I'm not going to deny that entering college is initially an exhilarating experience. You meet new people who might share your interests, pick classes you think you might actually enjoy, and unless your commuting, are able to live independently away from family. All this is fun and games until the grind of schoolwork suddenly kicks in, perhaps making one wonder what exactly they were anticipating out of their college experience in the first place.
I fear that in the US, we are taught to choose colleges as if they were our life partners. It seems that college rankings guides, however well-meaning with their endless dissections of a campus, imply to perspective students that somewhere, a university exists that is a perfect match for trans* well-being, only she just has to find it. This concept corrupted my mind at high school, where I frequently stressed out over my performance in the ACT, assuming that a high score get me into not just a good college, but the college right for me. In my situation, I became obsessed with global academic university rankings, and tended to ignore other important factors, such as racial diversity statistics or program retention rates among the student body. But I continued believing that if I got admitted into a certain program at this particular university, it would lead to a great career and life of enjoyment.
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This may be a bit of a letdown, but after graduation employers tend to be less concerned about your GPA or your name-brand school, and more interested about what you actually did during your time on-campus. Also at this moment, you begin to realize that there is another life after college, where things that you valued so much do not matter anymore. I mean, who really cares if you have a 4.0 but don't know how to talk to people? Surely, there is more to life than achievement and performance, and the most important thing we can do is love ourselves.
So go ahead new student, be a part of you new community! But remember that your time here is short, and that your efforts do not define your self-worth as a human being.
