Northland College Top Questions

I experienced a much different path from most high school seniors begin the journey of leaving home and attending college. I spent two years after graduation playing junior hockey away from home before deciding to come to Northland College. Looking back now, I wish I could give my high school self one significant piece of advice; your family is always the one constant in your life, stay close to them. It is an exciting thing to be able to leave home and start a life of independence, but the realization that you are now on your own is a scary epiphany. One thing I can promise every college freshman is that at some point you will hit a rough patch where you feel alone and scared. When this time comes around remember that your family will always be there for you, even though you are now an independent adult, your grandparents, parents, brothers, and sisters still care about you and your well-being. A little advice in your first experiences alone can go a long way. If you are lucky, your grandma might send you a care package filled with those cookies you loved as a kid!

Everything your teachers in high school told you was a lie, especially what your English teacher told your class one day. You know what he said, that the professors in college don't care about you or whether or not you fail? That thing that nagged at you in the back of your head despite telling yourself that he was full of it because if it was true you couldn't fathom how you could possibly survive such a dramatic change without some inkling that the people in this large and unfamiliar institution would stop and offer you their hand should you find yourself completely overwhelmed by all of the new obligations you have to balance on your shoulders? He lied. Don't worry, don't sweat it. You, who cries from being publicly embarrassed. You, who still doesn't have their driver's license because the thought of hitting someone with a car terrifies you into a state of near-paralysis. These people, these wonderful college professors...they'll help you. They want to see you achieve. They'll fight tooth and nail for you... You just have to meet them half way. Speak up, is all they ask.

In high school, I didn't have guidance to help me decide where to go to school or what to go to school for. As a first generation college student, my parents were nonexistent in the college decision making process and I was left to do everything, guessing as I went along. All of my decisions were 100{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} my decisions. I didn't even know the difference between a loan and a grant (eventually, I figured it out)! Ultimately, the advice that I would give to my high school self would be to take chances. To go out and say 'yes' to things, to everything. Make yourself vulnerable and put yourself into awkward and uncomfortable situations in order to find the deepest certainties about yourself. Take 3 semesters of Ojibwe, experience different cultures, drop out of college, have a child, and then go back with a force. This is the advice I would give to my high school self because these are a few things that I did do during 'college life' and I wouldn't change any of it. I wouldn't change the bad, or the best, or anything.

Well going back to highschool the advice i would give myself would be to work hard. Hard work is the key to succes and in highschool i lacked this with my studies, now in college i have learned this and have worked very hard making it to my third year in college. In college i wish i would have got that studying was more important then just being a sports fanatic and hanging with friends, which i learned my first year at university. Another thing i would have told myself was take it all in the eperience of highschool because you never get that back and i took it for granted a little bit going through the motions some days not paying attention in class. I have learned from these things now but wish i could have told my self then.

I would tell myself to save more money and work more during my senior year. Freshman year was probably the most expensive year thus far, and I did not have the money to afford the transition. Being so far away from home, it would have been more convenient to be more financially independent. It all worked out in the end, but it would have been nice to be prepared for. I also would have told myself to make more time for my family and high school friends. Being so far away, I miss out on a lot of the things that the people that live close to home get to do. I miss out on family events as well. I would love to be able to spend more time with them now, but it is so hard being so far away.

Don't get overly stressed about your work load, thinking that you have to pick between grades and a social life. Stay focused and get your work done for your classes, and time will open up to make friends. Get plenty of sleep. Don't stay up all night watching movies or playing video games, but don't lose sleep burning the midnight oil to write a paper that's due the next day. Begin working on large projects the day they are assigned, so that you are not pulling a ten page essay of fluff out of thin air the night before it has to be turned in. Above all else, don't be a shut-in. There are plenty of fun things to do and people to meet around campus, so don't spend your freshmen year in your dorm room with the door closed. That's no way to live, and certainly not how you want to remember your college experience. These are the years of your prime, so enjoy them.

You need to work hard and do all your readings for classes. Get involved in more clubs and be more outgoing. Never give up on what you need to succeed. Follow your heart and your dreams and you will do fine.

Stay focused like you always do , and learn to relax every once in awhile. School comes first and that is laways important, but its OK to have fun on theweends, have movie nights with friends and go out to dinner. Oh and start dancing right away, you'll miss it but will get back into it like nothing has changed.

If I could go back in time, I would want myself to know that you find out who you really are when you leave your comfort zone. There is a world that you don't even know exists and you shouldn't worry about feeling out of place in any way. You need to worry less and let go to experience life. I'd also tell myself that it's okay to find out that you're very different from your friends and family back home. You are very different and special and that is why you will succeed.

If I were able to travel back in time to talk to my high school self, I would reasure myself that I was making the right choices and that everything I had done brought me to my perfect school. I would then tell myself that I needed to apply for more scholorships to help ease the financial burden colleges often place on students and families.