“It was really nice to be able to finally do everything for myself.”

What do you wish you knew about college in high school?

Fitting into college is not nearly as difficult as it seems. I feel a lot less anxious than I did in high school, because in college no one really cares if you’re different.

What matters from high school?

Four to fives on AP exams can possibly score you free credits in college, with enough you can graduate a semester or more early. Some schools, though very few, will give credit to an AP exam score of three.

Why did you change colleges — from MassArt to Juniata College?

We were only guaranteed housing for the first two years [at Mass Art], so it would’ve cost me over $1,000 a month for a one bedroom apartment. Also, I was paying out-of-state tuition, so it wasn’t worth the stay. It’s the only public art school in America, and I can see why no other schools have adapted that system — it doesn’t work well; it’s too expensive for a lot of students.

You changed majors from Illustration to Integrated Mass Arts when you transferred schools. Why?

I’ve wanted to do some type of illustration and design for a long time, just the specifics have changed. I changed because a lot of people that were illustration majors at MassArt were wanting to do book illustration or cartoons, which wasn’t close enough to what I wanted to do.

How was the adjustment to college life socially?

It was really nice to be able to finally do everything for myself, like waking up in the morning, planning when to do laundry, especially going food shopping for things I wanted, not things my family wanted. Being without financial support is definitely a hard thing to do, though. So, that was an obstacle initially when I started college.

How was the adjustment to college life academically?

Most of the courses are five-hour lectures that meet once a week. These consist of making art, lecturing, critiquing, and testing. You won’t have two five-hour lectures in the same day unless you schedule yourself that way.