Why I Chose Siena

Senior year in high school I applied to about 12 schools. Some people asked why did you apply to so many schools? I said because most of the applications are free when you do early action. Siena College was one of those schools. I heard about Siena from Steven Priestley. He is currently a Sophmore on the Siena Men's Basketball team. Steven and I had the same guidance counselor. My guidance counselor and my mom were pushing me for me to go to Siena. For me, Siena was not my top choice. It was not even on the list of my top choices. I wanted to be a New York City girl. Only 45 minutes away from home.

When the financial aid packages started to roll in. My choices of schools started to go down.  I got a full scholarship to Baruch College but there was a problem. It was a commuter school in the city so my mom said no. My dream school was Pace University in Brooklyn. Problem, the tuition/room & board was about $50,000 and they wanted my mom to take out a $30,000 parent loan so that was a big no. I got a big scholarship to the College of New Rochelle and was invited to a Scholarship Brunch at the school. As I was looking around at the attendees of the brunch, I realized there were no boys. The brunch started and the President stated that this was an all girls school. That was another no. Now I was down to two schools. St. John's University and Siena College. My mom did not want me to go to St. John's because they denied me from entering the business program because of my low SAT scores. I did not receive their financial aid package neither. My only choice was Siena College. My mom loved the admissions staff because they were so friendly. The financial aid package was a good deal. So my mom sent the $200 deposit and Siena College here I come. Though a week later, I received my St. John package and it was better than Siena but it was too late. 

I came to grips that I was going to Siena. I realized the good things about the school. Compared to St. Johns, I was not going to be just a number at Siena but my professors will be able to put a name to a face. Siena looked at my SAT scores but did not penalize me. They seen that I had a high standing GPA, extra co-curricular activities and community service.

The friendliness of the staff and students let me know that people do care. The small campus allows me to get anywhere in about 5 minutes. Being three hours away from mom, well I kind of like it.