I graduated high school from a small private school in Elgin, Illinois. And I'm talking small, my graduating class was 38 kids. I spent four years getting to know my teachers and my coaches, advisors, the grades below and above mine. Very rarely could you walk through my high school and not know that one freshman that's passing you by name.

So, when I was applying to college it was obvious that I wanted an environment just like that, which led me to Columbia. Sure, my biggest class is about 50-100 people but that's also a GenED class. My major classes cap out at 20 kids. Obviously, I don't know everyone in class, but you notice faces.

Aside from socially transitioning into college, my high school helped me transition academically. You took learning personally at Elgin Academy, which meant something different to everyone. For me, it was actually forming a bond with teachers and coaches, which meant that I felt comfortable enough to walk up to a teacher and ask for help, and even to some, I was able to talk to them about school struggles, or even boy issues. Which is beside the point, when I graduated high school I was reserved, I wasn't what you'd call a social butterfly, I wasn't the type of person to walk up to someone and introduce myself, I wasn't in a rush to raise my hand in class. At Columbia it's different, I made a goal with myself to actually put myself out there, now I'm actually speaking in class and introducing myself first.

Private School also helped me with my workload in college. Ironically I get more sleep in college than I ever did in high school, I was taught how to balance my workload with my basketball schedule, I learned how to productively use my study halls and my free periods. So now, when a teacher brings up writing a paper and having it due the next class period which happened to be that following Thursday, it doesn't stress me out frankly my workload in college is less than my workload in high school, and for that I'm grateful. I strongly believe that because I attended a Prep School my transition into college wasn't intimidating.

By being able to take learning personally in high school I was able to take that with me to college, to an arts college, where I double major and minor. I never realized what that meant in high school, what it meant to take learning personally but now I see it.