A Year Ahead is a Year Saved by Alexander

A Year Ahead is a Year Saved by Alexander - August 2022 Scholarship Essay

When looking at what college I would be attending, I quickly realized that something that should take priority in where I consider is whether or not I can utilize my time in high school to help chip away at what work was set for me in college. My love of learning beckons a higher quality education, so the financial burden that presents needed to be accounted for by myself and my family. Not wanting to skip out on quality in place of college being cheaper, there were four options I immediately saw available to me: AP classes that would count as college credit if I scored high enough on the final tests, taking Dual Enrollment courses that would hopefully transfer to my college of choice, getting scholarships to simply lessen the financial burden of a high quality education, and working full time during the summer between the schoolyear so that money for college would already have started to accumulate. Having now concluded my working for the summer, it’s time to tackle the other three opportunities.
I started Dual Enrollment when my sophomore year came around, and have now done as many Dual Enrollment courses as have been available to take. Since then, I have accumulated half of a full year’s worth of college credits, many of which are general education requirements. With the reasonable possibility of being able to graduate high school with a year of college completed as well, I’ve set a goal for myself to have that first year done before I walk on campus. Just taking DE courses won’t quite be enough to achieve this goal, though, and so I have also signed up to do an AP Calculus class with my high school. Having gotten the letter of recommendation to take it, my hopes to be ahead of the curve by a year are within reach. With all of these things together, the burden of college should be lessened exponentially for me and my family, and I can attend the high quality education that I’ve been working to achieve for all of my high school years thus far.