Thinking about college? That's a lot to think about

Register staffer shares her first visit to UConn 

Zack Sosnovich with UConn mascot Jonathan

By Jean Falbo-Sosnovich 

Register Correspondent

As the mother of a high school junior, the daunting task of thinking about college is upon me.

It seems like only yesterday when I waited at the bottom of my driveway for the big yellow school bus to carry my son Zack off to kindergarten. With his Spongebob Squarepants backpack slung over his little shoulders, Zack embarked on his school career.

Fast forward a decade later, Zack, now 16 years-old and almost 6 feet tall (and yes, he has since traded the Spongebob backpack for an Under Armour one), is a junior at Woodland Regional High School in Beacon Falls. 
Before I know it, he’ll be sporting a cap and gown, graduating with his fellow seniors in the Class of 2014. Yikes! But between now and then, some major decisions about ‘what to do next’ will need to be made.  

I’m sure lots of kids Zack’s age have some idea of what they’d like to major in at college, but not Zack, not yet anyway. 
We thought the Yankees might be holding a spot open for him somewhere in the outfield, since he has pretty mad baseball skills, but then quickly I snap back to reality. So, instead, when we heard about UConn’s annual open house, held last month, the family jumped in the car and headed to Storrs to see what the iconic college could potentially have in store for Zack.

Met the infamous Jonathan

I’ve actually never been to UConn, and as we approached the campus, I marveled at how it looked like its own mini-town. Remember I’m a Valley girl, so New Haven, Stamford, and Bridgeport seem like big cities to me.

We checked in at Gampel Pavilion, and just seeing the big dome in person, where many a basketball championship has gone down, was kind of cool. It was also pretty neat to see Jonathan.
Don’t know who Jonathan is? I didn’t either until we came upon a larger than life statue of UConn’s infamous Husky dog mascot. Of course, we all posed for pictures with Jonathan for posterity.

The campus was bustling with fellow wide-eyed high school juniors and seniors from all over. At every turn was a UConn student, clad in blue and white rugby shirts, making them easy to spot as tour guides for the day.

Those with a clue of what they’d like to pursue, i.e. engineering, nursing, education, were able to attend specific presentations. We, on the other hand, checked out the presentation for undecided majors, and were surprised to find out the man giving the talk started out wanting to be a dentist, ending up majoring in biology and landed a job at UConn mentoring kids undecided about majors. A lesson in irony, for sure.

We also got a tour of the campus, courtesy of two friendly sophomores who knew the place inside and out. We ended the day’s events with a tour of a dorm room, one shared by three guys, which was surprisingly clean and didn’t reek of dirty socks.  

You may wonder what Zack thought of the experience, especially since it was his first time setting foot on a college campus. He thought it was “cool” and a place where he could maybe picture himself going. But I guess only time, and my pocketbook, will tell.

And anyone who’d like to offer us newbies some advice on how to navigate this whole college process can certainly drop me a line at jean.sos@snet.net.