Mark

To be honest, I was kind of upset when I wasn’t enrolled to Columbia, but had to attend the Bridge Program beforehand. I think a lot of people could agree with me on that, but I’m sure others are very thankful and appreciative of the fact that Columbia even provides students with such an opportunity. The Bridge Program has no additional fees. This is out of Columbia’s professors time, along with everyone else involved in Bridge.
When I found out that I had to attend, I was more upset with myself than anything. I realized that my lack of dedication during my freshman – junior years showed that I wasn’t serious about almost anything at that time, besides socializing. It was my senior year when I became focused and dedicated to my studies. If I would have failed one class during my senior year, I wouldn’t have graduated. This was because of taking my whole junior year off when I was homeschooled. Also, my attendance wasn’t remotely close to being acceptable, so I’m sure that also had a big impact on my enrollment into the school.

During senior year, I was doing really well, aside from my attendance. I missed 38 days overall last year, but graduated with a 3.067 overall for senior year. Because of freshman – junior year though, my final overall was only a 2.067. I could still keep up with my work even though I missed so many days. School was just so tedious to me. Nothing about it was challenging. Not to mention, I didn’t really want to wake up, go to school, and see numerous people that I didn’t want to see. I would always end up getting a doctor’s note in the end, so it didn’t have an effect on my graduation.

I finished my application to Columbia around the end of April, which was really close to the deadline. I was torn between two schools at this point, but chose Columbia because of various reasons. I was already accepted into the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, California, based on my entrance project and portfolio. The expenses of the school and living in Los Angeles would have required a lot of loans, and probably two jobs to be able to afford. My mom wanted me to make sure that I would transition well into moving and college, so we both agreed on Bridge.

Bridge has been a good experience so far, even though I think that the maturity level of some people should be improved. I think that Bridge is just an appetite teaser compared to how much work college actually requires. It’s a good transition into college and I believe that because of it, I’ll do better in the fall semester.