Navigating My First Semester of College: Highlights, Hurdles, and Helpful Tips

 

“You don’t have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great” ~ Les Brown

Overview

As first generation students, college can, and often is a beautiful collision of freedom and fear. No longer do we have to tend to our families every need, but the pressure of succeeding haunts our every move. It leaves us with questions like “do I join this club or should I wait another year?” or “do I actually know what I want to do, or am I just pretending I do?”. As a first gen student myself, I faced these difficult questions during my first semester of college. That is why I am sharing them here with you today in hopes that you can learn from my experiences.

Commuting

As many first gen do, I decided that at least for the time being, I would commute to my four year college. This would involve paying for gas, weekly meal preps, and waking up early enough to make it to my 8 am classes. This in itself was a challenge but also left me feeling disconnected from the campus community. My first few weeks of college, I had a severe case of imposter syndrome as I felt as though college maybe wasn’t for me. Luckily, I was smart enough to speak to an adviser from my school's first gen center and managed to overcome this feeling. That isn’t to say I don’t still feel it every now and then, but it isn’t something that I allow to control me. 

Community

One of the most important things for a transition from high school to college is to find communities that support you throughout your college experience. For me these communities were my schools first gen program, honors program, and other programs that assisted minority students. Most of these programs provided me with a mentor or two that I could speak to if I ever had questions or needed assistance during my transition. Finding and having support systems as a first gen student is extremely important as they often connect us to other resources on campus and help us overcome the feeling of not belonging.

Clubs

With that being said, another great way I overcame the feeling of not belonging, was joining clubs and organizations that aligned with my college and career goals. The first organization I joined was the college radio station. Joining the radio station was definitely one of my best decisions of the semester, despite having to wake up at 5 am. It provided me the space to talk about things I loved and things that I needed to get off my chest. It even gave me opportunities to become a senior staff member, and help run and plan events.

Majors

The infamous question “what is your major” is something that all college students face, especially in your first semester of college. I came into college as a marketing and political science major, and ended my first semester as a marketing and environmental business major. Yes, marketing remained consistent, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have thoughts of completely changing everything. At one point in the semester, I thought I wanted to be an economics major with a double minor in political science and environmental studies. That is to say, if you have no idea what you want to major in or want to change your mind, that is perfectly okay. The most important thing is that you do your research.

School Work

The type of school work you have obviously varies depending on your major, and therefore looks different for everyone. You will find that students who are majoring in stem related fields, often have to memorize terms and equations and will have a lot of labs. Students who major in the humanities do a lot more writing and reading. While those who major in business fields do a lot more group work, presentations, and creative application of course material. As I stated above, I am a business student, so this semester, I had two semester-long group projects that included a presentation, papers, and excel files. There were various obstacles along the way, but in the end when final grades came out I made the dean’s lists with a 4.0. 

Professors

How did I get my 4.0? I used professor hours as much as I could, and asked a lot of questions. I often found myself asking for clarification or going over previous exam questions that I had gotten wrong. I also participated in class discussions, and did my best to understand what the professor was looking for. Your professors are a valuable resource not only for school work, but for making connections outside of the classroom as well. One professor in particular helped me immensely this semester when it came to gaining leadership opportunities. Professors can be scary to start off but please use them as resources.

Conclusion

My first semester had some bumps in the road, as many of us do, but I wouldn’t change a thing about it. I found communities that supported me, joined clubs, made connections with my professors, overcame 8 am classes, and came out on top with a 4.0. If you don’t take anything else away from this post, just remember that everyone’s journey looks different, and that’s okay.