Christy From New England :)

by Christy Draghetti, Marine Biology Class of 2015

Hello everyone! I should start by saying that my name is Christy and I’m going to be a first year at the Florida Institute of Technology. I grew up in New England and I’m really excited for the climate change because while snow can be wonderful, it can also be terrible when you have to shovel it!

I chose Florida Tech for several different reasons including, price, academics, and people. The first factor that many people think about when trying to choose a school is the price. School is expensive, but Florida Tech really helps out. The scholarship packages are a lot better than other schools I applied to and the financial aid office was always ready to help with whatever questions I had.

Another reason I chose Florida Tech is because of their academics. Florida Tech is a tier one school, which is quite good. They also have certain programs that are eligible for fast track masters program, which is both cost-effective and academically challenging. The fast track masters program allows you to take graduate courses during your senior year, which helps you finish faster. It’s great to think about in the sense of my future; it was definitely a factor that eliminated most of the other schools off of my list.

The tipping point in my Florida Tech decision was my visit. (By the way you get a grant for visiting! How cool is that?!) I visited in February (a good time to get away from the snow in New England is to go to Florida and taunt your friends by going to the beach!) and took a tour with a few other students. My tour guide was friendly, upbeat, and answered all of the questions that people had. Throughout the tour, you could easily take in the beauty of the campus, but the part that really won me over, was how nice the people on campus were. Everyone said hello, asked if we had any questions, talked about campus life, and generally just made me feel at home. My tour guide even took me back to her room in Columbia Village just so I could see the layout because it wasn’t on the tour! She introduced me to her roommates and even walked me back to the admissions office after, even though the tour had been over for about an hour now. It was nice to walk into a place that I’ve never been and instantly feel at home. That’s the factor that you get with Florida Tech—home. Everyone is friendly and looking out for you and inviting you to do things and go places, it’s a good experience.

So there are only 32 more days until I arrive at Florida Tech, fully excited to dive into my classes for my major (marine biology). I would ultimately like to study sharks, I have wanted that since I was 7 years old and it hasn’t changed and Florida is the perfect location to do anything with marine biology, especially ecosystem biology or conservation. I met with one of the professors when I toured the campus as well and he was really excited about having another person in the program. He knew my name and I wasn’t just some face in the crowd.  Florida Tech is a pretty small school, so you get real one on one time to get to know people and the professors get to know your names instead of your face in a crowded lecture hall. I have absolutely no doubts that Florida Tech is the school for me and I know that my college experience will be amazing just based on the experiences I’ve already had. I’ve got my panther pride and I’m ready for orientation!