The University of West Florida Top Questions

My suggestions for personal lives would be to set ground rules with your roommates off the bat- don't worry about early confrontations, they'll be forgotten in time. You should definitely save your money instead of going out all the time and spending it; textbooks aren't cheap. For classes, you should know teachers actually take attendance in some classes, and you really need to have prior knowledge in writting essays.

My advice would be to score higher on my ACT in order to get the full Florida Bright Future scholarship, and also to apply to more scholarships than I did in order to ease the finacial burden on my parents. I would of told myself to go ahead and start looking for jobs long before I made the move, in order to have a steady job to come into. Another thing, is that I should of used the resources that the school offered in order to meet people in the school before I moved here. Even though I have made friends and I fit in, I still think it would of been to my benefit to use the website provided by my school to meet more people.

Knowing what I know about college life, and if I could go back in time and say one thing to myself, it would be to prepare better. If I could go back I would have volunteered more, developed better relationships with my teachers and employers, and I would have became more involved in extra-cirricular experiences such as internships. I also wish I would have learned earlier about financial aid options, internships advantages, academic options, and volunteer opportunities while in college. There are so many things while I was in high school, that I simply did worry about because I thought I had so much more time to do them. I learned that the most vital aspect to becoming more prepared, is not procrastinating so much. Instead of procrastinating all the time, I learned that I need to form a plan for the future. In high school many students procrastinate, because they feel like they have all the time in the world, and I would love to tell them that every day counts and being better prepared for the furture is so much less stressful on an already stressed out college student.

I would tell myself that, as important as school is, it is far more important to create a balance in my life between school, work, and my social life. As the saying goes, "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." That saying applies so much to the way my life is going right now. I have gotten so accustomed to working all the time- whether it is school, my part-time-job, or completing my homework- that my social life has fallen to the wayside. I am not saying that I would tell myself to completely disregard school and party away my college years, but to instead create a balance of going to school, working part-time, and still finding time to have fun with friends. I would tell myself to make sure I occasionally take time to enjoy my college years- provided my classwork load will allow it- and to create that balance in my life between work, school and fun.

Continue working hard even harder than you are now in high school. You know how you like to procrastinate so much on your projects and you somehow get an A when you start and finish your project the day before it's due, that's not going to work in college. Once you get there you're going to make many friends and you're going to want to hang out with them all the time fully knowing that you have a project due tomorrow, finish it. Start early on your work because it gets worse everyday you wait. Also open up more but not too much, hold in your most precious secrets for as long as possible. You never know when one of your "friends" will use the information you give them to hurt you later on. Another thing to do will be to join any clubs that you think sound interesting and stick with them, you'll get to volunteer and meet new people. Lastly, pay attention to the money you get. You never know when one day there's going to be an emergency and you need the money and it's not there anymore.

I would tell myself that it will be more of an adjustment than you think it will be. It is not the 13th grade. It is a whole different level of learning. It is not just moving away from home. It is more about believing and having confidence in your learning techniques that will be sucessful for you but your effort will have to increase several fold to achieve the same results that you had in high school. The important thing is not to give up but have confidence in your techniques and methods and you will achieve your goals that you desire. I would tell myself that you will meet all kinds of people from all kinds of backgrounds and to be patient and tolerant of the diverse opinions and beliefs of the new people you meet.

First of all, I would inform myself about all of the expenses that come with living on your own. I would also encourage myself to volunteer more and apply for every scholarship that I could. To futher my point, I would explain how much money I will have to pay back to the federal government and how much money I spend on gas and food every week. I would also tell myself to prepare for a large work load and very little free time. I would explain that working and going to school makes it very hard to keep a high GPA. I would still give myself encourangement, though. I would tell about all the things I have accomplished and overcome. Futhermore, I would tell myself to just keep trying, do your best, and work hard for the things you want in life.

The advice I would give to my past self would be to be more prepared... for everything! I would have prepared myself more financially by applying for more scholarships, studied harder for a better GPA standing, and better study habits, and I would have started thinking about my future career more than what school I wanted to attend. All around, I would have told myself to focus more on my future and to worry about setting myself up for success.

I think about this question very often wishing that i could go back a change many things. There would be a lot of advice that I would give myself such as that instead of waiting till the last minute to plan college stuff I should of been more focused on doing that and deciding what I wanted to do in college. I would of played football and hopefully played in college somewhere, because I knew I had the leg to be a great kicker somewhere if I would of just dedicated myself to playing. I thought that i made decent grades, but im sure that i could of gotten better ones and that if I could go back knowing what I know now I would try harder and make even better ones. I would have played football and not wasted my time doing whatever I was doing.

During high school, I was an exceptional student. As I got older, I was drawn into a social life and neglected my academic one. I would tell myself that being popular or having fun is not nearly as important in the long run as having good grades and a sound education. I would stress that good grades have everything to do with success in college- financial aid, future career, and internships. Rather than having fun (instant gratification), I should focus on my academics; that will provide long-term gratification.