Advice for the High School Senior From the College Senior Hey there Senior! Congratulations, you're almost out of high school! You've taken your senior photo and now, if you haven't already, you find yourself spending each weekend at some new campus that tries to woo you with impressive talk about "academic rigor" and "fun dorm living!". You've eaten at more Sodexo cafeteria's than you can imagine and you've collected enough embossed informational folders to start a small stationary store, but little senior, I know how lost you really are. You have absolutely no clue what's going on and if you think you do, you're probably in even worse shape. That's why you have me: The College Senior. Oh sure, I'm probably not the best one to be giving advice. I'm not at Harvard and it's taken me five years to get here, but Lil' Senior, trust me. I've been to three colleges: the rural state school Plymouth State College (now Plymouth State University), the highly urban private wannabe-Ivy New York University (where I attended Tisch School of the Arts) and now I'm at my soon-to be alma mater, the public, ethnic and urban Brooklyn College, here in sunny Flatbush, Brooklyn. My instability is your gain. I've seen almost every kind of college set-up and met almost every kind of college student. I took two years off to work and still came back. Most of all though, like you, I came into college wanting to get something more out of the experience than simply a piece of paper. Here's my advice to you, the High School Senior: Don't go to a University. This is the strongest advice I can give anyone looking at an undergraduate degree. Universities are large and serve the needs of researching professors and graduate students. As an undergraduate, you will find yourself taking classes that are extremely large and taught by T.A.'s, not professors. Save the university for your grad degree, when you'll get the attention you deserve. A university may sound prestigious, but unless you are going for a specific program, skip it and choose a college instead. The only difference it will make when it comes time to graduate is that your recommendation letters will come from someone who actually knows you. Major in what you want. Students are constantly majoring in things they "think" they should be majoring in and wind up miserable. Major in whatever moves you. It's not as if you're going to actually wind up doing what you major in anyways, so you might as well do something you enjoy. What if you want to get into a good graduate program? A friend of mine did his undergrad at the University of Austin and then went to Harvard Law. He's making tons of money at a major law firm now. His undergraduate major? Cello Playing. Be an adult. I don't mean act mature (god forbid!) but the way to succeed among your friends and impress your teachers is to simply act like you have a handle on things. If you act like a lost little kid, that's how you'll be perceived. Everyone is terrified in the first few months of school, but if you fake confidence, you may actually build up some real confidence in the process. Pick a college town. The big city universities are great fun, but that's their downfall. While you should be focusing on wearing baggy t-shirts and plaid, the big city campus makes you think about being a grown-up far faster than you really need to be. It's hard to consider class all that important when you can get a job in your industry now. Some students excel at big city college life, just realize that it's more city life than college life you're getting. Get involved in campus activities, but have a life as well. Sure, if your campus is the only game in town, your life is going to revolve around it, but get some real world experience as well. Meet people who are not in your college. Take up a job. The campus can be a bubble that shelters you, but eventually you need to burst it open. Take a semester off. Better yet, take a year off. Go travel. Write a novel. Have a passionate affair with a Latvian archeologist. Whatever it is, do it now. Once you graduate, you will most likely never have the opportunity to do so again. Find a mentor. If there's a professor you adore or who infuriates you in a positive way or if you have a director, coach or boss who you really seem to click with, hang on to that person. Develop a real relationship with someone older and wiser and in your field and you'll be orders of magnitude ahead of everyone else. This might sound too Mrs. Robinson-esque, but trust me. My first and best mentor, Matt Kizer, of Plymouth State University, challenged me in ways I would have never challenged myself. I still email him now and then, two colleges later and his advice is always on the mark. Do what you want. The great thing about college is that you get to reinvent yourself and unlike high school people are going to be pretty much cool with that. Always dreamed of being a jock, but was labeled a wimp in high school. Go for it! Didn't do drama because you thought it was gay? Get over yourself and do a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta! Be who you want to be. Just, for god sakes, don't be boring. And one bit of advice about your last year in High School: Enjoy it! Those jerks that think they're the kings of high school? Four years from now, they'll still be living in the same town, doing some crappy job and talking about how cool high school was. Get close with your friends and cry like crazy when they leave, because year or two from now, you'll be lucky if you're still talking to three of them! So, don't be afraid of college. It's just like high school- only the classes are easier, you get to do whatever you want and the jerks are the ones everyone makes fun of. Excelsior!

posted by Japhy at 9/16/2003 12:38:00 PM || #