Megan - Denison University - Class of 2010

Joining a lacrosse team was a priority in choosing my colleges. I love the sport so much that when I moved to California at the beginning of my sophomore year, I started a team at my new high school. (Moving back to Illinois at the beginning of senior year made college applications particularly tough, since I had to coordinate between two high schools.)

I downsize my idea of an ideal college

I thought I wanted a huge name-brand school with sports teams and tons of people. Then my parents took my twin sister and me on a whirlwind two-day tour of eight big colleges. I felt lost. It took two hours just to walk around one campus. As I chose my schools, only one school was more than 10,000 students and about half were 4,000 or less.

Davidson was my first choice, even without a visit. Family friends raved about it. The classes were small, and 75 percent of the students played sports. But it was a reach for me. I added Denison and the other small colleges on my list as backups. Then, as soon as I walked onto Boston College's beautiful campus, it quickly moved near the top of my list. It had a great club lacrosse team. Miami was a little too big, but I enjoyed the students I saw on my visit as well as the wonderful campus.

Choice number three turns out to be perfect

I expected my rejections by Davidson and Boston, but it was still hard to take. But I was accepted at Denison and decided to check it out. I fell in love with the campus and enrolled before I even had my tour! I was amazed how much I liked a very small school. A small school was welcoming, easy to get around, and the class sizes were just what I wanted. I was offered an academic scholarship and a position on the lacrosse team, so Denison was the happy end of my college search.

My ups and downs

I applied to Boston early action. Not knowing any better, I got all my apps done by the same early date. However, in my rush I forgot to send my essays and supplements. I then had to push out eight essays in three days!

I had really good grades but I got a 27 on my ACT. I think that is part of the reason why I didn't get into my top choices. I wish I had done more to bring up my score.

I thought my counselor would explain the process to me step by step, but she was too busy with the other 100 students. Fortunately, my old counselor from California had us do resumes of our accomplishments. The resume was a big help when I put that information into my applications.

What I learned

I applied to schools that I knew I would happy at. I had no safeties that I would be sad about and no stretches that I would be stressed about.

It's important to be open about size from the beginning. My dad only took us to see bigger schools. My identical twin sister likes big schools. It took me a while to realize I liked the very opposite!

The money factor

I have an academic scholarship for $11,000 a year. I am also working three jobs this summer, and my parents are covering the rest. My dad has been saving for this day since before I was even born!