University of Portland Top Questions

Don't let planning get in the way of the present. As a high school senior there is so much pressure about what school you get accepted to, what scholarship you will receive, AP credits, SAT scores... the list goes on. Your calender is full of application due dates and deadlines, but make room for friends and activities. Savor your senior year, participate, and make those final memories! Don't forget to breath! During orientation weekend and during the entirety of your freshman year, participate in everything! That is how you make friends. Step out of your comfort zone and introduce yourself to new people. Everyone feels awkward. It just takes one person to break the ice. Be inclusive. Exchange numbers with those people who you meet and get a group together to go on an adventure. Everybody misses their friends back home and is looking for new a new group to fill that gap. The time is now! Don't wait to try new things, meet new people, or get involved! Your time in college will fly by! Enjoy your new found freedom, call your parents, make memories, and live it up! Always remember... YOU GOT THIS!

I know it doesn’t seem like it now, but everything will be okay. I promise. I know you’re stressed out about getting good grades in all your classes and worried that your GPA will drop, but please just stop and take a deep breath. Look how far you have come. Remember when you were a freshman and you had the same worries? Remember what happened? You overcame them and in the end everything worked out the way you wanted. I know that you don’t know what you want to do with your life just yet. You want to hear a secret though? No one ever does. Just let life take you where it wants because you were put on this earth for a reason and there will come the day when you figure out why. For now, just enjoy the time you have; you will miss it. You will look back and regret all the opportunities you missed and be disappointed by how much time you spent worrying. You are only a senior in high school once. While school is important, make yourself your first priority. Learn to live your life and not just exist in it.

College is a special experience that everyone should get a chance to partake in. I would tell my high school senior self that the transition I am about to experience will come and go in the blink of an eye. You will also no longer have anyone to tell you what to do. This may sound like a dream come true at first but it won't take long for you to realize that your parents deserve a huge thank you. Afterall, they are the ones who have had the patience to prepare you for solving your own problems and making yourself into the smart, independent young adult that college requires you to be. In order to survive the college experience, you have to go into it with the willingness to work really hard and put yourself out there. You should work hard for not only your family but yourself. When things get stressful, just remind yourslef how far you have come. Also, realize that this is a rare opportunity to meet so many different kinds of people. You know you have found the right combination when they not only enhance your social life but challenge you academically as well.

Given the opportunity to go back in time and give myself advice, I would have to, first and foremost, encourage myself to continue on with the hard work that I put in to high school. I would tell myself to continue on developing this work-ethic, because it will follow you throughout college and straight into the rest of your life. The hard work that you put in now will pay off. Not only because it will help you get into a wonderful college, but also becasue it will expand your abilities once you are there. In college, this work ethic will allow you to learn with your head, heart and hands in a way that is fulfilling and enlightening. With this fulfillment and enlightenment, you can become good at whatever it is you do, and you can turn your lifelong career into a lifelong vocation; doing what it is you want to do and what makes you happy by intersecting your enjoyment and your job. I would tell myself this with the hope that I would not only continue this hard work, but also find myself and build on my strengths to reach my potential level of happiness.

Do not be afraid of who you are! Nobody cares what you do and how you look. Be yourself and people will see that shine through your actions more than anything else. Be friendly and remember the names of the students around you at the beginning of the school year by introducing yourself. Take as many credits as possible freshman year! You will have so much free time and by junior year when you try to double major in finance and accounting you will thank yourself for making the final years less time consuming. Get to know every professor that you have. They will help you in any way necessary to get you into study abroad programs and many intership opportunities. Wear more professional looking attire and stand up straight when you walk. People will see the confidence that you have and show you more respect. Be involved as much as possible freshman year. Try to meet new people and experience all the opportunities that are given to you. College life goes by fast, and I mean FAST! Take advatage of your classes because before you know it, you will be in the real world working a full time job!

If I could offer some advice to my former self as a high school student, and I had to offer some advice to myself, I feel that I alreday know what I would say. For me it is simple, I would tell myself to not be afraid. Before going to college, I left my house at 17 and moved out of state. I was nervous about starting college and I am not as sociable as people tend to think. I would tell my former self to get out of your comfort zone, go out to dances, movie nights, dorm activities. I never did this as a underclassman and still do not. I still wonder what it would be like had I been more social and made more friends, rather than sitting in my room saturday night doing homework.

If I could go back in time and give advice to myself as a high school senior, the one thing I would tell myself is to be brave. College can be a scary place for a small town girl. But college is about taking chances, meeting new people, and pushing your limits. Be brave and have lunch with a complete stranger. Be brave and try something new like rock climbing or skiing. Be brave and take challenging courses that push you to become a better student. College is an exciting opportunity, but you will miss out on so much if you aren't brave enough to try new things.

Looking back to myself in high school, I wish I would have taken school more seriously and put in the effort I do now in college. As a senior, I thought my grades were not that important. When I entered into college, I was shocked by the amount of work I had to put into my studies, including reading and just preparing for lectures. The hours I put into studying for exams far exceeded my expectations. Professors say that for every one credit, you need to put in three hours of studying. With that, I spent a significant amount of my weekdays and weekends studying for classes. If I would have taken high school more seriously, I think I would be better prepared for my schooling.

My advice to my senior self are get involved, apply for summer internships, and apply for scholarships early! Although time management is possibly the most difficult transition into college, there is always time for a one hour club meeting each week. The trick is finding a club that interests you with people who interest you too; that way the meetings become a social event, not a chore. Furthermore, I would recommend joining campus-run service projects whenever possible. It took me two years to go on an immersion trip with my school and I have now created some of my most lasting friendships from each trip thereafter. Also relating to time management, my favorite excuse for not applying for scholarships and internships was not having the time. But when you reach your junior year and realize how much debt you’ve accumulated, you’ll find the time and wish you had done the same earlier. This is also when you realize you need to decide what you actually want to do out of college and if you haven’t had an internship yet, it is much more difficult to decipher what you’re interested in doing and where to apply.

Think big. Yes, shoot for the stars, and dream without limits, but think big. While looking at colleges and a career and the rest of your life, it's not about trying to figure out the little details, it's about focusing on the big picture. Don't stress over which college to select and how much money it will cost and all the small factors that are so easily changed. Set your eyes on the goal and as long as you keep moving towards it, the little things will fall into place. My advice to you is not to forget about college application deadlines and not to think about which classes to take each semester, but my advice is to remember that these things are not what is important. Getting an education and continuing with college is a great thing, but it is important to remember why you're doing it. When all the classes you needed are filled up and you feel like there is no way to finish all of your homework and keep on going, think big. You are on the right journey that will get you where you're going. Stay strong and good luck.