Rutgers University-New Brunswick Top Questions

If you’re looking to do more than just survive high school: Cherish every single moment. Honestly. Scream your heart out at football games. Break out your third grade Halloween costume for Spirit Week. Take the time to get ‘lost’ in the hallways. Show off your best moves on the dance floor. Set goals. Never be afraid to try something new, but remember, stand on your own two feet. Be positive about everything. Let the drama roll right off your shoulders. Dare to taste whatever’s on the lunch menu. Walk with confidence through hallways. Laugh at yourself. Expand your circle of friend; save time for family. Find a high school sweetheart. Join every club that grabs your attention even the slightest bit, including community service. Make a difference to make a name for yourself. Listen to what your teachers say after the bell (their individual life lessons will teach you more than any textbook ever could). Live IN AND FOR the moment. And most of all, accept and embrace change with arms wide open. Looking back, my only regret is overlooking the potential within each day. Never get caught up in the “I can’t wait to graduate.”

My advice would be plain and simple. Go out first semester and explore every option that college offers you. This was something I lacked in my first semester. I was too hesitant to try new things out and I somewhat always made up and excuse of not being able to join certain groups. This was something I regretted. I always feel swamped with work and I always feel as if I gave up on myself just so I can do well in college. However, something I want to tell my earlier self would be that grades are not as important as happiness. If you make sacrifices solely on attaining a high grade point average, you will feel miserable. You can't fully experience college if you do not choose to get out of your comfort zone. I encourage you to please go and try new things. Go out and join a fraternity that captures your eye. Go try out for an acapella group, and join intramural sports. Do not be afraid of not being good enough. You will always be good enough as long as you put forth your best effort, and try your hardest.

You’re going screw up in so many creative ways. After your first semester, you’ll realize you did not even know how to begin studying all semester, and that you spent all your energy trying to impress the people who never mattered. You’ll end up with a terrible GPA and you’ll become unhappy. But time shall pass and you’ll become thankful you had your first semester the disastrous way you did. You’ll see yourself change. You’ll stop complaining. You’ll become independent and reliable. You don’t realize it, but you are none of those now. But you will be. You’ll also become persuasive and confident. You’ll see that you're a really good, but really flawed person: you make an excellent friend to others and to yourself, but you are also very assertive. You’ll rock at being an original of whatever I am. My advice is to make all of your mistakes; you’re so stubborn you wouldn’t listen to any of my meaningful advice now anyway. But you’re also so stubborn that you'd never let anything knock you down the same way twice. Embrace yourself.

dont wait till the last minute to apply for scholarships and college itself.

College creates more responsibility, and, compared to life as a high school senior, it will require greater planning, better time management, more commitment, and much dedication. First ask yourself, “What do I really want out of life?” After answering this question, begin setting goals, and making a roadmap that will outline your journey and pathway towards reaching those goals. Also, college coursework is much more intense and requires greater involvement and time management. Therefore, semester, monthly, weekly, and daily planners are of upmost importance. They will keep you focused and give you the ability to adequately study related coursework materials, meet deadlines, be prepared for tests, limit negative stress, and give you the opportunity to have a proper life-school balance. In order be successful in college, you must be committed to reaching your goals and dedicated to the pathways that you have established to reach those goals. You must be willing to say “No” and to resist pressure from people and situations around you that want to distract and hinder you from completing your journey. You must be willing to work hard and do your best regardless of the challenges that you may face.

Dear High School Me: Don't worry about living so close to home while all of your friends are choosing to go to college out of state. This will be an advangtage, trust me, when you have to pay $1.25 for a small load of laundry at school you'll be glad you can drive home and do it for free. You won't have any "less" of an experience either, so don't stress. You'll find you're group of people here and they will be family. Remember those hobbies you're holding so tightly to now because you think they will be important in college? Don't. Let yourself grown and experience EVERYTHING. If something is giving you bad vibes, leave it alone. If you want to do something, DO IT. Keeping busy here isn't a burden, it's a blessing. Don't be afraid to have fun, it's not all about the grades. Embrace all of the people you meet, they can change your life in more ways than one, enjoy them. Sincerely, future Rutgers Undergraduate you

During my first semester of college I endured the worst soul-searching moments of my life. I found myself more desperate than in my high school years, amidst issues with Calculus and my own personal life. I had the brilliant plan to become a vegetarian, after some free vegan Ramen and a magazine advertising PETA, which cited animal abuse. I figured, why not? The vegetarian plan fell in place to alleviate the toll the dining hall played on my figure. However, I was ill-informed on its execution and found my hair falling out, my period having ceased, and weighing twenty pounds underweight. My standing B in Chemistry flitted to a C. My grades drooped during my second exam and then final exams I bombed. Why? A nutritionist told me the cause; I had many moments when I wondered what it was. Without enough fats from butter, oil, or meat I couldn't function right. My fats-deprived brain could not sort through the cacophony of theories and rules in my head. At a certain point, I couldn’t even sleep. My great sage advice is: eat right and seek help when you can’t deal with your own anxiety.

If there was any advice I would give myself it would be to grow and actually make a commitment towards your education. Parties aren't everything and girls aren't everything. Your education is what's going to put the food on the table and you're not going to become rich or famous by just sitting around all day and doing nothing. You have to actively seek success and if you assume that everything will be handed to you on a golden platter you will be sorely mistaken. Rework the way you do things. Do your assignments well ahead of time and try and get a good nights sleep every night; it keeps your skin smoother but it also gives you the energy to go to class. Also make sure you go to class because you are spending 35$ for each lecture whether you attend it or not. Don't let the temporary stuff drag you away from your long term goals. You can make it.

I step into the time machine, already knowing what I need to tell myself. The words are engraved in my brain; the stories they tell, are some of my biggest regrets, and reversing time would be the only way that I can refrain from the ignorance of not knowing how to prepare for my future. But what year should I go back to? I punch in the numbers 2-0-0-9. I look at ninth grade me. “Prepare for college now. Money does not fall out of the sky, and neither do grants and scholarships.” I pause making sure that those important words seek in, because they would prove to be the biggest hurdles to jump over. “Learn to study. Don’t take it for granted that learning comes easily. Go to math tutors and review your notes, because you know it’s your hardest subject and there is no pride in not challenging that stigma. Organize, because being junky will lead to being ill equipped. Do not procrastinate, because it will become a habit. And remember you own your life and you alone can choose what you want to be.” After that, I would return to the present.

If I could go back in time and talk to myself as a high school senior, I would tell him to start working unconditionally hard in every assignment that is given. I would want him to get used to always being the best possible because at college, there are no second chances. A "B+" and an "A" seem so close but are so far away when on the transcript. However, most importantly, I would tell him to stop being anxious when talking to new people because in the end, he will regret not being able to talk to geniunely good people and befriending them. I would make sure he takes this seriously by letting him know that in college, there are amazing people everywhere and if you miss that one little opportunity to talk to them, you miss an opportunity of a lifetime. These people aren't just potential buddies to hang out with. They are people that can and will give you opportunities for success, support when you need it, and most importantly, love. You truly come to cherish the geniunely good people the older you get, and I would let him know that.