University of Central Florida Top Questions

I would tell myself to take more duel enrollment classes and less advanced placement classes because the credit isn't reliant on one test and I would have actually learned important information.

I would suggest reaching out to more people in my high school years, particularly the teachers. A good recommendation letter can be the difference between getting accepted or not making the cut. I would also encourage myself to get involved in extra curriculars, academics aren't everything contrary to what your teachers may tell you. I think the most important thing I would stress would be just to get out of my own comfort zone more often. Having new experiences will make you a more well-rounded person and mo\uch more prepared for college life.

I would simply have begun my college experience earlier and gotten that out of the way. I have lost much income due to my meandering and eclectic style. I have learned from travel experiences and much reading on my own. Life has been the greatest of teachers; the real world requires a degree to establish the bona-fides. Nonetheless, I have no regrets. I have seen the world and lived a life of rich experiences which would not have been possible had I been bound to a university during my days of sowing wild oats.

If I could go back and talk to myself as a high school senior, I would tell my to take it easy and learn how to balance things and not procrastinate. I would tell myself not to put scholarship aside and to find time to apply. I would also advise myself to do a little more research about the colleges that I applied for and truly examine and understand the tuition, so that I won't have to drop out of the college I wanted to go to the week before and basically miss an entire semester.

The advice I would give myself is, don't think you will be able to be the same person you are in high school. You may think that you have found yourself completely, but there is a lot more to learn about yourself. Your first year in college will be tough. A lot of changes will occur in your life. You will have to let go of a lot of things from the past, like hobbies, boyfriends, and ways of life. But trust me, through all the darkness there will come a rainbow. You will be better, you will have lived through a lot, traveled a lot, and met many new people. You will be stronger, healthier, and even more radiant than today. Brace yourself for a rollercoaster in these upcoming years, but also prepare yourself for greatness.

If I was to have the opportunity to speak wisdom to my high school self I would encourage me to make the most of my college experience. I would hope to take my academics more seriously. I would want to be more selective about my participation in campus events. I would also be more vigilant to myslef about continuing through to graduation, regardless of the obstacles that may arise. In my freshman year at college, I got pregnant and married. These turn of events delayed my finishing school for a full 20 years. I certainly do not regret starting a family, only the delay that I allowed for it to cause. I would encourage myself to finish school even through the hard-times.

Don't worry about making friends. Don't worry about the size of the campus, you will find your way around. People are friendly and will help you if you are lost.

Don't give in. Hard times will come and you will feel defeated but as long as you keep getting up you can accomplish anything you set your mind to. Anything worth having is worth fighting for so keep fighting and don't EVER think that you can't. I would tell myself that I am smart and persistent and those qualities will help me overcome my future mountains. Never take no for an answer, especially when it is related to your goals and dreams. Keep working towards those goals until the answer is yes. And always, always, always stay true to yourself. Trust in yourself, you are capable of more than you think.

Challenge yourself. Do not use your status as a senior to relax and await your enrollment into a college since you believe that you can 'change' yourself then. Trying your best now can create a steady path in the future so that you don't have to be worrying all the time. You will be better prepared and better rested when you aren't scrambling everything in one go after letting it stack in a pile until the time is right to pick it up again. In addition to this, I would recommend on becoming a more sociable person and take all the oppurtunities given to you, as it will make you a better person. Social interaction is a necessity of human nature, and the only way you will climb the ladder of society is if you put yourself out there. Open yourself to the world, and your perspective will change drastically. College is there as your guide, and you must be willing to follow it.

Finish school. Do not let friendships, marriage, family ,church or hobbies hinder you progress. Experience carries very little weight when you are applying for a high paying job. Your life will be financially easier with your degree. Many corporations seek employees who are educated and pay them accordingly. There are no short cuts. Its better to spend five years in school sharpening your axe to cut a tree instead of spending five years trying to cut the tree with a dull axe. I'm you in twenty years. Dont waist twenty years to start right back at this point. Focus and finish your school!

If I could go back and talk to my senior high school self, I would tell myself to actually take my AP classes seriously. Although I passed most of them I feel like I could have done much better if I had applied myself to the classes more. I also would have told myself to practice good "time management" skills since, so far, everything I have done in college has been my responsibility. The professors and staff do not "baby" us like they used to in high school and all the important stuff that we must do we must do by ourselves. I would also tell myself to now worry so much about my social life in college because I'm with some friends from high school and made some new friends already at college as well.

If I could go back in time and talk to myself I would attempt to reassure my past self as much as possible. Prior to actually moving into my dorm and making the 2 hour drive to my college, I was very nervous. I was worried I wouldn't fit in, or that I would be extremely homesick. Once I had finished the actual move, my entire outlook changed. My worries were quelled and I knew immediately that was the right choice. If I could go back soothe my ill thought worries, I could relieve so much stress that I never had to experience in the first place.

The most important piece of advice that I would give myself as a high school senior about the transition from high school to college life would have to be to not live on my own. As a first year college student, I made the decision to live alone in an apartment off campus, and I have to say that it is unbelievably difficult to meet people under those circumstances. I would go back and tell myself to live on campus with some roommates in order to avoid the difficulty of finding friends that I have experienced.

I would tell myself to take my work more seriously. I would say I need to focus on my work and not do just what's necessary to pass because that will not work in college. I would also tell myself to get a job to get experience with balancing school and work before I had to do it in college.

Currently speaking as a college student, the struggle I had to face, the endless amount of process and convincing I had to do for my dream college to accept me, one outlying advice I could ever give my high school senior self is that, you should not have slacked. You should not have spent endless amount of time on your phone, streaming vines after vines, double tapping every picture that interested you on instagram, scrolling endlessly on facebook and twitter updates, etc. Instead of binge watching netflix episodes, I should have studied for those 5 hours you wasted for your Biology test the next day. But even after all that distraction, you tended to receive decent amount of grades, but not that decent for you to be awarded with great scholarships, or been awarded an abundant amount of financial aid money. College life is great! The amount of parties, boys, especially the no parents part, don't let that get to you and divert all your attention away from academics. Learn to balance social and academics, because after college, you are on your own, you WILL BE an adult, and if you haven't done well in college..good luck.

I would tell myself to always keep my head up and don't give up on my goal. I would also tell myself to pick my friends based on a shared common interest, such as those who are equally driven to preform well in school and life.

I would tell myself to focus more on classes instead of social life. Social life is important, but class comes first. Your ultimate dream is to become a Nurse. The way to go about that is to focus on your studies, especially the science classes.

I would tell myself that college life is far from being the same as high school life. College will teach something that is valuable in life, time management. Once you gradfrom high school, things start to get a bit different. In the college life, you will not have mom and dad, so you have to make decision by yourself. You will not have a guidance counselor, that will set up your class schedule for you and will not be on your case when you have bad grades. The college life, is all about your judgement. You need to understand that getting good grades and maintaining those good grades will help you out in the future once you graduate. Because once you graduate, you need a job and for a job, you need recommendations from people. There is nobody better than a college professor giving you a job recommendation. So my final advice would be, BE READY.

I would tell myself to be more confident in my abilities. In highschool, I did not think that I was smart enough to attend college. I thought college was only for people who made straight A's. My brother was the only person I knew in college and he is the kind of person who is naturally super smart. In highschool, he never had to study for exams and continually recieved A's. I insecurely applied to UCF which was the same university my brother had attended. I was shocked and broke down in tears when I was accepted. Despite my lack of confidence coming out of highschool, and my fear of not being good enough for college, I have excelled at UCF! My hardwork and determination has resulted in my very succesful and high 3.9 GPA (which is higher than my brother's college GPA). I have more than conquered the fears I had about college during highschool. Now I confidently continue to better myself by conquering my fears and achieving my goals. Thus, I would advise my younger self to be confident in my abilities because I am smart enough to succeed in college and in life.

In one year, I went from being under my parent's rule to having complete freedom. I had arrived to the University of Central Florida to study film, but more importantly, I was free from my parent's reign. Free to do whatever I pleased. I could stay out as late as I wanted, eat whatever I wanted and do whatever I wanted. This sounded too good to be true. Naturally, I abused this power. Go clubbing till 3:00am on a Tuesday? Why not! Do it again four more times that week? Sure! Drink all night and eat an unhealthy amount of Big Macs? Definitely! It was mayhem. I still attended classes and received A's and B's, but I wasn't focused on the real point of college, which was to find my passion. Freshman year, I found my passion, screenwriting, but I didn't dive into it until the end of sophomore year due to my overconsumption of partying. Ever since, I haven't looked back. I love screenwriting and it now consumes me everyday. My advice to myself would be to immediately strive for your dream because it's more rewarding than any other feeling.