Leaving home and starting college can be an exciting new adventure, but it can also be more than a little frightening.
Many incoming Vandals are unprepared for the winding halls and half-staircases in Brink Hall that can leave many lost for hours, or the hills on campus that ensure students are winded and sweaty by the time they make it to their 8:30 a.m. class.
Most upperclassmen have survived the hills and escaped from Brink, and are now successful students or recent University of Idaho graduates with advice to offer those just starting their college career.
Ask for help
“Don’t be afraid to ask anybody anything. Everyone’s super helpful,” said Hannah Davis, current ASUI president.
Davis, a junior majoring in political science and international studies, said her best advice to incoming students is to get to know their academic advisers.
“Reaching out to my advisers and asking them if there was anything (I should do) and looking into programs that they had available and applying for things that maybe I wasn’t the best candidate for but applying for, them anyway helped me build a relationship with my advisers that I wouldn’t have had,” she said.
Danielle Greene, a May 2011 graduate, attributes her success since graduating to a meeting she had with an adviser at the beginning of her sophomore year.
“We just talked about what I needed to get done in order to apply to medical school … and I remember walking out and just wanting to cry because I was so overwhelmed by it, but it really helped me out because it was sort of like a checklist,” Greene said.
Greene earned a bachelor’s degree in microbiology with a minor in chemistry, and will attend medical school through the WAMMI program at the University of Washington in the fall.
Be unsure
Davis said she entered college knowing what she wanted to study, but wishes she’d taken more time to learn more about her major first.
“I feel like I had this whole attitude like I came in knowing everything — knowing everything to the extent that I knew what I wanted to do, I knew where I was going — which is very rare,” she said. “I almost wish I had been encouraged not to be so decisive with my major. I’m happy with it but there’s a few things within it that I’ve switched around like emphasis.”
Jordan Hensley, a 2011 UI graduate, didn’t know what he wanted to study and ended up changing his major after only one semester.
“I really love musical theater, it’s something that I’ve been doing for a long time. I also really love politics, so I kind of waffled for a little bit and didn’t really know what I wanted to do.” Hensley said.
During the 2008 presidential election Hensley was involved in a musical theater production and found himself uninvolved in politics in the midst of political change.
“I decided politics were more interesting,” Hensley said. “You’ve got to follow your interests and take a lot of different classes.”
Hensley suggests freshman students to take general 200 or 300-level classes in random topics that interest them.
“Usually it’ll count as a humanities credit or you’ll just learn something and you’ll be a better person, and hopefully that’s the purpose of getting a college education,” he said. “Follow what you’re passionate about.”
Greene said she spent her freshman year knowing that she wanted to pursue science, but didn’t know where she’d end up.
“My freshman year I wasn’t really sure I wanted to go to medical school, I just wanted to focus on college and that sort of thing,” Greene said.
Greene said a microbiology degree is difficult to earn but she would recommend it to anyone interested in the sciences.
“The process to go to medical school is really daunting and long and I wanted to make sure that’s what I wanted to do before I committed to that,” Greene said. “So what I did was get involved in undergrad research, which is another thing that I would recommend to anyone in a science major. Get involved in undergrad research and the earlier the better because that really tells you if you like it or if you hate it.”
Greene said her experience in undergraduate research taught her that although she didn’t enjoy the lab work, she loved the science behind it.
“I felt like I went to work and I sat behind my bench and I didn’t really talk to anyone all day and it just really wasn’t for me,” Greene said. “It’s a good thing to do early so then you know (if you like it.)”
Greene said the experience taught her that research wasn’t what she wanted to spend her life doing and influenced her decision to commit to pre-med and at the beginning of her sophomore year she met with an adviser to make sure she was on the right track.
Stay in School
Despite changing majors, Hensley graduated in May 2011 after only three years in school and is now a campaign manager for several local politicians.
“For me it worked out well financially, I was able to get through … without having to take out any loans so for me it made sense. But if you can stay for four years I would recommend it … because you do a lot of growing up, a lot of changing, just being on your own and in a different environment even more than the academic side of it,” Hensley said.
Hensley said most people he knows that struggle in school and end up leaving for one reason or another are afraid to get involved.
“It’s because they didn’t really feel like they fit in. But that’s because they didn’t really make an effort to go and try to be part of a group, and I feel like that’s really helpful,” Hensley said.
Greene said graduating from UI instead of a more prestigious university didn’t hinder her ability to get into medical school.
“My med school application process … I was really nervous just because when you apply to these schools you’re up against people that went to Harvard and Stanford and all of these high-brow schools,” Greene said. “It went really well for me, I interviewed at four schools and got into all four. I didn’t feel like coming from UI was at all a hindrance for me even though it’s kind of a small state school.”
Get involved early
Amy Jacobsen, UI senior who will graduate in May with a degree in business-human resources and management, said she wishes she had been willing to get involved in university groups sooner.
“I was kind of held back by thinking I couldn’t do it, but taking those steps and trying is a good way to learn a lot about yourself,” Jacobsen said. “Freshman year I wasn’t that interested in doing other things. I was in Kappa Kappa Gamma and I loved that, but I wasn’t really in a lot of other things.”
Davis and Jacobsen both spent their sophomore year getting involved in groups such as the Student Alumni Relations Board, ASUI and VandalSolutions, and said their involvement really added to their experience at UI.
“When I came home for my first Christmas break I had so many friends who were depressed and they missed home and they hadn’t made any good friends yet, and I came home and I was missing Moscow,” Davis said. “I wanted to be with all of my new friends and I was having so much fun up here. I was so happy and content with my decision. After that Christmas break I was convinced that I made the right choice (to attend UI).”
Find balance
Davis said she came to college expecting parties, drunken people and fun at football games, but she also knew that students came to UI for higher education.
“I came in with a sense of knowing that people were coming here for school and so that’s been really comforting for me, that everyone studies really hard but then people do know how to have fun,” Davis said. “I feel like everyone that attends the University of Idaho comes here for their education but also takes all the opportunities to have the best experience that they can whatever that means for them”
Although Hensley graduated in only three years, he still found a way to balance his studies with his social life and even became involved in a band.
“I think finding that balance between working hard and striving to do well academically, and also taking time for myself and enjoying the fact that these are the years you have fewer responsibilities outside of your academic world are important,” Hensley said.
Greene, a member of Delta Gamma sorority, said her living arrangement helped keep her life balanced.
“I wanted to go to medical school and so I was really involved and really busy … but I didn’t just go home to my apartment and be a little study rat,” Greene said. “I would go home and there would be people around doing things … it’s easy to get so caught up in your studies and so caught up in all your clubs or your research and stuff and it just kept me grounded.”
Although grades are important, Davis said they shouldn’t be a student’s only focus. “We should get good grades because the degrees we’ll receive are very important but we should also be focusing on these great relationships that we can build.”
Take a chance
Davis didn’t know anyone when she joined Delta Gamma sorority, but she said the experience has earned her some lifelong friends.
“If you’re living in the dorms or if you’re living in a Greek house and someone invites you to go rock climbing or go see a movie or just walk around campus … go along and see what it’s like,” Davis said.
Hensley said college is different than high school because there are more options available and new things to try.
“Just be yourself. The thing that’s cool about college is it’s a chance to reinvent yourself or maybe get away from the things that maybe defined you in high school,” Hensley said. “I feel like college is a good place to be authentic. High school sometimes is defined by cliques or different groups of people or who you’re associated with and college, at least for me, seemed a lot more individualistic and I didn’t feel the need to conform as much.”
Jacobsen said she is still experiencing new things even as she enters her senior year, but she wouldn’t change anything about her experience so far.
“Really enjoy your freshman year because it does seem really crazy, but it is one of the best years of your life,” Jacobsen said.
Kaitlyn Krasselt can be reached at [email protected]