The Cost of My Dream by Keirah

The Cost of My Dream by Keirah - July 2025 Scholarship Essay

If I could give my past self one piece of advice, it would be not to choose the fancy, expensive private university across the country from your hometown.

I sat in the front row of my university’s auditorium, staring at the panel of experienced journalists—people who had made it in the very career I dreamed of succeeding in. “After I graduated from Davis, I was offered a job with a news company that was following the Harris-Walz campaign, and that’s how I got started,” said a female journalist on the panel.

I sat there, stunned. Suddenly, one of my biggest fears was confirmed.

I had chosen American University because of its location and resources. I believed it would open door from internships to connections and opportunities in journalism. I convinced myself the cost was justified because a public school back in California, one that didn’t even offer a journalism major (just “communications”), couldn’t possibly give me the career I wanted. My parents supported my every decision. They wanted me to be happy. As immigrants from Asia and Paraguay, they had sacrificed so much to give me the kind of freedom and opportunity they never had. So it was settled.

But hearing that this young female journalist had gone to a UC school and still become an incredibly successful political journalist made everything I believed unravel. In that moment, I realized it had all been a lie I told myself to justify a dream I was scared to chase the hard way. I could have gone to UC Irvine, the school I had gotten into. I could have worked just as hard there and still pursued journalism. It may have been a bit harder but not impossible. And, on top of that, it wouldn’t have cost my family nearly as much.

Now, I am an incoming junior at American University. I have loved every second I have spent at that college. The friends I have made, I know, will last a lifetime, and I have never enjoyed learning and classes the way I love my classes at AU. Furthermore, the culture and city life in DC for a college student is out of this world. Museums are free, and I get free public transit as the Metro system has deals with DC Universities. As a journalism major, whose dream job is to be an investigative reporter, I have so many networking opportunities there. I joined the school paper as well and have had so many amazing experience,s from attending movie screeners to interviewing such interesting people.

But no matter how much I enjoy it, I now realize the hard truth: my college experience $75,000 price tag.

Now, because of a decision I made when I was 17, my parents are giving up so much of their hard-earned money, stressing about finances, and picking up more shifts to the point that they are so tired.

I feel the weight of it all every day. I feel like I have to become that hugely successful journalist. That it’s the only way to make this all worth it. I push myself constantly, worried I’m not doing enough to justify this dream. I join every club I can, apply for every internship, and even making the Dean’s List every semester doesn’t feel like enough. Every rejection stings deeply, acting as one more reminder that maybe I’m failing the people who gave up so much for me to be here.

I now understand now what I didn’t at 17. The true meaning of money. The sacrifices behind it. How the practical and more affordable choice would have been the better choice.

If I could do it again, I would have chosen the public university and saved my parents the $50,000 yearly. I would have made sacrifices myself and worked harder.

Then, maybe, I wouldn’t feel the constant pressure and guilt weigh so heavily on my chest.