Hello Readers,

Meryssa here. I am very sad to say that this will be my final blog for this school year. I would like to begin by thanking all of you who have been reading my blogs for the past two years; I really appreciate it!  It has been a pleasure to share my college planning experience with you.

As for what's new with me, I am graduating very, very soon from my high school and I am super excited! I am going to be the first member of my family to graduate high school on-time and go on to college!  I am not going to lie, I am a little bit scared at what my future holds.

Even though I have visited the community college I will be attending in the fall multiple times I am still nervous about what it will actually be like once I am officially a student attending classes there.  As I have previously mentioned, I have decided to live on-campus for my first year.  I chose to do this for many reasons, the main one being that I don't have my own car to get back and forth to school. Part of my decision was also influenced by other people telling me that it would be a great growing experience to live at school.  I’m looking forward to having more freedom, but I also know that I will have to be diligent in scheduling my time.  While having friends live down the hall from me is great, I won’t be there long if I don’t go to class and get my work done!

I went to my college to take my placement testing (Accuplacer test) about a week ago. For those of you who don't know what placement testing is, it’s basically a series of tests in various topics to decide what college level classes are appropriate for you to be enrolled in based on your skill level in each area.  I am proud to say that I will be taking Honors English, Sociology, and Psychology! For more information about the Accuplacer test, visit www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/accuplacer/

After my placement testing I went to the general education office to register for classes. After looking at my course schedule, I was shocked when the woman I was working with said that I was all set for the fall; the chart she was made looked so empty! I only have one class on Monday's and Wednesday's (I'll only be in class from 12-1:50) and then on Tuesday's and Thursday's I have two or three classes! I could have opted to either have Monday's or Friday's off and I decided to take Friday's off.  I knew that if I chose to take Monday's off I would procrastinate all weekend to do my homework, leaving me to cram all my homework in on Monday. That’s what worked for me; maybe mid-week would be better for you (if you have that as an option).  Remember, we are all different and we need to decide what will make us succeed in college and not just do what sounds like more fun.

I also signed up for a part-time job in the library to earn some extra money. Find out when you can do that at your school, I’ve heard that they are all different.  Don’t miss out!

Now that I have some of the details for next year ironed out, I am going to make the most of my last few days of high school; I hope you will do the same!

Best of luck,
Meryssa