University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Top Questions

When you go away for college, you aren't going to have anyone to push you to stay on task or give you reminders about important dates. It seems daunting, but being responsible is not as hard as it sounds. You just need to set your head on straight and remind yourself that you are an adult now. It will be a great feeling once you realize how responsible you have become, you just need to knock down that fear! Also, scholarships are your life right now. Do not spend a waking moment NOT filling out scholarships because you do not want to end up filling out scholarships, trust me. As long as you keep your fears in check, you are going to have a blast this upcoming year, so stop stressing! College is a fun time and you're about to embark on a whole new learning experience.

They will tell you it?s easy. They will tell you it will be the best years of your life. You and your friends will become filled to the brim with excitement. Your parents will become melancholy as August rolls around. Then you will be off on your own. If you go into the process knowing it will not be a walk in the park, you will succeed. Face the changes that lie ahead of you. Face them so you can conquer them. Pretending that adjusting will be uneventful is lying to yourself. College is hard because that first week everything sets in?you miss your family, you wish you were around all your close friends, you wish you could go back to the level of high school work. You will ?wish? quite a bit, but know that these wishes will not come true. They aren?t supposed to. Work through this great change in your life and grow stronger from it. Acknowledge the fear and strive to make your experience EXACTLY what you have in mind. Do not let anyone else write your story. Know that this is the first great, giant leap on the path of YOUR life.

If I could go back in time, I would advise myself to keep an open mind in high school. I went through high school thinking that I knew exactly what I wanted to do after I graduated, but I ended up at a University that I had not originally considered attending, and I have discovered an interest in medicine, which I never considered in high school. Had I kept an open mind in high school, I could have taken more science classes and worked harder to learn more about science. There is nothing wrong with making a plan while in high school, but it is important to keep an open mind and be conscious of the fact that the plan may change. I would also encourage my high school self to consider many different schools. I only applied to a few schools, but I wish that I would have visited more schools and applied to more Universities. I am happy with my current University, but I only thought about applying to the University of Illinois at the last minute. In summary, I wish that I had considered more paths for my future when I was in high school.

I jog up the stairs to my bedroom in excitement that another day of senior year is over, and college is one day closer. I see a sheet on my desk that was not there when I left for school this morning. It appears to be my handwriting but I don't recall writing it. I read slowly, in shock that I'm reading a letter to myself, the date in the corner reading "March 2009," more than a year into the future. My eyes scan slowly, appreciatively over the advice somehow given to me by --well-- me. "Dear Me, I've done a lot of things right this year, but knowing what I know now, I want you to know in the present you have the power to change the future. Savor your senior year and graduation: You only have one of each. Study hard, study often, and complete all your assignments. Don't take your education for granted. Meet as many people as possible. When you're tired of meeting people, meet some more. Be exactly who you want to be; college is a time of self discovery. Know that your dreams are never out of reach. -Me"

I would tell myself that it's ok to accept failure, there's no way to look at your life as a highschool student and know exactly what your life is going to look like a year, two years or even 5 years from now. Right now you expect that in 5 years you will be an elementary school teacher, and have a husband and a house with a white picket fence. Little do you know how much life can throw at you all at once. Take it from me, I'm 30, married 2 years ago, dropped out of college the first time and have since been working with financial services and finally ready to go after our dream of being one of the top chefs in America. Some times you have to fail, just make sure that you fail forward and keep the lessons that you have learned in life.

The main thing I would tell myself is to be more open minded on all topics. I judged people very quickly my first year of college and I feel I may have missed out on some experiences. I had already made up my mind that all athletes and fraternity and sorority members were not people I wanted to be associated with. Not everyone is the same and should not be judged for a group of which they are a member. I also felt I needed to choose a major right away, I ended up changing my major several times and will now be graduating a year late. Once in college you are exposed to more people and classes and views, your own views my also change. You will grow and change and there shouldn't be a rush to decide on your future career. The first semester or even year is a time for exploration, take a chance and try new things.

College is one of the best opportunities there is to make memories. No matter what life throws at you, there will always be someone in the same shoes as you or even worse. Don't be scared to be different than the people around you and never settle for someone less than you are. There are way too many people and experiences waiting to be met to accept something that you are not satisfied with. It's not highschool anymore so don't be afraid to make a change and take a risk, because there is no more halls to be walked down and stared at. Anything that you have done in the past is now erased, so be who you want to be because this is the one time in life you are guaranteed a second chance. No matter the temptations don't forget that school is for work, but DONT get too stressed and forget to smile. Once you stop believing in yourself is when failures start to occur. If there's one thing I want you to get out of this is that there are only a few things in life worth fearing, so take a risk.

I would tell myself, don't just go to college to make others happy, go to better yourself for yourself. Make sure you going for what you want to do as a career, not what makes good money. Then no matter what it is you do you will know it's something you love and will enjoy having to work everyday.

High school is very slow-paced compared to that of college life. In high school I had a lot of free time on my hands. Once I entered my first semester at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I felt as though I had even more free time with an hour, sometimes more, between each class or not having that class until later in the week. To my surprise, at the end of first semester, I realized that those hours between classes and days between the next time your class meets, are very precious. In the hour between one class and another you can get an assignment done, maybe even two, rather than sitting at your computer or napping. Time management is everything! Those one hour naps where you could have been doing work would have saved you an all-nighter later in the night. I feel very strongly about this. I wish I would have realized this before first semester was over. Best of luck to all future and prospective students!

Home to 40,000 students and 2 cities, the University of Illinois is a huge place. If I could talk to my senior self, I would educate myself on how to navigate around the giant campus. I may be a number calculating, graph reading math major, but I have never been able to read a map or calculate distances. My first harship of college all revolved around this idea and my mistake of coming to college oblivious to my surroundings. On my first day of classes, I paid for this. I left for my first class 10 minutes before, not knowing how long traveling would actually take. I spent tens of minutes lost, walking aimlessly. I wound up being 30 minutes late to a small discussion class with a peculiar professor. He was so odd he took out a nerf gun and pelted me in the face singing "You're late, you're late!". One bruised chin and a histerical class later, I vowed I would learn the campus and never be late again. If I could have told myself anything, it would be a lecture on where everyting is on campus, so I could have avoided this embarrassing occurence.