ÿþ<html> <head> <title> Alyssa's Time Capsule</title> <body background="bg_T_4Y.gif" bgproperties="fixed"> <font color="black" <DIV ALIGN="left"> <P> <P> <font size="5" face=Lucida Sans Typewriter, Arial" color="330099"> To Prospective Students, </font><P> <b><font size="4" face= "Arial" color="black"> Welcome to college. Get ready to change everything you thought about everything.</b> <P></font> <font size="3" face="Arial" color="black"><dd>I spent most of my summer anticipating college, but the truth is that college life was nothing like I expected. The need to be responsible, social and studious is really overwhelming at first, but once you can juggle each degree, you can finally begin to feel complete at the University. <P> <dd>First off, college will quickly teach you to be responsible for your actions. Be it school work or parties, laundry or deadlines, every choice you make has a repercussion, and sometimes the consequences are not fun. Try to keep track of your assignments, they have a tendency to sneak up on you, and there is a limit of how many last minute papers you can write, with of course, the help of Starbucks double-shots. Conversely, there is no greater feeling of success, than when you realize you can sleep in, or go out, because you finished an assignment early, (this feeling gets better when you find out that everyone else has to stay in on the weekend to finish their work). The most beneficial thing I ve learned at CP is that I have more time than I think when I keep track of everything I have to accomplish. <P> <dd>College is all about meeting people, and since you live at the University 24/7, you will constantly be surrounded by people, from places you ve never been, and who are interested in things you ve never heard of. Before I got here, I had no intention on joining the Crew team, but I ve met so many people and had so many weird experiences because I joined. I strongly advise you to get to know the people in your program as soon as possible, because you will see them very often. Everyone I ve met has been really nice and had something new to show me. I ve only benefited from being part of ELT, and I can guarantee that you ll learn to love it too. <P> <dd>The largest change from high school is the freedom that living on your own grants you, but after a while, the exhilaration of independence is gone. Get ready to be busy constantly. You re going to go places you ve never been, at the most arbitrary times with the oddest but most likely best people you ll ever meet. There are a lot of on campus activities to fill the free time you most likely won t have, be it at CSPAC watching a performance, in the Stamp bowling, at late-night at the Diner or outside in the quad. <P> Lastly, keep your dorm room clean. No matter how bad a roommate you get, I assure you that a clean room makes for a happy roommate. I was lucky enough to room with my high school friend, so that I felt comfortable with who I spend a lot of my time with. My only advice is to make sure you establish different interests and friends, because it is really easy to isolate yourself, as a pair, and especially at a school as big as Maryland, that s the last thing you want to do.<P>( <dd>Welcome to the University. I hope you can use my advice to build on your upcoming entrance to college and make it the best time of your life. Go Terps!<P></font> </body> </html>