University Stress

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I so Hope this makes sense ....I go back to High school on Monday and i was just kind of taking a moment to reflect.... This is my final year and already the stress is catching up on us due to the demanding program. ( IB diploma )I had never attended an International School before moving to Singapore before that i had always been to public schools except home schooling for 6 months... Everyone is now going Crazy over University's and all of this ... I "Will" ( Assuming i pass ) be the first person in my entire family to attend University ( That includes my Father's and Mother's family), and i can already feel the building pressure on me to succeed for example my mother will add such comments as "You will be the first, I can't wait to tell everyone" as well as the nomal "You have to do well to prove my family wrong". My dad did not attend Uni and yet has a very respectable job, and has always pushed for me to achieve as he attended grammar school and was always 2cnd or so in the class. Meaning that since childhood getting good grades at school and succeeding in life is a must. I am so scared of disappointing them (regardless of us not being very close), they both have there hearts set on me attending Uni and i really am not sure about the whole thing anymore.To add to it I have a world wide choice Yet i guess i feel so lost having to pick somewhere. We have always moved around since i was 9 i haven't lived anywhere longer than 2 years ( This excludes Singapore 3 years in January 08), Holland , Greece , as well as moving numerous times within england. All of my friends are already saying " I will attend University in X"(where X represents a whole host of country's), yet i am absolutely clueless. I know where ever i end up i will be there for 3 years and yet i don't know whether i want to go back to England or go somewhere new, i have always thought the world of traveling and moving to new area's or country's but now thinking about moving really upsets me , i feel like every time i really settle somewhere and am happy being there i am moved to somewhere different.I guess i'm just totally confused about the whole thing.I mean i miss Home ( England... i think ) but when we go back old friends move on ( and change grow up) and its just not the same... as when you were there.I guess its true "the grass is always greener on the other side"Torie x

You'll see things in a new perspective, which is always good. You can never get too "worldly"

Uni was the best thing that ever happened to me. It changed me from a shy little high school kid, to a confident, assertive, out goinging young man. Nothing to do with classes, in fact, I failed dismally at my first attempt at Uni. It's the social scene. People at Uni are just more intellectual, more open and accepting. I highly recommend you go, even if it means moving. You'll make the greatest friends of your life, and once it's over you don't have to ever move again if you don't want to. You can stay in that area and start a career, or whatever you want to do.As for passing; attend class, complete assignments on time, and turn up to exams. Do those three and it's nearly impossible to fail. At Uni you only need 50% to pass, remember that great saying "P's get Degrees."Just my two cents, hope it helps.

University is a time of making new friends for everyone. As to which country it should be in, some questions you could ask might be:1. What am I going to do after university? Which degree will be most useful to me? - It's not much use getting a university degree if you are going to work in a nation where that degree is not respected.2. Where will I feel most comfortable with the culture? - Though new cultural experiences are learning experiences themselves, you need to be able to concentrate enough on your studies; and it sounds like you could do with a period of being settled.

Just go somewhere that as said before will give you a degree thats accepted widely and useful for what you actually plan on doing in life.Don't worry about friends or anything else. That all falls into place later.