Your First Semester
- Tell us how you have grown from the beginning of the semester to now.
I think I have grown in my time management skills from the beginning of the semester to now. I have also learned how to balance my work, school, and social life throughout the semester. I think it is very important for college students to have that balance in their life because it will help them mentally, physically, and emotionally.
- What were your expectations for this year? Did this semester’s experiences meet your expectations? Explain.
My expectations this year were for me to just get comfortable with college life. High school learning and college learning can be a drastic change for some people. Yes, I believe this semester’s experiences met my expectations because I learned how to grasp onto the college part of learning faster than I anticipated. I definitely feel more comfortable now than I did at the end of August.
- What is something you wish you knew 14 weeks ago?
14 weeks ago, I wish I knew that college is not as scary as it seems. It can actually be more enjoyable than high school was because you have a lot more freedom in college. I think high school teachers make college seem a lot more intimidating than it actually is.
Study Habits
- How much time do you spend studying for each class now vs. at the beginning of the semester?
At the beginning of the semester, I spent about 2-3 hours each class studying; now I probably spend about 4–5 hours each class studying.
- How have your study habits changed?
I think I have learned to practice more things than just read over the notes I take in class during the lectures. I used to only study by just reviewing what I had written during class, but now I also either practice problems from class or lookup online review sheets.
- Tell us about a resource that you have used/learned about this semester that will assist you next semester.
The ODU online library website was super helpful with getting research for some of my classes. It is easy to access, and if you need assistance with it, there are many people in the library that would be able to help.
- What study habits/techniques will you use going into next semester?
I will continue to read over notes, practice on my own time, and review professor powerpoint slides. Also, learning to put my phone on do not disturb has helped out a lot when I need to take the time I have to get stuff done. Having a planner has always been my number one priority throughout all of my years of school because I like writing things down to check them off.
Health Professions Learning Community
- This semester you were enrolled in at least SOC 201S, and HLTH 101. Many of you were also enrolled in CHEM 105N and CHEM 106N, and some of you were enrolled in HIST 104H with Professor White.
- On the surface these classes do not appear to be connected; however this semester each professor was intentional about drawing connections between content, and subjects discussed. Discuss the ways in which these courses are tied together.
My sociology professor drew connections that were related to the nursing field. He would somehow make the topic he was talking about reflect off of how it would be useful to us in our major. This made the class a lot more interesting because he talked through a nursing point of view to keep us engaged.
Parallel Plan
- This semester we had presentations from different majors in the College of Health Sciences as well as from different majors on campus. This was to give you an idea for possible parallel majors to your current intended major.
- Which two other majors would you be most interested in? Why?
Two other majors I would be most interested in would be occupational therapy and speech language pathology. I’m interested in these because I like the one-on-one time you get with patients and the ability to build relationships with your patients.
- What benefit is there to having a parallel plan (or two) in place?
Having a parallel plan in place is beneficial because if something doesn’t work out with your original plan, there is always something to back you up. If you don’t feel like the initial plan is in your future, then it is always best to do it sooner rather than later.
- How could one or both of these two majors benefit your current intended major?
Both occupational therapy and speech language pathology could benefit my current nursing major because I could always be a nurse in one of these fields. That is the great thing about nursing; there are so many options in this field, and you could really choose any path you want to take.