 Hi, my name is Ann. I am a sophomore, biology major, gender studies minor in the College of Arts and Sciences. I am from South Burlington, Vermont, which is about five minutes from campus. And if I had one piece of advice, or if I had one thing that I wish I had known going into senior year and going into the college search process is that your college decision is really just for you and for your family. Yes, it is very exciting to hear where everyone else in your school is going, where are your best friends going, where are your childhood friends going. But I think that a lot of the culture around your senior year and your college search process and when you hear back your decisions is, oh, who got into the best schools, who is going the furthest, who's staying in their state. And honestly, at the end of the day, as long as you made the decision that best fits your financial, social and academic needs, the school that you go to is really no one else's business. It's really not anyone else's concern. And that was something that I really struggled with my senior year, especially going to my state school, going to the school that's five minutes down campus. It was really hard for me to get over that hump of, hey, this is my decision. This is me and my family's decision. I should not take into account what are people going to think of me when I say I'm going to UVM, like what I'm not going to seem as cool as everyone else who is going to out of state schools or something like that. But going to UVM has been the best decision I have ever made. And if I had listened to the social pressures of getting out of the state or going to a smaller school, I would not nearly have been as happy. So my advice to you going into your senior year as you're looking at the college search process, listen to yourself, listen to your family, make the decision that works best for all of you. But honestly, don't take into consideration what is going to seem cool, what is going to seem like you made the coolest decision of your class. I think anywhere that you go, you're going to make the best out of it. And just don't focus on what anyone else is going to think of your college decision. That's that's your own decision. It's not anyone else's business. Hi, my name is Tessa. I'm about to be a junior at UVM. And not too long ago, it seems like not very long ago that I was in your place searching for colleges about to be in my senior year of high school. It's kind of a weird time. It can be really scary to think about the next four years of your life. But something I wish I had known when I was searching for colleges was that the college you go to is about you, not about everyone around you's opinion. And so when I was applying for colleges, like, I went to a small, like private school, and everyone was applying to small private colleges, like small liberal arts colleges with about 2000 students. And so I thought that that was what I needed to like the same environment as my high school. So I applied to mostly schools like that. But I wish I had applied to a broader range of schools, because UVM was so different from all the other schools I applied to. But UVM was the school that I loved the most when I came to. So I would say just broadening what kinds of colleges you're looking at and picking the colleges that you're looking at based on what you want, not what people around you think is best or think is appropriate for you. It's going to help you. And then you're going to have a lot of choices that you can figure out if you want them once you're in. So have fun. Hopefully UVM's on your list and you come here if it's for you. So the advice that I have for all of you rising high school seniors would be to, you know, utilize those social media groups for prospective students, take people, talk to people when you go on tours. I know it can be a little scary, but trust me, it's worth it. You know, and take advantage of any of the services that schools might have to offer about getting you in touch with students, you know, that already attend the school. And you know what, just get a sense of the community because really it is going to be very valuable when it comes time to make a decision. But most importantly, above all else, enjoy your senior year. Don't stress. You have nothing to worry about. You know, you have all the time in the world to figure out what you want to do. So don't think about it right now. Just have fun. Enjoy your last year in high school and I hope to see you all later. Hi, I'm Hannah Kirkpatrick. I'm a rising senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, majoring in history, minoring in music and reporting in documentary storytelling. And I'm here on the Andrew Harris Commons at UVM Central Campus today to talk to you about some things that I wish I knew as a high school senior. The first thing that I wish I knew were the high school senior was to get my college applications in early. This will help so much with managing the stress of the application process, helping you to keep track of where you want to go and finding the best fit for you and also help you to focus on enjoying your last year of high school. Another thing is that you should practice good self-care as early as you can. That way by the time you get to college it's just one less skill that you have to learn. UVM has some fantastic support services on campus for self-care such as Living Well, which is housed in the Davis Center, and other things like counseling and psychiatry services and student accessibility services. And these all help students on campus to really just have the support that they need so that they can focus on succeeding in their classes and enjoying their time here. The next thing that I'm going to talk about is something that you can do once you get into college and you've made that transition. This is during your first semester of college you should really be focusing on figuring out how you learn best. This is going to help you throughout your next four years because during that first semester you're going to be taking many different kinds of classes. You might be taking some bigger lectures, you may be taking some medium-sized classes, and you might be taking some very small seminar classes. All of these classes are going to have a different style of teaching and you're going to be employing different strategies in these classes to learn. And so it's really helpful to focus on how you are learning in those classes, how you're studying for them, and what strategies you're employing to do your work for those classes and what feels most comfortable. You're also going to want to think about what time of day you learn best. Do you want to have more morning classes or do you want to spend your sleep in in the morning? The last thing that I'd love to recommend to all of you high school seniors is that you really want to take some time to get involved in as many things as you possibly can during your first year of college and going through your next four years. Don't be afraid to try new things. I know for me personally when I was in high school I really focused on one thing and that was music and that was fantastic and I still am involved in it now. But I didn't have as many opportunities to try like weird and wacky sports and get involved in fun clubs and meet all sorts of new people. So it was really refreshing to come to college and to be able to have those options and to try something new even during my second year I started a new sport and it didn't wind up working out for me but I went and tried it anyways and they were super encouraging and thoughtful and helpful to teach all the new people because so many people were trying something new. So I hope this has been helpful and that this was useful to anyone that's going through the college application process right now, going through looking for new for schools, anyone who's going to be starting their senior year of high school and maybe you'll end up here and be catamount at UVM. My name is Mariah. I'm originally from Stratford Connecticut and I'm a rising senior studying wildlife and fisheries biology in the Rubinstein School for the Environment and Natural Resources. I am also minoring in zoology in the College of Arts and Science. One thing I would have liked to know as a senior in high school beginning the college search process is all of the virtual resources that colleges and universities now have. If you can't necessarily go to campus, take a campus tour, there's a plethora of websites and platforms that you can look at to get an idea of what campus atmosphere is like and also get all your questions about the admissions process answered like videos on YouTube of residence halls, asking admissions counselors online. There's so many resources available.