Advice you would give yourself if you applied for college all over again

Drop the extracurriculars and focus on marks. It's all professional schools and grad schools care about. You can always make up for a lack of extracurriculars but your marks are permanent.

For one, I would make sure you are actually ready to go to school and not just doing it because you feel like you have to or because everyone else is or because your parents want you to. You have to be ready to take that next step! I know my first year in college (back in the 08-09 school year) was NOT something I was ready for - financially or mentally! I ended up in quite a bit of debt over it (it is all paid off now, luckily, but still) and I didn't really want to be there - I ended up cutting a few too many classes here and there (but I ended up passing all my classes, with the exception of 1 that I withdrew from!). I would also suggest buckling down. No procrastinating! Time management. It's so much easier to say than do of course, but I feel like kids feel like they can just whizz through it like nobody's business - when actually college is quite hard - no matter where you go! It requires tons of time to study and take exams and all that... I think people assume it will be just like high school when in fact it's NOT AT ALL!