Student Stories: John

Sothdra John Nguon

Central High School 2007
University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth 2011

I joined College Visions after I was recommended to the program by a few local friends. I had been having trouble with deciding on which college would be best for me, and figuring out how I'd best be prepared. Once I joined, I was completely surprised by what I did not know about college, and wondered how anyone could ever apply for college without this knowledge and direction. I decided that I had to go to college at a very young age, most probably because I've been told that it's practically a norm in the same way that elementary school is.

Around my neighborhood, there is a split. It's either one does not attend college, or one attends a local college, not really reaching out and exploring all of the wonderful opportunities outside of Rhode Island. My family doesn't really know anything about college, so they couldn't help me. All they believe about college is that with a college education comes money, which isn't necessarily true, especially for me.

Applying to college was a nightmare. A plethora of applications and forms, left and right, memorizing due dates, forgetting due dates, begging for more money, calling schools, attending school; all of this rendered my final year in high school the most productive year of my life. There were quite a few colleges that I was applying to, most I had never even heard of. I'm glad that Simon created the long list of colleges for me. Although I was very close-minded and bore an "I'm going to stay in Rhode Island forever" attitude, Simon pushed me to become more open-minded, and for my own good. But this long list, it was refreshing. I was given the opportunity to explore my education and develop my skills and talent in so many places, some far and suburban, others closer and semi-bucolic.

I am currently very pleased with the college that I chose, and I actually may be transferring. This is not because of the school, but because I want to possibly change my major, and I only thought about changing my major because UMass Dartmouth has given me a chance to explore other fields. I've learned an incredibly useful amount of information from College Visions, and would recommend it to anyone even thinking about college.