Advices for the upcoming colleges, universities, and High school Freshman

[Yahshua]

Dear Freshman

Welcome to colleges, universities, or high school in this thread I want to share some of the advices I received from various Academic Counselors of the past. First is from my Academic Counselor named Kevin Mihata of the Department of the Sociology in The University of Washington Seattle. What he say about job and career and academic works would helps each one of you. He said that if you are currently have a job it would be the best to quit your current job and focus yourself on your study. Because your job while as a Freshman in the colleges, universities, or high school is to study and take in as much as you can learn from various courses for your future career planning. However he understand not many students in the colleges and universities have enough fouds for their education so he said that don't take too much hours on the job. Because career is much more important then job. For Career is something you would do for a long time and job is temporary as well as that you have the rest of the life to work so it would be the best to not take the job and enjoy your academic experience for the full of it. Second Syllabus is your friend and guide. It give you course information and all the assignment due dates and reading for the dates so you can plan ahead. And also in the Syllabus it also contain Professor/TA/Teacher office hours so it would be in your best interest to looks over the Syllabus. Third is use Professor/TA/Teacher office hours for your advantage. For most of the time Professor/TA/Teacher is there and waiting for the students to come and ask them the questions they have from the courses materials and sometimes during the office hours the professor/TA/Teacher might give you some early exam questions to think over so it would be in your best interest to using the office hours as much as possible.

[USSRGirl]

Thanks for taking the time to drop some tips, Dan. I know I at least appreciated it as I've been stressing over colleges lately. XD I'm in my senior year in highschool now, so I won't be a freshman just yet, but best to plan ahead. I've been looking at works study programs and hearing just about the same thing. It looks like I'll be getting enough financial aid to not have to shell out huge out of pocket costs, so I'm thinking I'm going to keep the job thing strictly to summer if I can. For me, I'd rather opt for career related volunteer work that would look better on a resume. There's always student loans that you can pay off little by little after you graduate and build up your credit too.

... You mean to tell me I'll actually have to start READING syllabi instead of faking the knowing nod? Darn. XP

Hey, just a question for ya, have you used the site studentreviews.com? It's student college reviews of how good a school is. I was wondering how accurate you thought it was. Also, you wouldn't happen to know of any Christian college review sites out there would ya? I'm trying to find a college that's somewhat morally conservative (ok, insert canned laughter and "yeah right dream on!" here). For my major, there aren't a lot of options outside of secular colleges that would have a strong science program. I'm currently waffling between two catholic colleges that looked okay for academics and one state university that was also just okay.

[Yahshua]

I have no experience with that site and my knowledge of Christian colleges and univerisities is limited sorry Temmy.

[USSRGirl]

Thanks anyways. I shall keep searching!

[Ingemar]

Third is use Professor/TA/Teacher office hours for your advantage. For most of the time Professor/TA/Teacher is there and waiting for the students to come and ask them the questions they have from the courses materials and sometimes during the office hours the professor/TA/Teacher might give you some early exam questions to think over so it would be in your best interest to using the office hours as much as possible.

It's true.

When I was a TA, virtually no one ever came to my office hours. I was very lonely and often wanted to cry ;_; it was especially bad during the quarter that I held 2 office hours per week (Normally TA's only hold one + by appoitment).

[rii namuras]

[color="Red"](Temmy, what type of conservative are you looking for? Legalisim-rules type conservatism or view-point conservatism or both? There's a huge difference there.)

(Also, what's your major? I may know of a few (being in my homeschool debate group exposed me to a lot of Christian colleges), but it'd depend upon your major. And which ones have you looked at so far (even if completely rejected) so I know not what to point you at?)[/color]

[USSRGirl]

Rii, view-point conservatism, though if it comes with legalism conservatism I'll endure it (I have a friend who goes to Liberty University and oh... oh I pity them. Horrible school btw).

I'm going into pre-vet with a major in biology. I'm mostly just looking for a site where you can scroll through colleges to get reviews from a Christian perspective. I'm not an ultra-fundy, but I'd like to avoid too much New Age seminars if possible.

[Kamille]

First off I have to say...woohoo! go UofW (sorry, I was born and raised in Seattle). Second as a college grad I can not stress the importance of getting a summer internship or some kind of job experience in your field before you graduate. It can even be volunteer, doesn't matter as long as you learn something about the profession, though I agree it shouldn't get in the way of your studies. Speaking from experience (with a BE in mechanical engineering) it is very hard (though not impossible) to step right out of college with no job experience and expect to a get a job with any kind of substantial value, unless you're just a genius at school, which I was not.

I also agree with the other stuff on this thread (i.e office hours, syllabi, ect.). Good info.

[Warrior4Christ]

What's a TA?

Also, some degrees require you to have a certain number of weeks of work experience before you graduate (such as engineering, which is what I'm doing).

Another handy hint: persevere through first year! It gets better. Not just content-wise, but in my experience, the lecture times, number of contact hours, workload (sometimes), assignment handup methods, etc got better and less bothersome in later years.

[mechana2015]

TA= Teachers Aide.
They also teach some classes, such as labs.