North Georgia College & State University Top Questions

It's inspired me and made me see just what I want to do with my life. I went into college not sure about anything and I really screwed up my first year. I took a break from school thinking it wasn't for me but while I was there I had gotten into the theater and I also helped during this past year while I wasn't going to school in the theater's Haunted Theater. It's shown me I really want to get into theater and maybe also down the road teach theater. Theater means alot to me and thanks to a great teacher of mine who inspired me to go for Theater since I was very good at it I owe her alot and I want to make her proud. My college experience didn't start out great but I plan to make it a whole lot better.

I have made many new friends since I came here. I am not as shy as I was in high school. I have a sense of accomplishment and independence from coming here. I have a semester of classes done and am working on my second right now. It has been tuff getting to where I am today, but it is making me a better person and teaching me lessons that I will need for the rest of my life. I will never regert coming to college it is something that I have wanted to do becuase I want to be a teacher. I have stumbled on the road to becoming a teacher but I am not going to give up each step is bringing me closer to my goal.

Entering North Georgia as a transient student involved adapting to a new environment along with a challenging course load. In my second semester I enthusiastically joined a research slot without quite understanding that I should have discussed this with the professor in charge first. Never the less Dr. Tomlinson graciously took me under her wing and my experience with North Georgia hasn?t been the same since. It is my assumption that had I not been involved with research and consequently not involved with Dr. Tomlinson I may not be the motivated and dedicated student I am today. Her influence, continuing support, encouragement, and friendship have been invaluable to me both in my academic career goals and with new and exciting opportunities. It is because of my involvement with Dr. Tomlinson?s solar cell research that I have had the wonderful opportunity to meet her collaborator Dr. Malika Jeffries-El and meet the prominent computational physical chemist Dr. Jean-Luc Br?das, attend the Hearty Undergraduate Research Symposium, and will be attending the ACS nationals meeting in San Francisco this March to present our research poster. I can't express enough how valuable these opportunities are.

My experience at college has changed me in more ways than I thought it would. The biggest way is it has made me defend my beliefs. This is scary to do, especially without one's parents and close friends around to help. Another important thing I have gotten out of this experience time-management skills. Between classes, work, hall meetings, and clubs, I found it hard to get everything done and still get enough sleep at night. There was a while where I was so busy, I never ate until dinner. This obviously had negative effects on me and forced me to make a schedule and stick with it. Since then, I have done just that and get three meals a day and eight hours of sleep every night. Besides the above mentioned, college has been valuable to me because it has forced me to grow up; something I've always been excited to do. I've been self-dependant, and this forced me to do things outside my comfort zone to make ends meet; like applying for this scholarship for instance. College has also taught me that everyone needs help at some point, so thank you for your consideration.

I would tell my self to relax. Everything will be explained that I need to know about where to go and what to do. It is not such a scary, intimidating place. I would also tell myself to stay focused.

If I were able to go back and speak to myself during high school I would try to explain how different college really is. College is not just some big frat party where your strings are cut and you become a real boy, and it is nothing like the movies. I would tell myself that I should start working hard on my studies and stop procrastinating because it will get you nowhere but a bad grade in college, which can be very costly. Money is what makes the world go round. With out good grades you can kiss your possibilities for scholarships and grants down the drain. With out financial aid the possibility of be able to get an education and better yourself will be much harder, not to mention the large amount of student loans you will have to pay off after you get out on your own. Grades are the most important thing, yes, as usual mom is right.

I would tell myself to really work hard to learn myself. Learn how to study and how you learn best. One ofthe hardest parts of college for me in starting was I had no idea how to study. In high school I never had to study for anything, but college is a whole different level of education. Studying is essential to success here. I am just now learning how I best learn and how I best study. You may only go to class two days a week in college, but the three days you are not in that class you may still be expected to learn certain material. Tests in college may have information on them that you never went over in class. In order to succeed over such trials you have to know how you best learn and how to teach yourself. Self-teaching and independent studying are the two most important traits you need befor coming to college. Knowing how to study, where to sudy, how you remember things, and how to know the material to the fullest before a test is the most essential and importan advice I would tell myself as a high school senior.

Now being a sophomore in college the one thing I would tell myself if I could go back in time would be to take as many AP classes as I could and work on study habits. It would have been so much easier if I had taken the AP classes and get the needed score so I wouldn't have to take as many core classes in college. It can save you so much money. Another piece of advice would be to develop good study habits early on. I was always good at school, but the way college is set up is totally different, and at first it was a huge struggle trying to adapt to how the classes were, but once you get the hang of it and learn time management it is not that bad. The changes we go through make us who we are and I truely would not change a thing.

If I could go back to my senior year, I would tell myself to learn to study. High school doesn't teach study skills, which is ashame. If i could go back, I would learn how to study because it is an essential part of college academics. I would also tell myself to calm down and not stress on tests. My freshman year I would have been more prepared with my own advice. I would also know valuable skills.

Once I went back in time, i would tell myself to work harder to get a job and better use my money. It was so tough getting a job in this town it was hard to be able to save money for school when there isn't any. I have also learned the importance of extra aid when it comes to grants and scholarship. I would be sure to share this information with my past self. I would also need to share with myself the type of work load in many courses in college and type of people you meet in college. These are the things of would tell myself about college.