Dear Student...

Welcome to school. When you first come to the school you will probably be very intimidated, especially if you are on older individual and maybe school was not your strong point when you were younger.  This was what I was feeling when I first came to campus and it does subside slowly once you realize that college is completely different than the traditional k-12 grades.  The other thing that you will need is to find either a teacher or advisor that you feel comfortable with to discuss different issues and concerns that you may have.

My best advice that I could give is to make sure that you have a good support structure to help you when things may not go right or when it feels like everything has gone wrong.  Without that structure, I will be completely honest and tell you, you will fail.  That is the one key ingredient, everything else as far as classwork and homework there is a wealth of knowledgeable individuals to help with that.  Every issue that has come up, I have found someone to assist me with on campus.  The one thing that no matter how old you are that will hinder your success is the stress and that is the one thing that cannot be helped by any instructor or advisor on campus.  That is why you must have that support system to help you vent and release the stress.

Finally, just have fun, this is one the greatest undertakings of one’s life.  This is a new opportunity, no matter how old you are or where you came from to discover new parts of you that you may not know existed.