New York University Top Questions

Hi, me! So before you start your first year in college, you should get organized. Make an outline of the classes you want to take and when you want to take them. This will make your life so much easier because it'll help you stay on track and finish your undergraduate degree in less than four years. Another important thing you should do is to spend less time sitting front of your computer. You're going to be doing that throughout your whole college experience so you might as well seize any opportunities you're given to go outside and enjoy nature. And you know who you should be enjoying the great outdoors with? Your family. You're going to have less time to spend with them during the school semesters because the workload and stress will make you want to spend the whole day in bed or at the library. Your family are the most imporatnt people in your life and they will give you the support you need when life stresses you out. That's why you should spend as much time as possible with them.

Do not procrastinate and think that someone will tell you when and how to do your work. Figure out what pace is comfortable for you and stick with it, without comparing yourself to other people and how they study.

I would tell my High School self to try harder with work and not procrastinate so much. I would tell her to urge seek more help with her ADHD and go past her mother so she can get some medicine. I would tell my high school slef that she should have looked for more scholarships and not be discouraged because of her grades. I would tell my high school self that she would need those grants and scholarships because she found out in order to work at her dream career she would need to move out to California and go to a fine arts school.

I would tell myself to have more faith in the preparation I got from high school. The biggest difference between college and high school was the amount of independence I gained. It felt weird at first because I was used to someone telling me that I must go here or I must do this. No one coddles you in college. But part of high school is training students to think more independently and thus be more independent. Once I stopped waiting to be told what to do and started going out and finding things to do, I realized college isn't all that different from high school. The work is harder, as it always was from year to year in high school, but you make friends, join clubs, go to classes, go out some nights, and before you know it you've settled back into that school time routine. Once you stop stressing about how scary and unknown college is, you can enjoy your senior year and the people you get the chance to share it with, because you will miss them most of all.

Focus academically! The way that high school and college work are very different. You'll be sitting in a room of 700 students who all want the same things you do and who are willing to do anything to get it. Don't just study hard, ask for help. Before, asking for help might have seemed like a sign of weakness, but in college it is essential. Don't trust your advisors with your academic path, do your own research on medical school requirements and ask your professors about what they think is best. You'll get the best results that way. A common misconception is that you have to be a science major to get into med school; not true. Major in a subject that you enjoy and ace all the requirements. Particiapate in every class and read the book ahead of time, it will only help you in the long run. Don't take summer courses or winter courses, they're a waste of your time and money that could be spent volunteering or interning. Seek out the minority population early on and study with them, they are more likely to understand your background and help you suceed.

Frankly speaking, in those days when i was in high school, assuming i had known what i know now,life would have been better for me as a person. Those days, some of us , i mean my friends were not serious then. I thought university was like secondary education. I happened to be a son to the principal of a school and the best student in the school. This alone had gone into my head. Nobody could challenge my position in the class. There was less competition in the class. I happen to now be a local champion of my domain. When i got into the university, i was still carrying that mindset into school, which eventually made me to had almost four compulsory courses carried over in my first year in the university. This now made me to reset my plans towards my academic work but made me to loose focus. I retraced my steps but too late. The advice to give myself is that, whatever am doing at any point in time, i should put my best to all . To cap it all, a stitch in time saves nine.

Don't get senoritis because it's a very serious diease that can stick with you until your in college and go don't want to have an "I don't care attiude in college." Their's no one there to hold your hand when you fail or mess up. You also don't want to spend an extra year in college to make your classes you failed. It's nothing like high school there are no make up dates if you miss an assignment, no test retakes if you bomb a test, no all nighters you can do the night before and suprisingly pass the test the next morning, and after a certain amount of tardys you could be dropped out of your class. So be on time and don't slack off. But mostly important don't give up, never feel like the only thing to do is drop out of college becasue that's never the option. You can do it no matter how hard it may seem and if no one else believe in you. You'll be allright.

If I could go back and give myself advice, it would be to apply for more scholarships. I was bad at trying to get scholarships my first year and it costed me a lot of money. Also, take advice from friends that have been in college before. Ask them any questions you have because they are willing to help! Ask them what teachers are good, what classes you should take, and ask them for help if you struggle in a class. Its going to be harder than you think, so do everything you can to make it easier! Make sure you know about any and all deadlines, due dates, cut offs, etc. that are relevant to you because they are very important and easy to forget about.

I wish more than anything that I could talk to myself from high school. I had no idea what was going to happen to me in the next four years and I would have loved to tell myself that not knowing things is completely fine. It is completely fine to feel like you are wandering, to feel unsure and most importantly to feel completely afraid. These things are all fine because as long as you are working towards something that you really want to do every day then every day that you work towards something will bring you another day that you did know what you were doing. I would tell myself to have fun and do not worry about so much because it will get you no where to be anxious about everything. Llife has a wicked sense of humor and always brings you good things in wierd ways if you work at it. I would tell myself to take every opportunity, especially the ones that scare you because so far they have made all the difference.

Don't let other people dictate what you do. Become the professor's friend even if that means being called a teacher's pet. Think about what's important for you and don't stop fighting for it even for one second. It might be fun to have cool friends that go out all the time and a cool college boyfriend, but those people are ultimately a distraction from what you're really there for: to learn. Don't be afraid of having fun from time to time but don't also be afraid of saying "Sorry, I can't. I have to study." The key to success is knowing your limits and going with your gut.