Jamie Wu
Kimberly Escamilla
English 848
19 July 2014
Determination is Key Over the last thirty years college tuition and drop out rates have increased dramatically. Eduardo Porter New York Times writer of Dropping Out of College, and Paying the Price explains, “what’s most troubling, perhaps, is that Americans are actually enrolling in college and then dropping out halfway through- when they’ve probably already incurred a bunch of debt and won’t benefit from the better job prospects that come with a degree.” Because college is so expensive they have to borrow money to pay tuition. They have so many financial responsibilities they need to work more hours and do not have enough time to study. Then they are not prepared for test and papers; end up failing and dropping out. Because they are dropping out they will not have the degree for a better job, and now have debt. Community college students are at higher risk of dropping out than students that are at a university because of many reasons: lack of motivation, less financial investment, and insufficient time management. A woman that was able to overcome these obstacles was Sonia Sotomayor, author of My Beloved World. She describes the same kind of difficulty as college students are going through right now, except for dropping out. Even though she had significant burdens on her shoulders she graduated from an Ivy League school. If prospective college’s students applied Sonia Sotomayor tactics before and during the first years at university, then they would be more apt to complete their degree. Sonya Sotomayor initially found herself at Harvard, a campus that she quickly was uncomfortable with and in ways regretted attending, a feeling that many current college students find themselves experiencing as they arrive at university. As a Puerto Rican, and a woman, typically wealthy, white, males who have dominated Harvard’s law school since its inception surrounded Sotomayor. Despite roughly fifty years of purposed implementation of Affirmative Action, colleges still are generally predominately white, and while women have made many gains, overall the college systems have not been successful in diversifying their campuses. Because of this fact, current students should keep in mind when choosing colleges to attend, that white peers will likely surround them. For this reason students should make visiting University campuses a priority, before choosing to attend. This can be crucial to a student’s success at the school. Sotomayor explains that she found Harvard’s campus to be, “a suffocating panic: I don’t belong here! For the first and so far the last time in my life, I did the unthinkable: I fled” (152). The overwhelming feeling of being out of place can really change how students feel about the college. While some students have trouble connecting socially at college, Sonia Sotomayor would to contact peers to see if they can show her around the campus she might be planning on going to. Sonia Sotomayor did not just get accepted to Harvard, she also got accepted to Yale and Princeton as well. When Sonia Sotomayor arrives tour of Yale a group of students pick her up from Amtrak. They tell her that they are on their way to a war protest, that she did not feel strongly about. Though she understood why she tells herself, “it was difficult to picture myself spending four years in this environment… I left Yale thinking: not here” (155). Feeling out of place, Sonia Sotomayor knows that Yale in not for her. Sonia Sotomayor likes Yale’s campus, but she was not too fond of the students around her and that is what made her decision to not attend. Feeling discouraged, college students will sometimes not go to school because they do not socially connect with anyone. Students do not realize how big of am impact it can be to not socially connect with people at their school. Students can learn from Sonia Sotomayor by going to a university they are interested in and seeing if they will connect socially with the others. Like Sonia Sotomayor, college students should learn how to save money and apply for a scholarship because just like her she was not financially prepared. Coming from the projects Sonia Sotomayor did not have any extra money to spend miscellaneously. She explains the severity of the problem: “by the time I went to see Princeton, I was down to gathering loose change for bus fare, Amtrak now beyond my budget” (155). Because Sonia Sotomayor saved her money, she had just enough to go on Amtrak. Anxiety ridden, students do not apply for college because they cannot afford it and are scared of student loans. Money takes a huge part in a student’s life, especially coming from a low-income family. Current college students are dropping out of school because they cannot afford it and it stresses them out. Sonia Sotomayor did stress over money, she wanted to see if she could even get into a university and she did and was able to get a full scholarship. Money should not be the first thing on a students mind (though it always is). Similar to Sonia Sotomayor, college students should work hard in high school and apply for a scholarship, and get used to the idea of borrowing money. Similar to Sotomayor, many college students have a hard time finishing work that is due; hence they should follow her path and try to have good time management. When Sotomayor was in elementary school, her grades were not that good. Until her fifth grade teacher started giving out gold stars for good grades. Sotomayor wanted those stars, so she “decided to approach one of the smartest girls in class and ask her how to study” (91). Once Sotomayor dedicated most of her time to studying her grades went up and she got those gold stars she wanted. She sacrificed seeing friends and doing things that are fun to her, so she can focus on school. College students have a hard time getting good grades because they think they are to busy doing other things. They seem to think that having a job and hanging out with friend’s means that there is not enough time to study. College students can learn from Sonia Sotomayor that they should control the amount of time spent on specific activities. Students not checking out the campus their interested in, seeing if they can connect socially with people that are there, and using good time management are all factors that can sometimes make students dropout. Going through these things can make students loose their motivation towards doing well in school. If Sonia Sotomayor did not do those things that all students should do, she would not be where she is today. She pushed herself to succeed, even though it was hard for her. She was able to work part-time and still be the highest in her class. She had family problems and still got an A on her exam. Sotomayor went through many life challenges on her shoulders and was still able to graduate from an Ivy League school. College students now should follow Sonia Sotomayor’s steps to become successful in college. And because they are following her steps, dropout rates should start to go down.