Drew University Top Questions

I have not attened any college yet. When i do however attened the college of my choice, i am hopeing to experence the freedom of living on or off campus. I am hoping to experence qulity education to its fullest captivity. I want to know that i am getting the best education out there and know that there are people with my best intrest at hand.

The community college I have been attending, in my opinion, has not really prepared me for my goal of transfering to a university. If I had to say what I have gotten from attending, it would be a network of educators who really believe in me and have helped me to go for my goal. Sadly the classes have mostly been trivial and in my last 3 semesters I have not had a mid term in any class and the finals that I have taken were take home tests. I suppose the value has been the money I saved, but the trade off is the quality of the eductors and the education.

You gain both friends and knowledge as an undergraduate. One reason to go to a selective school, quality of education notwithstanding, is that your friends will be drawn from the pool of accepted students. And friends determine much of who you will turn out to be. Pick winners. Having peers who were impressed by my being considerate and hardworking -- rather than trying to impress them by how much I can drink, how well I test without going to class, and how funny I am -- helped me tremendously. I hope that I am a thoughtful and productive citizen. If I am, my friends guided and sometimes pushed me in the right direction.

Dear Elizabeth, The next four years of your life are going to be incredible, but you have to engage with your environment and take advantage of everything. I know it's scary to join the orchestra or the frisbee team or to try out for plays, but those are going to be some of the best experiences you will have, so just go for it! Leave your door propped open the first month of your freshman year, because you never know who will walk by and stick their head in. Make sure you fill out your supplemental financial aid form in the spring so you are eligible for work study. Go to your professors' office hours, even if you don't have any questions. They are all fascinating. Always do the required reading because once you fall behind, it becomes almost impossible to catch back up. Get off campus every now and then and head into New York to remind yourself that there is a world out there larger than your campus. Steal snacks from the dining hall. Love, Self P.S. Always stay away from University Center coffee, "jungle juice" and the Nautilus diner.

The best piece of advice I can possibly give is to keep your mind active and not take it easy senior year. I know it's tempting and that once you realize things like you technically only need 3 years of math or 3 years of science, you feel like just easing up on your course load and sailing through senior year on elective courses. Don't. Plain and simple. It makes adjusting to college life and the rigors of college-level courses a lot more difficult than it needs to be. Think about how much of the stuff we forget from the year before just over summer vacation. Now triple that effect and you'll have a pretty good idea of what "taking senior year off" will do to you. Take classes senior year that involve critical thinking, that are a challenge, even if it's just a few. Keep your mind active over the summer, even if it's by reading or completing crosswords or going online and completing Sudoku. Don't let your brain atrophy in the year leading up to the start of college. Take the initiative, and keep your mind on its metaphorical toes.

If I could go back in time to when I was a senior in high school, I would have told myself that I must prepare to make an adjustment to a total different setting. Coming from a performing arts high school in New York City to attending a university containing liberal arts in New Jersey, I would have prepared myself to encountering different kind of people. Also exposing myself as a unique individual in a college setting where many are not like myself would also be important to me. I would honestly work harder in achieving pieces of writing that I would be proud of completely. Knowing that in college writing and reading is a priority, I would have trained myself a lot harder. This is some of the advice that I would have given myself as a high school senior.

I would tell myself not to worry about getting into what society insists is the "best" college, because as clich? as it sounds college really is what you make of it and ninety-eight percent of the time you really do end up at the best college because it ends up being the best for you. I would then tell myself to only worry the necessary amount when it comes to grades, for the rest it is better to actually learn something as opposed to finding a way to make top marks. The most important lesson would be to tell myself to be grateful. I have the opportunity to be educated, and to get a magnificent education! Not everyone has that opportunity, so past Marilisa needs to make sure she always remembers that when her double major is killing her!

If I could go back to my high school to college transition and give myself advice I would tell myself to make sure that when I got to college to join anything that interest me and to take up any oppurtunity that seemed even remotely interesting to me. I would do that because I feel like that is the key to having a successful transition and college years. College is the time when you have the time and the resources to do things like go abroad and join odd clubs and sports. Once you graduate into the real world, you no longer have the chance to do these things because you have to get a job and provide for yourself.

Make sure you like what you are and what you are doing and if you find you are not then change as soon as you can to somewhere you like and doing what you want to do

Go to the school you like the most regardless of financial aid.