[speaker001:] Okay, I guess I'll start, um, one, uh, big thing that, the advise that I would give to a parent to give to his or her child is to let their, let their child experience college in a kind of general sense. I like large colleges because I went to University of Texas at Austin, they have fifty thousand students there. And I feel like that now if I went, if I had gone to a small college that only had a couple of thousand that I wouldn't have, have gotten as much exposure to different people and different, uh, I don't know, different languages, different cultures, and things like that just by being around those fifty thousand students.
[speaker002:] That's interesting, I went to a smaller school,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] [Throat clearing] of probably three thousand, thirty-five hundred.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] And I, I thought that was the best experience in that we had more one-on-one since we seemed to know everyone on campus,
[speaker001:] Huh.
[speaker002:] and we had a broad spectrum of languages and cultures and backgrounds,
[speaker001:] [Very faint] Huh.
[speaker002:] and so forth, so, I thought it was wonderful to be a bigger fish and not so much a number,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] um, one of fifty thousand, I was one of three thousand,
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] and, and, you know,
[speaker001:] [Very faint] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] different perspectives,
[speaker001:] [Very faint] Yeah.
[speaker002:] I, uh, but it sounds like we were both kind of looking at the same sort of, sort of thing.
[speaker001:] Yeah, I, I could see, I could see that point, I could see how it would be. I'm sure your classes were a lot smaller, um, because like we would have biology classes that did, main courses that everyone has to take, I mean, hundreds of students in this class, so,
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] actually, yes, you were a number. But, um, I, I just, I don't know, I'm thinking in a sense of, uh, just being exposed to more. It just seems like in a larger college you, I don't know, your exposed to so many more people from all over the world, and I'm sure a lot of people come to, you know, small colleges also but just that they're more of, of the different cultures there,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh, yeah.
[speaker001:] not that it's, not that it's better but I'm just saying that I think that big,
[speaker002:] That's one thing to definitely consider.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh, uh-huh. I think, uh, a lot of, a lot of students now would probably be afraid of a smaller college, a lot of the students that I talked to even here in Waco they go to Baylor, um, they, or they're considering going to Baylor, they're also considering going to U T Austin but one of the big no-nos is because of the fifty thousand students, and I have to tell them that just like, just like I live in Waco it's a large city, [barking], I can still function, [barking], in my own kind of area, in my own group. I have a job, I have my friends,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh [barking].
[speaker001:] and I'm really not as, as concerned about the entire city, so when you go to a big, a big university, you're not as concerned [barking], about the entire university,
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] but your group of friends, your classes, your interests, your clubs and things like that.
[speaker002:] I think that's probably keyed to me is not so much the size the school,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] but what, what is the particular needs of the students and whereas some would immediately feel very comfortable in this, um, larger university setting,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] some of the students, um, when I was, when I was teaching school would not have been comfortable with that.
[speaker001:] [Very faint] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] They needed, uh, at least at first,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh, right.
[speaker002:] they needed a smaller setting that, that was more like family where they could get one-on-one,
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] from, from teachers, professors and so forth, and then after a year or two move on to a little bit bigger pond where, where, when they had a little more self-confidence built up, oh, yes, I can do this, oh, I've done this before, it's just in a bigger setting,
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] and so maybe to me the key would be wh-, what is a chi-, the, the students needs,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and what, what school or schools can best meet those, those needs besides education yo-, yo-, you can expect all of them with, uh, a-, a-, accreditat-, accreditation to give the education *seems that this should be 2 slash units, the second starting at "yo-" but it's these other things that you and I are, are keying off on,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] that, that are really more of an education that, but they're the things that don't show up in,
[speaker001:] On paper.
[speaker002:] That's right, that's right.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh, exactly. That's, that's one important thing that I think about school. I'm, I'm not a kind a person that, I didn't, I, I was kind of a B student, I guess you'd say, and I didn't really, I was tur-, I strived to be an A student but it wasn't like a real priority.
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] To my, my priority was just being as worldly as I could possibly be [LAUGHTER], getting into as many organizations as I possibly could, and, and one other point I was going to make, was that I can un-, I can see that probably if I had gone to a smaller school, I would probably have more friends,
[speaker002:] Huh.
[speaker001:] because you, like you said, you know, you know, everybody knows everybody,
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] and so, you probably come out of it knowing, and by friends, I mean, like contacts for when you get out of school, um, you know, you just, you may walk into a company and see someone you went to school with,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] more so at a small college then a large college.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] You may have gone to school with them but you wouldn't, you wouldn't know them. Uh, I guess, let me think of another important thing to look at when you look into college, um,
[speaker002:] I guess, I guess now I've been out for, I, I'm older than you. I've been out for twenty-one years.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] And I was looking at an annual last night, something had sp-, it sparked a question, and I went to a small private school,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] um, and it was church related.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] And I got to looking at my class of sixty-nine,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and I realized that even though that school's two hundred miles from here and I've lived in other states and done other things for the past twenty years, where I go to church now, there are five other people that went to school at the same time in the same class as I,
[speaker001:] Wow.
[speaker002:] and it's, it's neat to know that we have that contact that goes back that some of the same memories if not the same education in,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] you know, we weren't all out to be teachers or, or whatever so we didn't have the same classes, but we had a common thread,
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] something that still ties us together,
[speaker001:] Wow.
[speaker002:] twenty odd years later.
[speaker001:] That's great.
[speaker002:] And it's, it's, it's kind of neat just knowing that those kinds of things, those are what I carry beyond that piece of paper that allows me to be an exempt at T I,
[speaker001:] Right, right.
[speaker002:] I have something more important to me than that.
[speaker001:] That's great, that's great. Yeah, that's what I, that's basically what I, and, when I first, I've been out of college only two years now, [LAUGHTER], so it's still pretty fresh on my memory,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] um, but now that I'm out, when I went into school, my parents told, well, my, okay, let me, let me go back to my, my sister now is in college,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and my father was really interested in getting her in a school that would look good on her, on her, uh, diploma, etcetera,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and so forth, and, and I kept pushing her towards just kind of U T or a larger school, and it was just a big conflict between us because my father wanted the academics and I wanted her to get the life experience,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] out of it, and so it was, you know, she went the academic way because she's a straight A student, which is,
[speaker002:] I was going to ask who won [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] yes, yeah, so, she, you know, that's probably, you know, what she, what she wants anyway but that was the big deal and,
[speaker002:] In, in that case, uh, regardless of what you or your father pushed for it sounds like she was going for what she needed,
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] and finding a school that, that met her specific requirements,
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] and, and made the best fit for her.
[speaker001:] And that, that's another point is that, the, a parent should tell their child to be or, or to give their child the leeway to choose their school,
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] not so much choose the school for them but, you know, kind of guide them along but let them more or less choose what they need and what they're going to do.
[speaker002:] I think it helps, a, now my grandfather was going to pay if I went to, uh, what's now U T Arlington,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] because it was there in my hometown, I could live at home.
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] But I chose to go to another school and even though he was pleased that it was a church related school, he was not willing to pay any at all even the same amount of money,
[speaker001:] Huh.
[speaker002:] and I think I value my, my education more because I had to work for it.
[speaker001:] Right, uh-huh.
[speaker002:] And because I knew all along that's what I wanted,
[speaker001:] [Very faint] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] eve-, even though I had to buck the family in order to, to do what I needed to do. So,
[speaker001:] [Very faint] Right. Well, that was pretty courageous [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] Um, I guess, I guess it was, it was my mother's support that got me through it,
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] that and ten years of, of, uh, loans [LAUGHTER],
[speaker001:] Oh, yeah, yeah.
[speaker002:] after I got out [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] I'm, I'm dealing with the loans right now, so, so. *slash error
[speaker002:] Sounds familiar, huh? Your, it's very fresh in your memory.
[speaker001:] Oh, yes, *slash error very, every, every month [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] I,
[speaker001:] That memory just seeps back in my mailbox.
[speaker002:] Yeah, well, sorry about that Tanya [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] Oh, well, I guess I'll get over it.
[speaker002:] I'm sure it was worth it though.
[speaker001:] Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay.
[speaker002:] If, if nothing else because I work in training at T I now,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] if nothing else just those experiences beyond and, and including your educational classes that help give you the self-esteem to do and achieve,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] whatever you set your mind on,
[speaker001:] [Very faint] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and the, you, you made the right choice in going to a school that met all of your needs to make, to give you the, the potential to do whatever you wanted.
[speaker001:] Right, because when you, when you do want, when you do finally graduate that, that's what you need the most. I'm finding out now that what I'm needing the most now is not smarts, not what I can do on paper, it's stamina, courage, uh,,
[speaker002:] Young lady,
[speaker001:] words, it,
[speaker002:] you have gotten your education then, that, that's right.
[speaker001:] Yes, I'm needing, you know, my, I'm needing to rely on myself,
[speaker002:] [Very faint] Yeah.
[speaker001:] And I think I learned a lot of that in school too.