<p>I'm currently a Junior in high school and I'm going to be 17 in less than a month. In 10th grade I was accepted to a program that would provide me with a full ride scholarship ($125,000) to Ohio State University, as long as I keep my grades up, volunteer, attend the meetings, and go to Summer Academy in my Junior year (go to OSU for a couple weeks and take classes). The main reason I applied for this scholarship was so I could have a "back-up plan" just in case I couldn't go anywhere else. At the time I applied for this scholarship, I knew absolutely nothing about OSU- I just knew that I would receive $125,000 to go there. Now I'm in 11th grade and I've been exploring my options for college and I've decided that I don't want to go to OSU. The reasons I don't want to go to OSU are: it's far from where I live (Cleveland), my family couldn't visit me and I couldn't visit my family (since Freshmen aren't allowed to have cars their first year), it's a huge school and I'm not a very social person and I get very nervous and anxious around a lot of people, OSU doesn't specialize in the field I want (database administration), and I don't want to live in a dorm. This morning I told my mom I don't want to go to OSU and she was so mad at me. She kept saying that it was because of my boyfriend (even though that's not the reason at all, if I wanted to go to OSU, he would move with me-I was thinking about this way before I was with my boyfriend) and I'm throwing away my life over some stupid guy; she likes to blame everything I do on me having a boyfriend (for example, I wanted to get my temps and she said I only wanted it because of my boyfriend- even though I've been wanting to get my temps ever since I turned 15 1/2). I know, it sounds like the only reason why I don't want to go to OSU is because of my boyfriend, but that's not the reason at all- in fact, he's very happy I have a scholarship to a good school. I don't know how to convince her that that's not the reason. A couple months ago my mother and I were talking about college and she said I should do whatever makes me happy, and now she's mad at me for telling her I want to go somewhere that will make me happy- I don't understand her. I wanted to go to a local college like DeVry University or Cleveland State University (just two options I've considered) and she said I wouldn't be able to get a scholarship for any other college. I told her that I would because I have a 4.0 GPA, pretty good test scores, and have volunteered a lot. I said I may not get another full ride scholarship to another college, but wherever I go I'll get funding for atleast most of my tuition. I also don't want to disappoint anyone in my family, especially my aunt because we're very close. I'll be the only one in my whole family to have gone to college and everyone is so happy I have a full ride scholarship. I don't want anyone to think I'm a failure or anything. I mean, I'm still going to college and I plan to get my Master's Degree, I just don't want to go to OSU. Is that so wrong? Please help!</p>
<p>Well, your mom may be wrong about whether you can get scholarship money to other colleges. So if I were you, I would investigate other colleges that might be a better fit for you, especially smaller schools. But make sure they offer merit aid before you bother to apply, and that your statistics (test scores and GPA) are in the top 25% percentile for the college. If you are also a URM (I am wondering if you are, since you have this sweet deal from OSU already lined up), that will help as well. Your family may soften up if you actually get acceptances and scholarship offers that are comparable.</p>
<p>Also, I think you do not need a college that has a specialized major in database administration to work in that field. A basic computer science program with a couple of database administration classes, and some internship experience using databases is probably enough. Don’t limit yourself too much because of that.</p>
<p>All that said, I am also going to give what is probably some traditional parent advice. DO NOT have your boyfriend follow you to college. DO go live in a dorm someplace. You will grow so much from this, I guarantee it. A boyfriend who would move off to another state with a 17 year old when they go off to college may not have big enough dreams of his own. Just saying… You sound like you have a lot of potential, and you really need to spread your wings on your own for a period of time to realize it.</p>
<p>Mellacavera, you do not have to make any decision about where you go to college until next spring. I would encourage you to continue to explore all the possibilities but do not burn any bridges. By this I mean do whatever you need to do to keep the full ride option available. Your perception of OSU may change. There are other ways to see your family besides having a car on campus; you can take a bus or find a ride with someone else who lives in Cleveland. There is plenty of time to have many discussions about where you want to go to college.</p>
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<p>What kind of program provides you with all this?</p>
<p>You can apply to other schools and see if you get scholarships, but IMO you ought to take the huge scholarship you’ve already been offered at OSU. OSU is a great school–much more highly rated than Cleveland State or DeVry. Columbus isn’t that far from Cleveland–only a couple hours. If you wanted to visit your family some weekend, it wouldn’t be hard to find someone going to Cleveland to share a ride with. If you and your parents don’t have a lot of money to pay for another school, stay with the great deal you already have. You are very fortunate and it seems unlikely that you could find a better deal (you might get a scholarship for full tuition somewhere else, but that won’t pay room/board). Does OSU require freshmen to live in dorms? Why don’t you want to live in a dorm? If you don’t like the huge Columbus campus, would your scholarship allow you start at one of the smaller OSU branch campuses?</p>
<p>Ohio State full scholarship >> DeVry or Cleveland State</p>
<p>And you can major in computer science at Ohio State and learn databases inside and out.</p>
<p>First, congratulations for getting the OSU guarantee.
It is a tremendous financial gift (125K) to have this in your back pocket.
I would go to OSU for the summer Academy experience with an open mind.
It’s only for a few weeks and you can experience living in a dorm and being a college student.
If you truly dislike OSU, then you will go through the admissions process like all other seniors.</p>
<p>Do not over estimate your ability getting full rides/funding to other colleges.
Money and scholarships are tighter this year.</p>
<p>Understandably, your mother is alarmed you are talking about limiting your opportunities in college to accommodate your bf.</p>
<p>You and your mother need to separate the 2 major issues of your arguments, your boyfriend and going away to college.</p>
<p>College is a time where you will be able to come out of your shell, gain confidence, lose your nervousness in social situations, become poised and independent as a person. </p>
<p>Being homesick is part of growing up.
You can take a short plane ride to get back to Cleveland to visit.
Learning how to make friends at college is scary but exciting.</p>
<p>If your relationship with your bf is strong and true, distance will not diminish it.
He is happy about your free OSU degree, it shows that he is smart to know that you will be debt free when you two start your life together and you begin working.
You may not be able to live together for a few years (if you dorm) but it will be a short time.</p>
<p>You will disappoint your family if you throw away a free ug education or make poor college decisions.
So, be calm and think rationally.
You can do it.
Good luck.</p>
<p>A bird in the hand is worth…</p>
<p>The OSU scholarship sounds like a very good one. If you’re intersted in other colleges then you can still apply to those and see what kind of scholarship/need-based aid you get at those before deciding. Don’t assume you’ll get scholarships and various colleges because of your grades/test scores/volunteering. You might but you might not - you won’t know until you receive the offer from the particular college. </p>
<p>If you want to go to a college where you’ll have to pay part or all of the cost, you’ll need a plan of how you (or your family) will pay for it. It’s an important practical step that needs to be done.</p>
<p>A few other points -
- Nowhere in Ohio is that far from anywhere else in Ohio. Cleveland to Columbus is around a 2.5 hour drive. That’s not very far to be able to do occasional visits back home or for them to visit you. They could come see you on a Sauturday, take you out to lunch, and return home the same day. I assume your family has a car.
- With a larger school you have more of a chance of meeting people compatible with you - not less. If you have some anxiety around crowds of people realize that even at a small school there are a suffucient number of students that you’d have to deal with this. It won’t make any difference if there’s a few thousand students on a small campus vs. 25K (or whatever) students spread out on a large campus.
- A DBA usually isn’t something one receives a degree in. For that area you might be interested in ‘Information Systems’ rather than CS. OSU offers it.
- The BF - it’d be a mistake to base any of your college decision on the BF which is why your parents are concerned about it. You indicate you’re not, which is good. The BF doesn’t just disappear just because you’re in a different city attending college (unless you or he wants to).</p>
<p>So that you have options for the future, please attend the Summer Academy, and enjoy the experience. If you get along with the people there, you will even have friends at the school should you choose to attend.
I will be honest with you, as a parent, I would also encourage you to attend OSU. Why attend a lower-ranked school when you can get a world-class education for free? What you are not seeing is the true freedom that having no debt will provide. You can take on interesting jobs after college rather than taking the job with the higher salary in order to start paying student loans. You can travel for a time. maybe you can get your family to pitch in what they would have paid elsewhere for study abroad trips, or even a car. </p>
<p>You will be applying to a lot of schools next fall, and the most important thing that you need to do with your parents is determine how much they will pay annually for your education. Sit down and get a firm number. Run the EFC calculator, work through a budget, etc. Get the agreement with your parents that they will pay X and you will make up the rest. From then on, work to have more choices. If those other options don’t appear, then you have OSU as a backup.
In the meantime, research the employment stats for new grads from the other school choices. I can promise you that DeVry grads do not have the same opportunities as a student that does well at OSU. You will be the first one in your family to go away to school. That is a big deal, and you shouldn’t sell yourself short by settling for a place that will not allow you to reach your full potential. Cleveland State has a 7% 4-year graduation rate. Why would you want to put yourself in a position were failure is the rule rahter than the exception?</p>
<p>If you don’t want to go very far from Cleveland, get out a map of Ohio and your compass from back when you took Geometry, and draw a circle around Cleveland at the distance that you think is OK. Then investigate all of the colleges and universities inside your circle. Some of them should be able to offer you a decent scholarship. However, Devry should not even be on the table. It is a for-profit institution, and won’t offer you the scholarships that you can get other places.</p>
<p>With a 4.0 and good ACT or SAT scores, you are competitive for a lot of scholarships at a lot of different places. For some ideas, read through the ones listed here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html</a> Since you are a girl, you also can apply to all of the women’s colleges. Some of them have big scholarships for students like you. Read more at [The</a> Women’s College Coalition](<a href=“http://www.womenscolleges.org/]The”>http://www.womenscolleges.org/)</p>
<p>You can get to Columbus from Cleveland by bus. [Greyhound.com</a> | Home](<a href=“http://www.greyhound.com/]Greyhound.com”>http://www.greyhound.com/) has several buses each day. The fares are about $35 one way, but can be cheaper if you have the student bus card, or if you buy them online. Visit that website for more information.</p>
<p>The good thing is that you do have one Rock-Solid Safety admission already. Now you can look at other colleges and see if you find one you like more. Think of it that way. If you find one you like a lot better, and that is just as affordable as OSU, I’m sure your mom and the rest of your family will be happy for you to go there!</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best!</p>
<p>You mention not wanting to go to this school because it’s so large. Well, here is what sometimes happens at a small college - you outgrow it and wish that you were at a larger school with more opportunities. </p>
<p>My son is like you, more reserved and does not like a large crowd, but he realized (and we pointed out to him) that at a small school, he’d have fewer opportunities (fewer clubs, campus activities, internship opportunities, travel opportunities) and also fewer people to meet (while it’s good to meet people from a variety of backgrounds, it’s also nice to have a few friends who are like you). </p>
<p>2 cents.</p>
<p>mellacavera, at most schools, especially those with large in-state populations, it’s very easy to get a ride from your campus to your home city. There is usually a “rides board” where kids with cars or kids who need rides can hook up with one another for trips home. Generally the “rider” helps pay for gas.</p>
<p>I agree with others that you should keep this option open. OSU is an awesome school, and if you do well there you will be able to get into the best graduate programs in the nation. That’s not necessarily true of DeVry or Cleveland State. Also, just because it’s big doesn’t mean you will be overwhelmed. Going to a large university is like living in a city–just as, if you were living in Manhatten, you wouldn’t know or interact with the entire population, but only with the people in your workplace or apartment building, likewise, if you go to OSU, you will make your friends in your dorm, your major, the clubs you join. Also, don’t underestimate how much your attitudes might change by this time next year: what seems intimidating to a 17-year-old might seem exciting to an 18-year-old.</p>
<p>Mellacavera - Your parents are very much on target with this:</p>
<p>Going 2 1/2 hours away to college is preferable to staying in Cleveland. There’s a whole lot of world out there to explore.</p>
<p>Cleveland State or DeVry isn’t even close to being at OSU’s level as a university. DeVry is a for-profit franchise operation. This would be like turning down a free Lexus to pay extra for a used Oldsmobile.</p>
<p>Database administration isn’t a legitimate college major. It’s something that for-profit technical institutes might advertise on TV as quick job preparation, but you’d have many better options at OSU.</p>
<p>You don’t want to commute to college for your freshman year. It’s just not the same experience at all.</p>
<p>I agree with the people above who say to go into the coming year with faith that your comfort zone and thirst for adventure will grow. :)</p>
<p>Most juniors in HS are not ready to leave home; most seniors are.</p>
<p>A year is a long time. Sounds like you have a lot of opportunity. Keep an open mind! Good luck.</p>
<p>If you want to become a database administrator, a good path would be to get a CIS (Computer Information Systems) degree which is essentially a business degree with a few IS and/or CS courses. This will give you the business background to help you in your job as a DBA.</p>
<p>You could also get a Computer Science degree to learn more of the math and theory of databases (and computing in general) but you would lack the business sense that’s often important in the DBA job.</p>
<p>Another way to learn Database Administration is to take a certificate program or go to a technical school. These programs typically teach you database administration for a particular product (such as Oracle’s RDBMS) and they are usually light on theory. But a certificate might be good enough to get you a job. There is a fair amount of demand for DBAs in my area (Oracle, SQL/Server and MySQL are popular) and your typical university CS program doesn’t have a course in Database Administration.</p>
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<p>In the former case of an IT type degree that is essentially a business degree, it may be well worth supplementing it with the CS versions of the courses in databases, operating systems, and networks, to get a stronger background in the technical aspects of the field than most IT people have. That would make you more adaptable to unusual problems and new technologies that the people who have only low level certifications or “CS-light” IT courses would be. There is no need to major in CS for an IT career, but those who go into an IT career with too little of a technical base are more likely to be find their skills going obsolete with less ability to self-educate for changing technologies.</p>
<p>And that’s why going to Ohio State for free to study to a degree in CS or IT/Business with supplemental CS courses is likely to be a lot better for future job and career prospects than anything from a low end for profit school.</p>
<p>You have received terrific advice already. But also, keep in mind that by going to OSU, you are not necessarily investing 4 years of your life. If you give OSU a good faith try and then don’t like it, you can apply to transfer to another school.</p>
<p>Yes, by all means attend the summer program. </p>
<p>As for dorm life, it’s a right of passage. But at many state schools, after freshman year you’ll need to switch to an apartment anyway. </p>
<p>Columbus is pretty darned close to Cleveland. We have driven that route. My son is 2000 miles away… that distance presents some challenges, but it works.</p>
<p>Please go to the summer academy and keep an open mind. Maybe you won’t hate it!</p>
<p>Do not even consider DeVry as it is not in any way equal to going to Ohio State.</p>
<p>In the fall, you can apply to other colleges, as well as Ohio State, and see what kind of scholarships or financial aid you are offered. It is possible that if you keep the Ohio State option open, after going through the effort of applying everywhere, it might be your best option. </p>
<p>I think it must be a scary time for you. To think of going away from home for college. If you are the first in your family, you must feel all sorts of pressure to do well and ‘live up to your potential’. Don’t be afraid. To have been offered this opportunity, you must be well-qualified and OSU must have a lot of faith in you. You can do it. Is there someone objective you can talk to, who might provide support to you?</p>
<p>I was born in cleveland and lived in columbus near OSU for 20 years. It is a 2.5 hour drive at most…certainly this is not the reason for the drama. </p>
<p>If OSU is not to your liking, look at other schools near cleveland. Case Western in Cleveland is an excellent school, and can be generous with merit money, especially if you are a URM. Case is a lot smaller than OSU and very good in the areas you are interested in. If you are more interested in a really small school, what about John Carroll (in University Heights) or maybe Baldwin Wallace or Allegheny…neither are too far.</p>