| I thought about taking a summer course but then decided I needed a break and that it was best to stay at home and relax before school started. In order to prepare for school, I had to go to Dominican and take placement a math and chemistry placement test, get my ID and set up my student email account. I also had to get a final financial aid award letter and figure out my payment plan for when school started. I was worried about having to take out loans and thanks to the EdFund I don’t have to take out any private loans this year.
I also had to make sure my community college credits transferred. Initially, my admissions counselor had registered me to several classes that I had already taken at Contra Costa College as part of being a Middle College High School student. He told me that my classes would not transfer because I had received high school credit for them. I had to advocate for myself in order so that my classes would be transferred. I decided that if my classes did not transfer it would be best for me to just stay an extra year at community college and later transfer to a different school. I found a different counselor at Dominican who is responsible of keeping track of first generation college students and I contacted her. After I spoke to her it turned out that my admissions counselor had never sent my community college transcript to the business services office to have it evaluated. Thankfully, the second counselor I spoke to was able to do that for me. I was contacted the following week by the chair of the health sciences department, and she told me that my schedule had been changed and that I was done with my lower division courses but since this was a private school I still needed to fulfill ethics and religion, and that I needed to take the First Year Experience course. The first year experience course is a history course that all first year students take. I’m also taking upper division courses and if I take enough summer classes I should be able to graduate in two years. However, I will still be considered a freshman during my first semester to get the freshman scholarships that are offered throughout my stay here at Dominican. I wasn’t as excited to start college as my friends since Dominican wasn’t my dream school but the night before orientation I was really excited to meet new people and start this new chapter of my life. I was even more excited Sunday night before classes on Monday because I had read ahead and I was really excited for my Intro to Public Health class which ended up being cancelled. Dominican is starting to grow on me and I really like the tight knit community. I still don’t know a lot of people which is why I usually go to the library during my breaks but the people I’ve met have been really friendly and welcoming. Hopefully everything continues this way. |
