What are some advices a college student can give to a high school student planning to attend college?

College will be a completely new and different beast compared to high school. Depending on if you are leaving home, it might be the first time you’ll experience freedom from your parents, which can be both scary and exhilarating. While there is still some level of structure, as a college student you must have cultivated a strong work ethic, good time management skills, and diligent study habits in order to succeed. Additionally, don’t be afraid to set up times to meet with your professors for advice or future guidance. You’ll be spending four years (possibly) with some incredibly brilliant minds, and it is extremely beneficial to not only glean advice from your professors, but to have a good relationship with them. And if you have any plans or ideas to pursue grad school, you’ll need some stellar recommendations from them. I will also say it’s considerably easier to become close to your professors at a smaller college, rather than a large state school. Good luck with your studies!

Remember why you are starting college. My best advice is to stay dedicated. As a premed student, your academic career is the most important aspect of your life during this time. Becoming a physician, like pediatrician, is a long road and that is very much challenging and rewarding. It takes a special person and courage to pursue it. My advice is to get involved in the community, go to every class, network with professors (ask them questions, show initiative), get involved in research. Understand that in pursuit of this field, you may have to decline parties to study for an exam. This is how dedicated you must be. Use a planner! You can have a life outside medicine, just critique your time management. Always make time for your self. Also one really good study tip which has lead me to having a competitive GPA, is to buy a big white board, after class go home and pretend you are teaching the class, rewrite your notes on it. I had mine right at the foot of my bed so that when I woke up it was the first thing I saw and when I went to bed it was the last thing I saw. Repetition learning is shown to improve comprehension! Good luck and congratulations on want to pursue medicine!

First off, Congratulations on deciding to go to college! College is not for everyone. I think the best advice I can give you is to take it slow. Many times students just out of high school want to rush into the college experience. While it may feel that you need to rush through and hurry up and graduate, that really is not the case. You will continue to grow and mature and the ideas you had as a teenager will change as you become a young adult. College life is fun, new and full of adventure. It is easy to get caught up in the moment and then get side tracked. Allow yourself to have fun but don't lose sight of what you are there for and be disciplined. Work hard, but also work smart. You will have a lot of freedom that you may not have had in high school. Make sure you work with your teachers and professors in courteous and respectful manner so they are more inclined to help you if you should need it. Sometimes showing good initiative goes a long way to a teacher/professor. Prioritize your life, just like working adults  do...the work, life balance is important. Try not to over extend yourself by taking a large class load, this will spread you too thin and then you may have to drop classes because you are not able to keep up with it all and find you are failing classes. Try and not schedule early morning classes if you are not a morning person, you will have a tendency to not go and risk having to drop the class. Try and stay organized. As a new college student it will be a learning experience to have to set your own schedule and keep up with everything you have and you won't have your parents around to help you. If you are organized your days will run a lot smoothly. College is fun, but it is also a lot of work. You will get out of it what you put into it. I hope this helps you. Best of luck to you and if you need any more advice please don't hesitate to reach out. :)

I just graduated from college a few months ago and I will say that it is an experience you will never forget. There are tough times of course, but college was designed to shape students into adult individuals. Some advice that really helped me in college was don't procrastinate. I know sometimes it will be hard to study over watching Netflix, but you have to train yourself to get your work done before enjoying extra activities. Also, when in class- make sure to take notes on EVERYTHING the professor says whether it seems important or not because they often choose the things they said one time to put on an exam. Just remember' I looked a lot from college and without that education, I wouldn't be where I'm at today!