Ball State University Top Questions

Care. Care about your education, and by this I do not mean your grades. Yes, grades are important and they should be cared about, but there are far more pressing issues that take precedence. Care about what you are learning. Care about your intellect and how it is being formed. You are spending thousands of dollars and years of your life for this education; make sure you actually get one. Care about the contents of every class, and care about the process of learning. Find something, anything, that grasps hold of your interest in each class, and invest in it. If you truly care about expanding and strengthening your mind and learning as much as you can from each class, the grades will surely follow. Care about your relationships with peers, professors, coworkers, and those you randomly encounter. These relationships will be life-altering. Learn how to relate to others and how to love them. If you do not care, I can assure you, that this will be one of the greatest wastes of your time, money, and energy you can possibly commit. If you do care though, no matter what happens, it will all be worth it.

This is the first step to the rest of your life so make sure you think about what you want as a life or career. Make sure you do your research and find what school has the career path that you are interested in, do not limit yourself to location. The most important thing about school is finding the funds to pay for school, take the time to apply for as many scholarships as possible. Too much money is not a bad thing because you will need. Once you have made your decision on where you would like to go make sure that education is the most important thing. The freedom will be nice but make sure you make smart decisions. You are now responsible for yourself, no one is holding your hand so make sure you think all your decisions through.

I would tell myself that the world, and things in it, arean't above my head. The things that seem large and powering were built by normal people, just like me. That means that anything is within my reach, and nothing is ever too big for me in life. I've gone down some paths where I justified my actions as being 'realistic'. I have come to see that being realistic is the quickest way to mediocrity. I would let my high school self know to aim a little higher, not to be afraid of failure, and see just how capable I am of reaching further than I could've ever imagined. I'm much more able than my high school self could've imagined.

For the love of everything, when you take finance in your freshman fall semester, appeal the grade you get on that 2-week project because it was a very unfair grade the teacher gave you because she changed the criteria for it after you had already turned it in. If you don't you will lose your scholarship and be at serious risk of not being able to afford the out-of-state costs. Then you'll end up doing what I am doing right now and spend hours looking for scholarships that you are actually eligible for.

I would tell myself to not be as nervous as I was when I started. Coming to college was one of the best things I could do at that point of my life. Sure, leaving all of your friends can seem scary, but the ones who truly care will still be with you and everytime you go home you will be greeted with open arms and caring faces. Go into college with an open mind and an open heart and make the best of it.

The advice I would give my high school self would be to take advantage of Advance Placement classes that would count towards my introductory math and english college courses. I would tell myself to take dual credit courses in high school that would have completed my college humanities and electives course work, so that by the time I graduated from high school, I'd already be an incoming college sophomore. This would have saved me two years of money. Next, I would have chosen to go straight into the nursing program instead of becoming a pre-med student. Being a pre-med student caused me to fall out of love with the healthcare field and procrastinate on finishing my college education, due to my enrolling in cosmetology practitioner and instructor courses, which I never used once I graduated and got licensed. I also would have told my high school self to ditch the insecure boyfriend who was always encouraging me to quit school and become his housewife because he didn't like the idea of a woman he was with, having more education than him, therefore making more money than he would have been capable of making.

Life is going to get tougher. Save all the money you can and don’t spend as much as you did on other people. It defiantly was worth the wait to get together with girls, but have fun where you can find it. Your dad is going to be a fink, so don’t trust him. College is going to be difficult but you can manage it. Take advantage of the writing lab and tutoring where and when you can get it. Save yourself the trouble and don’t take online courses or that geology class. Defiantly don’t take that class with professor Sturgis. Ask around before you take classes and find out about the professors. Finally and above all don’t do anything stupid, but if you have to make sure you have fun while you are doing it.

College is a chance to discover yourself; the real you, not the person your high school peers molded you to be. Keep in touch with the friends who stood by you through thick and thin, but don't rely on those friendships alone or you won't be able to grow as an individual. Experiment with your style, explore your interests, expect to go through some changes and accept those changes; because in the end, each and every one of them will matter to the person you will become. While discovering yourself is part of going to college, it is not the most important part. Make sure that as you are taking everything in you don't forget the reason you are attending college in the first place--to expand your knowledge. In college, you are responsible for your own education--nobody forces you to go to class or to pay attention during class--and ultimately how prepared you are for a career. Losing perspective of the importance of education will leave you less prepared for your career than others--and you'll have to repay your student loans no matter what job you obtain. Make education your first priority.

You only get one chance to be honest. After that, you are either hiding something or lying. So instead of waiting until more people get hurt, and until you become submerged in anger, sadness, and stress, lose your pride and just fess up. It will make the future less painful.

Dear Me, Find out what you believe in, what is important to you, and what you want your life to be like in ten years. When you get to college these decisions will be forced on you, if you don't already have an answer, you may choose the wrong one. College is about becoming who you want to be, and to become that person you need to have an idea of who that is Good luck, Me.