Interview Questions for students:
Would you say your high school culture viewed college positively?
Have any older siblings gone to college?
Was the general atmosphere of your hometown positive towards the idea of college?
Did friends encourage you to not attend college?
Was your family supportive in your decision to attend college?
If yes: Were they a major influence in your attendance of Western?
If no: What pushed you forward in pursuing a bachelor’s degree?
Did you high school have any programs that influenced your pursuit of a bachelor’s degree?
How has the financial aspect of college impacted your college experience thus far?
Interview Questions for Administrative Faculty:
Does Western provide outreach programs to high schools that reaches out to a diverse background of students to help them in their pursuit of a bachelor’s degree?
If yes: How much of an impact has this made on attendance at Western?
If no: How might one go about improving this, so more people look into Western as a potential place to go in pursuit of their Bachelor's degree?
How much financial aid (e.g. scholarships) does Western provide to its students incoming and current?
With these financial aid programs, how many students actually receive these benefits that apply?
Do you believe Western is doing all that it can to help students in the most financially stable way that benefits both the university and the student?
Do you think the different cultural programs Western has is enough to attract all different types of backgrounds to attend here?
Would you say your high school culture viewed college positively?
-My high school viewed college as something of an achievement, so I would say yes. Those that were pursuing college were super excited about moving from our small town into the big city, or across the country or wherever.
Have any older siblings gone to college?
-I'm the oldest sibling, so no.
Was the general atmosphere of your hometown positive towards the idea of college?
-In general yes. They promoted the PSAT's through our school and beyond high school and all that. However, a large portion of my small town was individuals who worked union/labor jobs. Because of this, a good majority of those who I graduated with went straight into working for a construction company instead of attending college.
Did friends encourage you to not attend college?
-I had friends that suggested I postpone attending college for a year, but this was because I had the opportunity to move to Europe for a year as part of a gap-year scholarship. Otherwise yes, my friends did encourage me to go to college.
Was your family supportive in your decision to attend college?
-Yes. I'm a first generation (soon to be) college graduate, which was important for my dad's side of the family. My mom's side expected me to go to college rather than encouraging it.
If yes: Were they a major influence in your attendance of Western?
-No, they had no influence on my decision to attend Western.
Did you high school have any programs that influenced your pursuit of a bachelor’s degree?
-We didn't have programs necessarily, but we did have PSAT's and college prep classes, which were helpful for those that knew they wanted to pursue a college degree.
How has the financial aspect of college impacted your college experience thus far?
-It's made it slightly more difficult. Since I'm an independent, I have to work 40 hours a week in order to cover my regular expenses. This has made it so I have much less free time than I'd like, but I still find time to do the things I want to do.