University of California-Davis Top Questions

"Nicole, you have no idea." Those would be the first words out of my mouth if I were to go back in time and speak to myself. One's first year of college is enlightening and frightening, uplifting and disappointing, challenging and rewarding. I would warn myself that unexpected moments of lonliness and anxiety are part of the package when you leave home for the first time, but do not dwell on those feelings, because regardless of how isolated you will feel in acclimating to your new environment, you will not be alone. Those feelings unite you and your fellow students in one of the most emotionally singular experiences you wilI ever encounter. Rely on your self-awareness and courage. I made the mistake of going through much of my first year wide-eyed and inhibited. I'd want to advise myself to step out of my shell, to accept my new and enthralling surroundings, to study, retain, and relish in the education I was receiving. Most importantly, to never feel intimidated by nor responsible for my youth and inexperience. My advice, in sum, would be to tell myself that it takes time to adjust, and frankly, that is OK.

If I could go back in time and give my high school senior self advise about college I would say many things. To begin with I would tell myself to not slack off on the simple tasks and use your time to master the material at hand. I would tell him to break the habit of procastinating because in college that means doom. In high school it was easy for me to overachieve in any class, but I sometimes wasted my time doing nothing but chat with friends and it was hard to get out of that habit. I would also tell him to enjoy your last senior moments once he was done with his work. In college it is easy to get distracted by these parties that happen everywhere, but if you focus on first doing you work and then party as a high school senior he would be able to experience college at its fullest. My last words of advise would be to focus on exploring every subject and find one that you are happy doing. What matters the most is what you want to be and not what everyone else wants you to be.

If I had the chance of going back in time, I would tell myself to build leadership skills. College is all about communication and making new friends. I was unprepared for this change. When I enter college, I had a hard time socializing and making friends. With the experiences I have now, I would advise myself in the past to be more social. By building good leadership skills, I know I can be more active and willing to socialize more. Leadership skills are the one thing that I lack as of now. Although I have made friends and am more active, it could have been easier. College is a place where leadership skills are greatly shown. No one is embarrass to stand up and communicate or approach someone they don?t know and just socialize. I would advise myself in the past to learn leadership skills. College would be much more fun and easy with it.

If I could go back to when I was a high school senior I'd say to take the bus when it rains; there is nothing that says you must bike to class in it and do a drowned rat impression and sit in class with wet jeans. I would tell myself that kissing your boyfriend in class is just as unacceptable in college as it was in high school and that you were lucky your friends didn't smack you for it. I would say to take more friends home with you and to make your mother laugh; she will worry about you and make you call her daily. Go see your sister more often and take advantage of her as a resource; she went through this too. I'd say to worry less about grades, and more about how you spend money. Most of all I would tell myself to get used to feeling a little out of place at home because it is normal and has to happen sometime, and that at least this way you have a great town to call home and friends as close as family to catch you when you fall.

I would tell myself to look into my field more closely and truly make sure that I would enjoy pursuing a career in it, since I have had to change not only my school but also my major to look forward to class and a future career each day. I would also tell myself to look into more scholarships and apply for as many as possible so that I would not be in debt with my loans and no way to pay them back. I would also have planned better for my child's birth and began online schooling initially, so that I could continue my schooling unhindered. As it stands, I've had so many set backs in my programs that I'm still a freshman where most of my friends are going to be graduating in 2010. If I could go back to warn myself about the difficulties in senior year I think I'd be much more prepared than I actually was for college, because any preparation I got in high school was not as helpful as my own experiences and problems. Now I am prepared, but sadly between a rock and a hard place!

The transition from a semesterly academic system to a quarterly academic system is intense so prepare yourself for a fast paced academic environment. Grading becomes contingent upon significantly fewer items, so make sure you invest every effort in those few items to maximize your GPA. Staying on top of the material (especially in terms of reading) is absolutely essential so make sure you do that. The focus for your college experience should be the academic environment around you, not the social ongoings of your classmates. Every offering the school provides is an opportunity you should take every advantage of, such as career fairs, guest lecturers, and internships. Approach your professors not only in class, but in their office hours. They are a resource like anything else on campus, and you should spend as much time as you can learning from them and their experiences, not only about academic materials, but also about life experience. But most of all, take the time to truly learn about yourself! - "The greatest explorer on this earth never takes voyages as long as those of the man who descends to the depth of his heart. " ~Julien Green

I would attempt to convey that big failures can be a whole lot more valuable and important than successes. If you completely fail at something and subsequently use it as a motivation to redouble your efforts and learn from what went wrong, you?ll end up achieving a lot more than if you had quickly become content with an early victory. I would also tell myself that college is a complete change compared to high school. Study more and worry less about the small things in life that cause unnecessary depression, frustration and sadness. Instead focus more on you and your faith. Think about what really makes you happy and reach for your wilest dreams and most of all have as much fun as you can becuse in order to be prosperous, a long journey awaits you and you will need to be devoted, determined and strong.

I would tell myself that you only get out of school what you put into it. Even though I always succeeded in school, it was still important to invest time and energy into becoming even more academically successful. It's important to develop a report with your professors. They will only know you if you attend office hours, ask questions, and become involved with their research outside of class. It's important to make connections with professors, administrators, and classmates. College life is an opportunity to practice real world situations. In order to be competitive in grant applications, scholarships, internships, and ultimately job placement opportunities, it's important to make yourself known to your professors and to participate and found clubs and other campus-related organizations. I would tell myself not to waste time. In order to achieve my goals, it?s important to be active in studies, but also in social-networking. Once you have separated from your school, you will not be able to go back and pad your resume, your experiences, or your academic and research abilities.

Don't be afraid to make friends with everyone as there is no bad that can come of it. Speak to your professors because they have all the answers. Remember that school always comes first, but that doesn't mean friends come last. Or course, this is all dependent if you do decide to go to this school. I'd advise you not to if you really don't want to go into debt and face possible homelessness. On the other hand, the people that you meet and create bonds with are sometimes worth the material suffering.

If I could go back in time and give myself advice about college life and making the transition I would tell myself the following five pieces of advice: 1.) Keep yourself open-minded to academic spheres and career paths. 2.) Advocate for yourself, speak up in class, make connections and network with everyone around you- especially your professors and fellow dedicated students. 3.) Allow time for yourself to indulge in fun activities like yoga, dance classes, sports teams. Take advantage of every interesting and unique opportunity offered to you as a student. 4.) Appreciate every moment of college life because it will be one of the last times where your main job is to be a student and soak up knowledge with out carrying deep and burdening responsabilities (jobs, spouses, children, etc.) 5.) Take risks. I am talking about the "good" risks where you throw yourself into a community service project, start your own student organization, offer yourself as a research assistant to a professor, try out for the main role in a university play, join a music class even if your not a music major. Believe in yourself.