School Interviews- 40

Part A:

The majority of my interviews were focused on the college process, the college experience, and whether college is worth the money. But a small portion of my interviews were focused on different types of schools and how students feel about those different types of schools.

a couple 10 year old girls that I spoke to talked about the types of schools they go to including, elementary school, acting school, and hebrew school and how they felt about these schools. One girl seems to enjoy acting school (from my perspective) but does not like any of them on a social level (drama with another girl). The other 10 year old said she did not like elementary school because it does not interest her but she does enjoy her acting school because she likes the people there. Based on these interviews, the people who are at your school affect how a student may feel about school. The social experience of school overpowers the academic experience in these cases.

I interviewed a European lady at my internship about college. I asked what she thought about the college application proccess. She said it is overly stressful and it can be simplified. College is so stressed about when it is just an extention of high school. She also talked about the competition and how it is not completely objective, there is still favoring going on and lots of future success depends on the connections you have.

In a similar conversation with a school of the future senior and we talked about the reqirements for the college application proccess. The colleges seem to be expecting lots of experience when the student is looking for experience. Students look into schools to gain the experience they are lacking but it makes the student feel like they are incapable of studying in a field because they do not fill the requirements to study in that field.

Going back to my interview with the European lady, I also asked her about her thoughts on the social experience of college, she thinks that it is effective to develop independence but it is also complicated for young people because there is this pressure to change or fail, the college social experience can vary depending on the individual experience. She has a history of going to college in London and college in America, so I asked her to talk about the differences in those experiences. She said that there is a different mentality between the two because they are two completely different cultures, she said she felt safer at her college in London than at her college in America. In addition, financially, London is less than America because of the different economic structure.

I intervewed a female sophomore college student from Florida about the college proccess. She thought you should not have to pay for the application proccess especially if you might get denied. But "it is what it is," the community college application is pretty simple but for universities and more rigorous schools require a more complex application proccess and if that is what you want then you have to apply yourself to get it done. She then started talking about test taking, she does not like it because it is not a strength of hers but it is necessary. I also interviewed a male sophomore college student from New York about the college proccess. He said it was at times annoying and it takes a long time.

I then asked the female sophomore if she thought the money and stress for college is worth the experience, she said that her cousin had an amazing college experience and she does not regret the money and the stress. The sophomore explained that she is a lawyer so financially in the long run it won't be as stressful as it would be for her because she wants to get into education where financially it might take longer for her to get out of debt from school. Overall, it depends on the career path and personal experience if it is worth the money and the stress. From the male sophomore's perspective, he said he enjoyed classes and likes learning so it is worth it.

Part B:

I think it is interesting how the social aspect of school, the people who are in your school, can make or break your school experience as discussed in my interview with two 10 year old girls. Your experience with school emotionally affects the overall experience (socially and academcially, although I believe people think more about the social experience more than the academic). It is also interesting how the social and academic parts of school depend on each other at times. If a student is having social problems, they might be less motivated to focus on the academics, or the opposite. A student might be distracted by social aspects of school. The academic part might help create the social part.

The female sophomore said "it is what it is" about the application proccess and it made me think about schools as a sorting machine. How we have to adapt to what society asks of us to be considered successfull if that means going through a rigorous application proccess for the risk of denial or the relief of approval. Even though she does not agree with test taking she believes it is neccessary. Her perspective seems to be that this is how society is and there is nothing we can do about it, we adapt to the level of work we think is suitable for ourselves. But what if expectations get so high that even the moderate levels are frowned upon? Should we push ourselves to risk stress and money? Or accept that we are not accepted?

In regards to the college application proccess, I wonder, does the college experience live up to the hype of the application proccess experience? which I should have asked in my interviews. There is so much stress over completing the application and waiting for the approval, does it match up to the reality of going to the college you chose and going through the experience after long periods of thinking about it.