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From what I have learned in my first semester... is yes, time management. I did fairly OK here, because I felt that my classes weren't overwhelmingly difficult (Chemistry did though, and I studied a ton, but it barely had homework. The other two classes barely had homework as well). Surely needs a ton of improvement.
Work smarter, not longer. I tend to procrastinate and that hurt me a lot. Especially for Chemistry, since I barely passed.
Professional skills. Taking ownership, taking initiative, etc. Many times this year I had to talk to residence life, meet with my advisors, go to office hours, express problems with grades, and so forth. If I had no initiative, I would probably have failed out. Nothing is telling you to do your errands or other things to do. I couldn't call my mom to do things for me.
On another note, LEARN TO DETACH. I went to school in-state and my roommate came across the country from New York. She was very babied by her mother. Most days my roommate would go to class before me, and her mom would call her every morning to wake her up. I always woke up to this. Whenever my roommate had a problem with something (like when she was trying to transfer out of the university) her mother had to call them to handle anything. When she had problems with classes, she had to have me help her, without b******* me out for like three hours, so I had to do it for my own sanity. I think this was terrible. It was no surprise my roommate ended up going back to NY at the end of the semester; she literally could not detach herself from her old friends and especially her mother. Most of my friends who are down here with me came from out of state, even from far places like Alaska, DC, Florida, etc. and they are still staying here next year because this is partially the reason. They are not constantly thinking about home 24/7. Despite being an hour and a half away from home, I've only seen my parents twice (including winter break) and only talked to them during those two times. I'd only talk to them if I needed something. I did that to gain independence. And I think that's one of the most important parts of going to college.
VERY astute observations about the roommate!! You should post this on the parenting board on the thread about "involved parents".....
My daughter's roommate is also not coming back 2nd semester for pretty much the same reason..except she only lives about an hour from their campus.
VERY astute observations about the roommate!! You should post this on the parenting board on the thread about "involved parents".....
My daughter's roommate is also not coming back 2nd semester for pretty much the same reason..except she only lives about an hour from their campus.
I can't believe I forgot to mention that! My roommate is transferring for the fall for financial reasons but she is attached at the hip to her mom. I go to school in westchester an she's from LI, she says its about 1.5 hours but the entire maybe 2 months of school her mom would come every Saturday morning and once during the week. She would come early an be all loud so I always woke up. Early. On a Saturday :|
I mean I miss my parents but I don't need to see them as often as she does. She calls her mom to come over to do her hair (it's permed and is a bit difficult to do I will give her that) but you are 18 y.o mommy won't be around all the time.
Sorry for the rant, but the point is if you are dependent on your parents for every last whim work on that.
Chem and physics are lab classes, you never wrote lab reports??
At Rutgers, we write lab reports starting only in our junior year. Till then we are told to take printouts of a worksheet, complete the lab, fill up the worksheet, and then hand it in. Now, in my senior year, we need to write a proper executive summary for the reports. Its not by any means easy without a writing class. Thankfully, I took 2 of them, and needed them for doing well in my GRE's and writing SOP's for Grad School.
To the original poster, the most important skills to learn are time management between courses, sincerity towards doing the work to understand the course material, and perseverance after failure. Never back off and give up after not doing well in an exam. Hang in there, analyze what went wrong, understand who to ask for help & what must be done, and work hard towards doing well in the next exam. Freshman year of College helps you discover your way of handling work pressure and is perhaps one of the most vital skills a person will learn.
I used to be a really intelligent student with good grades in my 1st 2 years. But now, my grades are utter s**t FKed .
Last edited by Adi from the Brunswicks; 12-26-2013 at 01:09 PM..
I saw a fair amount of it to drink, smoke pot, skip classes to go skiing (I was in northern New England).
Not my experience...I knew plenty of people in my program who drank, smoked weed (big arts scene), etc. but it was never a pressure situation, ever. Like I said, maybe just me and the culture, but peer pressure was a total nonissue. It was a very, "Hey, whatever, man, do your thing, it's cool," laid back kind of place, at least socially. At the same time that social attitudes were laid back, people were super on tip of their academics, though...it was pretty competitive and rigorous from an academic standpoint.
Not my experience...I knew plenty of people in my program who drank, smoked weed (big arts scene), etc. but it was never a pressure situation, ever. Like I said, maybe just me and the culture, but peer pressure was a total nonissue. It was a very, "Hey, whatever, man, do your thing, it's cool," laid back kind of place, at least socially. At the same time that social attitudes were laid back, people were super on tip of their academics, though...it was pretty competitive and rigorous from an academic standpoint.
This is what my daughter said (just finished her first semester) and what I experienced as well. She really enjoys how different the social scene is from high school and how, outside of a few social circles, no one gives a darn about whether or not you drink/smoke, what you wear, who your boyfriend is, etc.
She also said it was a bit of an adjustment not having anyone there to tell her what to do, no one there to tell her she had to be home by midnight, no one there to lecture her about getting a bad grade, no one there to tell her to study for tomorrow's test, no one to remind her what's due tomorrow, etc. Fortunately she is pretty self-motivated, but I could definitely see where it would be a struggle for some students..
At Rutgers, we write lab reports starting only in our junior year. Till then we are told to take printouts of a worksheet, complete the lab, fill up the worksheet, and then hand it in. Now, in my senior year, we need to write a proper executive summary for the reports. Its not by any means easy without a writing class. Thankfully, I took 2 of them, and needed them for doing well in my GRE's and writing SOP's for Grad School.
To the original poster, the most important skills to learn are time management between courses, sincerity towards doing the work to understand the course material, and perseverance after failure. Never back off and give up after not doing well in an exam. Hang in there, analyze what went wrong, understand who to ask for help & what must be done, and work hard towards doing well in the next exam. Freshman year of College helps you discover your way of handling work pressure and is perhaps one of the most vital skills a person will learn.
I used to be a really intelligent student with good grades in my 1st 2 years. But now, my grades are utter s**t FKed .
That's really sad actually....
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