Florida State University Top Questions

I would learn how to cook! ...just kidding, that's not the most IMPORTANT thing, but it's up there. I would probably try to focus and practice more on the whole not procrastinating thing. If you procrastinate in college, you'll get left behind very quickly, and it's much harder to catch up and do all the work that you were supposed to do in the first place. I would also try to get in the habbit of actually reading my textbooks. In high school it was a little easier to just go by what the teacher explains in class, but it really is important to read from the books as well. So, overall, don't procrastinate, read your textbooks...oh, and learn how to cook! Good Luck!

Stay focused on using my time senior year, early in the year starting in July through September to apply for colleges. Have all my SAT and ACTs completed to apply early for colleges. But knowing what I know now I still would have applied early continued taking SATs and ACTs but send the scores in later. Don't wait, don't wait - apply early. Early application would have allowed me the opportunity to get more scholarships through the University. With limited scholarships available the early applicants are awarded more. My only regret as a senior is not taking adavantage of the early application process. As a senior I never imagined that early application would award me a application acceptance number that would be with me the rest of my college years at FSU with my dorm my assignment. If I could of had this knowledge during my senior year I would not be living in the awful dorm I am in and my Freshman year may have been a little more comfortable. I had to overcome alot of growing pains in the first semester to overcome the challenges of living with the dorm conditions I have.

I would go back and tell my senior in high school self to learn how to cook. My mother is the best cook I know, and I should have taken more advantage of that. Instead of thinking of it as a luxury that would serve me at every meal, I should have thought of it more as an opportunity to learn. In college my meals are not as glorious as they once were. Cereal and anything that can be concocted in a microwave are how I get by nowadays. If I want real food, I go out, but that becomes a plastic affair which my parents don't always appreciate at the end of the month when they get their bill. If I knew how to cook, college would not always seem so foreign. I would be able to have that small touch of Momma's home cooking that would be comforting every now and again. Basically, I would go back and demand younger me to get up, pick up a recipe book, a pot and a pan, and to learn a thing or two while my mom was still in the other room.

When I was a senior in high school, all I thought about was college. Almost daily my teachers warned us of potential application blunders and representatives from countless universities visited our school. If I could go back and give myself advice about how to make the transition to college easier, it would be all about preparation. While I knew that college would be a transition, I had no idea how severe that transition would be. After a semester of playing catch up, I have learned that no matter how much you want to go to the beach, you can never choose it over a day in class, because the copying someone?s notes from a lecture really does you no good, and studying the night before a test will never suffice. Also I would say, when it comes to meeting people, do not, and I repeat, DO NOT join every club someone hands you a flyer for on campus! You will never really meet people until you immerse yourself in a group, so whether you choose a sorority, student government, or an activist group, find one you really like and stick with it.

Take the classes and support you get in high school seriously because once you get to college its a great foundation to build off of. If you have the basis of knowledge, organization and study skills already engrained in you by the time you get to college it will make life alot easier for you. Take advantage of every opportunity offered to you leading up to college life because in the end it will help you once you make the transistion and have to stand on your own two feet. Remember that although this is your first time to be free and enjoy making all your own decisions remember all those decisions have both immediate and long term consequences. Never sacrafice your morals for instant fun or reward, standing by them will be worth it in the long run. Don't change who you are to fit in, your no longer in high school this is a big world and if someone or something doesn't work for you there are several thousand more people and situtions that might be a perfect fit! Go for your dreams and don't sacrafice or compromise along the way!

I would advise myself to move out and on right after high school. I stayed for one year and went to community college; I feel as though I could have saved myself a lot of grief and heartache if I would have just moved out of my hometown. Moving away to college opens up a lot of opportunity to meet new people and learn new things. Considering that upon entering college I'd have been in entry level classes, I would have met people outside of my major. Now I am only meeting people who are on a similar if not the same life path as I am. I think I would have benefitted moving younger and meeting new people faster. Now I am having difficulty meeting and making new friends. If I had a chance to talk to high school juniors and seniors I would advise them to move out if they have the opportunity.

If I went back to my high school senior year, I would have told myself to be prepared for the challenges ahead and do not take high school for granted.

Live in the dorms.

I wanted to go as far away as possible when I decided on Florida State University. My entire family and I thought I was capable, mature, diciplined and ready to live on my own. Little did I know how dependable I had become on set schedules and the mandatory routine of attending high school. The sudden transition from a life where my parents would wake me up and make sure that I'd go to school, to the college life of having to do everything for myself, was beyond the simple every day tasks. Cooking, cleaning, and doing laundry was easy, pushing myself to walk to class every morning was not. Living 500 miles away from home required ambition; the ambition that I lost to procrastination over years of depending on myself. I had always had the maturity to keep away from alcohol and drugs, but I was disappointing myself academically. If I could go back in time, I'd make sure to prepare myself to become a go-getter and make the most of extracurricular activities and volunteer work. I would mentain the overachiever attitude I had had throughout my childhood.

I would tell myself to breathe and give myself a break. Senior year is very stressful and also overwhelming. However, this year is going to fly by faster than a speeding bullet. I would tell myself to enjoy the last precious moments of high school because I'm never going to get them back. I would appreciate the bell that rings at every beginning and end of class because in college, there is no bell telling you it's time for your next class. I would appreciate my friends from high school because most of them aren't going to follow me to my school of choice and I won't see them as often. Then I would tell myself to appreciate my family because they're going to move across the country from you and be thousands of miles away. Lastly, I would tell myself that the transition into college life is not easy and slightly intimidating but it is also a life-changing experience. I would tell myself that you're going to grow up and become the mature woman you are today and even through the struggles, it's going to be worth it.