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Reader Question of the Week: Student Counsel, Part I

Here is the question we put before readers last week:

S.H. in Duluth, MN, asks: After reading the responses to the reader question of the week from M.R. in Lowell, I was wondering if I could get the other side of it. I'm a young student who has just started my first semester of university this fall, studying earth science. I was wondering if I could get any advice or suggestions about things I could be doing in college, or stuff that I should avoid doing.

And here some of the answers we got in response:

J.L. in Chicago, IL: I can offer three pieces of advice, one of which I am stealing from someone else because I like and agree with it:

Talk to smart people who disagree with you.

Get deeply involved in some sort of activity (and probably less deeply involved in others). There is a decent chance you will not find it immediately and it will be something that has not even occurred to you yet.

Don't let classes get in the way of your college education. (This is the stolen one.) Obviously, that does not mean blow off your studies altogether.

C.L. in Boulder, CO: Generic advice for S.H. in Duluth and all college students:

First week of classes: Go to LOTS of classes, more than you would sign up for. Go to different sections of the same course—Spanish 101, for instance—to see which one you'd most like to take. My husband did this and was always busy the first week, trying out multiple homework sets. I didn't figure this out until years later, but I used the idea to sign up for an 8:00 a.m. class (which had seats available), but actually sitting in the (officially full) 9:00 a.m. class because I had to drop kids off at school during the 8:00 a.m. time slot.

Look into the popular courses. They are popular for a reason. One course on Human Sexuality was always packed, and the professor strongly recommended taking the course pass/fail, saying it was very hard to get an A. (Probably doesn't look great to have a C- in Human Sexuality on your transcript, and pass/fail takes a lot of pressure off the students and the professor.) An art history course was offered Monday through Thursday, but I had a M/W/F course, so I discreetly attended the large lecture class every Tuesday and Thursday except when there was an exam. I watched the slides and listened to the docent—er, teacher—explain the art we were seeing.

Go to campus events featuring notable visitors. You can schedule studying anytime, but special visitors are a one-time event. Back in the day, the speakers were not necessarily recorded for wider viewing like today, so this advice may be less relevant now, but the in-person interaction with other attendees will never be replicated on Zoom.

Get off campus regularly so you don't live in a bubble. Get a part-time job off campus or follow your passion and join an off-campus organization and offer to be the campus liaison. You'll make contacts which could help you with your future career.

Get to know your professors, but don't hog their time. In a large lecture class, such a task can be hard, so you might want to pick and choose which professors to approach during office hours.

Dorm living: Make a map of your dorm with all the rooms and who lives in each. I wish I had done this all 4 years. My freshman dorm is having a Zoom reunion on Saturday, and we started to recreate a map, but why wait?

Social parties: I felt very liberated when I realized that I didn't need to meet everyone at a party, and that, if I had one good conversation, then it was a good event. This philosophy has served me well ever since. Exception: If you are hosting a party, then you should talk to everyone. Also, if you are living off campus and hosting a party, please tell your non-student neighbors that you plan to have a party. They will be so impressed and grateful that you are reaching out to them and introducing yourself. They will be much more likely to call you at the number you give them to tell you the party is too loud than to call the police to give you a noise violation.

Specific counsel for S.H. in Duluth: I know someone who has a second home in Duluth and might be looking to rent it to people who will keep it well-maintained. Ask (V) and (Z) for my contact info if you want to find out more.

C.M. in Raymond, NH: Try to enjoy yourself. If you are not having fun in college, you are probably doing something wrong.

Your classes are important, especially if you are planning to continue in earth science with a graduate degree. However, if you are not having fun, you are either doing something wrong or you are in the wrong place.

I had undiagnosed ADD, put everything off until the last minute, and barely escaped with an undergraduate degree. But I rarely use my classwork in my career; I use the experience I had in my student job (tech support for the university), my leadership work in student organizations (and watching my predecessors in those roles).

So, make sure you are getting your class work done (and if you are having trouble, try to find out why—maybe you also have an undiagnosed condition). But don't neglect the other benefits that being present, in person, with other like-minded people bring.

B.B. in St. Louis, MO: I'll start by listing things to avoid in college:

Alcohol

Cigarettes

Firearms—statistics show the person you are most likely to kill is yourself

Infinite Time Sinks—several students in the class ahead of mine at Caltech were forced to drop back a year because they discovered Dungeons & Dragons.

All-nighters—your efficiency will go down and your error rate will rise after midnight. Do not make the mistake of thinking that coffee (or, even worse, Adderall or Ritalin) will help you compensate.

Things to do:

Get a good basic knowledge of food preparation. This is NOT the same as learning recipes. Setting up good eating habits early in life will be a tremendous boon to you when you get older, and baking brownies is usually a good way to make new friends.

When studying math and sciences, actually learn the material and don't just memorize the formulas.

Take Physical Education courses. You may not be interested in competitive sports, but exercise is good for your heart and if you are lucky, you may find offerings in martial arts, folk dancing, yoga or tai chi.

Participate in at least one extra-curricular activity. Theater and Glee Club are good because they are non-competitive, but choose your own. I am partial to board games because they are all about choosing strategies to maximize outcomes using incomplete information, which is essentially what life is all about. You go with what appeals to you.

Learn to breathe. I mean properly, from the diaphragm. You are in for an exciting time ahead and it helps to have at least one tool available to help you slow down and calm yourself.

Perhaps you can write back to Electoral-Vote.com periodically to let us know how you are doing.

G.M. in Arlington VA: S.H. is already ahead of the curve, as they know what they're studying. Not everyone goes to college knowing what they want to do. As such, they will find a great variety of people, some of whom will be good to hang out with and some not so good. Find the ones who are most simpatico to you, in terms of studying, sports, alcohol, drugs, sex and so on.

J.O. in Williamsburg, MA: I went back to school at the age of 34 courtesy of my employer—a great opportunity that led to getting my third degree. I learned:

Be on time or a bit early for every class so you can get the best seat.

Make some friends in each class, in case you need to miss and can get their notes.

Make an opportunity to interact with each instructor early on to show interest and become a person, not a vague face in the room.

Get ready every day for the possibility of a pop quiz.

But try not to stress out—enjoy the experience—it will be different from the rest of your life!

J.B. in Hutto, TX: You are attending college to get a degree in earth science, but that's not all. If you do it right, your college education can be so much more than a job-training program. These years, more than any other time in your life, are when you should be forming yourself into a well-rounded human being with a fully developed mind. Don't throw away the opportunity.

Haunt the library. Attend talks given by guest lecturers. Whenever possible, take classes that interest you, even if they are not required by your degree plan. In particular, I'd urge you to read the classics. Don't look at the English course requirements in your degree plan as a burden, but as an opportunity. Read Homer, Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare and all the rest of them. If your professor requires you to read only excerpts, read the entire works. This is hard work, but it's supposed to be, as anything worth having should be difficult.

To sum up, reject the modern urge to be a hyper-specialist and instead embrace the old Renaissance ideal of the universal man.

G.G. in Johannesburg, South Africa: I'm an academic-professional (one foot in industry, one foot in academia), and am currently running a stream of degree programs within our School. I'm not specifying which field because it doesn't really matter for what I'm about to say. Here's what about 15 years of experience teaching in three different countries can offer as advice to a new student:

Structure your time like a professional. This means making time for everything you want to do (not just for schoolwork), but it also means not sacrificing schoolwork when there are other things in your life. Being a student is not about absorbing content, it is about learning how to function as a thoughtful, productive member of a decent society. Don't rationalize absences by thinking the course is insignificant, or less important, or that so-and-so is a lousy teacher (there will be some of those). Those are things you will also have to deal with in a professional career. Get used to it.

Read the damn syllabus. It is a contract between the professor and you, and is crafted the way it is for good reasons. I sometimes slip a sentence into the middle of some mundane clause of the syllabus that tells students how to earn extra credit. In most years only about 5% of the class notices it and does the task, which means 95% didn't bother to read it. Somewhere between 60% and 90% of the job of most academics (research, course prep, grading, industry liaising, admin, general cat-herding, etc.) is invisible to most students, especially undergrads. Because of that, I do not have the time to be a personal tutor, so I really do not appreciate having to tell students things that have already been clearly presented just because they weren't paying attention or didn't bother to read.

That notwithstanding, seek help when you need it. No one judges you or thinks you're dumb because something just doesn't click. Rather, it shows an eagerness to learn, which is the whole point. Having said that: refer back to Point 1. I get upwards of 200 e-mails a day, so don't be offended if a professor doesn't respond immediately. Don't assume your professors are always available; we are not. Plan what you need in advance as much as possible.

Transparently acknowledge how you use AI, if and when you use it, every time, even if your professors don't ask for it. Demonstrate how you engage with it critically. I just finished grading 82 papers, of which probably 90% of them were partially or mostly AI-generated, without acknowledgment, in contradiction to the clear guidelines offered in the syllabus (see Point 2). The plagiarizing is problematic, but what is even more irritating is having students who assume academics are too tech-backwards or too stupid to recognize what is going on, or who are exploiting loopholes about "provability" because they can probably get away with it. It's dishonest, and is behavior that would get you fired from any well-managed future employer.

Adding Points 1-4 together, remember that you will someday need letters of recommendation from some of your professors. We are happy to give them if: (1) We actually know who the student is, (2) The student has shown a respectful attitude and (3) We've seen the student actively learning. "Actively learning" could mean someone who started out getting straight As continuing to excel year after year, or it could mean someone who started out getting Ds and ended up getting a C+ or a B-. Grades are indicative measurements to help you see where you stand and reflect on it at a particular moment in time; they are not endorsements of your worth. My most trusted and productive academic colleague is someone who finished her Masters degree with a C- average; my most useless colleague was a straight-A student. Learning is a journey you have to be willing to go on. In 10 years no one will ask about your GPA, but they will ask about your character and overall attitude.

Take advantage of everything the university has to offer, even if it has nothing to do with your field of study. It is unlikely you will ever again have such easy access to elective courses, public lectures from top-flight thinkers or professionals, support programs to help learn whatever new software there is to learn, free concerts from a School of Music, talks about the cosmos in a planetarium, free gym access, etc.

L.C. in Brookline, MA: Here are some recommendations for people entering college in this ever-worsening time for education, made with the consideration that the college part of your life is not in a vacuum, and that much of what I was able to get by with will no longer work in today's increasingly hostile conditions, for which no lasting relief is in sight.

Don't use mind-altering drugs, whether legal or illegal, and as much as possible, avoid those who use them. These substances make you stupid. You are in school to learn. Doing things that make you stupid will make this more difficult or impossible. Not only that, this is extremely inconsiderate and damaging to others who are in college to learn, particularly when the substances are smoked or vaped and thereby directly affect others. I didn't use any of these substances, but I had to suffer the effects of many other peoples' use of them. And you will have enough challenges to see truth, imposed by our worsening social environment, without impairing your judgment yourself. And in line with the next item, you will save a great amount of money by not using such substances.

Beware of hidden costs and other traps in any financial aid you get. These can come back to bite you later, and not all that much later, and once they bite, they will not unclench their jaws. Use college to learn how to be frugal. Even check whether your college offers instruction in personal financial awareness.

Don't believe people (including counselors) who tell you that grades don't matter for the future. They do. The sad truth of the matter is that you will have to balance true desire to learn against the possibility that taking the classes that teach the most may punish you for your learning by giving you lower grades. Also beware of the professors that tend to act as if their class is the only one you are taking—if you have multiple professors doing this at the same time, you will be in a world of hurt. Related to this, if you do have problems with your grades, but you manage to get better later on, it is worth putting a year between finishing college and applying to post-college schools or positions, to have the benefit of your better later grades.

On the other hand, when a teacher does make an honest effort to teach, take them up on it without delay. I learned (actually back in high school) that you really don't went to let these rare gems slip by.

The classes that I did best in were generally the ones in which I did the least work.

Beware that conditions have become permanently much more hostile towards education and science than when I was in college, which was early to mid 1980s, although the trend in that direction was already visible. Make sure you have a backup plan in case your chosen field of study turns out to be a dead end for your future employment prospects. I was and am now in science (life science, specifically microbiology), but in the unlikely event I ever manage to have children, I would not in good conscience be able to recommend a career in science to them. Learn how to pick up skills, so that you have the most options available.

Also beware that conditions have become permanently much more hostile towards freedom of speech than when I was in college (although the trend was already visible). Be careful what you sign onto in the way of protest letters and petitions. Make sure you read the whole document you are signing onto, and think through its implications—even those that could stem from insufficiently precise wording—no matter how good the cause appears to be. This does not mean to refrain from taking any risks, but in opposing those who have shown great creativity in weaponizing different facets of justice against each other, we have to be right all of the time, while they only have to be right once. For an example, see the weaponization of protests against Israel's war on Gaza and the ensuing charges of antisemitism against those protesting against this (and universities hosting them) for an especially prominent recent example—you don't want to sign onto something that makes you an unwitting legitimate or even close-to-legitimate target for charges of antisemitism (or whatever else is being weaponized against freedom of speech and protest).

Related to the above, learn critical thinking for the purpose of discerning when what official sources are saying may not be true. This has always been important, but now it will become ever more difficult as media and the universities themselves are forced to bow to the forces of totalitarianism—or worse yet, make the choice to do so themselves. We are heading into a future that George Orwell warned us about. Use college to prepare yourself for this while you can.

B.R. in Berwyn, PA: I will give you the same advice I gave my kids, both of whom went to large universities with a broad range of programs:

Every semester, take at least one course that is totally outside your major or your career plan. You can always pick up more chemistry or math or geoscience later in grad school. But there will never be another time in your life when you will have both the time and the opportunity to explore literature, music, philosophy, languages, history, theatre, ethics, science or anything else.

My kids took me at my word and ended up doing courses in Jazz Composition, Comedy Improv, Opera, Hindi, Impressionist Art History, Justice, Disney Music Appreciation, Field Ecology, Behavioral Economics, Astronomy of the Universe, Ethics of Climate Change, Modern American Political Campaigns (co-taught by campaign directors from both parties), Greek and Roman Mythology, and Human Genetics and Society, along with their core studies in Business, Computer Science, and Government.

I believe that what they discovered was that college is richest when you treat it as a chance to grow a lifelong love of learning.

And since you also asked about what to avoid, I will also share the four simple rules I offered my kids:

I'm not telling you not to drink. I'm telling you never to drive a car after a drink, or get into a car with a driver who has had a drink.

I'm not telling you not to have sex. I'm telling you never to have sex without a condom.

I'm not telling you never to have pot. I'm telling you never to take harder stuff you need to ingest, snort, or shoot yourself.

And if you are in trouble at 2:00 a.m., no matter how bad it is, call your parents. There is nobody else who will drop everything to be there immediately.

Since we did teacher e-mails for 4 weeks, and since the teacher/student e-mails have a fair bit of practical value, we are going to do the student e-mails for another week, maybe a couple more weeks. Then we'll be back to having a new question every week.

There is still time to submit suggestions for students to comments@electoral-vote.com, preferably with subject line "Student Counsel"!

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