Washington University in St Louis Top Questions

If I could go back in time and talk to myself as a high school senior, the first advice I would give to myself would be to be yourself and follow your heart--academically and socially. I have spent 2 years of my college career bouncing between majors only to end up as a Comparative Literature major (with a double major in Marketing)---the major I originally told myself I couldn't major in because my parents didn't approve and because I would never find a job with a literature major. Socially, it is important to be yourself always but specifically in college because you are just beginning to define who you are. This definition of yourself will affect the genuineness of your future friendships. If you are genuine to yourself, others will be genuine in their friendships to you. Secondly, I would remind my high school self that finding a balance between following your passions and being realistic is important to collegiate success. Following your passions blindly is easy, following your passions with goals for the future takes talent and practice but will ultimately pay off post-graduation.

I would tell myself to always be patient. Patience has been a hard lesson for me to learn. I have had to endure my insufficiency it seemed while all the while I was growing and toughening up and wisening up. I would also tell myself that the growing pains would come and that they would be brutal and that I would have to push through them. I have learned as much about myself in the past 2 years as I did throughout the rest of my life. I have seen how I handle stress, how I handle failure and how I handle success and I have realized most of all that I really have not felt what it's like to try and not succeed and try again before coming to college. I would tell myself also to keep my top priorities my top priorities. I have neglected many important things in my life since coming to college and it has done me no good. A happy Allan is the best Allan and that a troubled self is too high a price to pay for academick success. Lastly, I would tell myself that there is nothing I cannot do.

Don’t be so afraid. Yea, it’s nice to have a general idea of what you want to study, but it's important to enjoy your last summer before you become a full-fledged independent adult. I know it’s terrifying to have to leave the comfort of home but know that it’s for the better. You will meet fantastic new people that will become some of your closest friends that you enjoy being with. Don’t be shy. Jump right into it. College provides you with so many opportunities to get involved with the community. Take advantage of it! Find a nice balance between clubs, leadership activities, sports, and your studies. Don’t psych yourself out. Relax. There are quite of few things to be done before you take that final step out of Mom and Dad’s car. Take it easy and don’t freak out about preparation. Plan it out and enjoy preparing for your new life. Challenge yourself. Don’t take classes because they’re easy. Select classes that interest you regardless of difficulty. Have fun. You’re a college student now. College is an experience, learn from it.

Don't be afraid to go out and introduce yourself to random people. The first few days everyone (for the most part) is in the exact same spot as you. They don't really know many people, and they're simply looking to make friends. If you actually make the effort to go and introduce yourself to random people and get their numbers, you make friends a lot easier than if you just stick to your roomate like I did for my first few days. The second thing, as cheezy as this sounds is just be yourself. If you try to kind of ease your personality on people and be the kind of person you "think" they want you to be, you'll be 1) super unhappy and 2) stuck with friends that may not be people you want to be around or people with similar interests. If you're just your weird, crazy self, you'll meet other people that love being around you for it, and you'll soon find out that those people will become some of your closest friends. Oh also, this is the big leagues, not high school. You actually have to study.

Become self-reliant. There is only so much others can do for you, and there eventually comes the time when you must act for yourself. This applies to all aspects of life, and internalizing this mindset couldn't hurt more than taking the SAT just one more time (provided ScoreChoice is allowed). A looming issue you may face is the personal essay for college applications. It would absolutely not help your cause to ask everyone for suggestions and input. Outside feedback can be helpful, but do not cave in to the impressions that people impose on you. No one is the better expert on you than yourself; friends, teachers and parents can only know so much about the individual Jeffrey Gu. Moreover, there is more to life than suffering over applications day and night. You might forget that, while you may be qualified for college on paper, you may not necessarily be ready in truth. When was the last time you cooked something edible? When last did you take on responsibility for yourself? How often have you managed your time, or followed through with your commitments? So please consider the above. I suspect I'm a reliable source of advice.

I would tell myself that failure isn't always failure. Success isn't just measured by making the best grade in the class or by making all A grades like I thought in high school. Yes, those things are important, but there are so many more opportunities to learn about yourself and to build relationships with others in college that sometimes might cause you to not study as much as you'd like for that test, and in return, to make a bad grade. Have that late night conversation in Bears Den (dining hall) about religion and politics and whatever else comes up. Take the time out to play in the snow and go sledding during the first big snowfall of the year - it doesn't snow in Texas, so enjoy the experience! Don't turn down the chance to traverse the city with your best friend looking for Wal-Mart at midnight. What's most important is to make sure you're learning at every opportunity you have.

Hey I'm you from the future, it's time to get your act together and stop playing games. College is no joke young lady, take it from me I'm in college and it's a whole other world compared to high school. There's no mommy and daddy to run to when things get out of hand, in college everything is going to fall on your shoulders. Whether you like it or not, once you cross that stage in June, you're on your own, its the real world and it's time to grow up. Take this advice and apply to your everyday life and every decision you make. Its time to step up and accept the fact that you're a woman and you should be acting like one. Well it's nice to see my high school and I hope that what I've told you somehow changes the future I'm about to go back to.

Ditch your history major, and replace it with a psychology major. You'll thank me in a few years. Study hard, and take linear algebra. Take HIstory of Gender in the 1950s. Then seek out the new assistant professor in personality. Trust me, that class and he will make your career. Enjoy yourself and stay healthy. Remember to seek out the social behavior lab. Do it. Get involved in all the research you can. You'll discover that you're addicted to it.

Dear Julia, You need to stop worrying. Stop worrying that things won't work out--that you'll make the wrong choice of college or won't fit in. Things will change, that's life. You know all that stuff that seemed so important for the past few years: GPA, ACT score, AP tests? Well they won't matter all that much once you get to college. So stop worrying about them. Also, stop being so hard on yourself. You've got it. You're in a great place. In fact, you've got money and privilege that you're pretty unaware of. You'll become aware of it in college and, you know what, you'll handle it pretty well, too. So don't worry about that either. In fact, stop worrying about yourself at all. Start looking around you more. Start opening your eyes. There are some pretty great people and places out there that you haven't experienced yet because you're too busy worrying about yourself. In the end, some things will go well and some things won't. Don't worry about that either. Chin up! -Julia

To remember always, the great author Mark Twain's thought provoking qoute ..."I never let my schooling interfere with my education." On first reading it, it appeared to be an oxymoron, but on further study it was eye opening and created a sea change in my outlook on schooling. On this treadmill we call life at school where each week we are given multiple test and we are graded and the question of what we have learnt seem lost in the more pressing goal of getting a high GPA has made many students, myself included, focus more on passing the test than in learning valuable lessons from highly educated professors I cite an articule in one of the major newspapers where a grad student with a 4.0 GPA in finance, graduating from an ivy league university who was mired in $250,000 in debt was unable to secure employment. When one of the finance companies that turned down the student was asked by the newspaper why, they cited the student debt as the reason. I qoute "who would want someone who could not handle their personal finances managing theirs or the company's would you? So now I learn.

During my second semester senior year and the summer, I slacked off because I was stressed out about the college application process and I was finally done with everything. Because of this long-lasted relaxation, it was difficult for me to start "studying" during the first semester of freshmen year in college. Even though college is the time for all of us to have fun and meet new people, it is time for us to transition to the real world and think about our future as adults. This pressured me to meet more people, engage in many activities, and focus on my studies. In order to keep up with all these, first of all, I need to be healthy. Freshmen fifteen is not an overstatement. It definitely happens to EVERYONE. So, I would try to keep myself fit and work out constantly. Moreover, I need to be diligent and make that as a habit so that I'd be ready to do something wherever I go. Also, since meeting new people is necessary, I would do lots of brave, interesting and crazy things during the summer so that I would have lots to talk about to new people I meet.

Work hard and don't get discoureged even if you may falter at times. Do not be afraid to utilize the resources on campus to seek help with a class, including and most importantly going to your professors office hours. Be careful how much of the good food you eat, as the extra calories show when you spend most of your time studying. Most importantly take the time to build strong lasting bonds, do not become romatically involved and push your friends away. And lastly- It's completley ok not to know what you want to do. Try diffrent classes, change majors. Love what you do because that is going to be the rest of your life.

If I could talk to my high school senior self, I would give a few pieces of advice. While I thought I would not be able to academically succeed in college, I was much better prepared than I thought, coming from a top ranked high school with many advanced placement classes. The fact that all homework truly aids my learning makes the workload more approachable. I had heard horror stories of college students being too competitive to help each other and some even giving others the wrong homework information on purpose. This could not be more false--there are many student-run tutoring programs and there exists a general sense of helpfulness among young adults striving for higher education. There are so many opportunities to become an involved community member that building a resume almost happens without trying. On a different note, partying is a popular topic to talk about going into college. While many students do drink, the amount and consistency are definitely up to the individual, and drugs are not nearly as common as many think; both of these statements are true for my experience and many of my friends', but they cannot stand for all schools.

“Create your own happiness” was not a mantra I had always lived by. In high school I lived in my own bitter world, one that transcended to my freshman year of community college. I went through the same motions as high school, kept my head down, as I told myself to just get good grades and get out. Interaction with my classmates and with my school was something that did not interest me, I had decided that community college was just another wall keeping me from my bigger dreams. Now I would tell my high school self that community college is a stepping stone, not a toxic quicksand. I would have told myself that community college gave me time to save money, money that allowed me the opportunity to afford to do an unpaid internship in New York. Instead of the opportunities I thought I would miss out on by staying home for a few more years, I was able to gain insight into what path I really wanted to follow. Once I opened myself up to my peers and joined clubs, I recognized happiness is not where you seek it, happiness is where you create your dreams.

My best advice would be to find a good work/ fun balance. During the early part of the semester, I was so overwhelmed by my workload that I didn't leave any time to relax, and I ended up getting sick and burning out. In the later part of the semester, I tried to have more fun: I joined the ultimate frisbee team, started going to the gym more, and spent more time relaxing with friends. At times it can seem like grades are the most important thing in your life, but that's not what you'll remember years down the road. Furthermore, you simply cannot work without a break for the whole semester, it's not humanly possible and it certainly is not what college is about. One of my best memories is staying up till 4 am on a school night talking with friends about movies, music and hot celebrities. Maybe it wasn't the most responsible choice, but it was worth it and I have no regrets. Make sure to look out for those moments and embrace them.

College life is full of opportunities, so take the time to get to know yourself so you can take full advantage of the wealth of options in college. Work hard in class, not for the grade but to enjoy the subject matter—learning out of true interest will take the grit out of studying. Do not be afraid of hard work, chase after your passions, and take advantage of any extra time you have: explore more careers, explore your community. Expect to devote more of your time to friendships than you ever have before; you will live with your friends, so the line between “work” and “play” will become blurred. In college, you will have to learn to draw those lines for yourself. Your place of abode (dormitory) may be conducive to studying, but at any time, a buddy can pass by and stick their head in your room, perhaps glimpsing in for a brief two seconds to greet you, perhaps staying two minutes for a quick chat, perhaps settling in two hours for a great conversation. However, pursue your interests, be passionate, be purposeful, manage your time, and success will not be far off.

Apply to a broader range of schools and think past playing college athletics. Think about what you like learning and not so much about what people want you to learn. Understand you can have a good time anywhere you go as long as you find something you like about that campus, city, or environment. Ask more questions to your counselors, teachers, and peers about different types of schools and go to more college informational sessions. Start applying early and do not get complacent just because you got into one school. Most of all, a rejection is not the end of the world.

I would tell myself to relax more and not worry as much because I'm bound to get into college anyway and I've worked hard to get where I am now. No matter where I got in and no matter where I went, I would find a way to like it and make the best of it. I would tell myself to always keep my eyes on the goal ahead of me and always remember what I want to get out of being a college student, without forgetting to make new friends and sacrificing happiness for grades. It's okay to go out and explore everything your freshman year because that's what they want you to do and you might open your eyes to new things that you might like, but make sure that when it comes to studying you know your limits and not to overcommit. Don't be afraid to try new things, and don't be afraid of the future.

Don't sweat the small stuff. College will always present new challenges, and living on your own has plenty of surprises. You'll never survive if you let the little things get to you. The purpose of college is not only to learn in the classroom, but to discover who you really are and develop yourself as an adult. If you allow insignificant details to hold you back, you'll never know your true potential. Give yourself a break every once in a while. I know it may be tempting to take on every opportunity you run across, but if you spread yourself too thin, you can't perform your best. You've got at least four years to experiment, so take the time to enjoy college. It very well may be the best time of your life.

I would tell myself two things: be yourself, and take your time. When I was in high school, I was extremely driven, very involved, and generally felt I was one of the more successful students in my high school. However, when I got to college, I realized that everyone else was exactly the same. At first, this was intimidating. People were immediately throwing themselves in to extra carricular activities and pursuing courses they thought were "necessary" to be successful. They assumed that overwhelming themselves with work and clubs equalled success. This frenzy threw me slightly off guard, and I fell to the background. Eventually I realized that this was ok. It gave me time to discover what I really cared about, and what I really wanted to study. It was not until my sophomore year that I started to get involved, and I could not be happier with how it turned out. I am extremely passionate about everything I am pursuing, and I am extremely busy in the best way possible, as opposed to feeling overwhelmed and unenthusiastic. So my advice is this: relax, take care of yourself, and do what makes you feel good.