St Olaf College Top Questions

My adivce would be to study harder than I did freshman year. Start thinking for yourself and make your own life decisiouns. Ultimitely, your the one who controls his own life. Other people may influence you heavily, but you should be more open and put your trust in people. People at St. Olaf only want to help you succeed, that goes for faculty and friends.

An advice to myself would be: Save your money for books so you do not need to take out lots of loans because books are pricy. I never thought books would cost so much, now that I have experienced buying books, I regret not saving the fifty dollars I used for personal wants and wished I could have bought my Sociology texybook for next semester.

If I could go back in time and talk to my High School Senior self, I would tell him to spend more time studying for good grades and a better GPA. I missed out on a lot of opportunities because I wasn't placing my education first. I would tell my High School Self to apply for scholarships, enroll in colleges I wanted to go to, and save my paychecks instead of spending them.

Take time to appreciate every aspect of senior year. Yes, you are going to have moments that are rewarding and thrilling that are going to be easy to savor, but there are going to be times that you wish you skip over. Do not let yourself do that. Yes, it is exciting thinking about living away from the mundane home life and high school, but that is what you are going to miss the most when the times get tough. The college transition is very difficult. It is exciting, but you will not always be walking to class confidently on a sunny day. There are going to be times that everything seems so daunting, and you will begin to doubt yourself. You will wonder why you are there and if you can really finish. In moments like these, you will seek old comforts to regain your confidence. You will miss those early mornings walking to the school bus, the rushed home cooked meals before evening school activities, and all the love and support from family wishing you well in life. Please, capture every moment for safekeeping. You never know when the comfort will come in handy.

Don't hold back your personality. You know what you love, and even if it is not the most popular activity, it makes you happy, so why not do it? DON'T BE AFRAID TO DATE. Guys are nice and you might as well get used to having them around as long as you don't feel any pressure. They are just as scared as you so give them a break. You will never get enough sleep so don't fuss over a half hour extra of studying. Just give yourself a practical deadline BEFORE you lock yourself in the library for ten hours straight. Always eat at least one meal a day with friends. It's not fair to you or anyone else to be antisocial, especially during finals! Go to the football games, rain or shine, cheer on your friends, and just take it easy on Saturdays!

I am now a 29 year old mother with a husband who is incarcerated. I never saw my choices as mistakes and believed that if one door closed another would open soon after. I was partially right, I did everything backwards I graduated high school, went to community college, went to two universities, then took a long 4 year brake and got married, bought a house, went back to college, graduated with a B.S. in Organizational Management, moved back to my home town, got pregnant, lost everything that I knew in life including my house, my job, my dog, and my marriage. Doors didn't seem to open for me immediately, now unemployed and caring for a toddler alone, living with my in-laws I realize you have to physically open some doors instead of waiting for things to happen, you have to go out and get them. If I could tell myself as a high school senior I would say to not take the easy road of less resistance, during the transition to college everyone feels alone and scared. You are not defined in life by your challenges but what you do to make your challenges opportunities.

Life is about learning lessons, all humans make mistakes. Now that I am almost four years out of high school I have discovered what life after high school is REALITY. The best people with advice are the people who have already been there, but then theres people like me that like to test the waters anyways. If I could go back and talk to myself as a high school senior I would engrain in my head that school is just as important if not more then any other year of school. As a senior in high school I gave up on my school work and decided to live the college life as a high school senior. I would believe in myself more and accomplished my goals I had as a freshmen. I would encourage myself to try out for the sports I wanted to do and strive on the motivation. Most importantly I would have taken the advice from the people who have already been where im at now and saved myself less aggravation. I never regret anything because everything happens for a reason, I have learned through materity and failures that life is full of mistakes.

I honestly would not have told myself anything. College is a unique experience when you finally make the call on the big decisions in your life. I think to figure out all the aspects of college, you just need to fully experience them without someone telling you what you need to pay attention to and what to look out for. When I look back at college, I learned the most from the things I had no understanding of when I was entering my undergraduate education. People figure out what they need in order to grow and ultimately will learn that themselves.

In high school you worry about your grades way too much. Don't get me wrong, grades are very important, but I feel like learning is overlooked and grades are all peope care about. It is all a big game in highschool. Coming to college I realized that what you were expected to know actually really matters. Cramming before tests in highschool seems pretty standard, but this is not a good study technique to carry over to college academics. When first coming to college, let go of the reputation or image that you held in highschool. You are starting fresh and so is everyone else, so be yourself.

The best part about attending a community college is the class sizes. Starting in spring of 2011 I will be transferring to a 4 year CSU, the class sizes at the CSU's are huge, some up to 200 students. At a 2 year community college, you can get the same great education in smaller classes. Smaller class sizes helped me learn, I felt I that I could really connect with the teachers. With fewer students the teachers are more available for office hours to help individual students. Being a mechanical engineering major I spent a good portion of my time in my schools "math lab" working on math homework. The school I attended had such a great math program, the teachers were great to work with and the "math lab" gave me the opportunity to study in groups and be able to get the free tutoring I needed during those challenging sections of my homework. Between a good connection with the teachers and the free tutoring provided, I felt an ease of learning; I learned so much, never getting caught with the frustration of confusion. I hope to find the same at my CSU next semester.