Intro to College 101
All while I was growing up, I always knew I would go to college. I never knew how that would happen, but it was expected. Our parents expected it, but my brothers and I did too. Not to mention that I went to an all-girls college prep school where 99% went on to college. There were only 80 something in my high school graduating class so I guess 99% meant probably one person didn’t go on to college.
I had no money set aside for college. (Actually, there was a $50 savings bond I had won in a poster contest when I was about 10, but by the time I was ready to go to college the savings bond had disappeared). My parents offered nothing, and they refused to fill out the financial aid application so I couldn’t receive government assistance. I was kind of screwed. Fortunately, PCC, the local community college, gave each high school one two-year scholarship for a graduating senior. My college counselor told me to apply with the criteria being leadership and community service. I was a slam dunk. First, to be honest, probably not a lot of people applied for the scholarship. Second, by the time I graduated from high school, I had done a ton of volunteer work and had led several committees. With that scholarship, I was able to get half of the credits I would need for a bachelor’s degree. It took me three years to plug away getting the credits two or three classes at a time.
When I was 21, I got married and at 22 had my first baby. Life became very busy, and I took a break from college but always knew I would go back. Fast forward a few years and I was 28 with a six-year-old girl, Jennifer, and a two-year-old little boy, Lucas. I had set a goal for myself to get my bachelor’s degree not later than when I was 30 years old. I was confident I would not need the degree for the purposes of work because I expected to always be married to Tom, the father of my children, and I knew my income would always be secondary because he had a great job. Nevertheless, I felt it was prudent for women to have that degree to fall back on because we never knew what life would bring us.
Portland Oregon has a lot of different options for education. I can’t remember why but Portland State University is where I chose to get my bachelor’s degree. As I look back it would make sense PSU was my choice because it was affordable and in downtown Portland, easy to get to.
At that time, I had all the credits I needed for an associate degree, with the exception of a college level math course. Math had always been a very strong subject for me, and I naturally loved working with numbers. But… while I had gone to Portland Community College in my late teens I was always working full-time and avoided math classes because they were very homework intensive. Although I had a pretty decent excuse, I still needed that math class. As part of my bachelor’s program, a major in sociology and a minor in psychology, I needed a statistics class. At the time, college algebra was a prerequisite for statistics, but computers weren’t as savvy as they are now, and I was able to slip through the cracks and sign up for the class. I loved that class. As I reflect, I’m not sure why. Our professor was an elderly man who had his back turned to us the entire class. While he wrote on the board, he explained to the board what he was writing. I would copy down everything he wrote and used my notes as a guide for all my homework. I nailed the class. I got the highest score and set the curve. Not sure why, but I always felt that gave me bragging rights since I’d slipped through the cracks to get into the class without going through the proper channels. At this point all I had to do was show my transcript to PCC, they approved me for an associate degree, and sent me the diploma.
It took me three years to get the rest of my credits for a bachelor’s degree, but I managed to achieve my goal while I was still 30 years old
