Kent State University at Ashtabula Top Questions

I would tell myself to make sure that there is a decent job market for whatever field I plan to study. I need to make sure that there will always be a job market in my career choice and that no matter where I move there will be a need for whatever I chose to do. I need to make sure to always apply myself and get the most I can out of every class so that I have all the skills and knowledge to be highly marketable.

As a high school senior I was more focused on playing basketball in college, talking to girls, and going to parties than I was about attending classes and studying hard. As a freshman in college at the age of 18, I didn't take my classes seriously and I was forced to drop out and become a union steel worker in order to financially support myself and my family. As a high school senior, if I knew how important college was, I would have taken my education more seriously. Life would have been a lot easier if I would have graduated college in my early twenties instead of having to start back at college at the age of 28. I never understood what a privilege college was until I was forced to go into hard labor. I now understand that college is a gift and that my education is one of the most important things that I can work towards in my life. If I took my education seriously coming out of high school, I could have been working as a nurse for at least 10 years instead of just starting nursing classes 10 years later.

Do not quit. Stick with it. It is so much harder to complete when you are in your 30s and have to work for a living. Do not get frustrated. It is going to be hard, but worth it. Studying is boring, but necessary. Get involved. And most importantly NEVER GIVE UP.

The advice I would give myself if I could go back in time would be to listen to my elders. When I was in high school I thought that all the speakers that came in and spoke with my fellow classmates and I, I thought they were just telling us what they wanted our teacher's to hear. I thought they were lying about the transition from high school to college. But now that I know they were right, I wish I would have listened and asked questions. They all were very knowledgable and compassionate to education. I did not take them seriously, but I wish I would have. I would love to go back to different high schools as a speaker and tell them my story. Also, I would love to mention how these speakers are being honest and to appreciate what knowledge they are sharing. Speakers like them do not have to take time out of their day to speak with high school student. They do because they care for the students' future.

Knowing what I know now about college life, I would definitely encourage my high school self to seriously consider attending college. I would point out that only just over 30{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of Americans have a bachelor’s degree. Even though it seems like everybody’s going off to college, not everybody is. Earning a degree will be a good example of that “not quite fitting in with everybody” feeling that you are starting to feel. Also, after having lived for 5 years on wages that I earned with only a vocational education, I will explain how much easier it is to live on the higher wages that you are pretty much guaranteed to be paid after earning a college degree. I am not a person that requires much money to get by, but with a college degree the money that I do earn will be of a higher amount and that will make bills easier to pay and I will be able to take better vacations. I will remind myself how much I enjoy reading and learning, and so I will enjoy the college experience.

Knowing what I know now, back then would be a great advantage. I would tell myself focus more on school work and less on socializing, I would let myself know the guy I was dating was a loser and a waste of time. I would have continued the conversation with myself by summing up everything that has happened in my life since that point in time, proceed to insult myself and inform myself I need to study more because my grades weren't what they could've been. After saying all that to myself, I would hope that I listened.

If I could I would go back in time and slap some sense into my high school self. As a high school senior I was still undecided about my college plans, I was not keen to the idea of picking something that I was going to have to do forever. My biggest fear was I would wake up in ten years and complete the same mundane task day after day. Here I am three years later with goals and dreams I never would have imagined as a senior in high school. If I could get my hands on a delorian, magic genie, or even a time traveling phone booth I would give my highly nieve senior self some life changing advice. I would start by telling younger me to calm down, take a breath and relax; every other senior is just as worried as you are. A main push I would give to my senior self would be applying for financial aid early; you are not the only struggling kid in America, and the longer you wait the more the fund become depleated. Finally I would tell myself to have fun, explore and enjoy the best years of your life.

I would tell myself to wake up and focus. I would tell myself to think ahead. I was young and did not think of my future. I am a 31 year old college senior and a married mother of two. I think if I have been focused in my classwork as a high schooler I would have my college degree by now. I think if I would have know the imporatnce of an education, I could already be in my career. My family would have more now if I was working in my career chioce and not in the unskilled laborforce. I would also tell myself that the hardwork will pay off. I would tell myself that I enjoy learning and attending college. Attending high school is not a chioce but, attending college is. The chioce of higher education has been a rewarding and postive choice that has changed my life for the better. I would tell myself that I feel great and have an open mind now. College has changed me into a better person.

I would advise myself to not worry too much about life at college. Its not like high school; the people there are far more mature, and drama is all but non-existant. Therefore, you won't have to worry about the normal stresses of high school life, and have far more energy focused on your studies.

If I could back and talk to myself I would definately have a discussion about taking math classes to help with my career choice later in life for college. I would also have a discussion about waiting until after college to start a family and to not marry someone who is not my best friend. I would also tell myself to figure out sooner what I want to do as a career and head down the path the first time the right way instead of taking four years to decide what to do then I would not have to worry about trying to figure out ways to pay for my PHD now. There are many things I would go back and tell myself but the main would be to figure out early in college what I want to do and take that path.

If I was able to go back to 2009 when I was a senior in high school I would have told myself to take my actual schoolwork more seriously. I would have forced myself to stay awake in class and actually listen to what the teachers were saying instead of worrying about who i'd be hanging out with after school and counting the minutes until that period was over. After you graduate who you were in highschool, what you did, the rumors, the drama... none of it matters anymore. What does matter is the information your teachers tried so hard to get into your head while you were too worried about anything and everything BUT school. When I started classes at Kent I remember being really nervous because I was constantly comparing it to highschool and the good grades i was never able to achieve, after being there for a few weeks i realized that i could make it so much more by being proactive, paying attention in class, finishing my homework and over all basically doing the opposite of everything I did in highschool which I have greatly benefited from.

I am twenty-six-years-old and I finally decided to go to college. I applied once when I was twenty but didn't go through with it. Why? Because I was homeschooled and the idea of school frightened me. I wasted so many years with that fear, struggling with it, rolling it around in my mind. After eight years, I finally got up the courage to go and it is the best thing I ever did. If I could go back in time and talk to my high school self, I would tell myself that yes, it is hard, but it isn't as scary as I thought. It is a wonderful social and learning experience; more than I could have ever hoped for. I would tell myself to swallow my fear and take that leap because those are years that I will never get back.

Looking at college through the eyes of a high school student can vary upon many different things. It was a place for me to establish my social status, rather than my education. I eventually became bored of this mentality, mainly because I could not learn the things I wanted, and I was always being told what to do and how to do it. With that being said, I imagined that college could only be the same stagnancy as high school, and I felt I could achieve anything I desired without college. If I could talk to myself as a senior in high school, I would tell myself to completely oppose this way of thinking, and start thinking positively for a change. I would let myself know that I am a unique individual with a brain that is too important to waste and that nothing materialistic could triumph. Life is not just about survival and the items that temporarily fill the empty space around you. Life is about progress and human consciousness that differentiates us from the natural world of just merely existing. In college, I would be able to choose what I wanted to learn with little to no restrictions.

If I had the chance to talk to myself as a high school senior I'd tell myself three things. First, choose English as your major, its what you love, and what you will be successful in. Second, give every class your all. Once you finish a course, its done..and you do not want the disappointment in knowing that you have to repeat a class because you chose to not give an extra hour a day to study for your future. A semester is 16 short weeks! All it takes is a small amount of effort, to reach big dreams. And lastly..always, always, ALWAYS! Think for yourself. College is a time to discover who you are and where you will go..don't let an undeserving, unmotivated world bring you down. They're jealous of your ambitions and accomplishments. You're representing yourself, so do it right.

First things first, the illusive 4.0 is a great goal to have, but don’t beat yourself up if you get a “B”. Some classes are just that hard, and some teachers grade just as brutally. A few other things to keep in mind: As long as you do your personal best- don’t be disappointed. Life is tough. You are going to be stretched outside of college as much as you are in it. Take each class as its own challenge. Though the teacher may be the same, the course could be completely different. Also, take a look at what classes can apply toward any bachelor’s degree. You may know what you want now, but down the road, you will want to continue on. The worst thing is knowing that you took classes that don’t apply towards anything. And one last thing: if you happen to win some money… save it for your bachelor’s degree!

If I was able to talk to myself as a high school senior, I would tell myself to make sure to take college very seriously. It is so important to get a degree to have a successful career. I would tell myself how much harder it is to go back to college once you have had children so do not quit until you have that degree. I would tell myself that studying is more important than partying so don't get distracted by your social life. I would tell myself to be proud of myself for graduating high school and I you will be even more proud of yourself after graduating college.

Who knew that the transistion into college life would be such a difficult concept to grasp as a high school senior? With the experiences I have had going through this phase and all the work that goes with it I have learned many valuable lessons. If I could go back in time to the days I started talking about college, I would whisper in my own ear that the advice of others is perhaps one of the most valuable things to obtain. Those who are more experienced with this type of transistion have many excellent and helpful tips for making it easier, and as a senior in high school I never wanted to listen. I know now that had I listened, college life would have been much more simple and graceful for me to fall into. And the last piece of advice I would give to myself would definitly be to enjoy yourself, because semesters fly by and you will never want to take all the memories you make for granted!

If I could go back, I would tell myself to have more fun. I would have made more friends and gotten involved in more school activities. I would tell myself not to stress about not knowing what the right choices would be, and that everything would work out the way it was meant to be. I also would have told myself to get a head start on preparations and not wait for the last minute to decide on school choices and financial decisions. I would also tell myself to make the best decision for myself, and not for my family or friends.

I have learned a lot since I have graduated High School. I do not like to regret anything in life. I think you only live one life and you only have one chance to do it right. Making the transition was harder than I thought it would be. It was hard to have that extra time inbetween classes because I felt I had all the time in the world which would cause me to procrastinate. Eventually I learned to manage my time wisely. Then, my other concerns had to do with my studying skills which I still find myself working on. If I would have listened more and taken a couple extra different classes I would have been more prepared for what was to come in college. Although i know i have messed up before because of certain circumstances my family and I were in, I never think it is too late to fix mistakes and make yourself better. That is exactly what I plan to do no matter how much I may struggle to get there. I am super determined.