Rutgers University-New Brunswick Top Questions

I would tell myself to not make rash decisions, and to keep an open mind to different exposures and opportunities

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I would urge myself to trust my ability to make good decisions. Yes, there will be an adjustment period in the workload; however, I would reassure my high-school self that I am well equipped for this work. Everything you've done will help you in what you still have yet to do. Don't fear. You can do this.

Dear High School Brad, Any advice I try to tell you will go unheard and unfelt until you are ready. My words will be left floating in the frabric of the universe, waiting ever so patiently to be acted upon. So live, make your mistakes, feel the hard ships of lost and failure. Prepare yourself to be tested intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, and physically. Build your life on a foundation of morals that can never been broken: honesty, integrity, and courage. Remember, in order to keep what you have you must be willing to give it away. So, love whole heartedly and live selflessly. Your rewards in life are in direct proportion to your contribution to others, your service work. When your ready to live within the universe, your God, your family, and your mentors will be by your side in times of quiet desperation. You can and will rely on them for direction and strength. Best, More Life Experience Brad

As much as people and teachers in high school tell you that they are preparing you for college, you will never be ready. That may scare some students but it is how life works. You never really know what college entails when entering it. The work ethic is very much different and it is all overwhelming. Don't try to take it all in one shot because you will lose yourself in it all. Don't know what you want to major in or be? Do not worry about it. College is your time to explore the many different options your school has to offer and you have your whole life to figure it out. Make decisions and make mistakes. That is what college is all for; to fiigure who you are and what you want to become. Just take it one step at a time.

If I could go back in time and talk to myself as a high school senior, I would have told myself to take more elective classes to get a feel for what I would like to do later in life. Throughout high school, I took numerous AP and Honors classes -more than I now realize that I needed. While doing well in difficult classes in school was satisfying in its own right, it was also terribly mundane. As a collage student, I now realize that high school GPAs and SAT scores do not matter nor define a student in the long term. Likewise, while numerous AP credits look nice on paper, it does not carry the weight that I expected it to in my college carrier; it is definitely possible to graduate, even with multiple majors, on time without AP credit. While I would not say that I wasted my time in high school, I definitely wish I had spent more time to learn more about my personal likes and dislikes. Thus, I would tell my high school self to take it easy and get a feel for what I wanted to do in the future.

If I can go back and tell my high school self anything, I would tell her to be open minded and always give her best. You must keep an open mind, not only for the sake of being accepting towards others, but also to allow yourself to develop interests that you may not know you have. There will be new and exciting things that you will be exposed to. So you should always follow your intrests to see what new doors and opportunities will open. In addition to trying new things, you should give every semester your best try. Sometimes future plans change and you never want to regret slacking off in class that you may later need. Time is money and college is pretty pricey. Other than that, always remember to have fun because these will be the best four years of your life.

I would tell myself to choose a smaller school. I would choose a school with trimesters, so that i could plan out my major more accordingly and do harder classes with less difficult classes. The trimester system also allows students to not feel rushed and gives students time to do things that can have huge impacts on their lives, like study abroad. Another perk about trimesters is that when a student changes their major (like many do), trimesters offer the student plenty of time to take classes and not graduate late. I would suggest that i go down south to school where the education is just as good but the school's cost is cheaper. I would also stress that i really research and try to figure out what i want to do with my life. I would tell myself to go out and try new things, to stop worrying about how you appear to others, and just do your best because this is your life.

Plan for what is not planned. So many mistakes have happened, things not transferring in a timely manner, or as they were said to have been, causing more problems upon more problems. All are solvable, and manageable, only because initial planning has gone into the stages of getting yourself ready for, and into college, but, issues come up, this will always be the case. You always hear from others about their problems, and you think they could not possibly happen to you, thought has been put into your plans, organized steps have been followed, but things have a way of going awry. My past self should understand this, and even understand that, it is not a fault of character, there are always things out of your hands, but she should also know that, her actions and responses have been wonderful, and the journey has not been halted. Plan for what is not planned always, because it helps with conscious, and sanctity of mind, not because you fear you will fall up short. Plan for what is not planned, because, the journey to college and life beyond, is a journey for knowledge, and it is alright to not know everything, yet.

Maintaining unblemished academics was always my top priority in high school. I graduated with a 4.296 GPA - something that I'm extremely proud of. I followed the rules, studied, took Advanced Placement courses, and achieved honor roll every semester. As senior year and my high school career began to wind down, I fully admit that I did not give the last two months of high school my all. Yes, I maintained my academics. Yes, I attended every class. However, lurking in my closet are my dismal AP scores - all 3's. Rutgers does not accept 3's and therefore, all the hard work that I had put forward, some 12 credits, would not transfer. Throughout my first semester I learned the intensity of real college coursework. I often associated my poor AP scores with failure and constantly questioned if I was "good-enough" for college. It was not about the money and wasted time, it was about the looming sense of failure. Would 12 credits surely ease the transition into Rutgers? Probably. Although I wish I could change my performance on the tests, I concluded that failure is not to be feared - it's a driving force for success.