years of my life. I am more of a reserved student, so deciding to transfer was a risk that I never predicted myself to take on. I decided to transfer to a school where I knew no one, and the nerves I was feeling the summer before I moved in almost made me change my mind. As I'm sitting here in my dorm room at Boston College off of Commonwealth Avenue and not my dorm room overlooking the ocean in Newport, Rhode Island, I could not be happier that I followed through with my decision. Although I exchanged ocean views for fall foliage, Boston College has more to offer than I have time for. I have joined the Appalachia Volunteers Group, Undergraduate Government of Boston College, and I have applied for a summer abroad trip to Greece. All in all, the opportunities in Chestnut Hill will lead me to a successful career and life.

The very first college experience I had was held at Cascade Medical School. My course at Cascade Medical School was to recieve my certified nursing assistant 1 (CNA1) certificate which is required by law to be an official CNA. The required CNA1 training program is a minimum of 75 hours of classroom and 75 hours of clinical training, which I have already completed in a duration of one full month. My first college experience was somewhat similar with my high school years because the time spent in both school was equal to 8 hours a day. In my 75 hours of clinical training, I performed duties that were within the scope of practice of a CNA1 at a small assisted living facility. I was able to learn how to assist clients with their daily living activities, such as bathing, dressing, transferring, ambulating, feeding and toileting. I also performed tasks such as measuring vital signs, positioning and range of motion. From what I have experienced in my schooling, I realized that I have a passion to work with people who are in need, especially those who are ill. That is why is has been valuable to attend Cascade Medical School.

I am only a sophomore in college right now, but I have experiened so much more than I ever could have imagined. Not only do you come out with a great education, as all of us here at Boston College will, but also with something even more valuable than that. I have experienced love, friendship, jealousy, heartbreak, trust, stress, fun, compassion, and service. College is certainly not all fun and games, but it provides you with experiences that you can learn from every day, and become a better person thereafter.

Having only been a full-time student at Boston College for three weeks and four days, I would be entirely too ignorant to even attempt placing a value or worth to my college education and experience thus far. However, though it has been such a short while that this campus has embraced me as one of its own, I find that already I call it my second home. I am able to thrive in whichever way I choose, but also guided and directed to paths I might have missed, had they not been pointed out to me. The best example of this is that I have become a member of the Men's Crew Team, a sport that before coming to Boston College, I would have never had the opportunity to enjoy. Here, I am able to chase my dream of becoming a college English professor while knowing it is a possible reality, more and more each day. In short, I intend to get out of Boston College everything of value it has to offer during my four-year attendance; and as of now, that seems to be absolutely everything I could ever want or need from a college experience.

My college experience has been an unusual one thus far. I am 18 years old; I just graduated from both my high school and my town's community college. I received an Associates of Arts degree before I received my high school diploma. The experiences I have had during the past two years at the community college were some that I will always value. I have learned how to be self-sufficient in managing my time, and I have learned how to think ahead and envision the future and plan accordingly. My college experience has also given me a sense of appreciation for my position in life. There are many teenagers who never graduate high school, yet I have graduated from two schools in one month. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity I have been blessed with. For many years, I have taken for granted the fact that I am so blessed, but through this experience I have seen that there is much given to me that others cannot experience.

By attending Boston College, I have learned how to interact and work with people who come from different backgrounds than myself. When I chose Boston College, I knew that the general student population was not a reflection of people I typically surrounded myself with. Through participating in programs such as the Shaw Leadership Program, I have learned how to relate to people from all backgrounds and socioeconomic levels. I now feel comfortable carrying a conversation with someone who holds different views and I now find that the people I associate myself with are very diverse. I have grown tremendously due to the fact that BC is very far from my home, allowing myself to explore an entirely knew area of the country. I have been able to grow more at BC than I would have had I chosen a school close to home. I am thankful for this opportunity to live in a different state, because I do not know when else I would have gotten the chance to travel to places throughout New England. I feel extremely privaledged to be at such an excellent private university in an environment where I constantly feel pushed to question my identity.

I have not started college yet but I hope that it will give me a better since of independence. I am legally blind so I do have some challenges that I face when I do start school and feel that it will be a great learning oppertunity for me. This will also be the first time that I will be living on my own so it is scary and exciting at the same time.

I was raised in a household that strongly advocated good education, and as such, I've always taken my position as a student seriously. From elementary school through high school, my modus operandi more or less consisted of studying hard. I earned decent grades, won approval from my teachers and parents, and that was that. Or course, success in school doesn't necessarily translate to success in the real world. One doesn't reach the height of life by just being studious - I learned that it college. Coming from that perspective, life at Boston College was a bizzare and novel experience. The students invested much time and energy into their academics, but that was the norm. Expected, even. The real clincher was how involved they were outside of their schoolwork. Time and time again, I was surprised by how vigorously they'd pursue jobs and interships, or how dedicated they were to their volunteer work. That was my wake up call - what am I doing? Booksmarts can only take me so far. It's time that I climbed out of that narrow box I've been sitting in, and really start taking the actions needed to make my future bright.

I have gotten more confidence and security. I've learned that being educated is very important in your ever day life even if you don't go to work a job. Being educated has helped me learn how to be more independent. It's also helped me learn to research things for myself instead of believing what someone else tells me. It's helped to form my own opinions. I'm grateful for what I've already learned but I feel I have a long way to go to call myself an educated adult.

College has really made me start growing up and realizing who I really am. I moved across the country to go to school and thought I wanted to go back, however the struggle to adjust really made me start to rely on my own or my new friends as support and not always my parents. My personality has changed as I become more out going and started to realize what is important to me and what I really want. My goals and ideals may keep switching around more, but I'm starting to get a better idea of them. I am making new friends and figuring out what makes me happy. College so far has been a million times better than high school ever was. Besides the social and personal side, I am getting an education that will get me away from my home town and on to bigger and better things that just working at my grandfather's buisness at home. I'm going on to do what my parents could not and have sacrificed so much for me to have. Thanks to college I will be able to do what I want and be who I want.