My Life - Chapter 36 - Choosing a College

Goodwin - Kirk Residence Hall
Drake University. 11/2/2019

  My junior year of high school I narrowed down my choices for college.  I was working in radio interested in radio production, sound engineering, or journalism.

  I had a booklet that listed colleges offering those majors and read it cover to cover.  There was a college in Murfreesboro, Middle Tennessee State University; the University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh; and Drake University in Des Moines I considered the favorites.

 I visited the University of Wisconsin - Madison, but when the guide said students had to be in their third year to take classes in their major, I lost interest.  I was already working in radio and wanted to keep going.

It came down to Oshkosh and Drake.  At the time, the idea of college financial aid was to keep out-of-pocket costs for student and family the same no matter which school they chose.

Through that lens, the private school in a large city, far enough to be away from home while close enough to visit was the best choice.  After being accepted my parents and I spent a weekend at Drake welcoming incoming students.  They stayed on campus in another building while I roomed with another incoming freshman Friday and Saturday nights.

It was small portion of the incoming freshman class, but a good introduction to campus and made returning in August less scary.  

Before that weekend I sent letters to radio stations around Des Moines looking for a job.  I interviewed two places and accepted a job with KDMI, a Christian station that primarily aired pre-recorded programs. 

Meredith Hall was and is home to Drake's
Journalism School. 11/2019 (dwm)

A classmate at Craig was going to Drake, I was driving to school since I had an off-campus job and offered her a ride.  We got all the stuff for two people in one car!  I'm not sure if that says more about the size of a 1972 AMC Ambassador or that college kids didn't take as much stuff back in 1981... maybe both.

We were both destined for rooms in Goodwin-Kirk which primarily housed freshmen.  My room-mate Scott became the only person I roomed with at college, becoming a good friend.  He served as the best man at our wedding.

The combination of working at KDMI and Journalism classes (which I could take immediately) lead me into adding broadcast news and political science to my radio-tv production major.  Supporting professors and the director of internships pointed me to an opportunity as a sophomore to report for a Waterloo TV station with a Des Moines bureau reporting on state government.

That Drake connection lead to a career and my wife, who I met in the Iowa House of Representatives.  It's a different path than I would have had at Oshkosh, Murfreesboro, or Madison... it was certainly the right one for me.