Your First Semester
- Tell us how you have grown from the beginning of the semester to now.
Personally, I believe I have been navigating the challenges of college life much better than I expected with how I’ve experienced significant personal and academic growth as the semester went on. On the academic side, I was able to hone my time management skills, found myself having a deeper understanding of my major, and adapted to the college environment. I have also been living the college life I have always dreamed of. I have made some of the greatest friends I have met in my life, have an extreme amount of freedom, and the only thing I worry about now is finals and how I’m broke. If me from August could see me now he wouldn’t have had too much to worry about (except money).
- What were your expectations for this year? Did this semester’s experiences meet your expectations? Explain.
I had expectations on how college was going to be fun but hard. I was under the impression that I would be able to join a fraternity and have a job while doing my classes as well. There’s also my thinking that I would not be spending that much money in college since everything was already paid up by my scholarships. Most of these things did not come to fruition. I did not proceed to join a fraternity since I realized how time consuming it would be and be detrimental to myself. Regarding a job, I was not able to find one for this semester but I’m still planning on getting one some time in the future. I have exhausted all of my allowance right now because I have spent too much money on what I now realize are useless stuff.
- What is something you wish you knew 14 weeks ago?
I wish I knew that the things I would have spent money on were things I wouldn’t even need at all. For example, I have a cutout of Pope Francis in my room and it was funny at first but now it’s just there. I wish I also knew about the federal work study. During my FAFSA filing, I did not check out that option, and now I couldn’t apply for those types of jobs. I’m paid for in college but I still wish I could be earning money right now for my own use.
Study Habits
- How much time do you spend studying for each class now vs. at the beginning of the semester?
I didn’t study at all back then, I still don’t today except nights before a quiz or exam. If those do occur, I just study the whole night prior to the exam, which would be about 6 hours with some breaks here and there.
- How have your study habits changed?
There weren’t any changes. My studying basically consisted of me reading the slides or reading for the class ever since high school and it has never failed me. My studying effort does depend on my understanding of the class material though, since I would study a lot if I don’t understand concepts.
- Tell us about a resource that you have used/learned about this semester that will assist you next semester.
The only resource I have used so far is the Career Development Services. I would definitely use them next semester to find myself a job that I can apply to in the future.
- What study habits/techniques will you use going into next semester?
There won’t be any changes or additions to my study habits and techniques next semester.
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.
A connection I found between some of these classes is that the concepts we are learning in one of them would also be related to what we would be talking about in another class. HIST 104H, for example, talked about Marxism and the class struggles at one time. During this same time period, SOC 201S was talking about the same thing. Sometimes, the professors in both classes would talk about how what we’re talking about at that moment is also being discussed at the other class and try to make connections to each other.
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?
Nuclear Medicine and Speech-Language Pathology striked an interest in me when we had their speakers. They seemed to be fun and fulfilling fields with how the speakers talked about them with genuine interest and appreciation of their craft. They also seemed like fields I would be able to do. Still, I think I’m sticking with my major/
- What benefit is there to having a parallel plan (or two) in place?
It would allow me to have a safety net and provide me options in case circumstances or my interests change. This has happened to me already so I believe it is very important and viable. I first wanted to be an Information Technology major, but I also had Computer Science, Cybersecurity, and Nursing in mind. I got an IT job, didn’t like it, and now, I’m in Nursing. It truly helps having some options in case you don’t like the path you have right now.
- How could one or both of these two majors benefit your current intended major?
Since all of them with the exclusion of Nursing are related to computers, I would doubt most of them can benefit my current major. Information technology could help me to some extent. I currently wish to become an informatics nurse because I have had an IT background already. Since that career entails being able to use data and technology to monitor systems and help with patient care systems, it would help with that side of being an informatics nurse.