I am an indecisive person particularly when it comes to things that will have a large impact on my life. When it came to considering what college I wanted to attend, I was particularly stumped. However, I knew that I would have to decide, so I began by looking at my options by considering distance, cost, and the campus feel in general.

I knew realistically I wouldn’t be going to any highly prestigious institutions, and I also wanted to be able to visit my family often. This narrowed my search to colleges in Montana or neighboring states. I also knew that the cost would play a large role in where I would decide to go because my family is not very well off, and they are not able to help me with tuition at all. I knew that regardless of where I decided to go, I would have student debt, but I wanted to minimize it to lower my future stress over repayment. Additionally, I wanted to make sure that the college had a decent STEM program to align with my chosen major in engineering. Above everything else, though, I wanted to feel at home on my college campus.

Prior to looking into schools, I had participated in events for my school, such as music festivals and math camps, that allowed me to visit and tour both Montana State University and the University of Montana. Neither of these schools felt right. Afterwards, I looked online to see what other schools I could go to that were close enough to home, but also had the engineering program I was looking for. I looked at schools in Oregon, South Dakota, Washington, Idaho, and even Utah. The only school I had looked at that had the home-feel I wanted was South Dakota Mines in Rapid City, South Dakota. I viewed images of the campus, and thought it was very aesthetically appealing, but it was in a large town. I grew up in a very small town, so I wasn’t used to having a lot of people around me and I hoped I could find a school in a town more similar to my home. This characteristic, however, was not an easy one to find because most college towns are fairly large, so I began my search again with South Dakota Mines as a backup school. It was then that I found the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. It was only about four and a half hours away (less than half of the distance to South Dakota Mines), less than the cost of going in state to Montana State University, in a relatively small town, and had a good engineering program. On the surface, it checked all of my boxes, so I did more digging. I looked online at the campus, and it seemed great. I signed up for a tour of the campus, knowing that actually seeing it would be the deciding factor. Everyone I met there was very kind and welcoming, the campus itself was very pretty and full of vegetative life, just like home, and it was set in a nice town that wasn’t too big, but also held enough opportunity for exploration and outings with friends. As indecisive as I can be, I knew that I wouldn’t find anything better and that I had found the place where I would continue my education. I know now that it was definitely the best decision I could have made, and having just completed my first semester there, I wouldn’t change anything.