Howdy everybody! It’s been a fun and relaxing Spring Break this past week and I just got back from Dallas this past Sunday. It was great to relax and hone my golf skills (or lack-thereof)! As it’s approaching April, I know a lot of y’all are making your final decisions for college, and I remember just how stressful that choice can be!
When the time came around for me to start applying to colleges, I already had a good idea of what I wanted in a school since I had visited several northeastern schools with my older brother. I knew I wanted a school with academic rigor and prestige, since my main goal for college is my education! I was split down the middle with Computer Science and Business, as I had always wanted to study Business and I have strong entrepreneurial drives but I had loved my limited experience with Computer Science through AP classes and independent study. This made my scope of schools a little narrower, since I was looking for somewhere that I could pursue both avenues. However, I also knew that education is about more than just books and classes, but also includes the kinds of people that I would meet and how I developed my networking and people skills. Coming from a smaller private high school with lots of school spirit, I liked the idea of having strong school spirit and a tight-knit student body. Ultimately, I ended up receiving full tuition scholarships from USC, Emory, and the University of Texas (UT).
When looking at these three schools, USC really stood out to me with its flexibility in classes. At USC I was admitted to the Computer Science/Business Administration major and encouraged to pursue a minor as well! I loved how I could take classes not only pertaining to my major, but also anything that interested me, like Video Game Production, which ultimately led to adding my Video Game Programming minor. The other big aspect of USC that stood out to me was the feel of the campus when I first walked on for my Explore weekend. It felt very similar to my high school, where everyone lived and breathed in school spirit and let that connection and Trojan Family shape their interactions. Everyone was incredibly friendly, and the campus felt like a home, where everyone was genuinely happy to be there.
So far, USC has been everything I hoped for in a college and more. Every day, my classes present me with new challenges and applications for what we’re learning, and I’ve made strong friendships both within my classes and within my fraternity. In just two short years, I’ve already interned as a project manager for an IT consulting firm, joined a fraternity, constructed a simulation city, and assisted in founding clubs for both flying and the business of video games, and I’ll be studying abroad in Rome this summer! I truly feel like a part of the Trojan family, and it has made college even more rewarding.
I hope that my experiences will help you in your college decision, and good luck!
~Patrick
