Reflection and Advice for Freshmen

We’re now two weeks into the school year, and the amount of course work is starting to pile up. Over the last couple days, I’ve done some reflecting over my freshman year, thinking about what helped me be successful and which things I learned to avoid. I wanted to give some advice to our newest class (or anyone planning on attending Carleton in the future!), and talk through some things that I heard about or wished I had heard about coming in as a freshman.

Get your work done early

I know this sounds super obvious, but with a different class structure in college, this becomes much more important. We don’t spend nearly as much time in class per week as in high school (roughly 9-10 hours/week at Carleton compared to 30+ hours/week at most high schools). As a result, we need to do a lot of learning outside of class time. Procrastinating and leaving course work to be completed the day before class can greatly hinder one’s ability to learn. College gives us much greater freedom to learn, and we must take advantage of it.

Figure out what works for you

Sounds obvious again, but just as important. Do you work better with other people or by yourself? Where do you like to work? When do you like to work? It is vital to realize what combination of these aspects is most helpful to your own learning. For example, many people love to work in the library, but I felt more relaxed and found myself learning more efficiently when I worked in isolation, such as in an empty classroom. Figuring out what is best for you and not following along with what other people are doing is crucial.

Go to office hours

You’ll hear this countless times at Carleton, and for good reason. Office hours are a fantastic way to get help from your professors. They want to help you, so take advantage of it! Every professor I’ve met so far has been an extremely interesting individual as well, so it could be a great opportunity to talk to them during office hours even if you don’t have any school-related questions. They can offer unique insights on practically anything you can think of, and are great people to get to know.

Set your schedule

In high school it was personally very easy to follow the exact same routine every day. When I got to college, I found it harder to follow a set schedule, as I had much more free time throughout the day. The workload at Carleton may seem heavy at times, but it really is quite manageable if you find a routine that works for you. I think that consistency is key for success, and it can really be beneficial to repeat the same actions daily.

Use all the resources available to you

We are very lucky to have so many resources available to us at Carleton, so try to take advantage of every single one. Aside from talking to professors, this could mean speaking with lab assistants, prefects, teaching assistants, going to the Math Skills Center, visiting the Career Center, joining academic clubs, and seeing a language tutor, among many others. Carleton provides an excellent platform in which we can excel academically, so try to utilize all the resources that you can.

You may have heard many or all of these things before, but at the very least I hope it can serve as a helpful reminder. Best of luck with school this year!

Alvin is a west coast kid at heart (coming from San Jose, California), but is excited to start many adventures here in Minnesota. He plays for the soccer team here at Carleton and loves exercise. If he’s not on the soccer field, in the gym, or out on a bike ride during his free time, he can be found in one of the lounges playing Exploding Kittens, or in the music building playing piano. He is a potential Economics major with an interest in Computer Science and Mathematics.