Making the Right Choice

This week I was supposed to finish my blog on the University of Cincinnati, but some things came up and I had to reschedule my visit to May 8th.

Instead of blogging about a particular school this week, I want to discuss the importance of picking the right school and the right major for me.

Because higher education is so expensive, once I pick a school and a major there is absolutely no turning back and that thought terrifies me. This decision that I make is going to determine the rest of my life.

In the 1800s there was an existentialist philosopher by the name of Friedrich Nietzsche who came up with the controversial idea that God was dead. In saying God was dead; Nietzsche did not mean that God did not exist, but rather in modern time’s human beings depended more on science to find truth than they did a metaphysical God. Simply put science killed much of God’s impact. According to Nietzsche’s thinking, if God is dead, than that means there is no objective truth or moral code to live your life by and existence is meaningless.

So how do we live in a meaningless world where truth is only subjective?

Nietzsche said that the answer was to chase your passions. If you love writing, then chase your dream and do everything you can to become a writer and try to enjoy it as much as you can. If you enjoy Pokémon cards then go to building 8 and play Pokémon until you pass out.

What I am trying to say is that whatever school and major I pick, I have to be sure that I want do it for the rest of my life and right now I am not sure that transferring and getting a degree in Journalism is what I want to do. Especially not when I’m just now truly starting to find myself and have so many interests in so many different academic disciplines.

So I have decided that I will spend a 4th year here at Sinclair Community College. I am going to take classes in Philosophy, Ethics, Spanish, Anatomy, Psychology and Geology. I also would like to work for the Clarion and see what it is like to work in Journalism. I think this would go a long way in deciding whether or not I want to pursue a career in Journalism.

As for my blog, I will continue research on different universities for the rest of the quarter because I still plan to transfer, just not this year.

I am thankful that I have Sinclair in my life. It has taught me a lot about myself and its low cost as allowed me to make this existentialist decision.

Sinclair is social mobility.

University of Cincinnati (Part 1)

The University of Cincinnati seems incredibly interesting and exceptionally expensive.

Going to school at UC-without living on campus-costs $9, 399 a year and the price jumps up to $18, 639 a year if you choose to live on campus,. The price difference between UC and WSU is only about $2,500 a year according to my cell phone calculator.

There are two main scholarships available to Sinclair students transferring to UC. Those scholarships are the Sinclair Pathways Scholarship and the Community College Transfer Scholarship. Each of these scholarships is worth $2, 100. Both scholarships require a 3.25 GPA and an associate’s degree.

The transferability of credits is a major factor in deciding whether or not to transfer to UC. All Ohio Transfer Module credits transfer to UC, but the rest of the credits are evaluated by the UC Center for Credit Evaluation.

UC awards degrees in a vast number of fields, including Journalism. But, there is a catch. If you choose to major in Journalism, you must have a minor. UC also awards certificates in Journalism, but you cannot minor in Journalism.

Like WSU, UC competes in a wide range of athletics including: Football, baseball, basketball, soccer, and lacrosse. UC is a member of the Big East Conference, so plenty of exciting and meaningful games can provide entertainment to the sports junkies.

Because UC fits the criteria I am looking for in my next school, I have decided that it deserves a closer look. I will be visiting UC April 24th and I will fill in everyone on how my visit goes in next week’s blog.

Wright State University?

Wright State is more expensive than I thought it was.

Attending Wright State University costs over sixteen thousand dollars yearly if you live on campus and slightly fewer than nine thousand dollars yearly if you choose not to live on campus, according to their website Wright.edu.

But, there is good news for Sinclair Students: Almost all credits accumulated at Sinclair are transferable and students who graduate Sinclair with an associate degree and a 3.5 cumulative GPA are eligible for the Rike Associate Degree Transfer Scholarship worth two thousand dollars.

Also on the upside for Wright State is that they have a division one college basketball team that made the NCAA tournament in 2007 and other spectator sports including baseball and swimming.

If sports are not your preferred method of entertainment, Wright State also currently hosts 5 IFC fraternities and 5 PHC sororities. I attended a couple of DELTA TAU DELTA fraternity parties before and they were pretty cool; they mainly consisted of a lot of loud music, a lot of Milwaukee’s Best and a little bit of beer pong. In case you are wondering, I only participated in the music aspect of the party.

And for those who are actually going to school for the academics, Wright State offers over one hundred under-graduate level degrees and over fifty different graduate level degrees. Degrees in journaism cannot be obtained at Wright State, but a Sinclair academic advisor told me that you can get a communications degree with an emphasis on journalism at Wright State.

How do I feel about Wright State? I think I am going to keep it in my back pocket just in case other options do not materialize. The good things about Wright State are that it's close to my family, it’s on the bus route and it is still cheaper than most universities I have been looking at. The bad things about Wright State are that it does not offer a journalism degree, my brother had a bad situation there and it is still in the greater Dayton area. I would like to experience something besides Dayton in the time I have here on Earth.

I think I need to keep checking out schools.

This is the toughest decision that I have ever had to make in my life; what do I do after Sinclair?

Before Sinclair, I absolutely hated school. I dropped out of Belmont High School my senior year and I only ended up coming to Sinclair because I needed to stay on my parents insurance. But, after spending an entire summer working fifty hours a week in a hundred degree kitchen; I realized that without school, things were going to be very tuff.

So I rededicated myself to school and embraced my classes. By changing my attitude towards school, my entire world opened up. I began to enjoy my classes; geology, religion and philosophy. They all became so fun and interesting to me.

But, once again I find myself in a conundrum. I will be graduating this spring from a school that has changed my life and I have no clue what to do afterwards.

So I have decided to use this blog as an opportunity to see what is out there for me. This quarter I will be researching different colleges and decide which one is the best fit for me.