Any advice or tips for starting university?

[GoldieLockes]

Hi guys and gals, I’ll be starting university in the fall which is completely different from high school haha. Is there any tips or advice to help me be extra prepared or successful?

[caring__1]

First off, never plan your schedule based on convenient time... base it on reviews of the professors. You'll get more out of the experience if you choose the best professors.

Next, get organized. Use a day planner and have start and stop times. Open-ended plans never end, and you'll accomplish more if you limit the time you commit to the task.

Never procrastinate. It's easy for people to procrastinate when they get assigned a huge project but have 10 weeks to do it. To avoid procrastination, break things down into smaller pieces. If you feel overwhelmed or procrastinate, you probably haven't broken things down small enough.

Open your mind and get experiences beyond your field of study. A broad foundation will make you more functional in a variety of situations.

Do your best, but don't beat yourself up if you don't get an A. Showing your capability will take you further than getting perfect grades. Memory challenges run in my family, so both my son and I struggled in non-major classes. When he applied to grad school with his B+ average, every university rejected him. I always get a laugh when I read his rejection letter from Texas A&M, as they said he didn't measure up to the quality of students at the college. I wonder how many of their students held a significant patent in their name as undergrads. The dean of his college came up to him and said "I know you want a different experience elsewhere, but if you're willing to get your MS here, we'll give you a full-ride scholarship, a paid research position and a paid teaching position." Not that he had anything else to choose from, but he appreciated that his abilities were acknowledged.

[GoldieLockes]

Thanks! I’ll try to incorporate all of those tips into my experience and get myself organized too. That was a really heartwarming story about your son too, I’m glad he was appreciated in the end 😊

[caring__1]

You're welcome. By letting people see him in action, he was hired at a major corporation as a freshman. Continuing this pattern has helped him rise significantly faster than others within the company. Other companies (even out of his primary field) have attempted to get him to jump ship and join them. My son takes the offer back to his boss, and the offer has always been significantly increased by his company. They have no desire to let him go.

Get an internship or do volunteer work as soon as you can, as you want to make contacts and let people see you in action. Be realistic, though. Don't spread yourself too thin.

[caring__1]

Be prepared for the added workload. My entire year of high school chemistry was covered the first week of Chem 1A at UCLA, and the pace never slowed down. Get help if you need it, because if you fall behind you may find it very challenging or impossible to catch up again.

[GoldieLockes]

Wow that’s awesome for your son to be so successful! I’ll definitely try and make sure not to do too much or wear myself out, but I plan to at least do some volunteer work at least and maybe let some people see me around too

[caring__1]

Sounds great. You'll like the results.

[caring__1]

Based on your conversation with your Most Helpful Girl, something else came to mind. My son hated group projects when he was in high school, as he ended up doing al the work, while others took the credit. He expected college to be different but found it to be the same. He looked forward to the real world, where people would be accountable for their own actions. Unfortunately, he discovered group projects in the real world to be no different from high school. There will always be people who just want to ride on your coattails. Don't expect people to change, just because they are older.

[Guy13]

Yes. Skip it and go to electrical or plumbing school and come out making 150.-200 hour…at least in my area. I3 years ago it was 70.00

[whereismyjohnny]

The best advice for success I can give you is to start working at the start, at least make some notes or go through materials once after the lecture. It will be easier like that than learning everything at once when exams come (trust me 😂). So yeah, working from the beginning semester and staying organized is very important.

Also, don't be afraid to ask professors for help. They are much better than the ones in high school (at least in my case). They are very welcoming and open to all questions. You can ask them during the lecture, by sending e-mail but also go to their office (at my uni they have individual weekly ''meetings'' for students).

[whereismyjohnny]

Oh, also don't expect people to be any different than in high school 😅 majority of them are still immature as hell and full of themselves 🤦🏻‍♀️

[GoldieLockes]

Thanks for the help! I was going to buy like a bunch of notebooks and binders and stuff for each class so that I could keep everything separate and organized too. To be honest, I was kind of lazy in high school and didn’t put 100% into everything, so I know I have to really step up my game 😂

That’s too bad about the people too 😕 I thought with age comes wisdom but apparently not 😩 At least the professors are nice! Too many of my high school teachers were grouchy as hell 😂😂

[whereismyjohnny]

No problem! What are you going to study, if I may ask? 😅

Yeah, I expected people to be normal and mature, but God no 🤣 Some of them are still annoying as hell lmao.

[GoldieLockes]

Oh no worries! I’m actually planning to go into nursing, I’ve always wanted to help others, and always been interested in medical stuff and wanted to be a positive change in the world, so I felt nursing was a good way to do that 😄 I know it’s very challenging but I’m looking forward to it and definitely going to give it my best!

Oh goodness lmao, I’ve definitely had my fill of annoying brats and jerks in high school for sure 😂 I’ve always felt extra annoyed at people trying to distract me while I’m trying to study in class, that’s a huge pet peeve of mine 😂

[whereismyjohnny]

That's amazing! Also, I love the spirit 😄 I wish you the best of luck, you are going to slay it! 🤗

I was the same tbh. I would just mind my business and get work done. I knew my ambitions and what my plans for the future were so I worked really hard to get good grades, but some people were there just because they had to, and all they did was gossip and make fun of everyone and bully teachers 🤦🏻‍♀️ I really thought Uni was the opposite because it's more serious and everything, but there are still people who stayed in high school mentality. For example, today while I was at Uni I stood next to a group of girls and they literally looked at every single person, smirking and making comments. They even called themselves ''mean girls'' at one point, let me tell you I cringed so hard lmao. I was like ''I just want to finish this exam and get out'' 🤣 If there will be people like that at your Uni, just ignore it. You do you. 😊

[GoldieLockes]

Thanks for the motivation and kindness girl! 😄 Hopefully I’ll be able to get into the swing of things and really excel 😊

That’s exactly how my experience was too! I used to be incredibly shy, so I wouldn’t talk to people much and I would just try to focus on being a good student, and there were always some people just distracting the class and just acting like clowns in general 🤦🏼‍♀️ I remember some kids in my English class would just make fun of the teacher and bring up her divorce all the time, even though she was the sweetest and tried her best to make sure everyone was learning and understanding, it really broke my heart seeing that.

🤣 Oh my gosh that is so cringeworthy lmao! That mean girls thing sounds exactly like the “popular” girls would do at my high school, where they would just giggle and make comments constantly even when the teachers were talking, which was so incredibly annoying 🤦🏼‍♀️😂 I’m like “why can’t you just focus on your work?” and they were like “Who cares? It’s not like we’ll need a job when we’re this pretty” So full of themselves geez 😂

Thanks! 😄 I definitely plan to focus on myself and try to ignore the jerks as much as I can 😂

[whereismyjohnny]

I'm just saying the truth 😊

We always talk about how some of the teachers are bad, but they also have to put with everything and rude students. I always felt sorry for these nice teachers when they would get disrespected.

Don't worry there are also really nice and friendly people 😊

[GoldieLockes]

❤️😊

I think that’s why I respect teachers so much, because of all the things they have to put up with day in and day out from all the troublemakers. I don’t know if I would have that kind of patience to try to teach all these screaming kids yelling at me every day 😂

Of course! 😊 I can’t wait to see all the friends I’m going to make too 😊

[jennifer_bloom]

Focus on your grades and don’t worry about your social life

[captain_voidwalker]

My advice is don't, unless your going for an engineering or medical degree it's a waste of money. Got to a trade school and learn a trade it's less debt and better career prospects.

[GoldieLockes]

I am going for a degree in nursing, so I do think if it works out I’ll be alright hopefully.

[captain_voidwalker]

Thats fair. Nursing is medical so university makes sense. My advice is to get in and get out as quick as you can. Don't take any class you don't need for your degree.

[GoldieLockes]

That’s what I was kind of thinking too, time is money and I don’t want to waste either

[Sam_The_Savage]

School degrees are good for frame & dustbin. ✌️

[In_Trance]

it's not completely different from high school