<p>Hi everyone,
Although this is my first post on CC, I have browsed this website for a very long time now whenever I had a question or needed help referring to my college process. Now though, I feel like I am in a very unique situation of my own and needed to post my own story to get personal help, so here I am.
First off, let me start by apologizing if this ends up being the longest post you've ever seen or read on this website, because it definitely has to potential to be - I may ramble, but it's because I have been so lost and confused about my entire college life and experience that I just need to get it all out there and get some help with it all. Secondly, if I am posting this in the wrong place on the website I am sorry, but I want as many people to see this as possible so that I can get a wide array of thoughts and opinions. Now, let me give you a rundown of my life in the past few months so that you can understand what I have been dealing with.
I'm not sure if this is relevant now or not, but these were my high school credentials:
-SAT: 630 Reading, 730 Math, 660 Writing
-ACT: 32 Composite
-South Carolina GPA (I'm from South Carolina): 3.967, graduated 69th out of 461 students in my class
-The only B I had senior year was an 88 in an IB course, everything else was all A's and I only had an average below 98 in one class (I did not take the easy route and sign up for all electives either)
-I was also captain of a sport and was in another club, just to have a well-rounded profile for colleges.
During the fall of my senior year, I took a visit to the University of South Carolina and applied there shortly afterwards. Unfortunately, right after this my grandmother got very sick and passed away only 2 months later, and a lot of time, effort, and money was spent on her during this time. This caused me to miss out on applying and visiting anywhere else, as I had neither the time or money to devote towards visits and applications before college deadlines approached. So, the plan was to go to USC and major in sports management. However, I had a very uneasy feeling about going and felt like I didn't belong there, because I had figured out that I really wanted to major in architecture, my original career choice that I had stuck with most of my life until being accepted to USC. At USC's orientation, I explained that I wanted to leave and go to school elsewhere, and they obliged.
In mid-June, I emailed President Barker at Clemson University and explained my situation, as Clemson is the only school in South Carolina with an architecture major. He was wonderful, and got me in touch with the right people and allowed me to apply. Keep in mind, this was mid-June, over a month past Clemson's final application date. On June 30th, I received my acceptance letter into the school of architecture and could not have been happier, and looking back now having known how selective Clemson is with that program, I could not have been any luckier. I went to orientation in July, moved in on August 20th, and that was where things began to fall apart.
Once I got moved in, several things started happening all at once that made things terrible. For one, I lived in an almost empty upperclassmen and transfer building, and I did not have a roommate. This made it extremely hard to meet people and make connections, as the few people on my hall were never there and partied a lot, so most of my time (and meals) were spent alone. I have always had a hard time making friends, and I only had one friend also going to Clemson - when we got there, she instantly made tons of new friends and kind of left me behind, which really threw me off and blindsided me because we were pretty close. Despite my concerted effort to be outgoing and make new friends to surround myself with, I was not successful. It was here, being alone, that I think I began to become depressed, and in a week I had lost almost 10 pounds and was only averaging 2-3 hours of sleep a night. I decided to take a visit home to see my family the first weekend, and I was confronted with more issues - my parents told me that their relationship was not doing well at all, and I knew that if they divorced their split income would not cover my costs at Clemson, which were still almost 1700 dollars a month after applying my grants, scholarships, and loans. This all became compounded and on August 31st, I withdrew from Clemson after having two days of sessions speaking with counselors and therapists at the university, 11 days after arriving.
As of now, I am enrolled at a technical college at home, and I really do miss Clemson, regardless of being alone there, because I am mostly alone at home too with my parents working and most people away at college. This has gotten to the point where I don't even like Saturdays because I don't want to turn the Clemson football games on, as it only makes me feel worse. I feel bad for wasting President Barker's kindness and time at Clemson, who could not have treated me better. This is where my emotions and confusion kicks in, causing a dilemma - first off, was I even justified in making the decision to leave? Was that the right call, or did I really make a huge mistake? Secondly, I need to transfer from my technical college to obtain a higher degree, and would prefer to do so ASAP, but should I go back to Clemson? Will they even allow me to do so? Taking architecture courses at my technical college is not an option, so I would be a semester behind - could I catch back up? How long would I have to wait to transfer? Or would I fall under the category of a readmission? Also, how can I explain all of this to my parents? They have no experience with college at all, and right now this is all they are looking at:
-I've been enrolled at 3 colleges already, and I just graduated high school in June
-Wasted Money: $400 in textbooks, $200 housing cancellation fee at USC, $150 for USC orientation, $300 for Clemson orientation, $300 non-refund on Clemson tuition, $3000 laptop, and all of the miscellaneous expenses on college supplies and dorm accessories.
-And after all of this, I'm still at home living with them.
All of these things are continuously running through my mind. I know this website has parents, high school students, undergraduate and graduate students from all over the country, and I am just looking for some sort of reasoning and help to make sense of all of this, and I would be so grateful for you help. Please.</p>
<p>This is a looooooooooong post…
I don’t think you made a HUGE mistake by withdrawing from Clemson, but that wasn’t a good decision either. As of transfering, if you think Clemson is the only school you wanna go to, then talk to them, ask for a second chance. I would suggest you find another college, though. talking to the Clemson people for readmission can be a little awkward, but go for it if you absolutely want to go back.
Hope that helps (:</p>
<p>fjeis602 - I know it’s a really long post haha, but I’m glad you read through it and responded. As far as reapplying goes, have you been through that process before? I’m just curious as to why you said it would be awkward talking to them about it, and if you have experience on that. Thanks for your opinion!</p>
<p>i don’t quite understand why you withdrew. you couldn’t pay? if it was an emotional reason, that was not a good decision to make, especially since you gave clemson only an 11 day window to give you a view of what it has to offer. talk to them about it.</p>
<p>candlelightkva - I had several reasons for withdrawing, but a large portion of it did have to deal with the potential financial issues I was about to face. If my parents did divorce, then they would not be able to support my college expenses while then having to make two house payments, utility bills, etc. instead of one. If this happened, then Clemson would have kicked me out regardless of if I wanted to stay or not, and instead of withdrawing without having anything bad on my transcript I would have had a transcript full of withdrawals. Essentially, my college finances were putting a strain on my parents’ already struggling relationship, which in turn put a strain on my college life and was becoming a large issue. The other factors of continuously being alone and being depressed only added insult to injury, and after I talked to the counselors and therapists at the university and explained the situation they understood why I was considering leaving and had no opposition to it - as a matter of fact, they almost posted me as a medical withdrawal, and I wish they would have now, as it would have been much easier to reapply to Clemson. Thanks for reading my post, and thanks for your input!</p>
<p>I’m sorry for your difficulties. Please don’t take offense, but everything you have written suggests you have some emotional instability that you need to address before further pursuing your college career. Your actions have not been entirely rational. For example, 1) it makes no sense that you couldn’t complete a few college applications because of a relative’s illness; 2) you left Clemson after only 11 days on a merely theoretical lack of college funds, and without even meeting with the financial aid office to discuss options; 3) you are now asking the CC community a bunch of questions about readmission to Clemson (apparently the financial concerns have disappeared?), when clearly a phone call to Clemson would give you the specific information you need. At this point, I suggest you complete your current semester while getting some professional counseling. You are not currently in a position to be making life-changing decisions. Slow down, take a breath, get some help. Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>MommaJ - Thank you for reading my post and replying, and I did not take offense to what you said - if I were one to take offense that easily, I would avoid asking for advice and insight on a public forum. The reason I did not complete the college applications was because I had always been taught that you don’t do things like apply to go to schools that you have never even seen before, and I was more concerned with spending time with my grandmother, as we were well aware she did not have long to live. Also, colleges typically ask for at least 40-50 dollars on application fees, and hospital visits and chemotherapy treatments are not cheap and especially without any insurance, so at that time even those 50 and 60 dollar bursts were useful for small things such as gas and food. I did not include this, but before I left Clemson I met with an academic advisor, then met with several different counselors and therapists at their counseling services on campus, then went to financial aid and the bursar’s offices to discuss my options there before ultimately making my decision. The financial concerns have not exactly disappeared, but as of now there is more time to handle them before I decide to return to school, and I would be able to sign for my own loans if necessary when I returned, because I would then be 18 (I will not be until December). I did ask the CC community about some Clemson readmission questions, and while any answers I get towards those specific questions is helpful, they were more so put out there to somewhat express the thoughts that are burdening my mind right now and to help me have some type of peace with this whole situation. I appreciate your input and thought, and thank you for actually reading my very lengthy post.</p>