The Topic: As always, we value most your spontaneous observations, but also request that you please address the following points. Typically, a thoughtful response would have between 500 and 1000 words, but don’t obsess over word count, and never pad!
Essay: The course that came as the greatest surprise to me was AOSC200, Weather and Climate, which I took my first semester. This course came as the greatest surprise to me because I took it for credits in general education and wasn’t expecting much from it, but it turned out be my favorite course that semester and I actually ended up learning the most from that course. When I was scheduling for classes I was looking for potentially interesting, easy, and fun general education courses online when I found AOSC200. The professor got good ratings and the course as a whole got good ratings as well the topic seemed interesting to me, so I took it. I would suggest that incoming students try to take some classes that not only provide them with necessary credits but also interest them.
So far, I have had the greatest success in building relationships with my TAs and UTFs. They seem much more approachable and understanding, seeing as most of them are still in undergraduate school as well. Some of my TAs in my second semester were in some of my other classes, so I could talk to them about the other classes we were taking together. I would recommend that incoming students just show up to discussion classes and ask questions, even if they don’t need the answers. Being more open with your TAs and letting them know your name is all you really need to do in order to build fairly stable relationships with them.
I haven’t found that forming relationships with fellow students helped me adjust to university life, but I would definitely recommend making friends with people on your dorm floor. Personally I found it better to just make a few really good friends and just hang out around them instead of having a multitude of less close friends. I think the greatest obstacles in pursuing relationships is really just initiating the relationship. If you end up taking some core classes to your major your first semester I would recommend trying to pursue relationships with the people in those classes because there is a good chance that you will be seeing a lot more of them later down the line.
In terms of academic life, I felt almost overprepared. I believe that my academic life these past two semesters has been easier than my academic life in high school by a lot. I did come from a fairly rigorous high school, so I would tell any incoming Freshmen that if they really worked hard in high school and had a struggle with academic life in high school there is a very good chance that academic life in college with be easier. If some incoming Freshmen have a hard time adjusting I would simply recommend that they just get ahead on course work if they find academic life becoming too overwhelming. There are a lot of resources at their disposal and professors and TAs are much more open and approachable than they might think.