Technology is my Life
My name is Justin Mariner and I am currently a senior attending Ocean Lakes High
School. I will be graduating in June of 2016. I am applying for a Merit Scholarship so that I can
attend ECPI University. I want to attend ECPI because the curriculum is focused on what I want
to learn, the building is much more technologically advanced, and I will graduate much sooner
than with any other college.
The most important aspect of ECPI that convinced me to apply is the fact that it is
specialized in technology. Throughout High School, I had dreaded going to college due to how I
would need to continue studying history or other fields that I had little interest in. I always felt
that my time would be much better spent studying and learning topics that interest me and
that would help me get a career in the future. Once I learned about ECPI, I realized this
University is exactly what I’ve been looking for all through high school. Here, I will be able to
focus the majority of my time on studying fields of computer science, keeping me from
becoming uninterested or bored with the topics that I am learning. This has always been my
dream during high school - to study what I love.
Something that I’ve learned about my High School during my almost 4 years there is that
they’re severely understaffed when it comes to IT staff. Combining the fact that a single staff
member is expected to manage the entire school building with how frequent technical
difficulties arise, it becomes obvious that many problems go without being fixed properly or
without being fixed whatsoever. One of these petty technical difficulties, a problematic printer,
has held up a class of mine many times in the past. Enough complaining about my school. As
expected, ECPI is the polar opposite here - the building is exponentially more technologically
advanced and filled with staff and students who all are specialized in fields of technology. I can
imagine that if a problem arises in a class at ECPI, it is promptly fixed either by the staff or
maybe even the students. After spending nearly 4 years watching technical problems hold up
classes or even school-wide presentations, I became even more determined to learn everything
that I can about this field so that I could potentially make a difference in less-prepared schools.
Also during high school, I had been told that college would be the most stressful and
exhausting time of my life due to how long it takes to get a degree. But ECPI proved me wrong
yet again with how it only takes 2.5 years to acquire a Bachelor’s degree. This is very important
to me since it allows me to get done with college, out into the real world and working in a
career that I love, much sooner than any other college. On top of that, the stress and
exhaustion of a 4- or 8-year college is also dissipated by again the decreased time it takes to get
a degree at ECPI. Even though I definitely wouldn’t mind staying at ECPI for a longer period of
time, the greatly shortened time required to get a Bachelor’s degree will absolutely keep me
from getting too exhausted and will allow me to get into the workforce much sooner.
All in all, I strongly feel that ECPI University is the perfect place for me to go. Be it the
specialization of learning technology and only technology, the extremely advanced computer
systems and similar in the building, or the speedy graduation, this is hands-down the best place
for me. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to make my dreams come true by
attending the perfect university for me.