Muskegon Community College Top Questions

Start preparing for the next level (college) during your H.S. JUNIOR year. Your last two years of high school are extremely critical to increasing your college choices and obtaining financial assistance. The process is extensive, the sooner you start the sooner you can make your choices, line up financial assistance and get ready to move to the next level. Enjoy your freshman year but don't under estimate the task ahead of you. One fatal mistake that many freshmen make, is to think college is all fun and games. You and your parents are paying a lot of money for you to attend college, don't be the one that finds yourselve at winter break, trying to figure out how to tell your parents about that 1.5 GPA! Here is a simple rule to follow, (SCHOOL FIRST - EVERYTHING ELSE LAST). Choose your friends wisely, everyone you meet WON'T be your friend. Your FRIENDS will study with you, they will understand missing a party or game because you have a test tomorrow and their education will be just as important to them as your is to you. Bottomline, START EARLY, STAY FOCUSED! Good Luck Hawkins Lang

First of all, Michelle, lose the unsupportive loser boyfriend that made you think that you weren't smart enough to go to college. You aremuch smarter than you think you are. You're an intelligent young lady capable of making good friends. You won't be all alone. Discipline yourself to eat right and get enough sleep. Everyone is a genious when they find the right venue. Seek it out. Don't worry if things don't pan out exactly as you hope. Just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and be happy that you've gotten that out of the way. Then start again. Don't let anyone convince you that you have to be someone that you don't want to be. YOU chose who you are. Don't let anyone sap away your happiness. It's inside you. It will grow when you finally say "This is what I was made for! This is who I was created to be!" You are fearfully and wonderfully made, and you are awesome!

Take sufficient time and care in planning your scholarly approach. Although the road to your academic future is ever-changing and will present to you many forks along the way, a sense of direction will take you further than you would have ever dreamed of; the sky is truly the limit. In spite of what you may believe to be your passion at the moment, there is an entire world beyond your current sense of understanding and reasoning that's imploring you to take the steps necessary to discovering what may lie ahead. No decision is ever truly a bad one by any means, and everything you will go through will be a learning experience; whether you're clairvoyant enough to realize it at the time or not. Bearing witness to this, I unfortunately cannot tell you the changes that will occur over the next three years of your life, for you will then be faced with the misfortune of being deprived of going through all the necessary processes that have made me who I am today. College will prove to be very different from what your present perceptions tell you; true wisdom implores openness to new ways of thinking.

High School was a time of mixed ideas and confusion for me. Fresh out of a private academy, I was a typical kid with traditional values. As everyone knows, high school is a time for pressure to build and for students to give into things they wish they never had given into. Now, I am not going to tell you the typical line of "Don't give into pressure," because I kept with my values of never partying, doing drugs, etc. What I do know is that as soon as you get out of high school everyone changes, including your best friends. Some people will become completely devoted to their studies while others, even those you would least expect, give more time to parties and "college romance." Alcohol is common in every high school or college, whether people like it or not. While in college I myself have gone to a few parties and have met a number of people because of it. So, are my morals tainted? The way I see it is that in order to escape the "pressure" of others you must have confidence in all of your decisions. Good can come from experimentation; trust your judgement.

Knowing what I know about college life, I would advise my high school self to pursue scholarship opportunities. Scholarship applications take work, and you will not recieve many of those you applied to, but the opportunity to obtain those few scholarships you are rewarded is far too great to overlook. College is expensive, and every bit of aid helps. Spend that extra hour filling out an essay scholarship. Do not pass up scholarships because of doubt. Think about how many students might be like you and decide not to complete a scholarship. If you look at the difficult scholarship applications in terms of who did not apply and challenge yourself to complete them to the best of your ability then you stand a good chance of acceptance. Especially in these hard times it is important to gather information on opportunities to finance your education. No one is looking to give handouts, just like no one is unwilling to help you. Everyone wants to see you succeed because you are the future of our world. You just need to prove that you are willing to work hard to achieve your goals.

One piece of advice that I would give myself is to never give up and to not get discouraged. Being a single mom upon high school graduation, college seemed like a dream that would not be accomplished. However, with the support of friends 10 years after high school I went back. Whether the transition to college student is directly after high school or after "life" has been lived a little, it is not easy. You need to remain focused on the goals you have set for yourself. It is these goals that you must first clearly lay out before yourself, before you begin this journey. Clearly defining the objectives you which you accomplish will allow you to remain focused. Utalize the student service center. They are not just there to welcome you the school. This might possibly become the most important asset you have while you are in school. From the counciling center, to the financial aide office, information is made readily available and easy to access. Remember stay focused, utalize the tools that the school has for you, they want you to be successful too!

I would tell myself not to give up. Don't get caught up in what your friends are doing, you are in control of your destiny.

I would tell myself to go to community first not a big university that cost lots of money.