CUNY Hunter College Top Questions

Young man, if you must be so angsty, I’d strongly advise you to consider directing your angst anywhere other than academia. Something as simple as exercise might suffice as an outlet. Without higher education, meaning not just a bachelor’s degree but a master’s, you very well might spend your twenties doing hard manual labor for petty wages like I myself have done. While the School of Life has its valuable lessons to impart, it often leaves you broke, scrambling for work that is degrading at best. I know you’ve spent the last thirteen years in school and that the thought of another six years is maddening. I know you want to travel, to be independent, to be young, but who ever told you that through going to college you forfeit these things? I promise you, you can do it all! Just give college a fair chance. Do you think at age thirty I’d be back in college (and very happy to be back) if I didn’t mean every word I’m saying to you? Finally, with utmost authority on the subject, I’d like to add: You don’t know it all.

Wouldn’t we all enjoy a safe travel back in time to warn ourselves to avoid making misguided decisions? If physics would allow me to do just that, I’d have an overabundance of warnings and advice that I could give my former High School self. The most significant advice I could offer myself concerning college life however would be of the fiscal sort. After the obligatory introduction, explanation of time travel and of the future, proof of identity, and barrage of questions that I’m sure my past self would need me to answer before she listens to anything I’d forewarn, I would continue as follows. With my “timely” intervention I’d advise myself to utilize the summer of 2006 differently. During that transitional summer between adolescence and young adulthood while I prepared for a mystifying journey in college education, I would have shopped less! Not only would I have urged myself to save a larger percentage of my wages, but I would have also encouraged scholarship applications as a sublime alternative to student loans and paying out of pocket for school supplies. Why incur any student debt if your mental faculties are sharp and your determination strong?

To travel back in time and speak to a high school senior version of me, the first thing I would do honestly, is live out the childhood fantasy of having a dramatic meeting with myself (for I was, and still am a sci-fi nerd). I would burst into the room, locate myself, and cry out: “I’m you from the future! Come with me, there’s no time to explain!” And knowing myself, I would promptly respond with: “okay.” I digress from answering the imposed question for a reason, and that’s because there wouldn’t be anything in particular that I would impart on myself that would dramatically change my experience in college. I believe that: not everything that we do in our past will be looked favorably in the present, but it is how we deal with them, and use the future to better ourselves, to prevent those same regrettable situations from reoccurring, is what defines us. It's a necessity to experience life for yourself, rather than follow blindly advice, even from your future self. At the very most I’d tell myself: “relax, you’re in for one hell of a ride. You got this.”

Take it easy, work hard, and put yourself out there

Keep working hard because it does pay off, and do not rush to grow up. And it is just high school, it is a brief point in your life and you will succeed and you will meet better people. Just trust that everything will work out because it will.

I would tell myself to study hard and get a 4 or 5 on AP classes, find a effective way to study and also to get a job and save a lot of money for all the college expenses.

In life we are always forced to make decisions. If I were to go back to high school and talk to myself, I would give warning that every decision made in life will stay with you forever. Over time we all will make mistakes and fall down, but we are responsible for finding the right path for our new future. College is a scary place and the times you have in there can be amazing but can also haunt you. Making the decisions that you know will help you in the long run is the best advice I would give. Imprace every moment in life and in college because time will be gone before you know it.

Decide on what you would like to doand what you imagine yourself to be before you enter your Freshman. Don't assume that because it is the Freshman year that you can be lax. Study the programs offered and how declaring majors work. Ask ahead of time how financial aid works. Make sure that the information given to the College is acurate. Be careful of what you plan to study and make sure you know what classes you registered for and know whether you can handle the courses before you register for them.

If I could go back to HS to start all over, I only would give myself an advice about majors and important classes. That means, I would be studying hard for classes i m intended to take for my majors, and excel in its. I would like to extend my study time and reduce fun time.

I recently left a marriage of 19 years. I was in an abusive, controlling, degrading marriage. I am now free from this and am wishing to educate myself so that I am financially independent. In today’s society it is nearly impossible to make it financially without working two jobs. I have quit my second job of 19 years, and am as asking for help financially. An education would aid me to be independent and financially secure. Thank you for your consideration. Eileen Gianola