Dear High School Seniors,

I fully understand how difficult it can be going through the whirlwind process of senior year while dealing with college applications all at the same time. This week i've decided to give everyone a timeline of my whole college process that happened throughout my senior year of high school.

Late March- Early April 2015

When I signed up to take the SAT, I had the choice of sending my score reports to 4 schools for no additional charge: I decided to send my scores to Longwood, Virginia Tech, VCU and Christoper Newport University since those were my top schools at that time. For the first time in mid march of 2015, I took the "crazy" SAT test and worked my tail off for 4 hours.

One day during school, I approached a guidance counselor who helped out with the AVID program and he told me that there was a college trip happening the following week as well as telling me to look at the information form. After school one day I looked at the form and only after 30 seconds it was pretty much a no brainer for me to miss two days of school to go tour some of Virginia's finest colleges, a couple of them which I put on the list I had sent my SAT scores to in VCU and CNU.

The first visit of the trip was to University of Richmond on a thursday morning. I was really impressed by the small school feel as well as the great business program but I was turned away because of how expensive it is to go there as well as the level of difficulty being accepted there. VCU was next on the list which unfortaunetly was a terrible visit mainly because it was a city school and too big of a school for me to go. Virginia State had some nice dancing performance but besides that it was just a drive by visit with nothing interesting. The next morning, Hampton University treated us to a great visit but I wasn't really impressed. That afternoon, I was pleasantly surprised by how quality the Old Dominion visit was. It got put on my list of schools I was considering for a while but I dropped it because they didn't have a legit business program and how could I go to one of the unsafest schools in America. CNU was the last visit on the trip and I will say it was the best ever college visit i've been on and I basically told myself after the visit, CNU would be my top choice.

September 4th 2015

I received a postcard from Longwood University over the summer of 2015 after my family and I came home from a vacation, and the postcard described how I was eligible to apply non-binding immediate decision which meant I had the option to take a tour as well as bring all my transcripts and SAT scores. During the September tour, the admissions officers would look at all of my transcripts and after the tour was finished: I was escorted up the stairs and walked into the office to see what decision was made. After a short wait, I was notified of my acceptance when i was handed the certificate of admission, which made me really proud of myself.

September 28th 2015

So I had signed up at my high school to talk to Berkeley Leonard, an admissions officer from Hampden-Sydney College in Farmville, Virginia that morning. At first, I didn't know much about Hampden- Sydney besides the fact of it being an all boys school. As the meeting kept going, I was extremely impressed by what this school had to offer as well as a great alumni base and solid brotherhood.

November 3rd 2015

This was the last day of a 4 day weekend and I spent the day by doing an interview at CNU so I could improve my chances of being accepted. The interview itself was great, I learned a good amount and nervousness didn't even play a factor during my interview.

December 5th 2015

I came home from a swim meet and received an acceptance letter from Hamden-Sydney and I felt so excited to receive my second acceptance letter.

January 13th 2016

This day was the day I received an acceptance letter from CNU, I was jumping for joy and I was the most excited i've ever been in a long time.

February 6th 2016

Hampden- Sydney had an open house that day for students interested in going there. The open house left me unimpressed because they didn't really have a good business program, too small of a school and I couldn't see myself going there because my life would have been a living hell if I went there.

March 14th-15th 2016

On these two days, I decided to take an overnight visit to Longwood University as well as sitting in on classes the next day in order to see if this visit could persuade me to change my decision. My host and his roommate were great and insightful by introducing me to their friends and making me feel comfortable. The overnight stay was great, I had fun watching the office with everyone for the first time. The first class was extremely insightful and I learned a lot while the second class I shadowed on was all over the place since the professor just rambled the entire time. Going home that night I reflected on the visit; while I saw a lot of positives, I didn't see enough that convinced me to change my mind on which school I would be attending.

March 31st 2016

I went on my schools AVID Trip for the second straight year mainly because I wanted to explore. The first night of the trip I announced my decision on the tour bus in front of everybody by saying I was going to attend Christopher Newport University in the fall of 2016.