On Thursday, September 29, 2016, I had the amazing opportunity to go and visit the beautiful campus of the University of Central Arkansas for their Distinguished Scholar's Day, where they invited the top students from schools all around the state and the surrounding states who have displayed interest in UCA. I had been looking forward to this event since early September when I received my invitation. As soon as I got it from the mail, I immediately went online and reserved my spot at the event, and I am so thankful that I did!
The first activity of the day was the welcoming, where the president of the school and the head of admissions spoke about how thankful they were that we were all there, and gave several reasons why UCA would be a great school for us. This wasn't news to me since I had already decided that UCA was indeed the school for me, but it was nice to hear all of the reasons that I love UCA straight from the president of the school. After they spoke, they had the head of the UCA Honor's College, one of the most prestigious Honor's Colleges in the country, give some remarks, telling about how awesome their program was and the history of the Honor's College. Then, we were informed about UCA's residential colleges, which are dorm halls which contain mostly all students of similar majors, minors, or just interests, including a business-focused college, a health services focused college, a humanities focused college, a communications and fine arts focused college, and a STEM-focused college. These halls not only allow for people to meet people of similar interests and majors, they also allow you to take some of your classes there in your dorm.
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The next event separated the students from the parents. Us students were given a taste of what it would be like to participate in an Honor's course. We were taken to a room and one of the actual professors of the Honor's College gave a "lesson" about the purpose of memes and their effectiveness. Meanwhile, our parents were getting a Q&A session about financial aid. One thing they learned was that, if you have a GI bill from the military, that scholarship will not count with your university's scholarship stacking rules, and if you don't use it, you can put it into a savings account and keep it for later. They also learned that UCA's cap for the amount of financial aid you can receive every year is $20,500, and the limit of what you can be refunded with is the difference between your actual cost and $20,500.
Overall, the main thing I learned is that I am going to be the happiest person alive the day I get to start my classes as a UCA Sugar Bear! The campus is beautiful, the students are involved, the faculty is kind, welcoming, and accommodating, and the education is superb. Why wouldn't I want to go to UCA?
