For many, college is the time to break out of your shell and do things you didn’t do in high school. That was definitely what it was for me. I was a homebody in high school and was hoping to change that once I got into college.
When I got accepted into Hamline, I was extremely excited and looked forward to the “College experience”. My belief of what the college experience was came from movies and older friends who were already in college. I heard about the constant parties and the never-ending possibilities of things to do. While I had never been big on parties, the thought of being able to do more than just sit in my dorm all day was exciting along with the thought of meeting new people.
One of the benefits of coming to Hamline was due to the small campus population, I was able to make a lot of new friends within a short period. One of the first friends I made was at SOAR. Another great benefit is that I was able to hear about campus events quicker because there were signs everywhere and usually the people I know talk about the events thus informing me about it.
I never did go to any huge parties such as the keg party back in September but I never felt like I was missing out on anything particularly incredible. In fact, I enjoyed many of the Org events such as the most recent Taste of Africa, and other events such as any event put on by PeerWellness or some of the events put on by HUPB. All in all, I felt like my college experience was in no way disappointing and I felt fulfilled in terms of things to do. I joined several clubs as well as theatre so there was rarely any point I felt bored.
In fact, I was so busy during the first semester, I rarely got to hang out with the new friends I had made. I got an on-campus job working for public safety and out of the jobs I have had, and I’ve had a lot, it is my favourite job. The person who said the thing about jobs was 1000% right. When work doesn’t feel like work, going in every day doesn’t feel like a chore.
While I have several positive things to say about my experience here at Hamline, not everything is sunshine and rainbows. As a private university, Hamline is expensive, especially for many students like me who are paying for college on their own. Taking out loans is never ideal but it is a reality we have to face. One of the deciding factors that got me to commit was the financial aid package. I was very skeptical because I knew the financial burden would be on me to repay. I spoke a lot to financial aid at the end of my senior year in high school. I wanted to know everything I could about how much I would be paying each year and if my scholarships renewed every year.
All the information I received gave me the allusion that I would not have an exorbitant amount to pay every year. I was not the only one who felt that way as others who I spoke to also felt this way. I think the thing that should have alerted me initially was at the start of the year when my fee was a crazy ridiculous amount and I was constantly going back and forth with financial aid about whether or not my financial aid had been dispersed and even after being told it was, what I had left to pay was still more than what I had been told when I had committed.
Additional fees had been added as well as the fact that, and I have no solid proof, not all of my financial aid was dispersed. I began emailing financial aid again around the end of the first semester, during winter break, and all through January. It wasn’t until I went to their office around the end of January that anything started to get done. This seems consistent across the board as many of the other students I spoke with had similar experiences which is honestly disappointing. Paying for college in today’s day and age is difficult; when the scholarships you get told are supposed to help you pay for college don’t help you do that, it’s difficult to trust the forces that be. It felt like we were promised more than we actually received. In other words, it felt like we were lied to.
Forgetting the financial side of things, safety was also another big point. I understand that we are in St. Paul and working for public safety, I understand a bit more of the inner workings of our security detail. Something that not everyone is aware of is thatHPS is not responsible for many of the security problems on campus. Public safety can only do so much without the permission of the Admin. Want a card-access-only campus? HPS unfortunately has no control over that. Something else HPS can’t control is whether or not the sidewalks get salted in the winter. That’s on facilities.
It honestly sounds like I’m bitter about my entire experience here at Hamline but I’m not. The only thing I am bitter about was completely on me and has nothing to do with the way majors are offered. I got to do one of my dream shows, made many new friends, experienced life away from my parents, and actually stressed about my grades and five-page papers. Next year, I plan on transferring, so while I won’t be here to experience the Hamline community, I’m still very satisfied and happy with the experience I gained.
Despite that, I do think that the Hamline recruitment as well as the Hamline administration should begin considering why Hamline has such a high rate of transfer students who are leaving Hamline and should start considering if spending money on athletics is more profitable than making sure students can and want to stay at Hamline. If I had a choice, I wouldn’t leave but that large red in my bank account says otherwise. As my advisor said, It sucks when the reason a student transfers is because of financial issues and not because there is a better opportunity.
While I will miss writing my silly little pieces of opinion on things I want to talk about even if I don’t care that much, this is almost like a final word before I disappear into the statistics of students who transferred away from Hamline. Maybe one day I will return, maybe I won’t but you best know that I’m putting one singular year of college at Hamline on my resume (employers love that.)