Simmons College Top Questions

Well to be honest, I was prepared and handling college just fine. Since I started college in the Fall of 2010 I earned all "As" so my GPA is 4.0.

Dear Me, Choose Simmons College. You will not gain many friends, but plenty of friendly aquaintanices. There will be times for making friends later. Don't worry too much about what other people say. You will learn a lot that many co-ed colleges will not offer in their classes. You will be overcome with many expereinces that Simmons have to offer and I encourage you to take them. Join groups! Go to networking events! The students are traveling at 100mph and you are not. Its time to get up and moving! Do not sit there and let the world pass by you. Have fun and work hard.

The most important thing that I could tell myself as a high school senior would be to take a deep breath. In my final year at home I spent a majority of it up to my eyeballs in stress. Honestly, most of it was self-imposed. I missed out on so many things I will never get the chance eto do again because I was studying. Being in college is fantastic, and I really do love it. But if I could go back in time and be in high school again, with my friends and my family all so accessible to me, I would do so in a heartbeat. I've realized now that I took for granted the ease of the people in my life. Never again will I be able to count on seeing my closest friends everyday. From now on, seeing them will be a special occasion; something we have to plan. If I could tell senior-me to take advantage of her time and have more fun I would hope that I would take myself seriously and smile a little more and study a little less.

If I knew then what I know now, the biggest piece of advice that I could give my high school senior self would be to seize opportunities, no matter how different or challenging they might seem. An important thing to realize is the fact that college is what you make it. You will be given unlimited school clubs to explore, community events to attend, and lecture series both within your school as well as other colleges. But nothing will be mandatory. No one will be there encouraging you to explore things and step outside of your comfort zone. There are no more application procedures requiring you to be engaged outside of academics and there will be no outside pressure to be a well-rounded individual. The school may have organized events or systems in place to socialize freshmen, but these will drop off as time goes by. Being an interesting individual and exploring the limitless opportunities are up to you. Get out there; there's more to college than attending class!

If I could go back in time where I was a high school senior, I would give myself a lot of advice regarding the cost of college. I attend a private college now that is extremely expensive, and I am footing the bill alone with no cosigner for student loans so I am looking for all the help I can get. In high school, I didnt have a lot of guidance involving the costs of tuition and how to apply for grants or scholarships. I would tell myself to start as soon as possible researching scholarships and making connections with teachers at the high school. You always will have a network and it is the most needed thing in life especially in college. When applying for jobs or internships around campus, the supervisors want references and who knows you better than certain teachers you've had more that once... Your personal network is everything so everytime you meet someone, shake their hand and make an impression. You absolutely never know when you may need to refer to those people one day!

Ask why no one is promoting college.

The advice I would give myself is to get a second opinion. A highly respected trustworthy individual gave me bad advice my Counselor. She told me I was not college material. I believed her. Even though, she never gave me reason for her advice, I trusted her. I wanted to become a Registered Nurse back then but I did not attempt for fear of not being accepted into college. I became an STNA instead. Surprisingly for me, I went on hesitantly accomplishing life. I was indecisive at the smallest decisions. Sadly, I was living in fear of failure. I began to ask for help in small and great task, from completing an application to buying a home. Finally, I realized, that is what I should have done back in high school. I should have asked for help in understanding why I had been given such bad advice. I should have asked what I could have done to improve. Since then, I have learned I will never allow what someone says dictate who I am. Currently my grades always reflect at least the Honor Roll at my school, I was recognized in WHO’s Who among Students in American University & Colleges.

The most important advice I would give myself is to plan ahead financially. This is crucial because I did not realize how much I was actually going to be in debt after school until I started taking out my loans with sky rocketing interest rates. Applying to as many scholarships and as early as possible is key. Getting to know your financial aid adviser also helps tremendously. The second piece of advice would be to plan scholarly. Look into the different programs that colleges offer and buy a planner. There is a lot more free time in college than in high school and it is extremely easy to get sidetracked. By staying busy, the bad habit of procrastination can never be instilled. Also, as a college athlete, I would advise myself to plan a more rigorous preseason workout and stick to it. This puts you ahead even before the first practice which impresses the coach. Finally, one last piece of advice is to have an open mind. Diversity is much more common in college than high school and being more perceptive can allow you to have so many friends with different backgrounds that you would have never expected to have.

I would tell my high school self nothing. Not being wholly prepared for how disastrous my first year of college would be after high school is what led me to where I am today. I needed to mess up in the first place in order to truly find my passion. I have a love of learning now which I never did before, and I would not trade that love of learning for anything.

I would advise myself to manage my time more efficiently and to take one step at a time to avoid any exhaustion; overloading yourself with too much cramming into one session is not the best way to learn time-consuming material. Always have confidence in yourself even when you are situated in the worse possible scenario because the outcome may result from your actions in response to the situation. Try to encourage yourself to study more often by the motivations in your life and be grateful for the things you already obtain and is striving for and envision for the future. Have ambition and persistence in everything you do between school, work and family because it may be difficult to balance everything at the same time, but don't be discourage because you are the determiner of your life and future. And remember never to give up; one failure does not equal complete failure. Take one failure as a lesson and learn from it.