Fashion Institute of Technology Top Questions

To Natalie: I know you're a nervous wreck about getting those acceptance letters. Don't stress about this whole process too much. Those twenty scholarship essays that you wrote will come in handy. Continue writing those. College will be completely different from high school. You will be surrounded by people who are passionate about what they're doing. You will have professors who really want to see you succeed. The Fashion Institute is your first choice for a reason. I know it's scary to think about leaving your family in Texas and moving to a new state by yourself, but it's worth it. Deciding to go to the Fashion Institute will be the scariest and best decision you will make during your teenage years. You will make really good friends, you'll get to work fashion week, you'll get to do the Breast Cancer Walk in Central Park, and you're going to experience so many new things. You'll finally get to see life outside of your hometown. Before all of this make sure you're saving your money and invest in a good coat. Things are going to work out. Love, College Freshmen Natalie

I would tell myself to just have fun. Don't worry or stress about pleasing your professors. It's more than that. In a major like illustration, you should be able to be open and express your mind in a visual way. The best work is made when you're not thinking about making it the best just making sure your voice is heard through pictures. Pictures that can tell a vivd story that truly captures the eye. There is a lot you can draw with just your imagination, just apply it the next time you want to draw. It's never bad to have your own personality into your work. That is what makes it yours and no one elses. Just stay true to what you love.

Hi Jonathan, I know you are excited to go to SUNY Oneonta. But your keep your paths and mind open to new ideas. Consider studying abroad, you would be surprised how powerful a trip to Oxford, England might be. Don’t be scared to change majors. That is what college is about, learning, evolving, and understanding life isn’t handed to you on a silver platter. Understand you will have professors that will change your life, others will bore you to death but it reflects real life. There will be people you’ll like and people you don’t like but you still have to interact with them. Compromise will be an important concept to understand as will time management. Partying is fun, I am not going to say it isn’t and you will meet some interesting people. But control yourself and realize time management comes into play when you are hungover and you realize you have a paper due by 7pm that night and you haven’t started it. It is better to have four close friends to help you when life beats you down, than a hundred that won’t look your way. Enjoy the ride.

As a high school senior, I was very afraid to start looking seriously at colleges and to think about leaving this school that I became so familiar with. I was unmotivated in college searches, feeling dreadful when the thought came to mind because I was just not ready for such a change. I only applied to a couple schools, and during that time I hadn't considered FIT at all. But if I could go back and tell my past high school self some important advice, I would say: Nadia, the future happens whether you are ready for it or not. You have the choice to go really wherever you want to go, and it is important to not let fear of the future cause you to be at a standstill and scare you. It is important to step out of your comfort zone because then you can realize so much more about yourself and the world when you do so. After highschool, I decided to start my college journey at a community college. I have no regrets about that because I met a lot of great people there, and I got to take their friendships with me here.

Don't be afraid to step outside your boundaries, make new friends and be open to others. It's okay to want to grow up and find internships and prepare for the real world but always remember that you're only young once. The people that you meet in college can truly influence your decisions so be sure not to be mingling in the wrong group of peers. Allow yourself to introduce yourself to people you typically wouldn't see yourself friends with because they might end up being your best friends. Don't put boys over friendships and work because college boys will come and go. Last but not least, always remember that you can't find happiness, happiness will come to you by being around the right people, doing what you love and being you.

If I could go back and talk to myself as a high school senior I would tell myself to be more open. Get outside of my comfort zone, reach out to people in the industy and have a connection when I got to FIT. When I arrived at FIT I felt behind becuase most of the students lived close by and had been attending events at the school throughout high school. I have never been the type of person to do something I wasn't comfortable with and my anxiety has held me back in many situations. I didn't take job opportunities or trips that would have benefited my career becuase I was scared. I regret it and wish I could have had more confience in myself. I can't change the past so I have accepted it and made the best of my situation, and I think I've done pretty well for myself. I was accepted into major of only 25 students, I grow everyday and learn to become more confiedent in myself. In the next two years I will be more than ready to take the world by storm and I own it all to FIT.

Word of advice to senior Jessica, choose a college for you. Do not choose a school based on where your best friend is going or a school near your boyfriend. You made it into your dream school why I you thinking twice about it. College is all about preparing yourself for the future, in the classroom and outside of it. College is about the experiences and friends you will make that will last you the rest of your life. I know you, right now you're worried about not being good enough, smart enough, or even ready for independece. Guess what you are. You will survive college and love it. The City will be a big move for you but trust me you won't want to leave it once you become settled. You will find your group where you belong, you will finally realize what you want out of life, and you will finally gain the confidence you needed. I would tell you Good luck but trust me, you don't need it.

Be more comfortable with yourself. Stop trying so hard for the aproval of strangers. Be your own person. You do not need the aproval of strangers to feel validated. Since you will be a design major remember that when working on design projects trust yourself more. Do what feels right and do not constrain yourself by doing what you think others want. Try to focus more on yourself and your work. Know that the effort you put in now will go towards your own career and future. Be more responsible with yourself. The foods that you eat will affect you later on so make the right choices. Make the efort to join school clubs. You will meet really cool people with similar interest and you will get to be involved in cool projects. Overall, do not worry too much. College will be an amazing. You will find your passion for your work, meet like minded people and be exposed to amazing oportunities.

Looking back as an adult, I realize there are many opportunities I may have overlooked as a younger person. If I could go back in time, I'd probably tell myself to buy stock in Google - kidding! Realistically, I would offer guidance through the transistion to adulthood. During high school, I'd probably teach myself about personal finance - saving money, budgeting, student debt, and loans. I'd prepare myself for entering college by opening myself to the entire experience and cherishing every moment. Sometimes young people feel rushed into applying for college and choose a major without enough thought. I'd allow myself the time to deeply consider my options, and experiment in many different academic areas to discover where I excel. I would advise my younger self to seek out mentors who can offer advice based on real world experience. I'd say learn a language and practice it, learn an instrument and retain it, read a lot of books and remember them. Overall, I'd push myself to be aspire to greater heights to become a well-informed and productive member of society. Who hopefully owns stock in Google!

"Hey shmuly, I dont have enough words available to tell you as much as i want to, and i wish i could tell you so many things about your future. But i know that i shouldnt. If i tell you certain things now, it might disrupt the coarse of the future. The safest thing i can tell you is that the pain your feeling inside, the fear, the worry. It will pass. Im not saying you wont have pain, worry and fear in the future, but i know where you are in life at this age and i know what gives you pain, fear, and worry the most. Im letting you know this because i feal you need some hope in your current stage in life. Being that i was offered the opportunity to talk to you briefly, I felt it would make your days in school i bit more bearable to know it gets easier. Lol, it gets easier. Ive already said too much." (Voiceover Automated Message)"Dream travel sequence complete, would you like to submit your dream messege for review Mr. Toron?" "Yes. And VEM, thanks again for this opportunity. Its always been a dream of mine.

Now that I have experienced college, I would be able to give a very important advice. And that is to say, "follow your passion, listen carefully to your heart and learn what you enjoy the most. Make a list of things you like to do and find the one you love to do. Then, research, ask, and navigate through the best path you need to take which will leads you to the place you will love. Know your desire may change time to time, then remind yourself that you are still young and start again from where you are. You may make a mistake along the many decisions you will make in your academic and career path, so allow room for error. Then, remind yourself that no experience goes in vain in the end. Even, this mistake will help you. Know that you can make changes and keep going. Do not give up."

I would advise myself as a high school senior to take the process of finding colleges and applying more seriously. There is so much research that has to be done in order to make sure you don't end up at a school you don't hate. I wish I had dug deeper and looked at more schools rather than only applying to three (only two of which I visited), because I might not have ended up somewhere that I didn't care about and that didn't care about me.

Honestly, I wouldn't tell myself anything about my college experience. I was prepared enough and I am glad I went through the chaotic year I did. My first year of college was in an intense architecture program- so intense that I ended up in the hospital twice from exhaustion. But I would do it the same way, because now I appreciate FIT more than I ever would have!

When I was in high school I often took leadership roles including being my school's director for Christmas productions, being volleyball captain, and also taking charge of directiong my fellow students to compete in the ACE Mid-Atlantic Student Convention. If I could, I would tell my senior-self to communicate more properly and also to have finished more classes in math, sciene, and drafting. Because I have made these "regrets" I now want to be taking more classes in communication, chemistry, physics, calculus, and prerequisits. I would advice myself to approach constructive criticism more lightly, and to let people take charge of their own priorities, if they do not want to participate full-heartedly, then let them. I would tell my younger self to focus a little more on my own priorities and to consider what those extra high school science and math classes would have helped me in my present college classes when I'm trying to pursue engineering. I would tell myself to be even more creative and focused to draw and make drafts more often, and then to analyze my designs more keenly to perfect future mistakes.

If I had the chance to travel back and talk to myself as a high school senior I would tell myself to prepare for the best years of my life. I wouldn't say anything too specific because that could ruin the fun. Instead, I think it would put my mind at ease to know that moving from Wichita KS to New York City was a good idea. I would warn about the work load and ask that I go to open studio more often. I would tell myself to try dipping the cafeteria pizza in the provided hot sauce sooner; only so that I could have the pleasure of enjoying it longer. Mostly, I would tell myself to cherish that first year in the dorm. I met my best friends in Alumni Hall. Now that I am living 45 minutes from each of them, I understand how great we had it. The time spent in that tiny kitchen with the sink that grunted weird noises at us. Or how we invented "crazy hour" where we would congregate in 12A and spend sleep deprived insanity together. My overall advice is simple: Don't panic. It's going to be amazing.

Well hello Ms.Michelle Robinson. I would like to give you a little heads up on your future. Knowing what I know now, I have a lot of advice to pass on to you. Being a high school student, not a lot of students take their class and homeowrk assignments or test seriously. Being a high school studnet, every free opportunity you have to learn, TAKE IT with open hands. Going to college is not cheap at all. Every class you take plus a book about $200 each starts to add up. If you can, get a part-time job and start saving up about $25 from every check, because every little penny counts. Start applying for EVERY scholarship possible. If its possible, start enrolling in Advance Placement or Dual Enrollment Classes just to get a head start on your college credits for free. Going from high school to college is a huge jump. Its not hard, you can do anything you put your mind to. Never give up and push yourself.

I would tell myself to not worry about making new friends and liking my roommates. Friends come easily when you're in college because people in your classes will have the same interests. Roommates are'nt as much of a problem as they make them out to be on tv and in advice books. Sure, it's difficult to share space with a complete stranger, but the onny times you're going to see them is at night and in the morning. You'll barely spend time in your room. Why would you want to when you can hang out with friends and you have classes?

As you look back in time it is very easy to see what you should, or could have changed. For myself I would suggest that I had tried harder to not stress as much. I am a very type A personality, so everything has a place and an order. If things went out of order it would cause me to get completely stressed out and caused me to not enjoy my senior year as much. I started college early in my senior year, and while that gave me a leg up on getting ahead credit wise, it caused me to focus only on school. So, looking back on my experiances, I would tell myself to relax a bit and to enjoy myself more than I did. Because in the end everything will end up being okay and working out.

If I could go back in time when I was a high-school senior, I should tell myself to “enjoy” my life. Actually, after I graduated from high school, I felt frustration on my life of the United States, because of not proper legal status. Therefore, I had to give up to attend 4-year University even I got accepted to many universities. Then, I applied to a community college disregard my opinion. During these time, I had hard time to get over this problem. I cried a lot, and sobbed into my pillow all the night while the terrible Summer time. Fortunately, when I attended the community college, I learned more than I thought. I also met good friends. Moreover, I could save money, because they accepted me as an in-state student. Now, I got accepted to a university that I desired to attend! With this opportunity, I learned lots of lessons in life. If I want to make a leap forward, then I should have time for reorganization. However, as I was young, I did not understand what it meant. Hence, if I enjoy every time in my life, an opportunity will come to me!

Dear high school self, Coming into college may be one of the most challenging things you do in your schooling career, but it will also be one of the greatest experiences. The first week of college is the toughest, especially if you decide to live in the dorms. Make the most of the first week, you will make some of your closest friends during this time. Be yourself and be social. Don't let your shy side stop you from meeting amazing people. Enjoy the experience that many students are not given the chance to have. Please resist the urge to go home, even though you will be dying for mom's cooking, because it only makes dorm living harder to adjust to. Make the most of your experience being away from home and living in a huge city such as New York. Take every opportunity you can to explore the city and make sure to document everywhere you go. Lastly, enjoy everyday and be thankful for the opportunity you are given. P.S. Please avoid the "freshman 15". I like my body the way it is! Sincerely, Your freshman in college self