United States Air Force Academy Top Questions

Control your time; when you get to college you will realize how hard it is to manage everything. High school is easy compared to college, so spend your time wisely and do all of your homework. Getting a 4.0 GPA is easy if you just try. Don't make excuses and put homework off until the last minute. Talk to your teachers and get to really know them; it is them who will write reference letters for the colleges you want to go to. For academics, work hard now and reap the benefits later. As for the social aspect of high school, the best advice I can give you is don't burn any bridges. High school drama is to menial to make enemies over. Make up with the people that hurt you and do your best not to hurt anyone else. For all you know, they might be the next CEO of Apple and will remember your name when you apply for a job there. Lastly, have fun. You will look back and remember the fun times you spent with friends and family. Make it worth remembering.

Whatever you do, do it for yourself, and yourself alone. Do not make a decision based on what others may think or want you to do. Where you go to school is a big decision that will impact the rest of your life. It's where you will likely spend the next four plus years of your life, so do all of the research you can. Have a wide view. Do not focus solely on one school, because there's no way to fully understand a college until you've been there and been in the environment. Try to look past all of the glamour each school tries to put off and see into the every day lives of people there. If you can, get an honest opinion from someone going through it. Key word honest. Too often people give the casual " this is a great place" but it is important to dig deeper and find what actually makes it great, or perhaps doesn't. Be open to new ideas. College is something you have never experienced before, and it's going to be very different, so approach it with an open mind.

I would tell myself to work hard at school, but to spend more time enjoying life as a high schooler. I stressed too much about all the AP and honors classes I took back in high school, that if I could go back I wouldn't have taken as many of those courses. The Air Force Academy did not let me validate those courses in which I received AP scores of 4 and 5. Going back in time, I would still choose to go to the Air Force Academy. For this reason and the reason of the Academy not using AP scores, I would not take so many AP classes. I would also go back and tell myself that I wasn't ever going to get faster at track and that I should have continued playing both high school and club soccer! I would have then tried to play for the NCAA team at the Air Force Academy. Sitting behind a desk in the Air Force, I would tell myself that my future interests will change and I will become more passionate about business rather than engineering and math, and that the CampusDiscovery $5000 scholarship changed my life in 2014!

Be true to yourself. Don't let the people around you define the person that you will become. Set goals and make plans to become the person you want to be. You aren't defined by your peers, academic achievements, or your athletic accomplishments. You are defined by the perosn that you are and the good things that you do for others. Some people get so lost in the competition of college that they forget that other people need their help. Don't be so busy that you don't have time to help a friend. Be happy! There is always a reason to smile. Find your niche. When you are doing something you love with people who understand you, you will be successful. In hard times, perservere. Work as hard as you can to hit the goals that you have set. Be kind.

Remember three things: a*holes will be a*holes, nothing lasts forever and go to your happy place!

Trying to be a wife and mother, attending college and working full time is extremely difficult. Look at your future and make a decision as to the area of profession you would like to direct yourself in. Have a passion for what you do and do it well. Learn from mistakes now, mistakes later can have a larger effect on your life. A degree is attainable at any age, but achieving one before there are so many responsibilities on your shoulders makes it easier and in a realistic grasp. Fifteen years to get an AAS in business is not ideal, however it gave me great respect for myself.

I would have given the advice of party more at the end of high school. This is not to adapt to the more social events at college, but rather, to be able to hadle those events while practicing time management in an environment where the consequences are not nearly as significant as they are in college. It is difficult to maintain a social life while taking more difficult classes than high school. In high school, i could write a large paper the night before it was due and still get a very good grade. Now, if I have to write a paper, i must write it a week in advance or so. This extended timeline forces better planning that I was not ready for. In the end, it comes down to time management and being able to set priorities.

make sure you tie up all your loose ends before you go to basic training, and don't think about quitting as much as you did freshman year because it's eventually worth it. and free school is better than paying for school. and colorado isn't so bad if you go skiing alot.

parents: let your son'daughter do what they want.

I would say the most important part in choosing a college is the research. Start as early as sophomore year of high school to make a list of possible choices. The first step I would suggest is making a list of your must-haves for a college; you major, tuition, scholarships, location, SAT or ACT requirements, sports and clubs available, dorm and living areas, and more. Then rank what is most important to you and matching it to different colleges. Now I?m the first to go to college on both sides of my family so I know how this can be overwhelming, I got a lot of help from the career center and my teachers and guidance counselor in high school and the most helpful website I can suggest is collegeboard.com. Next go visit the colleges that make the cut and check out the campus and sit in a class or two, then narrow your list to which colleges you can see yourself attending the next 4 to 5 years. Apply to all the remaining colleges and choose. Once you?re accepted get a taste of being on your own and take advantage of any opportunities available.