Brigham Young University-Provo Top Questions

I would try to help my younger self understand that: "College is a preparation for the rest of life. It is important that you identify skills and interests that would actually enable you to begin a career. Since so much of our lives are spent at work it makes sense to find those areas that you have a talent for and that you actually like! It is important that you accept the personal responsibility for creating your own success. It is up to you to get out of bed in order to get to class on time. It is up to you to do your assignments and study for your tests. It is up to you to ask for help if you need it. There are resources available for that. Seek out new ideas and experiences. There is a world to explore. Strive for excellence. It teaches us self respect and gains us the respect and regard of others. This is one of the cornerstones of a successful career. Cultivate a dedication to ethics and values that you may grow in integrity. Most of all, learn to love and to share that love with others. You will then succeed."

Dear Junior/ Senior Self, Way to GO! on graduating early as a junior in highschool. You will not regret going to college a year early. College is hard, but its so refreshing and exhilerating compared to High School. In college you need to get more sleep and eat better cause the studying and fast pace of classes will take a toll on you. Learn to enjoy your classes. Some are small and some are really big, but always strive to make a group of friends in each class so you can work together and get more out of the course. Professors in college are there to push you to your limits, but not to break you. They want you to see how smart you really can be, so listen to them and always ask for advice. Professors know that you are in class cause you want to be, unlike high school classes that were forced. So sit up front, be assertive, and push yourself to new heights. If you show your professors that you are interested in gaining as much knowledge as possible they will show interest in you and strive to help you do so.

Learn to apply yourself and work hard. Don't wait for the last minute to do homework. Do all of the reading that is required as it will help you do well in the class as well as give you additional insight into the subject matter. Don't study to make the grade; study to understand the subject. Don't depend on your parents; learn to be independent and do things for yourself. Get involved in all you can while not overwhelming yourself. Get to know the people around you; some of the greatest people remain strangers because you don't take the initiative to talk to them. Take the time necessary to learn the subject matter and not to just regurgitate information for the test; understand the subject and be able to apply it. Learn the skills that are necessary to make it on your own. Knowing how to do the basic housekeeping things will be helpful with roommates as well as later in life. Be willing to try new things while still making wise decisions. Get to know your professors and they will get to know you; this will help when you need help.

Listen up Byron: You have prepared for college very well, but don't get comfortable. You are going to have to stretch yourself a lot in these next few years. You need to be positive and optimistic and put people first. The people that you meet at college are going to include business partners, lifelong friends, and possibly a wife. So live your life with no regrets. Don't look at your colleages as students, look at them as what they will become in the future, and that will help you stay focused and become your best self. You have 4 years to meet people, figure out the direction you want to start taking your life, and prove that you have the gusto to acheive what you want with your life. You can do it, and you will do it. Make sure to enjoy yourself as you make a name for yourself. Remember to stay involved socially, and keep your life balanced as much as possible. Don't get too caught up in the books that you miss out on everything else that college can do for you. Your life is up to you, so make it rock.

Lesley, don't forget how much you love this world; the sounds, the colors, the feelings. You will need to remember this love, it will help you get through the difficult times. Remember your father, and how he cried as he dropped you off at the doorstep of the college dorms. Lean upon his legacy until you have the strength to make your own. Don't be afraid to believe and have the courage to doubt, here lies your spirituality. The world is your oyster, lay foundations so you can discover who you are and where you stand, education will help you see the vastness of this landscape. Really love, I mean, really, really love. Give people more chances. Be vulnerable. Be hurt. These experiences will enlargen your heart. Focus your mind on those things that can fill your heart with peace: art, music, literature. Find out how to express yourself with those mediums. Build stronger chords with humanity through this pursuit. Never forget the person next to you. Never forget the half truths of life, even when people say you're wrong. Study harder. Work until you are exhausted and then some. Here is where your personal empowerment lies.

Study hard. Life is harder in college. Learn how to cook balanced meals, learn how to grocery shop, and stay away from the frozen food section. Learn how to say no when friends come over late at night, sleep instead so that you can get up for classes and actually be able to pay attention. Don't work more than 20 hours a week, but make sure that you are keeping track of your finances. Don't take too many credits, and talk to your TA right away if you don't understand something. You'll get lost really fast, and then you won't understand anything else from that point on. Go to the devotionals, they're amazing and they keep you in perspective. Focus on your studies, but don't forget to have fun and make memories with good friends.

Learn how to actually study and apply information that you learn. It will greatly help you.

I thought I was hot stuff in high school, but what I didn't realize was that it's easy to be hot stuff in Oregon City, OR. I came out to school with a few suitcases and an ego the size of Texas. It took me about two weeks to realize that I was attending a school with 30,000 undergrads that had done just as well on the SAT as I had, and I was just background noise now. The demotion did not bode well for me. I was intimidated by my peers, I overextended myself and, over time, I became discouraged. Here is the fatal mistake I made, however: somehow, in my head, I decided that if I couldn't be the best, I might as well give up, and that apathy was somehow cool. I started cutting class. I didn't try as hard. Luckily, I snapped out of that phase, but I'm still picking up the broken peices of my shattered GPA. If I could travel back in time, I would tell my younger self, "Don't compare yourself to others. Do the best YOU can do, and respect yourself for it."

Be prepared to study hard but also have some fun. Learning is the most important part of school. If you focus on learning than you will naturally get better grades and be better off for it.

If I could go back in time and give myself advice I would tell myself to try harder and do better cause you know you can. I didn't have to try very hard to make it through high school with a GPA over 3.6 but I know I could have done better to help prepare myself for college. My study habits lacked in high school and even though they are better now, they still could be better and if I started trying harder my senior year then I know I can and would be doing better now. Education is important to me and I don't want to abuse my right to have an education by not having to teach myself how to work harder when I could have started doing so in high school.

First, I would tell myself to get to know professors really well. Working closely with them and getting to know more about their fields has been crucial and I wish I had started earlier. Next, I would tell myself to exploit campus resources! There are so many great programs, counseling centers and activities that really make going to school worthwhile. Lastly, I would tell myself to buckle down and realize that school is real preparation for life. The better you prepare the better off you'll be.

Senior year was very hard for me, I moved to a new state and a different high school. If I could go back in time and talk to myself, the advice that I would give would be to focus less on first impressions and focus more on lasting relationships. I would also tell myself to study harder, form study habits, eat healthier, and get enough sleep. These are all hard lessons that I have had to learn here at college. I wish that I could go back and improve on these aspects, so that life on my own would be a lot easier and healthier. The last bit of advice I would give myself would be that if I put my mind to it and put the effort in my work, I can succeed and do better than I could imagine. Over all, I would give myself advice on healthy living habits, study habits, and positive thinking. This is what I would tell myself if I could go back in time and give myself advice about transitioning into college life.

First of all quit worrying about to wear, what people will think of your hair, if you are too fat or too thin, if you should buy a new wardrobe, etc... NO ONE CARES! And you shouldn't either. The beautiful thing about college is that each and every person is unique and adds to the college in different ways. Those that do care are not worth worrying about anyway and you can suceed regardless of what they think. College is a time for opportunities. Bask in them, scoop them up, take advantage of the many opportunities that you will face. These opportunities might be good or bad and this is where you will perhaps learn the most. Sure you will learn loads in your classes, and its going to be hard work and lots of studying, but life lessons are learned outside of the classroom. Be tolerant of others and expect it in return. Surround yourself with people that you respect, look up too, and have the same standards as you, as they will push you to be the best person you can be. Don't live your life with regrets, read the opportunities and embrace them. Buena Suerte!

If I could go back to my senior year, my advise would be to shape up first of all. I left high school with a low GPA that I neglected to care about too much. But I spent my entire college career trying to bring my GPA back up. Also if I had a higher GPA at the end of my senior year, I could have been able to fulfill my next advice: go away to college. I did eventually go off to college, out of state, but only have 2 years of college in my home town, living at home. Being at home was such a big distraction for me and I struggled those first 2 years. Only when I went away to college did I finally shape up to be on the Dean's List and to graduate with a specialty degree.

I would advise myself to start looking at careers early on in my freshman year so that I could take advantage of all of the services, club, internships, and knowledgable faculty in order to be the best prepared for my career as I could possibly be before graduating. I would also focus my learning more on preparing me for my career and trying to make every little assignment that I am given apply to my interests and future career. I would also focus on learning the material that I am presented for myself, in order to really learn it and get an education rather than just to get a grade in a class, because in the end, you'll only have what you learned, and grades won't matter. I would also focus on having fun socially and building social groups in your classes that you can study with.

Dear Sheng, College life is the prime time of a person's life. with that being said, do whatever possible in high school to better prepared that prime time, such as taking AP classes, involving in clubs, and getting a good GPA.

I would tell myself to be ready to be flexible. Sometimes in college it's easy to get discouraged because you don't get as good of a grade as you expect. It's easy to get down and then completely let yourself go. Something I would tell myself is to just keep going and working my hardest no matter how much I failed. I would also tell myself to make sure to explore lots of different careers at the very beginning before I got into my major too much. Now that I am two and a half years in, I've finally figured out what I want to do, and certain classes were uncessary for me to take and brought my GPA down a little because I didn't perform as well in them due to lack of interest. So explore your options, pay attention to what you love, and follow your passion (and make it into a lifelong pursuit!)

I would tell myself that procrastination is not the way to go.

High school was a wonderful time in my life. If I could go back I would tell myself to form better study habbits. And prepare for college by looking at scholarships and also what I would like to do in life. Maybe job shadow a little more to find the right career for me or at least an idea. I would have told myself that getting good grades was good, but learning the material was even better. I wish I could start again and try my very best. Thing were tough, but are tougher now in college. I would have applied myself more to my studies and also my work. Becoming responsible at an earlier age is very helpful.

Dear Ryan, High School can be a percfect preparatory school for your future education. However, it is your choice to make the difference. Don't be afraid to take the advanced classes and obtain the college credit while in High School. This will be to you advantage. Look seriously into a profession that you would enjoy for the rest of your life. Once, this is acheived come to the realization that all of the other classes are part of your end goal. Don't slack off in any of your classes. It will be to your advantage to have a substantial knowledge of many topics and not just what interests you. This doesn't mean that it is going to be easy, but it will be worth it. You will not have regrets. There is a time and place for everything; you will find a balance in your life. For having done this, you and your posterity will be eternally grateful. Sincerely, One who knows