My son would say, don’t take the cool but all-consuming course that has a large number of older students in it. He ended up with lots of sophomore friends, most of whom were away at least part of junior year, then when they came back my son was off for his junior year abroad. (EPIC at Tufts - great course, but take it later!)
My advice would be to take a mix of small and large courses. I liked having a mix of courses that required daily or frequent assignments (languages, math and most science courses) vs ones with lectures a paper or two and a midterm and final (history and English). If there are freshman seminars offer consider signing up for one - especially if it’s something you know nothing about.
Take something you can’t study in high school - linguistics, anthropology… you might discover a passion you never knew you had.
Consider auditing courses - especially things like art history where just attending lectures can teach you a lot.
Yes, all advice should be taken in the context of what’s possible for the specific school or kid. Lighter load can just refer to course type/level, not quantity.
My D just finished her first semester as well. Her tip would be to check your school email-apparently some professors do still decide at 6 that morning to email the class with a change in the day’s lesson, or in one case, to cancel class due to illness. Everything is not always on Canvas. Also, don’t be afraid to talk to the profs about a grade if it seems off. The TA missed an entire section when grading one time…be prepared to defend your answer if it’s marked wrong but still think you were correct. Sometimes this works, but in a humanities class, not always.
Step out of your comfort zone to talk to people. Don’t only sit with the same few people all the time. Don’t assume you and your roommate will be BFF’s forever. It’s great if you get along, but sometimes you’re just sharing the same air. That’s ok and not a sign of a problem. Be willing to eat foods that are not as great as Mom’s homecooking. D lost weight because she was a bit too picky. Go to events/sports/exhibits that you skipped in HS.
There is lots more, but lots of good advice posted already.
Advice for parent (because students never listen to advice anyway, and OP asked also for parenting tips)
send mail, but keep phone calls and texts minimal. Phones are for emergencies. Texts are for occasional photos and info. Mail is for tangible tokens of love from home.
Get permission to see their grades. Just trust me on this. It's NOT permission to backseat drive classwork or second-guess mistakes or impose punishment.
Practice listening. HEAR what they are saying. Listen, listen, listen.
Don't overreact. Nope, just don't. Don't call the school or the professors or the roommate's mom or the landlord. Yell at them in your car, but don't call.
Our mantras : " one pair of hands on the wheel" and “I’m a lighthouse, not a bulldozer” followed by “not my monkey not my circus” and “what would be helpful to you/what can we do to help”
Your student will do many things wrong. They will disappoint themselves and you. They will get scared, get cranky. You will miss them too much to bear at times. LIfe will be hard and stressy and uncertain but also brilliant and astonishing and marvelous and joyful.
For classes with multiple sections available - different profs/times - pick the best prof, not the best time. 8:00 classes won’t kill you for a semester but a lousy/very hard prof can hurt your confidence/GPA/chance of graduating on time. Took my son a couple semesters to learn that the hard way, even though it seems pretty fundamental
This is all awesome advice as a current sophmore I can agree with a lot of this. ESPECIALLY the calender tip, with the times for web assign because proffesor will change it from the usual 11:59PM deadline to catch students of guard. Definetly stay on top of things, balancing school, and extra curriculars your first semester is the biggest challenge as there is usually always something that is more appealing then hitting the books to study. Time management is key, although be outgoing you have to also enjoy your first semester and try to make some connections. Dont recommend to overload becausr every school/college is different and the first semester is about getting use to a new system. Max of 16 credit hours is what I’d recommend.
Great tip/advice, book library study rooms ahead of time, preferably a week, whether for quiet study rooms for yourself or group projects, booking a day or 2 in advance depending on the college might not be enough time. Also to make sure to book them for finals week.
Lastly dont buy books until after the first class and after youve talked to students whom have taken the class before. So many classes will “require” certain books that are never used. The online business/math books use connect or webassign which include and ebook copy for 1/3 of the price of the hard copy version. Depends on the students choice to get both, but a lot of the times it’s not needed.
“send mail, but keep phone calls and texts minimal. Phones are for emergencies. Texts are for occasional photos and info. Mail is for tangible tokens of love from home.”
This will vary by student. D likes to call me as she walks from one class to the next, while waiting on friends, while waiting for her pasta to heat up, etc. I generally do not initiate the calls, though. We text often, we both initiate these. Mail was for the things she’d forgotten, or “needed” from home or that she’d ordered and used the home address by mistake. What mail she REALLY wanted was from friends and relatives so that her mailbox wasn’t “lonely”. A favorite was a carefully printed letter from her 8-yo cousin.
Agree about the books. Also looks at varied sources for books. D’s student bookstore supposedly compares prices at online sources and offers “comparable” pricing. They were higher in every single case save one. However, renting on campus can save time if going to the post office to return a rental would be a problem. This semester we found two textbooks for sale used on Amazon for less than the rental price at the school. Since they’re in her major and they come to roughly $20 each, D will purchase and keep. Last semester she had one book that the prof insisted was needed, but was not used, though another section with another prof DID use it. So asking a student who’d had the class would have gotten us differing answers.
The number of credits taken will vary by school, major and student. D took 18 credits and would have easily handled more if there hadn’t been a surcharge. Her roommate struggled with 15. But the roommate is a science major with a demanding EC with a scholarship attached, D is a humanities major who is super organized.
Also wanted to say, please all current college students say this with the bottom of our hearts stay away from 8:Am classes at all cost, unless the proffesor is given a 4.0 or 5.0 on rate my proffesor you will regret any 8:AM classes please make sure those are skipped lots of times dining halls dont even open until 700 so waking up with no energy for those 8AM are a pain.
For you, be the safe haven and the storehouse of successes, NOT the problem solver. When they call with an issue, listen. Think of a time when they had something similar happen, and remind them how well they worked it out. If you absolutely MUST give them advice, start with "I can give you some ideas on how I might handle that, but I only know a little about the situation from what you have said. You know much better, as you are there. Here are four methods I might use, but consider them only as ideas. You know best. " Then (and this is important) don’t lay in bed thinking about the problem and call them with more ideas, or ask them about it the next phone call. Remember, you are the safe haven. If you play your cards right, just talking to them will help them gain perspective, vent, and then they will move on. Don’t ask about the problem in the next phone call - assume that if it is still an issue, THEY will bring it up.
On a practical note, we bought two Samsonite Tote A Ton duffel bags online. They are basically strong nylon bags that lasted for four years, five moves, and multiple other handy needs. Just asked our daughter, who graduated last year, and she listed off all the other ways that she uses them on a regular basis. One of the best tips that I got from CC!! Not cheap, but would be a terrific graduation present!
DS has a 7:30 am class 3 days a week this coming semester (no other time and it’s a critical tracking course). Luckily he had a hall-mate who already encountered a problem with this class (thanks to the early time) and thus DS is on notice.
I’m doing my best to stay out of it but I’m already catastrophizing. I need to follow the good advice above.
So OP, try not to observe too closely how the sausage is made.
“Also wanted to say, please all current college students say this with the bottom of our hearts stay away from 8:Am classes at all cost, unless the proffesor is given a 4.0 or 5.0 on rate my proffesor you will regret any 8:AM classes please make sure those are skipped lots of times dining halls dont even open until 700 so waking up with no energy for those 8AM are a pain.”
This would depend on the student, would it not? Some high school kids I know are accustomed to waking up in time for 6:30am swim practice. I’d think it would be comfortable to keep a somewhat familiar routine.
A lot of the engineering foundation courses have the best profs at 8am, and the guys you really don’t want take the noon ones at my son’s school. A definite trade-off in grades + knowledge gained vs sleep
You have no idea how many students say " I regret taking the 8am I thought id be use to it because of highschool, but its completely different". Projects, papers presentations, exams, anything due at 8am at the college level at the time puts a lot more stress on the student. Not my opinion only, I wish I could conduct a poll on this to show what the 8am students think.
Odd man out here. My kids both had 8 am classes. They were not an issue. And in reality, it prepared them for,the world of work when they had to get up in the mornings…and get moving.
My daughter loves the 8 am classes and chooses them when possible.
My D had a very rough start and it took her about 10 weeks to finally find her niche and love her school. Academics were not the problem- the social piece was. Once she got really involved in clubs and campus activities she found her comfort zone and friends and found real happiness. My other daughter slid right in and was fine.
I am a current sophomore, and here is my advice on 8 AM classes:
Try to avoid taking them, but it's not the end of the world if it happens.
If you are going to take an 8 AM class, make sure you have another class directly after
I had an 8 AM class each of my first 2 semesters, and I attended every class. You definitely have to make an effort to get to bed by 11:30-12, but getting up isn’t too bad as long as you go to bed at a decent time. Also, you will be less likely to skip the 8 AM class if you have another class right after that you need to be up for. The bright side is that when you are done with morning classes, you have the rest of the day to relax or do schoolwork.
Early classes depends on the student. Some would rather have classes start and end lately. Each has to figure out what best works for them. Personally, I think quality of the prof trumps class start time always.
I had a professor who actually said “I will never teach another 8am class again” in exasperation. It was a seminar/discussion type class and she said it felt like she was doing a lecture instead because everyone just sat there every morning without participating. I don’t recall people skipping the class but I also don’t recall anything about the class content either (except for that one outburst from the prof).
The prof had a great reputation but the best teacher in the world can’t do anything with a room full of sleepy dullards.
One daughter had a major where freshmen take 3-4 classes in the major, and then two classes to meet the core. The adviser knows which classes outside the major fit the schedule and just plop them into those classes. Well, one course was Psych 101 in a huge lecture class and D would have been 5-10 minutes late to every class (adviser said it was no problem but I knew for my daughter it would be a problem as she’s be unsettled for every class) and the other was a history class with a sectional at 4 on Fridays - her only class on fridays. So I ‘suggested’ that she drop psych for English (a required course and prereq for a lot of other classes that interest her), and move the 4 pm section to 2 pm, plus the English class was M-W-F at 1, so she’d have two classes together.
That worked much better.
One class that is suggested to take immediately is math. For my daughter that would have been a disaster. She needed classes she could be successful in immediately. She may take the math requirement in the summer when she can just concentrate on math.
Luckily he had a hall-mate who already encountered a problem with this class (thanks to the early time) and thus DS is on notice.