Entering the first year of university can be a daunting experience. There are hundreds of courses to choose from, a multitude of ways to plan your schedule and class sizes tend to be far bigger than students are used to.
It can also be hard to know what the future holds, and how to plan for it.
“In the two to three months before registration starts, we have about 1,500 meetings with students,” said Ali Wood-Warren, First Year Centre Coordinator at the University of Manitoba.
“When students first come to university, their future career goal is pretty primary,” she said. “But as they experience what it’s like to be a student and they gain new experiences on campus with their courses and within their programs and departments, they learn of new opportunities.”
Wood-Warren said students who come in with plans of becoming doctors, accountants and lawyers may stay the path to their goals — or they may not, which isn’t a sign that they’ve failed.
“Students come in thinking ‘I’m going to be a nurse,’ and then they experience some of that and go ‘Oh, I didn’t really think that’s what a nurse did,’ and then they go ‘I want to do something different,’ or they just choose something as an elective and fall in love with that subject area.”
She recommends incoming students take a look at the university’s comprehensive planning guide, which offers insight into the various courses required for certain degree programs for those trying to map out their future.
Having an interest in the subject matter is something that will go a long way in helping students achieve success. Wood-Warren said wanting to learn about something makes it easier to stay on top of reading and complete assignments on time — which is an essential part of university life.
She encourages students who aren’t sure about which path to take at university to simply select a few courses that appeal to their interests. That way, it’s easier to develop good study habits that will set them up well no matter what they take down the road.
“(Studying) is totally a different ballgame. For every hour a student is in class, they’re going to be studying on their own for at least two hours,” Wood-Warren said.
“That’s not the same as it is in high school. The expectation is more synthesis of information as opposed to memorization of information, so not just understanding what things are, but how do they interact with each other and how do systems work together.”
For students who don’t really know what they want to do and would like to keep their options open, Wood-Warren recommends making sure they’ve got a few high school essentials ticked off the list before heading to university.
“We would want to encourage a student to take the highest level of Grade 12 math, so either the pre-calculus — mostly the pre-calculus — or applied math, and do well in those courses,” she explained.
“We would also want them to take at least two of the sciences — physics, chemistry, biology — so that they have that science base.”
But more so than the type of courses students have under their belts entering university, it’s important to remember that grades matter too.
“When students in high school are preparing for university, that’s a very strong message that we’d like to give them,” Wood-Warren said. “It’s not just what you take, it’s how well you do in those courses and the habits that you gain and the study skills and the practice that you get being a good student.”
Some students come into university heading down one path but end up wanting to switch degrees partway through. Wood-Warren said this is a time when having good grades in classes and a strong selection of pre-requisite courses pays off.
“Sometimes it’s better to sort of regroup, look at what courses you’ve taken, see how that can fit into a new degree program and if it works, then just continue and sort of shift gears.”
Ultimately, Wood-Warren wants to make it clear that it’s up to the student to realize they’ve got the power to make the most of their university career.
“Students often will say to us as academic advisers ‘What should I take?’ and I don’t know what you should take, because I don’t know what you’re good at.”
“I don’t know what you like, what you don’t like, I don’t know where your strengths lie, but if you don’t know those things, we can help you sort that out,” she explained.
“We don’t really tell students what they should do, but we give them their options and help them to make decisions about what works best for them.”
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