Iowa State University Top Questions

Being away from home is honestly not terrible, I promise. Taking advantage of work study, socializing with classmates in the classes you like, and clubs around campus takes the edge off the homesickness. Make sure you keep active, even though after a rough class crashing in your personally decorated dorm room sounds awesome. Meeting the requirements of your courses requires a great deal more organization and time management than your courses in high school, even greater than needed for AP English. Follow your syllabi during the semester, not the week before something’s due. Use a whiteboard to keep track of what assignment is due next for each class. Are you stressed out as mid-terms near? Use your whiteboard to make sure you’re not overwhelmed with deadlines, grab a coffee and head to the library to study; remember to make flashcards for classes involving timelines of history, foreign language verb conjugations, or vocabulary words. If you’re still in an upheaval about the rigors of pre-calculus, use the tutoring center and congratulate yourself at semester's end. Making sure you’re well prepared and embracing a balance between work and play will let you succeed. Good Luck!

Please look at what you done a be proud you're on your way to graduating, but just because your graduating doesn't mean you should be done with school. The average person now-a-days has an associates degree and thats what starts a career. I wish the best for you and know that your humanity and humility will take you far, but I ask as a last request to please apply for colleges, take your SAT, and go far with your life. Art is your passion and you have a talent, but I don't want you to be a starving artist struggling to get through life. With a college degree you can go so much farther and share your wisdom and appreciation for life and art. To help yourself go back to school. Love yourself and be proud of who you are!

Advice I would give to students about making the transition of college is to get involved. Being involved not only builds your resume but helps you to better understand classes and become more confident in decision making when it comes to future goals. With this in mind you create more opportunities for yourself and meet new people. Making yourself available for opportunities is the best thing possible and finding those sources.

If I could go back in time I would tell myself to make sure you get involved. There are so many great oppertunities of things for you to do. Just be courageous and try something new. I would also tell myself that you can't waste time not making friends. Just be friendly and outgoing and meet everyone you can.

Don't stress yourself out over grades. They are important, but small differences don't matter as long as you fall in certain ball parks. Know where to focus your time and effort, many of the classes taken in high school will mean nothing when you get to college while others will be your starting block and foundation for the entirety of college. In this way you can put your time to more efficient and productive uses. Also be sure to dip into a little of everything, being well-rounded is crucial to success in college. You will have many opportunities not available in high school and knowing how to take full advantage of your resources will take you far.

I travel back through time and I see myself waiting at my graduation ceremony with both fear and excitement displayed on my face. My fellow classmates and I are waiting for our teacher to gives us the signal she would give us when the time had come to throw our Caps up in the air. At the time, I remember thinking in my mind "I am so scared...I am going to have to go to college where I do not know anyone or what it'll be like." Suddenly the high school senior "me" notices the me, the college student "me" and I begin to tell the old "me" to Stop Worrying because college life and making the transition are not so bad and that I am going to enjoy college life. Of course, I tell the old "me" I will have to work really hard and study for endless hours, but there is nothing to worry about. The high school "senior me" looks at me and smiles and thanks me for bring her good news. The time has comed for the senior "me" to throw my Cap in the air and transition myself to a college student.

I would give myself the main advice: STUDY! Everyone thinks that college is this fun place where you can party and have a good time and that the classes will not be much harder than high school, but i was wrong. I would tell myself to really buckle down and study a lot throughout the week so i can have a social life on the weekends and at night. You have to have very good time management skills to budget your time. There will be a lot of different things thrown at you and you need to be able to be independent and learn to cope with obsticles that come your way. Also, to never let things get you down and always stay positive. Study with friends and people in your classes to help stay motivated and when all else fails there are many places to go for help and tutors always available. I would say know your resources here at college and defiiantley use those resources.

College life is the most important thing in life of a student. According to me, it is the last step of a person before facing the real word. It is the time when we are mature enough to understand the harsh reality of life. If I could ever go back to my high school knowing all about college life, the most important thing that I would have suggested myself would have been the time management for everything. Since students at this age group gets distracted very easily. We are attending college, doing some part time and due to this pressure we sometime try to get out of this and can get distracted from our path. So I would suggest myself to pay proper attention to my studies, I would prefer understanding the concept rather than cramming things, and do all the readings I need to do because this is a better way of being successful in college.

I would tell myself that It's okay to make mistakes. I stressed out too much in the beginning of the year and put too much pressure on myself. I thought that college classes would be just like highschool ones, so I took too many credits and couldn't handle it. If I had known that it's okay to take some classes that aren't all serious I think I would've done much better. I started out my freshman year at Iowa State as a pre-med major and I set impossible goals for myself. Over the past year I've changed my major to pre-physician's assistant and it helped a lot. Now I'm in a rock climbing club and feel a lot less stressed out. I would definitley tell myself that balance is so important. You still need to be social and take breaks once in while. Grades are important but college is about having fun too!

I would tell myslef to take school more serious. To involve myself a little more and to learn how to STUDY. Learning how to study was a big thing for me when i came to school. I would also said to work on my time management a little better. Keeping an agenda can really benefit your time keeping. I would also told myslef that college is one of the best expierences i will go through.