University of Maryland-College Park Top Questions

I WOULD HAVE APPLIED FRO MORE SCHOLARSHIPS!

Knowing what i know now about college, I would advise myself to take more time and put more effort into researching scholarships, financial aid, and schools nationally. Rather than to have just listened to my parents and applied to one school, I should have been more bold and willing to explore my options.

If I could go back in time and talk to myself as a high school senior, I would definitely, without a doubt, tell myself to get involved with campus activities and programs right away. In my second semester of sophomore year, I just got involved with Campus Recreation Services, working for the intramurals program. I really wish I had got involved with this at the very start of my freshman year because not only am I making and saving up a little money, but I am constantly meeting new people and getting to watch fellow students partake in sometimes friendly, sometimes rather competitive, intramural games. Another piece of advice I would give myself in order to make my college experience an even better one would be to not rely on visits from my hometown friends. Because my college is only an hour away from home, I often relied on visit from my best friends to socialize. While this may have been more comfortable for me at the time, I wish I had taken more initiative to meet other students here at the school and to become friends with more people.

Dear High School Self, Don't take everything so seriously. Live everyday to the full because it doesn't last. Seriously, you should have visited more colleges! And applied to more, too. Your options were limited by this. Alos, make to most of the time you have right now, because your friends will come and go and it's tough out there in the college world of all-for-one-and-all-for-me. Sincerely, Yourself

Take initiative. Nobody is going to hand anything to you the older you get, and the sooner you go out and strongly pursue what you want, the more likely you will be to achieve it. Nothing is impossible, but be realistic with your goals, and always have one or more fallback options. Go out there and be your own person, do what interests you. At a large university, you can find some extremely interesting courses in nearly every field of study you can think of, and countless others that you would never have thought of. Never be afraid to do something new!

“Molecular biology,” I said, trying desperately to cover my reluctance. I had gotten the major question many times, but each time it seemed to hurt me even more. I had wanted to be an astrophysicist ever since I could pronounce the word, but years of others wearing down my resolution with pointed comments about career prospects had driven me to declare that I would pursue genetics. However, despite that façade, I still had nebulous plans for a possible double major in astrophysics, or going to astrophysics graduate school despite my undergraduate study in biology. I love astrophysics more than anything in the world, and I cannot imagine another career that would satisfy me. This was still true last year, but I let other people convince me that another career would be better for me. If I could go back to last year, I would remind myself of just how much joy astronomy gives me, and show myself that a PhD in astrophysics is not hopeless. If I helped my high school self to rediscover the wonder and passion I felt as a six-year-old (and still feel) when learning about the cosmos, I would not have abandoned astronomy.

The summer before I began my freshman year in college, I attended a summer bridge program at the University of Maryland. This is the college that I am currently attending and the one that I plan to graduate from. Although I was very excited and enthusiastic about the program I don't think that I gave it my best shot. A lot of my focus went on the fact that it was my last summer before I started college and my thinking then was that I should be having fun with my friends before we all went off to college. If I knew then what I know now, I would have gone through the program with a different attitude. I would definitely be more open-minded, and be more focused on all of the benefits that this program had to offer. The advice I would give myself is to be able to recognize and take full advantage of an opportunity when it is given to me.

Stop thinking about failure. You're worrying so much about not getting into that early decision college and being forced to attend one of your "safety" schools. You're so hung up on it that you can't focus on anything else. Your heart races every time you get an email, sure it is the decision; your attention span disappears in class, because all you can think about is the number of days, hours, and minutes until you find out your future. On December 14th, you get rejected. For a few days, wallow in your misery. Then, get over it. Yes, you had pictured myself at this school, but now it isn't an option, so move on. A few months later, you'll get into eight other schools, and you'll eventually choose Maryland. You won't even be able to picture yourself anymore at that early decision school. Realize that worrying so much about rejection was just a waste of time you could've spent enjoying the first few months of senior year, and spend the rest of your precious time in high school focusing on the things that matter.

Well this is a question for the ages. I now know what it takes to be a college student. The first thing I will tell myself is to keep working to my fullest potential. College work is tough and I had no idea it was going to be this hard. I will tell myself to start preparing by taking a class at a community college over the winter break. I will further more tell myself to start developing keen study skills. That is one thing that was very new for me in college. The face pace of the lecture environment in college was sometimes overbearing. That was probably the most difficult transition. I had to teach myself the material from class. In order to prepare for this, I will tell my senior self to start learning the material for class ahead of time because that is what I do now to get good grades. It is better to understand the material if you took advantage of trying to look through it before the professor rushed through it. I never gave in high school and was not going to start in college.

i would tell myself that i need to study more and try harder. i would try to take as many advantages as i possible could. i would take the dual credit classes during my senior year. i would try to make the best out of everyday, because i would slack off,but now i know taht i need to make everyday better. i would try to get a job as soon as i could.