University of Iowa Top Questions

My high school experience was horrible. I carried so much shame around with me every day. Many nights I wished I would never wake up again. Their were so many sources of the shame: I was fat, I did not yet understand I am transgender and thought I was a failure for not understanding how to be a girl, and I performed poorly in school because of all this. Although I knew I was going to college, I had no clue what that would look like. The first thing I would do if I could connect with my 18 year old self would be to sit and listen. I would let myself rant and vent all the frustrations that bogged me down. And then I would hug myself because I so desperately craved physical contact with another human. Only after that would I give any advice. I would tell my young self, “It is going to be alright, but you first need to understand yourself. You need to let go of the self-hate and the confusion.” I would then silently hand myself a piece of paper with one word on it: “Transgender.”

Hi, myself. It's the last year in high school. It's time for you to prepare for college. I have a few advises for you, remember to do it. First, do not choose your major too fast, you could think about it. Ask everyone you think you could trust, see if they know anything about transfer. Do not try to do all things by yourself, you need help. Get prepared for the placement test, if you can get better grade, it's going to save your time. Be yourself, always try your best. Be friendly, you are going to meet some new friends. Apply for financial aids and registration as soon as possible. Find more about college, you need a lot of information, teachers can help you. Enjoy your senior year.

If I could go back and give myself advise about making an adjustment to college life this is what I would tell myself.......The first thing I would tell myself is find a career that I love a career that you would wake up and do for free. I would explain that we as humans were not put on earth to be unhappy and miserable but we were put on earth to be happy. The college journey will be a tough road ahead with road blocks and curves along the way but the journey is what molds us to the people we are today. I would stress to give 100{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of yourself to school work. Don't just go to school to get a degree but go to school to be the best in your field. Don't be afraid of success and most important don't let people before you that couldn't make it because the road to success was too hard for them. Your going to want to be successful more then you want to breath I would. Thats what I would tell myself If I could go back and guide myself to the future.

Without question the most important thing I would impress upon my younger self would be to continue my education. I graduated High School in 2001, attended college for one semester, got discouraged and left. That is the ONLY regret I have in my life. At the age of 29 with two children I decided to go back and learn the skills necessary to do what I have always wanted to do, computer programming and web development. I have been a self-proclaimed geek for my entire life and love tinkering with code. I’ve always wanted to do that for a living but never had the training or degree needed to be employed as a code monkey. Most people would find it boring, but the idea of going to work and sitting behind a screen geeking out on thousands of lines of code makes me smile. So, to my younger self I would say two things “Don’t quit on your education and dream, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are going to win the Super Bowl this year.”

With every decision you make, choose what makes you happy. The relationships you form with yourself and others are the most important things you have.

Advice that I would give myself as a high school senior would be to plan out your weeks and months ahead time. Doing so would allow you join some more clubs, take some pressure off of the academics and ulitimately just enjoy your time in college. You are at college to earn an education but at the same time you need to network with other people and begin to stabilize yourself for when you graduate. Finally the last and most important piece of advice I can offer would be to put in the work now so you can enjoy life later.

I would tell myself to buckle down even more than I was. I realize now that my lack of studying has possibly not gotten me prepared for the difficult course work ahead. I would tell myself that college will be a growing experience and that I should not fear the unexpected, but embrace it. College will be some of the best years of my life and I would let my younger self know that what people think of me in highschool will not matter when I get to college. I would tell myself to immerse myself more in clubs and activities in school so I can get to know more people and prepare myself for being in a new state without anybody I know.

The best advice I could give my high school self would be "be yourself." I found during my freshman year that I was being very shy and timid around others, which caused me to not make very many friends for over half of the year. I've always been quiet around people I don't know, but truth is, I'm a talkative, friendly person! I believe that being myself could have allowed me to make more friends and not get homesick so often. The last two months of school, I finally found a group of friends and I'm not afraid to be myself around them. By the end of the year, instead of crying to go home, I was crying because I didn't want to go home. Even though it sounds cliche, being yourself is so much easier than being someone you're not.

Dear High School self, I know your glad to be done with high school and it seems like its taken so long to get this far, but trust me when I say, this coming year is going to be the hardest school year of all. School has not always come easy to you, and I know you’ve had to work incredibly hard, especially your senior year, but what you’re going to face in the fall will change your perspective on all of that. Your going to find a passion in nursing that will motivate you to get through all of the exams, drug quizzes, finals, and clinical days. I advise you to remind yourself every day how much you love what your going to do and how it will help those in need, it’s the only way you’ll get through the next year. I would remind you to keep a level head and stay focused but you wouldn’t have gotten this far if you were not already doing that. All that really matters is remembering what your goals and dreams are, and being willing to work as hard as you can to achieve them.

To not underestimate the difficulty of college coursework. During high school I got straight A's without even studying but you cannot get by that way in college. It is competative and you must work hard from the start or you will spend the rest of your college career trying to pull your G.P.A. up.

I would tell myself to make the most of my college experience. To start out finding a group that fits me best, one that enjoys social life but takes care of business in the classroom and libraries first. I knew attractive women that had fun but made sure their schoolwork was complete first. I look back and think about how if I had dated one of them, I would have had more motivation to do well. I would also suggest to myself to seek school sponsored tutoring departments so that if something came up, and I needed assistance with it, I would know where to go. The other issue for me was financial aid. I did work-study because my family could not afford to pay for my tuition. I would tell me now to work minimal hours but to keep in mind that if I increased my GPA, I could earn more money for school than working 20 hours a week at a dead-end job.

Do not hold back on your dreams or curiosities for your friends. Overall, going to college with or without your oldest friends will be an amazing and memorable experience. Plan ahead and apply for scholarships, work and save money, and be yourself. Be open-minded to learning and experiencing new things but do not forget who you are. Your individuality is what will create the strongest attractions and friendships in yoru life. Lastly, apply yourself and learn how to study before you get to college and give everything you do your best effort.

Trying to find alternate ways to pay for college I joined the Marines right after high school. Here I picked up many great time management skills and habits that helped me out on the day to day duties. But after inspections, deployments and training evolutions I had failed to use my time management skills for the one thing I had set out in mind to do with my time in the service. To get a head start on my education, and take online classes. Now after my transition from active duty military to student veteran I can see how easy it would have been to just take one class each semester and over a period of a 5 year enlistment it would of added up to a good amount of credits ahead of the game, farther than I would be where I am now in my third semester. So walking back home from the last day of high school next to my younger self I would tell myself to better occupy the spare time I will encounter, to start college as soon as possible because it can be done and would help me by being farther ahead in college.

Dear High School Me, Relax, have fun, and be yourself. You will never forget this time of your life. Going out of your way to fit with a crowd is not worth your time. Once college comes around, you will start to realize what kind of person you really are; you are independent, strong, and hard working. Remember that your family will always be there for you. The transition to college life will be hard but worth it. Keep in contact with those closest to you, and always tell them how grateful you are to have them in your life. You will need the shoulders to lean on. Always tell them how much they mean to you. Don’t forget that school work is important. That grade point really will help you in the future and so will those tests that you stressed about. Plain and simple, college is hard. The tests are hard. The homework is hard. But you can do it, I promise. Keep that goal of yours in mind, you will one day be that nurse that you’ve always dreamt of becoming. Enjoy every bit you have left. Have confidence in your future. Sincerely, College Me

My advice to myself would be to be more prepared for all the challenges that students are faced with; big or small. There are things that you will face in the future that will test you but no matter what there are people and friends there to help you. Also do not hold back on what you do in life. Never second guess yourself or worry what someone will think; its better to be yourself. Ask questions. If you want to know something speak up because you never know what you might be missing. Engage in as much as you can because it will open many doors for you and lead you to new things that you might enjoy. Most importantly think for yourself and do not let others tell you what you need to do or what you should be doing with your life; you have to be independant and make the decisions that are best for you.

College is not high school. I breezed by in high school without much effort and graduated with honors. I thought I could do that when I started school here and was sorely disappointed. My first semester freshman year wasn't bad because I took a few seminars (I highly recommend looking into first-year seminars. They are really fun and are only available to freshmen so take them while you can) and had lucked out with other relatively easy classes. I was able to keep a pretty good GPA without too much studying, but the next semester really kicked my butt. My GPA took a sizable hit and I almost lost a pretty big scholarship. The best way to approach college is to work hard and study hard so you know what it takes to get the grade you want (instead of going easy and then working your butt off at the end to make up lost points) and then adjust your study habits to what works best for you and what you need to do to get the GPA you want. Regardless of where you decide to go to school, the best way that you can get to know people is to keep your door open in the residence halls. It's impossible for people in the hallway not to look through an open doorway when they walk by and it's impossible for you not to look when you see someone walk past the open door. You will get to know the people on your floor and in your hall so much faster this way and a lot of these people will become your friends for the rest of college and life. Also, there are lots of Cambus routes and the most confusing ones are Blue Route and Red Route. Just remember that when you're at the Pentacrest (grassy area with 5 buildings, hence the name, including the Old Capitol) BLUE goes to BURGE and RED goes to RIENOW. Knowing that will help you more than you know in your first few weeks.

College is not high school. I breezed by in high school without much effort and graduated with honors. I thought I could do that when I started school here and was sorely disappointed. My first semester freshman year wasn't bad because I took a few seminars (I highly recommend looking into first-year seminars. They are really fun and are only available to freshmen so take them while you can) and had lucked out with other relatively easy classes. I was able to keep a pretty good GPA without too much studying, but the next semester really kicked my butt. My GPA took a sizable hit and I almost lost a pretty big scholarship. The best way to approach college is to work hard and study hard so you know what it takes to get the grade you want (instead of going easy and then working your butt off at the end to make up lost points) and then adjust your study habits to what works best for you and what you need to do to get the GPA you want. Also, there are lots of Cambus routes and the most confusing ones are Blue Route and Red Route. Just remember that when you're at the Pentacrest (grassy area with 5 buildings, hence the name, including the Old Capitol) BLUE goes to BURGE and RED goes to RIENOW. Knowing that will help you more than you know in your first few weeks.

College is not high school. I breezed by in high school without much effort and graduated with honors. I thought I could do that when I started school here and was sorely disappointed. My first semester freshman year wasn't bad because I took a few seminars (I highly recommend looking into first-year seminars. They are really fun and are only available to freshmen so take them while you can) and had lucked out with other relatively easy classes. I was able to keep a pretty good GPA without too much studying, but the next semester really kicked my butt. My GPA took a sizable hit and I almost lost a pretty big scholarship. The best way to approach college is to work hard and study hard so you know what it takes to get the grade you want (instead of going easy and then working your butt off at the end to make up lost points) and then adjust your study habits to what works best for you and what you need to do to get the GPA you want.

If I could go back in time and talk to myself as a senior in high school, I would give myself advice I had otherwise never been given. I would tell myself to take the time and choose the right college, instead of going to the cheaper one. I would tell myself that it's better to be happy where you attend school, because if you're not happy, you're less likely to attend class. I would tell myself that applying for scholarships before you even know if you're accepted to college is never a bad thing. If I could give myself advice when I was a high school senior, I would tell myself that I'm awesome. I would remind myself that I have succeeded in so many things- numerous musicals, the lead role in the senior musical, secretary of the drama club, high ratings at state vocal contests, national honor society, excellent grades, cheerleading captain- and that relaxing never killed anybody. If I could go back to my senior year and give myself advice, I would tell myself that all the effort I put into everything I was doing would pay off in the long-run.

I understand how hard it is to stay focused right now. In high school, it was more challenging to skip class and your parents got your report card. You'll find in college, they won't call your parents when you skip class or don't do your work. You fail. You're paying for these classes; and books are expensive. If you don't pass, you end up with nothing but a low GPA. If I could tell you anything, it is to stay focused. If you're schedule makes you feel so overwhelmed that you feel you must skip class, then one of the classes later, when you can be more focused. I know there is pressure to be full time, but it's not worth it if you can't give the class all you are worth. I know you don't know which direction to go, you'll find it. Those general education classes will help you figure out you'll be a nurse. You're determination will lead you to be a trauma nurse; and you're going to be a great one. Keep that GPA up; we need it where we are going.