Stop 2: The Crossroads – Choosing the University and Course

The Decision Point

“We now had background information on him from the previous stop. But what, why, and how did he get to where he is now and the path that he took?” shouts Mr. Conductor.

Choosing the university you will get into and the course or program to take as your path is one of the most crucial points in your life—the decision point. Initially, it was previously mentioned that prior to his senior high school life, he had an interest in being within the professional education setting, and supposedly, he was to choose HUMSS for this reason. But it was advised that STEM would be more practical, plus all programs or courses can be used for teaching as long as they get educational units.

But that was not only his choice that time; as someone who chose the STEM strand, he was also asked to prepare a list of courses specialized by the STEM strand, and one of them is the Bachelor of Science in Meteorology. However, it is a very rare course that only a few universities offer, and the nearest one is at Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU), which is considered far from their home.

Moving on, it was now his graduating year, Grade 12, where he had to choose, but even after discussions with his family and after careful considerations, they were still not able to decide. That is due to the fact that his mother told him that he is capable of any program or course as long as he puts dedication into his work, as she had observed from him. Until a point came where he had to decide. It was an evening when some college admission applications had been posted, particularly by both the University of Northern Philippines (UNP) and the Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University (DMMMSU), and they were supposed to go to their neighbor to give presence for the bereaved family. The mode of application was computer-based for UNP and a printed paper and pen for the DMMMSU application form.

So, to fill out the application forms, one must choose their respective preferred programs. As they had prior things to attend to, the choosing of the course was based on the talks of his family before. Until a message came from his sister that her boss in her workplace recommends and says that the in-demand or good courses offered are the Bachelor of Science in Food Technology, which is offered at DMMMSU-Mid La Union Campus (DMMMSU-MLUC), and the Bachelor of Science in Psychology, which is offered at DMMMSU-South La Union Campus (DMMMSU-SLUC).

It was now midyear, and in God’s grace, he qualified for both of the college entrance examinations he took. In the UNP, he got a rating qualified for all programs offered, though a discrepancy in their IT management system sprouted. The management system was called, and they acknowledged their mistake and told him to wait for it to be fixed by next week or in a few weeks’ time. But later on, months passed, and they still didn’t give proper attention to that matter. On the other hand, for DMMMSU, he got a descriptive rating of above average, and the next week after that was his scheduled interview session. For the timeline, it was before the calling for the discrepancy that the interview happened. During the interview, he was highly praised and acknowledged by his interviewer. He was highly impressed by his rating and excellent grades, to the point that he even persuaded him not to go to other programs like the Bachelor of Science in Biology or the Bachelor of Secondary Education major in Science, which was his second priority course.

These are the things that heavily influenced his choice of university and career. The recommendation by his sister’s boss, the persuasion of the interviewer, and the proper accommodation of the university to their student applicants all played a role in this biggest decision point of his life path.

“But would these factors that influenced him be sufficient enough to fuel his attempts to keep on rolling? Let us look into that on our next stops, folks!” shouts Mr. Conductor with excitement.