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Reader Question of the Week: Student Counsel, Part II

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:

R.H. in San Antonio, TX: A kid I know got into a fairly prestigious engineering school; it was to be his first time away from his rural home.

I told him "You're gonna love [big city], but one thing you need to remember is that you can have a lot of fun, OR you can graduate. You can't do both, not at this school."

With all the confidence of youth, he chose to test that theory.

That wasn't a good idea.

J.F. in Union, NJ: Some advice, looking back at how decisions I made in college came back later in unusual and exciting ways:

The breadth of general ed requirements that schools require you to take are not just boxes you have to check in order to graduate. "We try to turn out well-rounded students" is not just a talking point. Whatever your major, it exists in the broader world, you need to be prepared for that world, and the tools, knowledge and understanding you will get from those outside courses will turn up in unexpected ways.

Try to pick courses that will interest you, yes. But where possible, fill those requirements with courses that are as far from your major as you can get. Although I went from chemistry/history to law school, those undergrad courses in things like linguistics, cultural geography and medieval music are still hitting way above their weight 20 years later when it comes to legal work with people overseas, understanding the news, and playing with the orchestra I'm in.

Speaking of orchestra: keep up your hobbies, at least one of them. If you enjoyed an activity like band or theater or student newspaper in high school, there is no reason not to continue it in college! The best decision I made when I got to college was sticking with marching band. Even with the added time commitment, it was worth every minute.

Alternatively and additionally, try new activities, particularly ones that you might not have had access to previously. This is especially relevant to sports—college is the best opportunity many of us have to try things like fencing or skating or rock climbing, due to facility and equipment access that don't require a large up-front investment. For musicians, college is likely the only opportunity most of us will have to try some of the more unusual, expensive, or esoteric instruments.

If you haven't already, learn the basics of mending your own clothes. Specifically, take a bit of time to learn to sew on a button, fix a busted seam, patch a hole and adjust the hem on a skirt or pair of pants. None of these take very long to master, and you'll thank yourself when it's an hour before a hot date or a professional appearance and a button falls off your outfit, or you discover that your favorite skirt or most comfortable slacks have frayed.

The "freshman 15" is not from dining hall food, even if it's all-you-can-eat. It comes from too many nights of 3:00 a.m. pizza and beer.

If you can, in any way, swing a study-abroad opportunity, do so. Even if it's just a summer or winter session.

Don't go home on the weekends. Much of what you "learn" in college is simply interacting with new people, people you didn't grow up with. Going home on the weekend sacrifices the biggest chunk of time you have to do that.

D.S. in Miami Beach, FL: Sit in the front row, especially in large lecture classes. You can establish a rapport with the professor even if the class has 150 students, just by proximity.

Even more important, it helps you stay focused and engaged.

R.D. in Austin, TX: I am blind and have been my entire life. I've also worked for the last nearly dozen years in two positions, Disability Services for five years 2018-2023, and Academic Advisor, my current position, at a major university since 2023, also holding a similar role at another institution from 2014-2018.

Here are my things all students should consider and be mindful of that can help you with the college experience:

Know what your university requires for housing. Some campuses will require first-year students to live on campus (with some exceptions, and those who qualify for such exceptions will be different campus to campus).

If you have received disability accommodations in high school, know that the college procedures in the United States are very different. In college, you must register with the office that handles disability services on campus and the accommodations you are approved for in college will be sometimes a bit different than what you got in high school. For example, you want to be able to record your lectures. This might be reasonable for a student who does not have the use of their hands and is unable to, on their own, write notes. For a blind student, this might not be reasonable, so long as the professor is allowing the student the ability to take notes with another medium, such as a laptop computer. Also, know that registering for disability accommodations is a separate process from your academic record and such requests for services never do and never will show on any academic records or transcripts.

Do not stress about not getting the classes you want your first or second semester. Many universities give more priority to students who have more earned hours and thus fewer classes from which to choose to meet their degree requirements. In most situations, you will have some flexibility in the type of courses you take and being flexible will make your life much less stressful.

Do not worry about what all your friends, roommates, or classmates are taking; your academic journey is uniquely yours and what works for one person may not be appropriate for another.

Finally, when you are choosing classes, always—and I mean always—click on the course description published on your college's course schedule, as this should tell you a bit about what the course will cover and most importantly, it will tell you if there are any special requirements (e.g., prerequisites that you might need to meet in order to be eligible to take the course).

As an advisor, let me just say that it is always better to check with an advisor and make sure you are on track or taking appropriate courses for your situation as some programs have a very rigid order of courses, while others do not.

K.S. in San Diego, CA: Learn to write. You will write a lot, more than you can imagine. Also learn to write for different audiences and with different detail levels. E-mails should be short, but they always need to deliver the information you want the reader to understand. Memos, white papers and reports can be very long, but also have to be clear to the reader. After writing I always ask if my words have conveyed the information and message I want to send.

Start networking now (and never quit). The people you meet now—fellow students, teachers, people in industry—are the people who will think of you when there are opportunities and job openings.

Enjoy college! As many others have said, make new friends, take interesting classes, try new things, expand yourself, continue learning who you are and what inspires you, give back to the community in some way, make mistakes and learn how to fix them, figure out what's important to you and create a plan to make your life amazing!

P.B. in Redwood City, CA: Bear in mind two things—Homer's Sirens and Will Rogers' words: "There are three kinds of men; the ones that learn by reading, the few who learn by observation, and the rest of them, who have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves"—and you'll be fine.

K.H. in Albuquerque, NM: Thank you, Electoral-Vote.com for posting both this and the previous teachers' answers. As for student do's and don't's (apostrophes as per Eats, Shoots & Leaves), here are mine:

Stay fit and healthy. I rode a bike to class from my apartment 3 miles off campus, joined the mountaineering club, and made time for these activities on the weekend. Too many of my friends gained weight and lost strength.

Sign up for intro classes for majors. As a biology major, I took Chem 105 instead of Chem 101, Phys 105 instead of Phys 101. The material was pretty much identical, but instead of 300 students in a class, there were 30. The professor and the TAs knew every student by name.

Don't blindly follow the degree requirements. One roommate, a junior, needed a Bio course for his engineering degree science requirement. I convinced him to talk to the ecology professor and he was able to parlay his systems engineering skillz into Ecol 305, the intro to ecology course, instead of Bio 100 for non-science students. To this day he folds current ecological knowledge into everything he does.

Don't avoid student governance. I sat on the Faculty Curriculum Committee as the student representative my senior year. I got to speak out about the differences between computer languages and foreign languages from a student's point of view. I got to see how the sausage was made before things went up to the Regents. And it looks great on grad school or job applications.

M.M. in San Diego, CA: I hope this doesn't seem too discouraging, but every term know the drop date for your classes, and if you are struggling, jettisoning something to lighten the load is not a failure. Just be sure to do it before the deadline. For the cautionary tale that will take everyone's breath away in a collective gasp: A young relative had five classes left to finish his degree and decided to take them all in one term. However, problems arose, he became overwhelmed and stopped going to class without dropping any of them, the five Fs tanking his GPA. Glad to report that he was able to retake the classes, repaired GPA by pursuing a second undergraduate degree and went on to graduate school. Academic gut punches can be overcome, but they hurt.

W.V. in San Jacinto, CA: I have been a college student in the '90s, '00s, '10s, and '20s, first earning a B.A., then a teaching credential, then two M.A.s—one for a teacher-negotiated pay raise, and one for my personal bucket list. Here are a few pieces of advice:

College is the one time when you will spend a great deal of your time with smart, interesting and/or attractive people. After college, most of the people you meet will not even check one of those boxes. Don't waste too much time playing video games or on your phone when there are people to meet and connections to make. Get involved in something.

For the few years you are here, you will be incurring a lot of costs—monetary and opportunity; don't waste them. Go hard. Do the reading in advance. Go to class. Discuss stuff with your roommates, classmates, professors. You will get so much out of the learning if you actually try. If you don't, you'll always wonder what could have been. Pretend every professor has one or two letters of recommendation and work/grant opportunities per class and try to lock them down. You know you are good when the professor says, "How about we hear from someone else?" That doesn't mean let up, it just means you are monopolizing the convo, dial it back a little, but know now you are prepared for classes.

Like a lot of readers say, take classes outside your comfort zone. Remember, you don't have to know chemistry to take it, the class is to learn it. You can't tell which class or subject is going to light your fire, lead to an interesting career, or help you create a multidisciplinary connection. Every CompSci student should take Psych. Every Math major should take Sociology, and every English major should take Stats. Your world will open a little more, so take a little taste from the buffet of General Ed requirements and see what you love.

Hit the gym. Find a partner and regularly take in some physical activity. Don't think of it as a cost, but an investment. Does the body rule the mind or does the mind rule the body? Both. Take care of your body and it will support your mind and morale. Even the lowly Cal State San Bernardino (the "Yale of the Inland Empire") had a rock climbing wall, intramural sports, outdoors trips, a two-level gym and swimming pool. Make a gym friend and stay active; it will improve your educational outcomes.

The 10 Rules of Good/Bad Studying. I saw this when I took a neuroscience course at UCSD and used it to good effect.

"C's get degrees." OK, but they don't really open a lot of doors. Get good grades. College isn't the end, it's your chrysalis, so you can come out the butterfly you're meant to be. So, use it to help yourself become the person you are going to be. And, if you aren't ready for that, take a year off and grow up a little. 17/18 isn't peak maturity for most people and definitely not these days. Nothing wrong with starting at 19, 20 and getting it right.

Practical tip for research papers: Enter your sources into the Google docs citation tool so that every time you refer to it, you just hit the "CITE" button and the software will insert your citation formatted in the style called for. Then, when done, you can also use it to generate an alphabetized bibliography or reference page. 30 seconds of work per source to get superior citation experience. I did this in my 40s for my final degree and students half my age didn't know about this awesome tool.

Good luck, and remember advice is always worth the price you pay for it!

M.W.O. in Syracuse, NY: I just recently retired from teaching earth science. Here are my thoughts about being a good undergraduate earth scientist:

"The best geologists have seen the most rocks." Take that seriously. Go on every field trip your department offers. Find summer field experience programs. Collect specimens for use in your future classroom. If you get amped up about seeing rocks in a quarry, a shingle beach, on the side of the road... you are in the right discipline. In New York there is a geology association and an earth science teachers association. Find that kind of thing in your state and join them. They will have field guides from previous sessions and you can use those for summer professional development. Each time a student picks up one of your rock/mineral samples you will have a story to tell of where you found it and why it's interesting.

Some practical advice: When I took mineralogy, petrology and invertebrate paleontology, I was in the lab room every morning before classes to look over the sample sets... and then... every day at the end of classes! That's what it took to crush those courses. Also, I drew/diagrammed Bowen's Reaction Series until I could see it in my head (surprisingly useful) and paleo... ugh! Lots and lots of homemade flash cards...

Every day, read the National Weather Service Forecast discussion for your region. As an example, here is the link I read daily from NWS Binghamton for my area.

It's a little bit technical, but start reading them now. When you do course work in meteorology it will make more sense... but be a life long learner and wrestle with it. Every day you should be looking at clouds, NWS forecast map, GOES satellite and make a connection. You cannot teach earth science unless you can read the rocks and the sky and figure out the story they tell.

Buy a really nice pair of binoculars (ideally 10x50) and a Miller's planisphere/star finder. Once a week or so go outside and look at the sky using the star finder. Learn to identify constellations. In a year, you will see how the zodiac is a calendar. I think it was the second year of doing this when I had the epiphany that... it really seems like the Earth is not moving! It's easy to understand why the geocentric model lasted so long—it's so obvious, LOL! You will find all sorts of stuff to see with the binos using the starfinder. You might consider subscribing to Sky and Telescope. You should definitely sign up for emails from spaceweather.com. It's inherently interesting and the best way to figure out if you'll see an aurora.

This was one of the best things I did for my career as it led to writing my own astronomy course, running a planetarium and establishing an on-campus observatory... all from buying a pair of binos and looking at the evening sky on occasion.

Figure out photography and take meaningful image for use in your classroom. I have a DSLR, but often use my phone. Find decent tripods at lawn sales. I started out each class with a picture of the day and asked: "What do you see?" Or "draw a model in your notes that explains what's happening." This works well with time-lapse images of clouds/storms, the movement of shadows, etc.

Good luck!

B.S. in Huntington Beach, CA: I believe the most important thing you can do as you enter college life for the first time is to develop a willingness to put yourself out of your comfort zone:

Take courses which challenge you and are not in your wheelhouse. I was a math major but learned so much taking history courses, theater courses, public speaking courses, etc. You retain your comfort level in your major field of study, but you grow as a person in courses outside of that field.

Take advantage of your professors' office hours. You will be the only student who does, and you will be exposed in intimate detail and depth to the professors' extensive knowledge in their fields of expertise. As a math major out of my comfort zone, I often attended my world history professor's office hours. He was a South African who shared his knowledge, research, and experiences in the time of apartheid, fully bringing to life the struggles of Nelson Mandela, Steven Biko, and others. What an eye opener that was for me!

Take advantage of the opportunity you will have to meet and engage with your fellow students, especially those who are not part of your posse. Students are geographically diverse, religiously diverse, politically diverse, etc. Tap into their experiences and world views. Go out and meet them.

College is about more than classes, homework and grades. Attend guest lectures, particularly on topics out of your major. Attend performances and concerts. Attend athletic events, discussion forums, on-campus protests, etc. These activities illuminate the fullness of college life. Engage.

Drink deeply of the richness that college life has to offer, and enjoy it fully.

We're going to do at least one more set of advice for students. However, we're going to pause that for one week in order to present a time-sensitive question. Here it is:

R.E. in Chicago, IL, asks: What advice do you have for people who are going to participate in the No Kings protest on October 18? Either practical advice, or advice about how to maximize attention/effectiveness.

Submit your answers to comments@electoral-vote.com, preferably with subject line "Checkmate"!

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