<p>I was having a conversation with my dad last night about his college experience. He did not get into his top choice, but he ended up going to a very good school. He said that although he had a learned a great deal, he thinks that he did not make the most out of his college experience. Did you make it into your first choice college? Where did you go? </p>
<p> ** What would each of you have done differently in college? **</p>
<p>I did two things while at Wellesley
[ul]
[<em>]Worked hard and did well at academics.
[</em>]Spent a ton of time on campus and in Cambridge with BF as well as with other friends.
[/ul]</p>
<p>If I could do it over again, I would plunge into some of the fabulous activities that were available - newspaper, theatre, and on and on.</p>
<p>I did fully experience what Boston and Cambridge had to offer, but didn't test the waters in so many possibilities that were there for the taking.</p>
<p>Yemaya - what a great question! And you "had a conversation with your dad" last night? My S' current conversational topics run from "what do we have to eat" to "I need the car tomorrow night" and back again. Tell your D he's doing something right.</p>
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<p>That is hilarious! :p
My sister, who applied to Carleton, received a postcard acknowledging that her application had been received. There was a picture of a family eating dinner on one side of it. The caption read, "the doctor said our son has post-SAT catatonia- she suggested we limit ourselves to multiple choice questions."</p>
<p>I would probably say I wish that I had explored more past my comfort zones into the sciences. I am not a "math" person and I think I was too cautious not to get into heavy math...</p>
<p>I was not admitted to #1 school. Looking back I was much better off where i wound up; it was perfect for me and very different from the school I thought I wanted.</p>
<p>In hindsight, I wish I'd switched majors to English (Yes! English!) from my BFA in photography. One of the most inspiring courses I ever took was on the poet Shelly. Never had I taken a poetry course in college, but a close friend, a mechanical engineering graduate degree candidate, recommended this course to me. The teacher was one of the world's authorities on Shelly - we met in his apartment for class, where he drank some sort of whiskey and we drank tea...he tried to get me to switch my major and unfortunately I did not.</p>
<p>Extend yourself - as others have suggested. Try new things - experiment with classes you wouldn't ordinarily think of and you may surprise yourself! And if you suddenly find in after you've declared your major and are even close to the end and you really want to switch gears - do it!</p>
<p>Yemay - double lol for your postcard story. :D</p>
<p>Truthfully, I don't have any regrets. I should say that I should have studied harder (played more bridge than studied) so I would have gotten into a better grad school etc. But, I'm actually pretty happy with how things ended up. If I had gone to a different grad school, I would not have gone to Chicago for a post doc, not have met my wife, who would not have born my daughter...you get the idea.</p>
<p>I think it is easy to look back on almost any experience and think about how you might have done things differently, but that's just hindsight. It is much harder to think about doing things differently, knowing only what one did when one made the decision.</p>
<p>My biggest (and maybe only) regret is that I didn't study abroad during college. Since I transferred after sophomore year, studying abroad was not an option if I wanted to graduate on time.</p>
<p>I wish I hadn't been scared off by the engineering (computer science) professor who pronounced to the class on the first day: "Look to your left & right. 50% of you won't be here in 3 weeks." Wish I had cultivated a relationship with an advisor or professor at my mega university to whom I could have run for moral support instead of racing to the registrar to drop the class and change my major to math. I don't regret my choice of school. But after spending 3 years researching LAC's (D is at one), I see where that "you can do it" advisor/prof really works.</p>
<p>Yemay, I would have been less concerned with maintaining a 4.0 and ventured out of my comfort zone. I wish I had spent more time just enjoying being young, healthy and free. All of my electives were in math because I hated writing papers. I didnt have much of a choice in picking a career path. My parents (mother declared and dad agreed) said I had 2 choices nursing or teaching. I went with nursing. Im happy times have changed.</p>
<p>Do the Tim Leary thing.</p>
<p>I was going to post an essay. But this will do.</p>
<p>Very few regrets, because, like Newmassdad, had I gone to a better school, I would have had a different life. I was pre-med, I also had no idea whether or not I could get into med school, so I was concerned about getting a job as well. I was able to take very few "real" electives, most classes were sciences or getting a job, etc. I wish I had relaxed and taken a couple more literature/history classes. What you may find though, is if you get out of the paper writing frame of mind the idea of going back and writing lots of papers is daunting - I'm sure the opposite is true for the humanities major, once the science and math is finished, that's a cause for celebration!</p>
<p>I wish I had known of the all the choices out there. I have been on my own since I was 14 and really had no guidance in these matters. I went to the local state college (really a commuter college) and did not do anything on campus other than go to class. As I watch my son enjoy the full panoply of life at a real college, it makes me very happy for him, and a bit wi****l for what I missed out on.</p>
<p>( trying to figure out what was bleeped concerned dad?)</p>
<p>I like my choice of schools (Reed as undergrad, Wisconsin as grad) and don't think I could have done better at either level in terms of the quality of the education I got. What I regret a bit is not being more adventurous in courses I took especially as an undergrad. One regret: I didn't take calligraphy, then taught by the world-renowned Lloyd Reynolds. More generally, I regret not doing more in music -- some talent (natural skills) that I discovered rather late, when I was mid career.</p>
<p>Unlike jmmom, I did not excel in academics at Wellesley (until my senior year) because I was dabbling in theatre and athletics so much. What would I do differently? Worked harder but also taken other interesting courses besides astronomy and philosophy--like geology!</p>
<p>emeralkity4--I think the word was w-i-s-t-f-u-l?</p>
<p>great question ... I loved my college experience and looking back did a pretty good job growing all 4 years ... what could I have done better
* focus on academic excellence from day 1 at school
* broaden my horizons intellectually sooner ... take courses of interest even if it is a little scary (for example, I was an engineer and took an advanced Greek history course along with about 10 history majors ... it was a struggle being in with the history majors but it was a terrific prof and class ) (BTW - this B is the proudest I am of any grade I have ever received)
* been a lot more involved in campus activities
* had more guts socially and asked a lot more young women out on dates</p>
<p>then I don't get why it was bleepd but anyway
I would have gone to college or at very least finished high school. I was so dang bored/stressed in high school I barely attended class, and so I wasn't exactly on the honors track or even the , give her an elective that she wants once in a while track.
I desperately wanted an arts class, preferablly drawing/pottery/design/photography, but the one they stuck me with was drama and it wasn't enough to keep me in school.</p>
<p>one reason why I am spending so much time trying to advocate for my daughter, comprehensive high schools can be very intimidating and the adults dismissive unless you have someone in your corner.</p>
<p>yeah I got bleeped for the same innocent word in a different thread. s-t-f-u- is an acronym for a rude version of "stop talking" -- I guess it is programmmed in for censoring purposes.</p>
<p>Maize&Bl- I wonder what possess Profs to do that "half of you won't make it" bit? To put a positive face on it, maybe it's bragging about what a strong program they have. But the effect on some students is obviously not to have them work harder, but to have them shrink away.</p>
<p>When I went to Stanford Business School, the first semester was (intentionally) very, very tough. Almost like Boot Camp in its difficulty. Especially hard for the vast majority of us who had all been top bananas where we came from. Key difference: the school, in every way, sent us the message that we would all make it, that there was support out there - from our peers, from the profs,...</p>