Doing the "basics"!

      They say it is about doing the basics right. That has been quite a story for me as well: doing the basics right.  I always took rigorous curriculum, good subject combination and performed to my optimum and this, thus, did not have questions about security of my educational career. As every career opened that way, I have spent my high without a definite educational aim. I did not know what I wanted to be, and the uncertainty still persists.

        My gap year is a result of the uncertainty that loomed over what I really wanted to be and where did I want to see myself.  I did not know if I was applying abroad until I finished my A levels. Had the majority of my friends not applied USA, I probably would have followed their path. This again comes to doing the basics right, this time in a belief that what my friends did was for something better that what opportunity was on offer in Nepal.  Many people join A levels only to apply for USA, but I did not have faintest of idea for what particular reason did I read A levels.  My father suggested me to read A levels because he wanted me to have different educational experience from what he had when he did his I.SC. Neither my father nor me what prospects did A levels have to offer in reality.

     Even though I planned to apply to US Colleges, I was not sure what definite major I was to choose and what kind of colleges I was to apply. I prepared and gave SAT and TOFEL, very frivolously the latter, as these standardized tests were the prerequisite for applying to US; doing basics alright! Thus began the rigorous work of searching the US colleges for me.  Because I needed large amount of financial aid, options for applying dropped very sharply as not every US College provides adequate financial aid to international students like us.  The list of colleges narrowed as the process went along and I ended up applying some seventeen "everyone applying" colleges. Since every candidate like me needed an aid and since the number of students like me was large, the application pool that my application belonged to happened to be very competitive.  

As a result, the basic things that I had been doing all the time did not work out well in college Application. The kind of US colleges I was applying to needed more than basics if I was to become a part of any big news.  I ended up being rejected by nine colleges with three waitlist turned rejections and five acceptances.  Of the five colleges that accepted me, only a second tier university in USA and a good college in Germany provided decent financial aid. The financial aid the latter provided is not as good as the aid that first one provided, but the cost is still manageable.

     I do not know whether attending the college in USA that provided good aid is better a decision than attending the university in Germany. I do not know what the "basics" is this time. Whatever it is, I think this time I need to show some defiance against the basics regarding my college and major.