Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus Top Questions

I would tell myself to prepare for the workload. You need to study hard and go to class. Get involved and don't be afraid to branch out. Wait to see if you need books, before you buy them, and take advantage of professors' office hours.

Don’t come to college with the idea that you’ll float around and eventually make plans for your life. Enjoy your summer. Be prepared to hit the ground running. For four years, you will be going nonstop. Don’t expect it all to be fun. You’re driven, so it won’t be. You will be miserable at times, but the highs outweigh the lows. People who say college will be the best time of your life floundered around while they were here. College won’t be the best time for you. You will work hard and have a great time. Your life after college won’t steadily decline, but exponentially rise. Work hard so that no matter what point you are in life, you can say, “This is the best time!” Life is too great a gift to waste it longing for days gone by. I’d like to say that life will get easier after graduation, but it won’t. However, you’ll be making a difference and pursuing your passion. You know this is the only way to achieve true happiness. Don’t be afraid to make memories in college but never forget your ultimate goal.

Looking back on my years as a college undergraduate, I would tell myself to be prepared to enjoy some of the most memorable, challenging, and inspiring years that will shape your character for the years following. The people you meet and classes you take will be one of a kind. Be as immersive in you learning experience as much as possible. You will push youself past the boundaries of your current intellect and be intrigued with new passions. College is a time that you will find out more about yourself; your likes and dislikes may change. As long as you strive for the best, you'll land exactly where you want to be. Enjoy college, but be ready to take it all in and make the most of it.

Go to Georgia Tech!!

A college degree should set you up with a career that lets you get what you want out of life. To fully understand this advice, you first need to understand what a college degree is. It's a significant monetary and temporal investment in future opportunities. Those future opportunities directly constitute your career, but indirectly relate to whatever it may be that you want to do away from work. I'm a firm believer that most high school seniors don't know exactly what they want to get out of life, which leads to my advice on how you should spend your time in college. You should ensure you have as many opportunities as possible, when you leave college. This is done by working hard in the classroom and coming away with the best knowledge base you can. However, you should also ensure that upon your graduation you have a much better idea about what you want to get out of life. At the end of the day, college is about opportunities. Your time there should be spent taking advantage of as many of them as possible, but also used to ensure that your future is filled with them.

My advice to a younger me would be to work on my self confidence and to step out of my comfort zone. In high school, I didn't believe that I could get into my top schools because I was worried I was not good enough. I was safe with the schools and scholarships I applied to because rejection terrified me, and I thought the rejection would put a limit to what I was capable of. In college, I realized that I create my own limits. My peers have pushed me to accomplish goals I never would have thought possible. Since last year, I have joined a sport I had never heard of, researched graduate level information, and held project presentations with an audience full of faculty members. I was terrified of making myself uncomfortable in high school, but now I thrive on it. If I had stepped out of my comfort zone in high school, I would have had a chance to have great experiences and push myself earlier. My sister is a high school senior now, and I tell her she is capable of so much more that what she thinks is possible.

Going back to my high school senior self, the first thing I would say is do not underestimate what is to come. College is full of challenges and struggles that you will have to overcome academically. Thinking that everything will be a breeze because it was in high school, is absolutely wrong. College will teach you so much about yourself and how to work to your best ability and while high school started you on that path, college will be sure to tell you if you were going in the right direction, and fast! So when you start college, expect the unexpected, learn to figure out what is most important to you and how to work hard and still enjoy every experience you have. You are the captain of the next four, five or maybe even six years of your life and you should live them with no regrets. Time management is key. Working hard is extremely important. Seizing opportunities and enjoying them is essential. Get ready for the time of your life, and make sure you remember to read your textbooks even when you would rather watch Grey's Anatomy!

To my high school self, BE YOURSELF! I know it is so easy to come into college thinking you know who you want to be, convinced that your major will never budge, and sturdy in all of your values and views on life. These are the elements you think you are and you think you want to portray, but this does not mean you are truly being yourself. Being yourself is putting yourself out there in new situations. Do something you have never heard of; join a club that makes you excited. Being yourself in college doesn't mean being who you want to be. It means finding out who you can be and doing the most you can to live up to that potential. Stay focused, be nice to your family, and don't get lazy! Sincerely, Your Future Self PS: Feel free to contact me through way of meditation, exploring yourself now, and living in the present to let it lead the way to the future.

This is hard to do in 200 words because there are so many things I did wrong. However, they all made me a stronger person and so many of my mistakes led to who I am today. I'm a completely different person than you are now. We fail a class our first semester that still haunts us to this day. We lost HOPE scholarship and the student debt is unbelievable. This makes us stronger though. We retake that class and meet a teacher that opens our eyes to the world of math and science. We meet one of our best friends that inspires us to work hard and pursue our goals. Looking back I wouldn't trade that class for the money (or anything). With the financial trouble we have to take a semester off and finish our associates in 3 years not 2. This ends up being the best thing to ever happen because we meet our future wife in the class we take our last semester. She's beautiful and smart don't ever let her go. Work hard Jon, no one is going to do it for you. Georgia Tech is where you belong! Good luck.

Speaking to my former self, I'd encourage myself to pay close attention to all of the activities I enjoyed in high school and middle school and not give them up. I love to sing and I was a tutor in high school. There's no reason why I couldn't have become a tutor in college too, except I just didn't. I'd tell myself to develop an exercise regimen early and stick with it. I'd tell myself to try and make a wider variety of friends sooner rather than later. I shouldn't be afraid to step out of my comfort zone and try my hand at writing for the newspaper or starting a blog. Writing has always been an outlet for me but I neglected it for years. I'd urge myself to listen to my heart and trust in myself. I'm more intelligent than I gave myself credit for. But mostly, I'd tell myself to have fun and be young. I am young; I was young and I should be young. I should make mistakes and learn from them.

To my High School Senior Self, Please get involved and stay committed to what you were doing! Not only will it help you with college/scholarship applications, but also will help you explore your true talents and interests while making new friends. Do not get discouraged and give up searching scholarships because all you see are need-based scholarships. Just keep pushing and I am sure you will find something to help you pay for this out-of-state tuition. Also, remember to love yourself for who you are and stop comparing yourself to others. Trust me, it is really hard to pick yourself back up after tearing yourself down with such comparisons. Please do not get overly excited if a boy talks to you. You are going to college to get an education, not to find a husband! When God is ready, he will send you the right person at the right time. Do not be afraid of getting out of your comfort zone every once in a while! You never know who you will make a connection with and discover what other talents you have. Love Always, Your Future College Freshman Self

Ralph Waldo Emerson describes my situation perfectly, “The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be”. After graduating from Georgia Tech and commissioning into the USAF, I entered pilot training. I dreaded going into training because I did not have a passion for it like others had. My priority from AFROTC had been to be the best officer I could be and to serve my country, while everyone around me seemed to think that being a pilot was the most important aspect. I had dreamt of the opportunity to lead other airmen, and as a pilot the reality was that I would just be leading myself for quite some time. I came to the conclusion that I could not envision serving my country as a pilot. Though the decision to drop pilot training was risky and quite taboo, it was the best decision for me and my family. Ultimately, the lesson learned is not to get absorbed with what others think should be your highest priority, but what you know in your heart is right for you. We need to find balance in what others want from us and what we want for ourselves.

I would tell my senior self to take life one day at a time. As I looked forward to the next four years of my life at Georgia Tech, I gained a sense of excitement as well as a sense of impending doom. As the thoughts of four years of caffeine filled all-nighters and stressful days of essays and exams crept up inside of me as I received my high school diploma on graduation night, I realized that those four years are made of individual years, which are made of individual days, which are made of individual moments, and so on. I wish I could tell myself that as much as college seems to be a huge looming natural disaster that will cause an inevitable panic, the only way to survive these all important four years is to take it all one moment at a time.

Freshman year, though adventure-filled, was not as exciting as I’d hoped. I didn’t run for leadership because I was afraid. I didn’t have the most engaging social life because I was shy. I failed to make half the connections I wanted. But this summer was different: I let go, did research, joined a design team, and made a ton of new friends. You see, I let fear stop me from having what could have been the best year of my life, and when I let go of that fear, a whole new, brighter world opened up. So I say to you, past me, don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone. Don’t be afraid of failure, and don’t be afraid of success. Don’t be afraid to dream, to hope, to love. I let so many wonderful opportunities pass me by because I was afraid, but I refuse to live in fear’s shadow anymore. I want you to live your life to the fullest. Be bold. Be brave. Because you are special, intelligent, and perfect just the way you are – and don’t you dare let anyone tell you otherwise.

If I was to go back in time, I would tell myself to really explore my passions early on, so that I can further build on them at Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech has the resources and connections to help me succeed both professionally and academically, so the more prepared I am about my goals and interests, the more I can benefit from the resources at this school. I would also tell my younger self to outline a plan about how I will utilize my time at this phenomenal institution, both during the school year and in the summer. For instance, I would outline my plan with my course schedule as well as internships, leadership and extracurricular activities, research assistantships, and teaching assistantships to take part in. Additionally, I would tell my future self to live on-campus, so that I can study in groups and with friends as well as be a part of the vibrant campus community. Lastly, I would tell my younger self to join the Student Alumni Association, so that I can be paired with alumni who will be my mentors and help me navigate successfully through college and the job search process.

I would tell myself to be more abitious. Tech offers many amazing opportunities to its students. These opportunities include the ability to work hands on with Tech's renowned Faculty, or to attend career fairs and interviews with huge companies such as Exxon and Coca-Cola. All of these opportunities are extremely impressive and many high seniors, such as myself, may feel as though they are not fully prepared or courageous enough to fully take advantage of them. The fact is that even though these offers are highly esteemed, so are Tech students. I would have encouraged my self as a high school senior to be braver in pursuing all of the options available to me at my new or prospective college.

My advice to myself would be to find a roommate that I live well and stick with them through college. Trying to adjust to different living styles on top of the heavy course load is mentally taxing. Also go seek career and major counseling first semester to make sure you're on the right track for you.

To High School Brittany, Prepare for disappointment. You have never failed academically before in your life, you have strived to be valedictorian of your class this year, and now you are making your final decision for college. This is the big leagues. You will not make straight A's anymore. You will fail many tests, quizzes, and even a couple classes. This is a new experience for you I realize. You will struggle to keep your scholarships because of your slipping GPA. You will realize that it is almost impossible to get internships in Biomedical Engineering in the field you want. But I promise you, even though you will never be broken down more in your whole life up to this point, it will be worth it. You will make the greatest friends you have ever had. You will experience so many new things that you just can't get in high school. So even though you are scared to leave the state and travel down south for school, I will say one last thing. Prepare for disappointment, but it is worth it. College Brittany

Congratulations! You are about to embark on your first voyage into adulthood. But there is reason to be cautious. The greatest piece of advice I can give you is: remember why you are in school. You are here for your education. Your parents won't be texting you, telling you to come home. Your mom won't take your phone away if you skip class. Your dad won't scold you for getting a bad grade on a test. You are entirely on your own. College will provide you with a whole new world of opportunities, both positive and negative. Each and every day you will be faced with choices. There's a fraternity party tonight, but you have a physics assignment due at midnight. You have a calculus lecture at 8 a.m., but it's midnight and the Stacey from down the hall asked you to watch a movie with her. These new freedoms are exciting, but they should be experienced with care. Less than one percent of the world's population is given the opportunity to pursue a college education. Remember that when Stacey asks you to watch that movie.

The biggest change that I have seen in myself revolves around my newfound desire to branch out more and participate in events that make me uncomfortable; I truly believe doing so has made me a better person. So I would tell myself not simply in a general sense to try to do more, but to instead say “no” to less. Simply doing more may not have a direction or a purpose, while saying “no” to less implies there was an invitation to join someone in an action, to accompany another person to live out a situation they would otherwise either not do, or simply do without you. This allows you to accomplish more, create fulfilling memories, and strengthen relationships. While many times as a senior I enjoyed the simple routine of my life, and I was not fond of breaking out of what I considered to be comfortable, those moments were not memorable or important. So instead, I would urge my senior-year self to take that last year of high school and do things that my junior-year self would never do. To join others in new situations is what creates growth in self and an understanding of others.