High School vs. College: Views of A College Freshman

“Beep… beep… beep…” The alarm clock goes off, and you hit the snooze button. You expect to have your mother’s kisses, or your father’s tickles, to wake you up. When you realize they’re not there, you jerk yourself out of your slumber. This isn’t high school. You remember… you’re now in the real world. You’re now at college. As you turn to look at the clock, you see you’re late for European History, having spent all night attempting to finish that psychology assignment. It’s now a quarter to eight, and you have to be across the campus in 15 minutes.

Confessions of a recovering orientation leader

Working on Oxy’s Orientation Team (i.e. O-Team) for three years was an excellent experience: I learned to work well under pressure and with minimal sleep, bonded with other team leaders, and felt lucky to help new students explore their new college. I’ve also learned a few things about the college orientation experience, including….

Pick Your Profs!

Matt and Elizabeth have both written insightful pieces regarding the difficulties and often gray areas that emerge when selecting college professors to guide the next semester at college. Check out “Can we ‘red flag’ professors?” and “Dealing with a Difficult Professor” for more on these. This post will be short and sweet. How does a college student even pick professors? Most classes students take during freshman or sophomore year are offered in a variety of different sections, which include an offering of different professors and class time/days of the week. While public college budget cuts may be lowing the amount of sections offered per class, it’s likely that most say… English 101 sections will have several professors from which to choose. (Note: Not all college-level instructors actually have the formal title “professor” attached to their name, but for the intent and purpose of this post, “professor” will be used.) Say [...]

Dealing with a Difficult Professor

Getting into the right classes can be quite a difficult task in college, especially in your first couple of years, when you do not have registration priority. Since you do not get to register first, sometimes you will find yourself in a class with a difficult professor. This is also the case when it comes to required classes, for a major or minor; but, you can find a way to survive, and succeed in the class. So if you leave the first lecture in fear or disgust, know that there are ways to endure this tough situation Use the TA If you have a professor whom you find insufferable, consult the TA for further help. If you have a discussion section, it can be a great way to get clarification on difficult or confusing material. When I took Statistics in my freshman year, I could not stand my professor. She [...]

Grace and Gratitude

An AP United States History teacher once interrupted himself during a lecture and shared with my fourth period classmates the following factoid: “If you think high school goes by so fast, wait until you get to college. It goes by 4 times faster!” Mr. Roberson was correct. At times, my college career did feel like someone was pushing the fast-forward button and would not let go. Many things can get overlooked during this four-year period. Think about it, college provides the opportunity to study a myriad of subjects, perform research, and meet incredible people. So in the spirit of the holidays, I posed the question to my friends and social networks: “What are you grateful for from college?” Below you will find actual responses to this question. And more will be on the way. Enjoy unwrapping this gift from BetterGrads! “The social experiences-Allowed me to grow and mature. [Grateful for] [...]