Study Habits
The classes I’m doing well in are Visual Communications and Intro to Sociology. In both courses, I have over 100% as my overall grade and I tend to complete the assignments in a timely and efficient manner. In Sociology, I’ve been scoring high on every quiz, receiving 97.5% on each one. For my midterm, I scored 105% with the class curve. In Visual Communication, I’ve been completing each project ahead of the due date with high commendation from my art professor. I’d say I need assistance in Human Nature, which is my General Education course for Philosophy. The professor grades strongly, marking my papers with not-so-pretty grades. This course is hard because that’s all I’m graded on. Though he claims to factor in Participation and Attendance, my progress report grade reflected the most recent paper he’d given me feedback on, and it’s difficult to understand my grade because he doesn’t post it anywhere else, like on Canvas. I’ve allocated more time in my study schedule for this class to help me understand philosophical concepts as well as brush up on my writing skills by reading his example papers.
Transition to College
I expected college to be harder than high school since that’s what my teachers at my previous school warned me of. They were right and wrong in some aspects. The workload has definitely increased. I find myself in the library every weekday for 4+ hours per night juggling the separate assignments due for my classes. There are a lot of bigger projects that take several weeks to complete versus smaller assignments that are due the next class, which is a bigger adjustment when it comes to pacing myself. I don’t procrastinate, but in doing so, I overwhelm myself to complete these bigger assignments as soon as they’re given to us, even though the due date isn’t for a couple more weeks. My college experience has been a lot quieter than I expected. There’s a lot that goes on at campus behind the scenes but I just expected more to be happening, but I suppose it’s because everyone is settling down with their studies. Midterms have approached and students, including myself, are buckling down to stay on top of school since the courses have gotten harder. My toughest challenge with moving away to college has been adjusting to having a roommate. At home, I had my own room and plenty of time to be by myself and focus on work. With a roommate, it’s harder to share a common space when doing work because you’re both not on the same schedule. She could be watching a show or doing something during her leisure time, whereas I’m cramming for an upcoming exam. To adjust to this, I’ve been going to the library a lot to have my own quiet study space, even though people can be crazy there sometimes too.
Major
At the beginning of the semester, I didn’t know much about the admissions process into the program for my major. Not only do they accept students for GPA and scores on the HESI exam, but they also accept them for holistic purposes. An interview has been added to make the application process more personal, which is an advantage to show the board why I want to contribute to the community as a nurse. My feelings have not changed about my major. If anything, I’m more interested in this field and am excited to continue this process to achieve my goals. I know more now about the difficulty of getting there, but it truly does seem like it’ll pay off in the long run since this is really what I want to do. I plan on declaring a Psychology minor in the Fall of 2024 since I’m starting the pre-requisite classes for that in the Spring of 2024 my Freshman year. I feel as if this minor would significantly help me in the Labor and Delivery specialty of nursing in easing the mothers’ and families’ worries.
Connecting to Campus
A problem I have encountered this semester is the main area of the library being too busy or loud for me to focus on writing papers and studying for exams, so I’ve been able to reserve study rooms to get uninterrupted schoolwork done for up to two hours. I’ve had a few friends in my art class who are also taking a Chemistry lecture course from the same professor, but at a different time, so we’ve been studying for exams together and choosing the same exam times to help prepare one another adequately. My advisor also helped me a lot in easing some of the stress and worries I had in staying on track for applying to the nursing program. She explained the courseload and explained more about the application process, which helped me a lot. I have not specifically joined an interest meeting for a club, but I do have a few friends who are upperclassmen in a service sorority called Omega Phi Alpha on campus. I plan on joining them for the Spring semester, starting in January. I felt like this was a great opportunity to meet new people from all types of majors and grade levels to help contribute to my major, if we share one, and college experience overall.
Guest Speaker/ Field Trips
When Suzanne Van Orden came and spoke to my Health 101 class, I was truly inspired and empowered to continue with my major. She broke down the requirements and the aspects the board looks for when viewing a pool of applicants. Her story of how she got to where she is now at ODU was very impressive since she started out as a teacher, but ended up working as a nurse and advisor. This gave me hope that I’ll eventually end up where I want to be even if my path veers off of the initial road I was on. Mrs. Van Orden worked as a nurse herself and now works closely with the admitted students in the nursing program at ODU, so I hope to see her myself a couple of years from now. I’d love to see a Nurse Practitioner speak to our class to gain more insight into what their process was to get there because I’m interested in attending graduate school to become an FNP.