Study Habits
I’m doing well in all my classes, and I think that’s mostly because they’re all general education classes so most of what I’m learning is remediation. For my sociology class what I found to work very well for me is reading the chapter and taking notes before the lecture so I’m prepared for any discussion. I don’t really need any assistance in any of my classes right now. Everything that is expected of me is very straightforward. My friends and I are all in the same chemistry lecture, so before the exams, we study together which helps me tremendously because explaining the information to someone else helps me retain the information as well. For sociology, I spend about two to six hours a week studying, and about one to two hours a week on math and chemistry. The amount of time I spend working on English varies depending on if we have an essay or not but I usually spend one to four hours a week working on English outside of class. For my Introduction to Health Professions class the time I allocate also varies depending on the work I’m assigned but I spend about thirty minutes to two hours every week outside of class time.
Transition to College
Coming into college I expected to make lots of friends, go to football games, and party. I haven’t made a large number of friends, but I have made genuine friendships with a few people who I spend my time with regularly. I’ve been to every home football game so far, and I only went out once or twice when I first moved in. I don’t think I actually expected myself to go out and party, but I knew that as a college freshman that’s what others might expect of me. At first, I felt like I should be doing more as far as going out, but I realized I’m doing exactly what it is I want to do and I’m staying on top of my schoolwork which is essentially what I came here for. I expected to do a lot more going out, but I usually just hang out with friends and chill most of the time which is perfectly fine with me.
I also expected myself to be more involved on campus, but that may have been unrealistic for me during my freshman year. Since I’ll be much more acclimated to college life I plan to become more involved on campus either next semester or next year.
Living on campus the toughest challenge has been sharing a living space and bathroom with other people. If an issue arises between my roommate and I have no trouble working it out. We don’t usually have problems with our suitemates that we share a bathroom with except for the temperature in the room and the level of cleanliness in the bathroom. It’s not that they’re not clean but they’re definitely not as clean as my roommate and I.
Major
I learned that the Public Health major is a lot more popular than I thought. My feelings about my major haven’t changed but I would like to add an interdisciplinary minor because I think that could make finding a job easier if I have knowledge in different fields relating to public health. I initially wanted to minor in Healthcare Administration but after meeting with my advisor I found out that ODU doesn’t offer that as a minor but they do offer minors similar to that.
Connecting to Campus
At the very beginning of the semester, my ID card was not working, so I contacted the card center and they resolved the issue. My friend Cameron has helped this semester by allocating time for us to do work together which keeps both of us accountable. I haven’t attended any interesting meetings for clubs because I’m just getting comfortable with my routine and the campus itself.