University of Maryland-Baltimore County Top Questions

The advice I would give myself is stay organized and stay focus there is alot of distractions on campus.

Do all of your work in high school, especially senior year. It's not as hard as you think it is and college will be a lot easier to get through if you are accustomed to sticking with your work. Don't get down on yourself if you see things getting a little stressful. As long as you keep a positive mind set everything will be okay. You will graduate college, get a job, and then want to pursue a graduate degree because you want to learn as much as possible. Never give up on your goals and put yourself before all others when it comes to what is best for you.

If I had the knowledge about college that I have today and the ability to talk to myself as a high school senior the advice that I would give myself is to have the courage to join groups that you know nothing about and make sure that you hang around the right people. I would tell myself not to get caught up in the drama of other freshman as well as to not worry and put myself out there. The reason that I would give myself this advice is because while dorming there was a lot of issues with relationship drama that was not worth dealing with, where I could be focusing more on academic success than the issues of other people. Also, I would tell myself to put myself out there, so that I could meet even more new people. The last thing that I would tell myself is to go straight to UMBC because it is the nerdies,t most fun experience that I have ever had and my younger self was much more hesistant about going to this college.

There is always a story behind the person he or she is now and the story defines that person and all the events he or she has been through. The stories eventually become a part of his or her lesson and experiences. Three years of high school had already gone by and I was finally a senior. I was caught up between applying for college and trying to live every senior’s dream about going to the prom and getting ready to graduate. In this mist of events, I wish I did things differently from what I know today about college. If I could go back in time, I would tell myself not to procrastinate on any deadlines and prioritize every event that needs to be taken care of. I will advise myself to work harder in every classroom project to the best of my ability. Taking my education seriously and by reflecting on my classes, I can develop the necessary skills to help me focus in a college environment. I will start working on my projects and rather that wasting the time I was assigned. Lastly, maintain a relationship with my teachers who can assist me in future endeavors.

You have survived through pain, loneliness, and loss. It will be okay: you will come to understand in time that you are being prepared for something more. These experiences are your first tastes of the importance of expectations and have taught you a valuable lesson you will hold close: to prepare for the worst, but to expect nothing from the world around you. You have always been a good student, precocious at times, and almost obsessive about learning. You see the potential for positive in all situations, with a determinedly rose-colored, cynical view, an almost rhetorical state of pessimism. This will evolve into an objectivity that will allow you to make the most difficult decisions of your life. You will be able to smile through heartbreak, intense rage, and physical agony. You will have the ability to endure, and the capacity to lend your strength to those you love in their times of need. You will be held in esteem by those you care for, though they will be few. Your childhood had been a battle, but your lack of preparation for it will not count against you in your journey in both college and life itself.

"You can only do it once. Do it right." Those are the words I would say as I looked at my 18-year old self. My hands would have a suffocating grip around his collar, my eyes would pierce into his soul. Until he acknowledged the truth of my words. Before I started high school, I had a list of dreams and goals that I planned to accomplish. However, throughout high school, I became discouraged and gave up. Time flew by as I went through the motions of life, having lost my desire to become something much more. And I only recovered recently. At the age of 21, I have finally snapped out of this funk. I wish to become something much more than who I am now. I say this to my 18-year old self and anyone else at my age.: Never settle. You will look back and regret it. Never sit there and think something is impossible. Try your best to accomplish all your dreams. Where there is a will there's a way. You only go to college once. So do it right.

Brian, Don't bleach your hair this summer, you'll look ridiculous. Take your Dad with you to buy your first car, the car you are buying by yourself will fall apart and he knows more than you. Trust me. Chase your dream of going to film school now, but if you don't, just know you will still be there at some point. Worry less about what people think about you, they don't have the time to think about you, they're too busy worrying about what people think about them. Save! School is expensive and life is expensive. Save for a rainy day because believe me it rains a lot. Stay lean and mean, you're going to move a lot and its not fun lugging a ton of random things from place to place. I'm going to assume you didn't take any of my advice though because I have the same memories I always had. Just know you will succeed, every heartache or catastrophe will pass and everything will end up as it should. Oh and apprently the Princess Dy Beanie Baby will be worth a fortune. Grab one.

Having been through one semester of college so far, I have learned a lot since I first started. If I could go back and tell my senior self anything about college, it would be to take all the opportunity you can to learn about the opportunities you have as a first semester student. Scholarships, as well, are very important. I would tell myself to get on my computer and apply for as many scholarships as I can instead of online shopping or visiting social media sites. I took college seriously in my senior year of high school, but I would go back and tell myself to take it one or two steps further, to make sure I was as efficient as possible in applying for colleges.

I would tell myself that stressing out about college, about all the possible things that could go wrong is one of the worst things to do. Instead, taking everything day by day is the best way to go. Each day, rather than focusing on the things that could go wrong, focus on the things that you need to do to make the day the best possible in whatever way. For example, having the best day possible could be doing something productive, like working and learning, or helping others. If you focus on doing things, rather than just thinking about things, then everything that you want, such as friends, good grades, et cetera, will follow.

Looking back now, if I could go back to high school there are a number of things that I would have changed. In High School, I was not so bad, but I would have challenged myself more. I was always ok content with being mediocre in the sense that I could have taken some AP classes or IB classes, I could have been more involved in the activities that were going on in school, I could have been an active member of a sport team instead of settling in managing them. In High school, I could have strived to make more friends instead of being anti-social and living in my own world with about two friends. If everything had been a little different then, maybe I would not be an awkward college student and settling for Health Administration instead of the Medical Doctor I wanted to be when I was younger.