TMA Seniors Take College Tour

Seniors from Thurgood Marshall Academy's Class of 2010 took a trip to two colleges earlier this month. At 6:30 AM we arrived at TMA with our blankets and Ipods, ready to visit some potential college choices. After being "randomly" separated into two groups, we hopped on the charter buses chaperoned by teachers and staff - college counselor Mr. Mitchell, art teacher Ms. Shabazz, English teacher Ms. Lyons, and Dean of Students Ms. Bobo - and embarked on a two and a half hour trip to our first destination, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Many of us slept on our way there, resting for the busy day of learning ahead of us; we were happy once we finally reached U. Penn.

The Ivy League school is in a tight-knit community that shows the school's history. There wasn't much going on outside, probably because of the chilly weather, but our tour guide reassured us that the school is very busy socially on any other day. We were showed the campus and even went inside the business center which was very modern on the inside. Most of us were a little disappointed by the lack of racial diversity we saw while walking around the campus but were happy to hear about the school's strong academics.



We were then off to our second school, Temple University, which was about 20 to 30 minutes away. Before the bus even stopped, we quickly knew that Temple was a very different college than U. Penn. There were so many students walking around, wearing their Temple clothing. We again went into our groups and got to see the great things that Temple had to offer. Our tour guide seemed very knowledgeable about the school and was happy to be there. Temple's campus was very easy to get around although the student body made every stop lively. We even ran into TMA class of '09 graduate Tiffany Dean (front left in the picture above) who is now a student at Temple. She gave us a first-hand opinion of the school and said she was happy with her choice. We finally got to eat lunch and I am happy it was at Temple. The cafeteria was set up real nice and the food was fresh. They even had their own ice cream bar! Temple seemed to be the top choice out of the two schools to most of my peers primarily because of the many activities we saw. I'm happy that both schools provided us with this opportunity to do some hands-on college searching.