<p>As orientation nears, I can't seem to settle my nerves. Does anyone have any tips to success at ROC, or more generally, in college? Any advice, tips, hints, personal stories (of failure, triumph, comedic relief, etc. are welcome). Thanks.</p>
<p>Every person’s abilities are unique and you’ll see some kids working much less or harder than others. Don’t let that influence you. </p>
<p>Learn to use your time well. If you have some time, do some of the reading instead of thinking you’ll stay up late and then later and do it all in one batch. Bits and pieces add up. And doing it in parts can help you retain and understand. </p>
<p>(My kids taught me this; I was not that kind of student and I can tell you it sucked to have hundreds of pages to read at the end of a term.)</p>
<p>Take time for yourself. Work out. Do some sport - which will also force you to organize your time because sports eat time. Join some organizations and clubs. This is your life and your life is not all about studying. Enjoy your life. You should consider working if your schedule can fit in. It’s good for you. It’s good to have the extra cash. </p>
<p>Don’t stay up all night and sleep all day. Obvious, huh? It happens. Don’t try to live on junk food.</p>
<p>If you have an interest in a specific field, then start to get to know the people in it. This will help you get advice, intern work, etc. </p>
<p>Learn which TA’s are good. That’s important. It’s sometimes as simple as the way a person says things fits the way your mind works.</p>
<p>I agree with everything Lergnom said-- especially the sleep part. Always carve out a decent amount of time to sleep (whatever that is for you personally). Otherwise it will probably make you miserable after a while. </p>
<p>Specifically to Rochester: explore on campus and off campus. It’s a gorgeous campus, and sometimes it’s just fun to walk around. There’s a walking/bike trail along the river, and various parks nearby. There’s also Mt Hope Cemetery right beside the campus, I feel like a lot of students never bother to explore and it’s amazing. Take the school shuttles downtown (Park Avenue) and go to a restaurant once in a while, or the George Eastman House (photography museum). Go to events at Eastman School of Music, or just explore the neighborhood around it. There’s also the Memorial Art Gallery (part of UR), which is small but nice to enjoy for an hour or 2. Getting a change of scenery from campus once or twice a week will help you (aka not just class-library-work-sleep-repeat). Plus, when you ask other people to go along, it’s a great way to make friends.</p>
<p>Everything in Rochester is literally 10 minutes away. You can easily make shopping runs to Wegman’s, Target, etc. </p>
<p>If you have a friend with a car, go the public market. It’s northeast of downtown, kind of a funky area but the market is one of the best in the country. It’s fun. There is a website. Combination of food and other vendors and some places to eat. Also, go look at High Falls. It’s why Rochester exists. Pretty cool waterfall.</p>
<p>If you take the shuttle and have a specific destination in mind other than Eastman, tell the driver. Lots of restaurants on Park Ave.</p>
<p>You probably won’t do much in the city during your freshman year. That doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>Adding to the good advice. </p>
<p>Ask for help. Your profs will not bite, and they will not think you’re stupid if you need to seek extra help. </p>
<p>Don’t get behind. Stay current on your assignments and your readings, and go to class and pay attention - and uf you don’t understand something, ASK FOR HELP. </p>
<p>Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using CC App</p>
<p>And extending on that–</p>
<p>Don’t wait until you need help to go to office hours. Go early in the semester and introduce yourself on a casual basis. (Hi! I’m XYZ and I’m your T-TH anthro/psych/bio/eng lecture.) You’ll be surprised to find that many profs–include those who teach HUGE lectures–already know your name and are happy to talk with you. Also going early takes the pressure off if you need to go later when you do need help.</p>
<p>Don’t blow off recitations (workshops, study groups, review sessions or whatever they’re calling them this year). There will be pop, unannounced quizzes which count towards your final grade. D2 skipped out one of her bio recitations routinely her freshman year–and a single zero quiz grade made the difference between and A and B+ for her. (Yes, 10 points out of over 1000 points for the course made the difference between an A and B+. Great life lesson, but hard on the ego.) Also your TA has insight (read: already knows) about what will be asked on the exams and may offer valuable suggestions on what to study.</p>
<p>Roommate relations: be courteous to your roomie. You don’t need to be BFFs, but you do need to be able to live together without killing each other. Talk to each other about issues as they come up; don’t let them fester and become entrenched. In fact, take some time during orientation and set some ground-rules. Things like BF/GF sleep-overs, quiet/study hours, borrowing stuff, acceptable levels of messiness in the room, who cleans the fridge…</p>
<p>And lastly, be patient with yourself. You may or may not hit the ground running at college. You may or may not find your passion in life/ your soul-mate/ the friends you will have for the rest of your life/ the perfect major/ your niche on campus in the first few weeks/semester/year. Give yourself time to adjust. And forgive yourself for not being perfect.</p>
<p>With regard to roommates, give it time. Things change a lot over freshman year. Some kids take a term to adjust. You have until well into 2nd term to put together your housing lottery group for sophomore year. Your opinions about people will change a lot over the 1st year or so. You may really like someone at first and then get fed up. Or the opposite.</p>
<p>This is likely a waste of time to say but at every school professors have office hours. It’s part of the job. Almost no one comes by. That’s at every school. You’d be amazed at how much professors like having kids come by to ask questions, express an interest. The worst case is they may try to recruit you for that major. But still not many kids will stop by. </p>
<p>But as noted, the main learning comes from your work and the various sections, recitations, review sessions.</p>