College can be all fun and games, until you’re broke, alone and hungry on a hell week. That feeling of despair and exhaustion can make us feel like we are playing to lose, but some people actually manage to master the game and reach that goal of walking down on graduation.
Whether you’re a freshman or in your third year, these graduates wanted to give you some piece of advice, so you can master the game as well. So, here it goes.
Advice from Josheili Llavona (Political Science): “Focus with passion and will. Be passionate of what you study. It’s your future you are getting ready for. Be willing to give more than your 100% at all times. And no, this doesn’t mean to expect yourself to always be at your best, but to still try to give your best even when you are at your worst. Not everyone finds their calling right from the start. People discover, change, and adapt. Therefore, if you don’t like where you are, move on to another opportunity. Other majors are waiting to be developed with new points of view. An opportunity didn’t work out? Keep moving forward. Don’t let one experience determine how willing or able you are to succeed in life. Also, don’t let stop you from believing in yourself. You’ve made it this far; you can do this. Whatever doubt you have or help you need, please feel free to contact and make an appointment with your Licensed Professional Counselor. They are a great help. Remember that the years established to complete each degree are an estimate. There are opportunities such as curricular sequences, minors, co-ops, internships, etc. that will aid and enrich your college and professional experience. Go for it!”
Advice from Carolina Santiago (History): “Some days you will feel like giving up, days where it seems like the whole world has conspired up against you. It will be tough to get through these, but you need to. A good student isn’t one that has the highest grades nor the greatest amount of achievements, a good student is the one that strives to get through the bad times. A good student is the one that understands the meaning of sacrifice, determination, and sheer willpower. Never give up and always believe in yourself.”
Advice from Angela M. Candelaria (Psychology): “I am extremely honored to have been asked to give an advice to all those new students attending the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez or, as we all call it, Colegio. As a recently graduated student from Colegio, I can think of many advices to give but one that I think is more important, and wish I could’ve realize sooner, is to get involved in as many activities as you can. By this I mean that college isn’t a place to be shy. Be social, get out there, explore, try new things, and get involved. Doing these will open many doors for you guys. You will be exposed to so many great experiences and great people that will become an important part of your college life. I myself regret not doing these since the beginning of my college life as a prepa but, even though I started putting myself out there late, I still met incredible people and experienced amazing events that I will always remember and cherish in my heart. So yeah, don’t be scared to try everything that Colegio has to offer. Best of luck you guys!”
Advice from Fabian A. Ramirez Rivera (Industrial Microbiology): “When you start as a new student at UPRM, you come with this mentality of high school, that classes will be easy and you can balance everything. It does NOT work that way in college. Take my tips prepas, they might save your life:
1. Don’t leave anything for the last minute. You will get desperate and regret it. 2. Write even the professor’s last breath or record the class if it’s a hard one. (Best method by far.) 3. Get at least an hour early to the university to find parking.
Oh and bring an umbrella always, it will rain even if the news says there’s not a cloud in sight. That’s just how Mayagüez works.”
Advice from Alexandra Ramirez (Psychology): “Don’t be afraid of going to your professors’ office hours! Most professors appreciate when you go to their office hours to clear up any doubts or just discuss class material. It also helps to establish a student-professor relationship early on, because it could result in great mentorship and will greatly help you with your future endeavors (and recommendation letters!)”
Advice from Enddy González (Computer Engineering): His is called “The Big Three.” “One: First and most importantly, remember at all times that your professors are human. It is very easy to dehumanize an authoritative figure, most probably has an ego, due to high academic achievements. That being said, it is very important that you ask questions with the same confidence you would ask a friend for the time or date. Also remember to go to their office hours when you feels stuck or frustrated. That being said, a little less important, keep the relationship as casual and friendly as the professor will allow, if he/she does jokes, reciprocate once in a while. Remember these are the people that write recommendation letters, it is not the time to be the back-of-the-bus cool kid, high school is over.
Two: Your habits matter, therefore, if you don’t improve yourself, you’ll get stuck and frustrated with college fairly easily. First the acknowledgement that to influence oneself is very hard, but it is necessary. You don’t have to be the perfect student, just a good enough one, but even then it becomes a “shoot for the moon and land among the stars” situation. The most important thing to improve is time management and self control. It is not about have a rigid calendar and ditching your friend’s lunch invitation, but about knowing you have to pat that time in retrospect. The other thing is gaining time proactively by doing things ahead of time, one of the things that fall into this is semester long group projects, do not even enroll in the class without having a group. Another one, is to always ask people who have taken, preferably passed, a course for tips and course material. Now for the sad bit, you know who can influence your behavior more than anything? Your friends, especially those with bad habits themselves, these are almost viral. I know social life is very important for a lot of people, so my recommendation to keep it is a cold: Drop the bad / Catch the good solution.
Three: The plan, perseverance, and performance. The perfect attack plan against college and basically any long time span project is to get ahead quick. This translates to perform at your best in the early two years, average on third through fourth, and crawl the last ones to the finish line. Knowledge works like a pyramid. The first subjects you take will be the base for the rest, and if you do not have a good foundation you will have trouble building up on top of that. This plan accounts for the perseverance issues you will most definitely face at some point of your student life. Even then it is very important to remind you to keep going in the front of the biggest frustrations you may have. In terms of performance, it is very important to always be on top of the game at least in the first three years. If possible always pre-read course material, if it is on a power point slide form it is even easier, and you can take notes, prepare questions for class, and ask them if they are not addressed. Another powerful tool is to break nights, always choose your battles with this one, but be willing to make a compromise once a while with your circadian rhythm. The best example of this is the engineering building where from the second week of class there is people 24/7 within the building breaking nights.”
Advice from Claudia Irizarry (English Literature): “A lot of things could catch you by surprise your first year. Maybe you’ll walk away from your very first core course and find out you hate every single thing about your major. Maybe you’ll spectacularly fail an assignment or test for your favorite class. Maybe you’ll find yourself unexpectedly moving. Maybe the one professor you want to impress will tell you you suck and need to reevaluate your career choices. Literally all of those things happened to me my first semester; hell, they happened to me before October. I felt incredibly unhappy and alone, like a total failure. It was one thing to finding out you don’t like something you felt you “had” to, but to be told you “suck” at the things you love (in my case, writing)? That was a low blow. In the end, I did switch majors and it took me five years to graduate; I never forgot what that (brilliant and challenging) professor told me after my writing evaluation, and worked every day to get better. Take things a day at a time and embrace the sudden changes (and changes in heart) along your path. Contrary to what many people will say, your first semester will not define you. You’ll find your place and rhythm!”
Never forget that these years are the best years of your life. Sadly they go by quickly, so don’t waste your time and get your head in the game!
That being said, are you ready to play?