Indiana University of Pennsylvania-Main Campus Top Questions

As a high school senior, I honestly was so excited for college. I had no real worries about making friends or keeping up my grades. I was just ready to get out into the real world and start the rest of my life. But now, I look back on my first semester at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania and I realize how much I have matured and how much my life has changed. If I could have given myself advice, I would say, "Enjoy your high school years while you have them. Keep in contact with your close friends because there will be times when it gets lonely. Focus on your school work and not your social life during the week, but make time to spend with friends. Try not to go home too much, it's fun to see everyone back home, but stay focused on college and visit during breaks. But most of all, keep practicing, studying, and keep your chin up. Through whatever hard times you have, you can get through it." Being in college has taught me alot about the type of person I am and I look forward to growing in the next few years.

The most important information to be stressed would be that college requires an entirely new effort level. For a smoother transition to college, I would tell myself to work harder in all of my classes. Harder work in class would require a lot more studying. This would force me to get into the habbit of studying a few extra hours every day. This effort would cause me to be better prepared for the difficult classes that awaited me. Aside form the greater work-load, I would need to be prepared for the time management. Unlike in high school, college students are required to keep track of when and where all of their classes are and also remember about study sessions and club meetings. I always kept busy in high school with sports, band, and work. At one point I found myself participating on the school soccer team, cross country team, and in marching band all at the same time, so my time management skills were very good. There is one improvement that could be made though, which would be telling myself to not quit track in order to start working. This would put my time management skills to the test.

Visit every school you are interested in. Ask questions and go in to every building on campus that you would be involved in. Meet with professors in your major and ask about their backgrounds. Do your research. Do not go to a school just because you have heard of it since you were little. There are smaller schools that have excellent reputations.

I would tell myself to take more Advanced Placement classes and pay more attention in my math classes. While LMC is a small and fun school they take classes very serious and to do well you have to have the right attitude in order to pass.

I graduated a year earlier than most students because of my birthdate. If I could redo anything it would probably be the have taken the year after high school off. This may have helped me mature a little more and figured out for sure what I wanted to do and work to save money for a University. I also could have taken some of my liberal studies at a community college to help cut the overwhelming cost of tuition and fees.

I would advise myself to research the schools I am applying for, carefully. I would also advise myself to consider not going too far away from home if I was looing for a school to go away to. I am now struggling with my finances of being away from and also struggling with the different food that there is available. I have concerns about loans and now I am over $15,000 in dept and its only half of my second year. Therefore, I would have definitely consider a school in state and one that would cover all of my financial issues.

work hard and dont get distracted. Life is fun and free but hard work pays off. Doing whats fun and easy is not always the best decision. Keep your head up and know that you have a bright future but also know that your future is up to you. Its in your hands. Work hard like you know how to and you will be fine. Trust God

I am majoring in criminology, but if I could go back in time and choose my major over I would choose sociology and minor in criminology. I would choose to minor in criminology because it is very repeatitive and sociology repeats itself sometimes but not as much as criminology does. I would also choose to go to a school closer to home, so that I cant be at home and go to school rather then going to school three hours away. I would also choose to work harder my freshman year rather then slack off and party. I would have choosen my classes a little better by getting my liberal studies class out of the way as soon as possible and then focus on my major classes after I was close to get my liberal studies classes done. After all that I think thats all I would change.

I would tell myself that it is not all about getting all A's, but its about doing your best and enjoying learning while you are in college. It's the last four years you have before you have to take on full resonsibilities. its not all about working and not having so many loans, but also about making friendships and experiencing new things while you can.

You're going to see a lot of things in Life but you need to be prepared to go through those things so study harder, learn several languages, and always pray before taking any dratic desicion.