<p>This is a great question, and I’m glad you’re considering both options (as I’m sure your parents are, as well). I could write a very long essay with everything Scripps has done for me in four years, but instead I’ll do a list with (hopefully) succinct points.</p>
<p>Scripps built me a community of the smartest, most compassionate, friendly, fun and diverse women (and the occasional gender-queer or male-identified student) that I have ever met. eternally grateful</p>
<p>Scripps allowed me to discuss, embrace and advocate for feminism, and to build my social consciousness so that I am not just “accepting” but actively seeking to be anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-classist everyday.</p>
<p>Scripps, through Core, opened the door for me to explore academic interests I had never considered before, namely Religious Studies, which has become my minor. </p>
<p>Scripps gave me semi-professional employment opportunities, so that as I search for jobs, I have a resume of which I’m proud. In a small community you meet a lot of people who are willing to invest in you, take risks with you, trust your leadership. The opportunity to build my own internship on a passion project for off-campus study, and to work with people I really enjoy… I’m so glad I’m not just working at Target (my HS employment). </p>
<p>Scripps faculty and staff took the time to get to know me, and I’m not worried about asking for grad school recommendations a few years down the road. They’ll still remember me, and they’ll still care. This I know. </p>
<p>Scripps encouraged me to apply for prestigious fellowships… and win one. </p>
<p>But the Career Planning & Resources office also supported me when I sought some balance. I was anxious about finding a summer internship last year, but also wanted to travel. CP&R said, “you’ve had two internships, you CAN do something for yourself!” I love that there is not an incessant push to have the biggest, best internship all the time, like at some institutions. If you’re doing something that makes you happy, that’s cool. It’s practically part of the ethos here.</p>
<p>Scripps gave me the freedom to design my own major. I found the support of a professor who has gone out of her way to help and advise me. Not all the professors are supportive of creative writing (older profs are worried that it’s not respectable enough as a major), but that has just given me more practice in defending and advocating for my choices. </p>
<p>Scripps made it super easy for me to study abroad and encouraged me to step outside my comfort zone and live with a host-family… best choice ever. </p>
<p>Scripps has given me the Freshman 15 multiple times, and I blame the cookies.
(blaming my conspicuous absence at the gym might be more apt)</p>
<p>Scripps has renewed my optimism for positive social change.</p>
<p>Scripps has made me a better writer, a better reader, a better speaker. I’ve become much more comfortable with uncomfortable discussions and debates. </p>
<p>And sometimes Scripps just makes me smile. Sometimes it’s as I watch one of our precocious squirrels carry an entire quesadilla up a tree. Or because a Harvey Mudd dorm is singing “Build Me Up Buttercup” and I can hear it through my open window from across the street. Or, just this past week, because a staff member whom I have never met emailed me to congratulate me on my Fulbright, and we had a very long email conversation back and forth about curiosity and travel. </p>
<p>Scripps was my first choice, though I could never have anticipated all these things as a high school senior. I went with my gut, which thankfully included the better financial aid package. Scripps makes me happy, and people flourish when they’re happy.</p>