August 15, 2025 • 30 mins
The days leading up to freshman year of college can feel like a flurry of activity. There’s enrollment, buying textbooks, moving into dorms – but often, it’s the little things you wouldn’t expect that can impact your experience most.
Dr. Ross and student producer Ashley Worley bring five tips each, combining both a professor and student’s perspectives on ten things you can do to prepare yourself for your first day of college. The list covers simple, often-overlooked advice that may have fallen by the wayside for busy high school seniors in the college transition. From learning how to manage your “housekeeping” tasks to preventing getting lost on campus, this episode brings the practical insider knowledge that’s essential for every incoming freshman.
Have more questions about prepping for your first day of college? Email us at ADRquestions@gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Stay tuned to the Ask Dr Ross podcast.
It's created to give you infoto succeed at college.
Our hosts are highly qualified.
Dr Catherine Ross is a memberof the University of Texas
System's Academy ofDistinguished Teachers.
She's also a popular professorof 19th century English
literature.
Ask Dr Ross is a communityservice of the University of
(00:27):
Texas at Tyler.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Today we're talking about how to get ready for the
first couple days of class.
The new academic year is aboutto start.
A lot of folks that arefirst-year students are coming
on campus and we thought we'dgive you 10 bits of advice about
how to get started.
Now Ashley's got her five andI've got my five.
I'll give you one big generalpiece of advice, which is make
(00:52):
it clear to your professor asyou walk into the room that you
are there and ready to learn.
So how do you do that?
Well, one of the ways is wehave this thing called Canvas.
If you don't know about it yet,get your dorm people or your
advisor or someone that you knowhere to tell you how to get
onto Canvas, because everycourse has a Canvas page and in
(01:12):
it it tells you who yourprofessor is, where the class
meets, it has a list of yourbooks, it has a lot of
information about how yourprofessor wants you to learn and
what they want you to learn.
A lot of times it will almostalways include the syllabus, all
of the assignments for thewhole year.
So get used to using that.
It's a regular thing thatyou'll be checking in on.
(01:32):
So that's the first thing Openup your class Canvas page and
there's a different page forevery course and let that orient
you to what's coming.
Second thing is enter theclassroom with your eyes wide
open, with your phone put away,and make eye contact with your
professor from the very moment.
Smile at him if you feel likeit, or at least don't frown at
(01:53):
him and act like you're there toget the work done.
If you know your professor'sname, that's always an
impressive thing to do is say Hi, dr Ross, I'm Ashley Worley.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
And I think there needs to be a mindset shift from
considering your professor oryour teacher as just the scary
authority figure in front of theroom where in college, they
really do want to engage withyou.
Is what I found, and the morethat it can be a relationship,
the more you're actually gettingout of this university
experience.
At some point you're going tograduate and you're going to
(02:25):
need letters of recommendation.
You're going to need to askquestions to people.
Some of the best academicadvising and just general advice
I've gotten is from professorswho I took time to say hi to and
go up and shake hands with andknow about them, and they're
super happy to give you goodadvice is what I found.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
And if shaking their hand seems a little too much the
first day, just making that eyecontact and acknowledging that
you're there and letting themknow that you're not terribly
afraid.
And I don't know how manystudents are really afraid.
I think freshmen do tend tofind it really hard, for example
, to use our office hours, and Iusually have to require
students to come to my officehours and I will offer them to
(03:08):
come in pairs or even in groupsof three if they're anxious
about it.
But as you say, ashley, you'vegot to learn how to talk to
adults, and not just like alowly student but more and more
like a peer.
And as you get into college,more and more your professors
will treat you like you'regetting a lot closer to being an
adult than your high schoolteachers did.
(03:31):
Number three sit up front.
Anybody who goes to the back ofthe room tells the professor
that they're trying to hide orthey're afraid.
So sit up front.
Don't ever go back to the backof the classroom.
If you don't want to sit in thevery front row, sit in the
middle in the second row andstay there.
One of the things that happensa lot of times in a class is
that the professors learn whoyou are partly by associating
(03:53):
where you sat.
They get used to you there.
And also you want to sit nextto other students and get to
know the students in theclassroom.
Later on we're going to talkabout how to make friends in
college and one of the ways isto sit next to people in class
and talk to them.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
I will say I'm very guilty of being a back row
sitter constantly, and I don'tthink it's necessarily because
we're scared of the professor,you know.
It's just that you get a littlebit more room to be detached
and observe if you're at theback.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
But being detached is not what any professor wants
you to be.
That's true.
They want you to be engaged,and so if you already go into
the back of the room in order todetach and observe, we don't
want you to just observe, wewant you to be an active
participant.
But I would add this You're nowa junior and you've gotten
pretty good at knowing how tospeak up and participating and
(04:42):
engaging in class and I knowthat about you from what your
professors have told me, so thatmay be less of an issue for you
, but if anybody out there isreally afraid of their
professors, embrace the fear andget up front.
So my fourth item, my fourthpiece of advice, is once you get
all settled in, get thatnotebook out.
You should have a notebook andyou have a pen or pencil, and if
(05:03):
you have an iPad or a computerthat you're used to using, put
it away, unless you're one ofthese people who has a stylus
and you take your notes on thefront of your iPad.
There's a lot of evidence thatnote-taking by hand is the best
way to really firm upinformation in your mind, and
professors love to see studentsready to take notes, and I'm
(05:25):
always rattling on to studentstake notes.
Take notes.
Look like you're interested inthe class.
Be taking notes.
A lot of times that first classday, the teacher is telling you
a lot of things that you'llprobably forget if you don't
take notes, because you're goingto be going to all new classes.
There's a lot of new stuff, andso that's a really good day to
take notes.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
I think I said pretty much one of the same things in
my notes about the handwrittennotes, and I think it's
something that students tend tooverlook.
We're all used to taking noteson laptops and doing things on
our laptop.
It's easy, it's convenient,it's fast, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
And legible, much more legible.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Yeah, but a lot of times the convenient solutions
don't make the information stickin my head.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
personally, Well, not just in your head.
There's research that supportsit.
There's this thing calledproprioceptive writing and this
notion that partly it's not justthat you're physically taking
the notes down, which takes youa little bit longer, but you
have to process, because youcan't write as fast as you can
type.
You have to think about whatyou've just heard and sort it
and figure out what's the mostimportant thing to write down,
(06:30):
and so by that simple act you'reactually getting your first
sort of dose of that information.
And then, by having it in thenotes and by writing it with
your hand, there's muscle memory, all sorts of sneaky little
things that happen that do helpyou learn better.
But what about phones?
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Oh yeah, I personally it's just kind of a habit I
have just to put your phone awayin class.
I mean you can't even do like alot of physical note taking, so
why even have it out?
Some people who are greatauditory learners, they can use
their phone to record.
But even then you set that up,you record, put it on the table
away from you.
You know you set that up, yourecord, put it on the table away
(07:06):
from you.
You know you're done.
There's no need to be lookingon your phone at that point.
If you can dedicate yourattention to whatever's
happening in class, you'll haveway better memory and actually
get more out of the informationthat's being given to you.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Well, I want to add a couple other things too.
You know, there's also evidencethat we're all addicted to our
phones and some people are veryanxious if they can't check
their phone very often.
But it's a real sign to aprofessor that you're not paying
attention, if your eyes are onyour phone or if you think
you're hiding your phone in yourlap.
And yeah, no, we see that andwe find it somewhere between
disappointing and annoying.
(07:40):
Again, you want your professorto feel as though you're there
to do the work.
Now there are times when astudent has a crisis going on at
home and they'll come up andsay, dr Ross, my mom may have to
go to the hospital, or my dogis delivering puppies today, or
you know something like that.
I said, okay, if I check myphone, and I'm happy to do that.
(08:01):
I have a 95-year-old mother whocalls me, sometimes in the
middle of class On occasion.
When I see it's from her, Iwill stop and I'll say folks,
she's 95 and she's in NorthCarolina, I've got to check this
.
So I think we're pretty humaneabout it.
But if you're really notpresent because your phone is
more interesting to you than theclass, why are you in class?
Speaker 3 (08:24):
What a waste of money , exactly, and time.
My gosh, you're going to spendfour years.
If you're going to be on yourphone for four years, why are
you even here?
For four years, you could be onyour phone at home and not pay
money.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Well, and some people have started doing that too.
One other thing, too, aboutrecording.
You have to ask a professor ifthey're willing to be recorded.
You don't ever want to recordthem secretly.
I have mixed feelings about it.
Some years I've allowedstudents to record my class and
I have had a few students whohad certain learning
disabilities.
(08:55):
Where it was valuable to them,so I allowed them to do that.
But generally it's frowned uponnow, so you want to be careful
about that.
Now one thing I have noticedabout taking notes students a
lot of times will pull out theirphone and take a picture of
what's on the board.
I don't really have a problemwith that.
I don't know if all professorsdo or not, but sometimes there's
(09:15):
all this chicken scratch on theboard which actually may be
helping you to see If so, if youwant to take a photograph on
your phone of what's on theboard.
But usually you ought to waituntil class is over before you
do that.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
And about the recording thing too.
The people that I've seen whouse audio recordings of lectures
are people who were blind.
It was something they needed.
They couldn't go back and lookat note cards or whatever the
thing is, so that was somethingspecific to how they learn, and
that's really what it was usedfor.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
And typically they've communicated that to the
university and the university'sspecial offices of accommodation
have communicated that verydiscreetly to the faculty
members.
The faculty member knows no onehas to be embarrassed or
anything like that.
But I also think if you'rerelying on a recording instead
of taking your own notes, youmay be missing much.
You know there's a lot of appsthese days.
(10:06):
There's a lot of AI and you seeit all the time now advertising
.
You know, get this app and youdon't have to ever take notes in
a meeting again, like for ameeting of the design team or a
meeting of the department.
I haven't seen them for classes, but when you're in a learning
situation, I think that stillyou should be the one taking
your own notes.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
And even kind of off track from that.
I think every situation in lifeshould be a learning situation.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Well, I agree.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Just because you already learned how to do notes
and learn how to do all thisstuff doesn't mean that now,
when you're graduated, you canjust put it away and you never
have to do it again.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Well, that's really true.
That's really really true.
And I've found I'm such aninveterate note taker that here
I am as a full professor ofEnglish who's been practicing
for 30 years.
I still take notes wherever Iam, and the last piece of advice
is to get up to leave, smileand nod at your professor.
This may seem silly to you andyou may be a little bit afraid
(11:02):
of professors if this is thefirst time you've ever been on
the campus, but in fact we'repeople and we really like to get
to know you and we don't wantyou to be afraid of us.
We want you to work with us andbe comfortable with us and
ready to ask questions, and so,as soon as you can, if you start
to sort of initiate some sortof human interaction between you
(11:22):
and your professor and yourclassmates, you'll find that
that's going to be a great wayto get started and it'll really
help you along the line.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
I thought that it was cool that you were emphasizing
to have a relationship with theprofessors, because college is
about so much more than thepaperwork and getting the degree
at the end of it.
If you actually have builtconnections with people who will
help you later on and who youlearn a lot from, who have a lot
more experience than you do,that's really what I think
(11:52):
students should keep in mind, orshould shift their mindset to
when they come into college isthat it's about building
relationships.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
I'm glad you said that, because I really agree
with that too.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
So first on my list, I have make a calendar of your
class schedule and be sure toinclude your classroom number,
your professor, your building,your textbook information, all
these little extra things thatyou can put in the notes section
of your calendar.
Make use of that.
It's really helpful to have itall in one place.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
What kind of calendar do you recommend?
Speaker 3 (12:32):
the native app on my phone.
There are physical calendarssome people can use those have
note sections as well.
Google Drive has a calendar.
Whatever really you haveavailable and that works for you
.
Definitely just make use ofhaving that repeatable calendar
and having your notes section.
I remember when I first set upmine and it wasn't something I
thought about until maybe acouple days before when I was
(12:54):
thinking wait, do I have all mytextbooks?
Which professor's name is this?
It's a lot to keep track of andI took it for granted that I
would remember the names, butwithout having it written down
and available, it will leaveyour brain.
There's just too many otherthings happening.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
We often talk about the first couple days of class.
You know, like drinking from afire hydrant and just so you'll
know.
Professors know that you'regetting a lot thrown at you that
first week and the things thatshe just talked about.
You can find those on yourCanvas page for your courses.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Yeah, but also having them written out somewhere for
you.
That will help them stick inyour brain, and having the
reminder too.
You know you have class at thistime, it's in this building and
it's taught by this professor.
You probably will stop thinkingabout it after the first week,
but having it available for thefirst week to keep repeating.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
You've got to get into a routine and you haven't
had a routine all summer,hopefully, although you may have
been working.
But it's going to be a verydifferent routine than the one
you're used to.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
For sure.
Oh, it never hurts to doublecheck your room locations
because sometimes they have atemporary location listed when
you register early and then itchanges, you know, for whatever
reason before the first day andI've gone to wrong classrooms
because of that.
It's just something that is apractical thing you've got to
keep in mind.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Yeah, that happens all the time.
I was just flying home from aconference in Chicago and they
changed my gate three timesbefore I finally got to my
flight home, and so fortunately,those things usually will be on
the Canvas site or there'll bean email sent to you by your
professor.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
And also it's good to keep track of the textbooks
that you're going to need to buybeforehand and have them ready.
But when you get to that firstday, it's worth talking to the
professor about whether or notyou actually will need the
textbook, because sometimesthere's a requirement to list a
textbook on the syllabus andthen when you actually see the
Canvas page or speak to them inperson, they're like I was
(14:48):
required to list this as thecourse material, but really what
we're doing is more discussionor more this or that.
So if you can access this firstchapter that may be available
free online, or I have a copy ofthis textbook that I've written
you can have a copy.
It's worth talking to them,because sometimes I've ended up
with very expensive textbooksthat we didn't end up needing
(15:10):
them or actually needing to usethem, but it was way too late
for me to return them by thetime I thought about it, because
it got buried under the slushpile of other things.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Yeah, if you order them real early too.
But I will say this the otherthing to ask a professor is like
in my case, I have three books,three novels.
Which one do I need the firstweek and that'll be on the
schedule, so you don't have tobring all three and that way you
don't have to carry stuffaround.
But on this note about books,have to carry stuff around.
(15:40):
But on this note about books,if the professor wants you to
have the book and you're goingto use it, bring it to class
every day.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Absolutely.
You should have it in classevery day along with your
notebook.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
So my second tip was to get on Rate my Professor, but
with caution.
Every ratings-based platformwill only ever attract pretty
much the people who love thething they're rating or who
absolutely hate the thingthey're rating A lot of people
who had an average experience.
It doesn't occur to them towrite about it because it didn't
really stand out that much.
(16:10):
So if somebody was just like astandard good professor, we had
a good time they probably didn'tthink about it all that much,
especially if it was a coreclass and won't have left that
kind of a review.
But Rate my Professor can be agood resource when you keep that
in mind.
You can go through the reviewsand find, okay, what are people
saying that they loved or hated?
(16:30):
You can tend to find thingsthat are not true as well.
So you're like oh, this personsaid they hated this professor
because they gave me a B.
You know Well, that just meansthat, okay, now I know about
this professor that they're anhonest grader and that I will be
asked to step up to the plate.
So if you're not just taking itas everything that the reviews
say is 100% true, factual, youcan actually get a lot of great
(16:54):
information.
You know, especially stuff thatyou couldn't prepare for
otherwise unless you'd talked toanother student who'd been in
the class stuff about theirteaching style, whether it's
very discussion-heavy.
There's a lot of writinginvolved, all these sorts of
detailed things that matter tostudents, but that is not really
available information.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Just a little subnote to that is that if you will
look at that Canvas page wherethe professor has their policy
statement, usually they'll saysome things in there about what
they expect.
And so, for example, I alwayssay I expect students to show up
and be engaged, and I'll evensay, even if you haven't done
the homework, show up, you'llget something from the class and
that can tell you somethingabout me as a professor.
(17:33):
The other thing would be, ifyou have a chance to find out
from other majors, majors arereally good because they've been
around for a little while andthey can compare a professor to
the other professors.
And keep in mind too, if you'rea first-year student, you may
be taking core classes.
Some of those in some fieldsare real large and, like in the
(17:55):
English field and I think inMass Comm, they tend to be
smaller.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
So all these little things will kind of help you not
be surprised when you show up.
I'm going to move to the thirdtip, which was to walk the
campus or have a map on handbefore your first day Really,
really important.
I used to be a tour guide andUT is kind of a smaller campus.
Before my first day I sort oftook it for granted that maybe
I'd be able to find things.
I even had a sister here whoknew where the layout was and
(18:24):
everything.
I'd had one tour, you know,during the summer and I was like
, yeah, that's probably enough.
You know that's plenty, but itcan be really overwhelming if
you've never been on this campus.
You're just kind of exploringit but actually class is in 10
minutes so we don't really havetime to wander around and find
where the room location is.
So it's just super important toprepare yourself and there's
(18:46):
nothing really like walkingthrough it beforehand.
If you can.
If you don't have access to it,maybe you could look at like a
Google Maps view sort of thing,do a 360 tour, just whatever's
available.
But actually walking to thebuilding, the room number and
knowing it physically inrelation to the other landmarks
on campus will help you a ton.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Yeah, and you know.
Another thing too is that a lotof times the classroom number
will be like HPR and you go,what does that mean?
Or Radcliffe North, orRadcliffe South, and so if you
have a map it'll have the namesof the buildings and then you'll
begin to not have to worryabout the H-P-R thing.
You'll know it's that one overthere, the big one with the red
top.
The other thing, too is, as aprofessor, I will oftentimes see
(19:31):
students walk on the campus onthat day before, and almost
always one of the professorswill probably greet you during
that time, and we love to seethat.
It's a real sign of a studentwho's trying to get themselves
launched.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Well, and the first day is stressful enough,
honestly, For us too.
You don't need to add gettinglost to the other things that
you've got to worry about on thefirst day.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Although I will add that professors tend to be
pretty generous about peoplebeing lost on the first day.
Although I will add thatprofessors tend to be pretty
generous about people being loston the first day because we get
especially for first-yearstudents.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Right.
Oh, and on that note also, it'simportant to scout out parking
beforehand, if you can.
It's not something that Ithought about, not something
that a lot of people think about, but boy, will you start to
think about it after that firstweek, or so, that first day even
, because everybody's showing upon the first day and
everybody's trying to find theparking on the first day, some
(20:21):
lots will automatically get morecrowded.
You know, and you won't haveknown about that beforehand,
this is your first time oncampus and other lots will be
kind of empty, but you won'treally know.
They're across campus, so am Igoing to drive to the other?
It can become a whole mess.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Oh yeah, other it can become a whole mess.
Oh yeah, and if your classstarts at 11 and you think you
can get a parking space at 1055,you will be sorely disappointed
.
Always get there a good atleast a half hour early if you
can, especially the first weekor two when everybody's figuring
out the parking situation, anda lot of times it's really smart
to park in one place that'ssort of central, so you can go
(20:56):
to all your classes.
But boy, I've had students miss30 minutes of class because
they couldn't find a parkingplace.
I myself have come rolling in.
Now there are faculty spacesreserved for us, but even then
sometimes those are all takenand that's such a downer to have
everything ready and then toblow it because of parking.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Yeah, you cannot overlook it, and I've never
actually been to a university orheard from somebody else who
was at another university thatsaid we have great parking.
There's no parking problemshere.
That's never the case justbecause there's so many people
at so many times of day, andparking will empty after certain
times of day too, so you've gotto learn when the rushes will
(21:37):
come and when they're not.
Again, if you have access toanybody who is already on campus
or who you know at theuniversity, this is something
worth talking to them aboutbeforehand.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
And if you're living on campus, don't drive, just
walk, because what you're doingis you're getting in the way of
the poor commuters.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Oh yeah, I know I'm a commuter.
I come from about 45 minutesaway and we're scrapping it out
every morning, me and the othercommuters.
Oh, but also the other thing tonote about scouting out your
campus layout beforehand is thiswill help you to find where the
community spaces are, andthat's something where, if you
don't look for them, you mayforget to look for them later
(22:16):
and find yourself in betweenclasses like wait, where do I go
?
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Where's the ladies room and the men's room?
Where can I get some food or adrink?
Where can I just throw my stuffdown and put my feet up for a
little while?
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Where can I sit and study for the 30 minutes I have
between classes and where can Isit and study that's as near as
possible to my class so that I'mnot having to run or that kind
of thing?
Speaker 2 (22:40):
And I'm glad you brought that up.
We're going to talk a littlebit more later on about making
friends and stuff, but thosecommunity spaces end up being a
part of the social story ofcollege too, and so we'll be
talking about that again.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
My fourth tip is actually something that Dr Ross
already said is to get anotebook, a physical notebook,
or else, you know, have a stylusor something that you're taking
notes by hand with on your iPadthat the more effort you're
(23:18):
putting into actually retainingthis information and the more
you're having to summarize inyour own words what's being said
, the better that information isgoing to stay with you, and for
longer.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Also, there's a lot of evidence that if you don't
take notes period, your memoryis not nearly as good as you
think it is, and people tend toforget as much as 80% of what
they heard within two or threedays.
And so by taking notes you'rehopefully getting closer to 40
or 50%.
That you'll sort of solidify inyour sensorium, in your brain,
(23:48):
but then you also have the notesto review.
So, yeah, note-taking is areally important skill.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
And the funny thing is that's something I even knew
about beforehand and I had allmy notes, stuff with me, but I
still didn't even consider itimportant.
I'm like this is just somethingthat you do, but what I found
is that, like personally, yes,it does help me to remember them
better.
But the other funny thing too,in terms of just what
handwriting can do for yourmemory I have been habitually
given journals for like everybirthday since I was born.
(24:16):
For some reason I don't knowwhy I must look like a journal
person to people I've neverjournaled, and it got to the
point where, about when Istarted college, I just had
these shelves full of emptyjournals and I'm like I either
got to get rid of these or startusing them.
So what I decided to do was youknow what?
I'm just going to writesummaries of what happened every
day and the most unimportantthings.
(24:36):
You know, like I ate eggs forbreakfast.
These are the most boringjournals you will ever lay hands
upon in your life.
But what I found is that bydoing that, I actually have way
better recall of what happenedand better recall of how I felt
in that situation or what thespecific situation was, things
that I didn't write down aboutit.
I remember and it just helpswith that clarity.
(24:57):
So much and it's not somethingI ever would have thought about.
But now I journal every day.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
And I'll add this to a professor who sees a student
just sitting there passivelydoing nothing during a class
really wonders how engaged theyare.
And because we know whatAshley's just said about the way
we learn from taking notes, weknow that you're not learning as
much as somebody else and wewant you to not do that.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
And my fifth and final tip again something Dr
Ross emphasized, but it's toread the syllabus, sign into
Canvas, check your universityemail, all this housekeeping
stuff we tend to not think aboutbefore the first day.
It was something that I waslike.
You know what?
I'll do it on day one, becausethat's when the classes are open
, that's when all thisinformation is available.
(25:41):
Actually, most of the time it'savailable as much as a week
before the classes even start,and so that gives you enough
time to again know for sure yourroom numbers, read about the
professor and their background,your textbooks, all this
housekeeping stuff.
That's not so much fun to thinkabout on your first day,
honestly, but it's verynecessary.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Yeah, just good taking care of yourself, to be
honest.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
Reading your syllabus , signing into Canvas.
If something like a classroomlocation change or a textbook
change, class cancellation, ifstuff like that comes up, you'll
be ahead of the game for that.
So it's a good idea to be up todate on that beforehand, just
so that you're not going to theclassroom and finding out the
class is canceled.
I've done that a number oftimes and also it's just going
(26:26):
to head off some of the stressthat you might have for the
first day and some classesactually will have homework due
ahead of time.
That's kind of rare.
I've not encountered that.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
A lot of times, professors, you know we want to
get to know you ahead of time ifpossible, and so, especially if
we open our Canvas course early, we might ask students to send
a brief paragraph introducingthemselves, or I oftentimes will
ask students to send me apicture and three things they'd
like me to know about, and it'sreally interesting to see which
students find that assignmentand turn it in and which ones
(26:58):
missed it completely.
It's usually the ones whodidn't follow Ashley's advice
who missed it completely, andit's always nice to know ahead
of time.
For me, as a professor who'salready paying attention,
because, you know, the truth isis attention is one of our
biggest commodities, and youneed to learn how to direct it
at the things that are mostimportant.
I think if we were going towrap this up, I'll let you wrap
(27:32):
up too, but I hope what you'veheard is that, first of all,
we're real excited about theopening of school.
It's a fun time and we want youto be ready to get as much out
of it as possible, and thatincludes being ready to learn,
being open to getting to knownew people and new ideas, and
(27:52):
also being proactive aboutlooking out for yourself.
Your mom and dad aren't there,or your grandparents or your
guardians are not there to tellyou to wake up anymore.
They're not there to make sureyou get to class on time.
Or did you fill up yournotebook?
Did you put all the stuff inyour backpack?
It's your turn to start beingthe grown-up, and that's kind of
(28:13):
fun too, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Yeah, it is too, isn't it?
Yeah, it is, and in a similarvein, before you come to class,
it's great to just go ahead andleave behind the idea that the
learning will only happen inthese formal circumstances or
that school doesn't start untiltomorrow, so I'm not going to
check my email until tomorrow.
College is a phase of life.
It's about the relationshipsand learning, which doesn't
(28:36):
necessarily happen always inthose very formal parameters.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Oh, it's so much more than what goes on in classrooms
.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
So if you're confining yourself to I'm just
doing the work when I'm in classor I'm just thinking about
school stuff in your businessbrain, basically while I'm in
class, you're going to miss outon a lot of stuff and you're
actually probably going to fallbehind in your work because
college requires you to spend asmuch time as you're spending in
(29:05):
class.
Spend that much time outside ofclass working on it and
actually developing your skillsand yourself.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
And you're going to be exercising sort of new parts
of your brain and new parts ofyour life, and it's fun.
But it will be frustrating andyou'll make some mistakes, and
mistakes are okay.
In fact, one of the things Ialways tell my students you
always learn more from makingmistakes, and sometimes even by
failing, than you do by beingperfect all the time.
(29:31):
So be kind to yourself, butalso take good care of yourself.
Give yourself a chance to shine.
So we're looking forward toseeing you on the first care of
yourself.
Give yourself a chance to shine.
So we're looking forward toseeing you on the first day of
class and we're looking forwardto seeing you on the last day of
class.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
And if anybody has any questions that they would
like to submit before theirfirst day, anything that we
could help answer, feel free toleave a comment below or to send
us your questions atadrquestions at gmailcom.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Sounds good to me.
So well, that was prettyinteresting.
I enjoyed that.
I guess that's a wrap, ashley.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Yes, ma'am, this has been the Ask Dr Ross podcast.
Thank you so much for listeningin with us today, and if you
have questions about collegelife or any of the topics that
we were talking about today,please send us your questions to
adrquestions at gmailcom.
We'd love to hear from you.
In the meanwhile, we'll see youin the next episode.
Thank you very much.
This is Ashley Wirtlech signingoff.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Bye-bye.
Stay tuned to the Ask Dr Ross podcast.
It's created to give you infoto succeed at college.
Our hosts are highly qualified.
Dr Catherine Ross is a memberof the University of Texas
System's Academy ofDistinguished Teachers.
She's also a popular professorof 19th century English
literature.
Ask Dr Ross is a communityservice of the University of
(00:27):
Texas at Tyler.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Today we're talking about how to get ready for the
first couple days of class.
The new academic year is aboutto start.
A lot of folks that arefirst-year students are coming
on campus and we thought we'dgive you 10 bits of advice about
how to get started.
Now Ashley's got her five andI've got my five.
I'll give you one big generalpiece of advice, which is make
(00:52):
it clear to your professor asyou walk into the room that you
are there and ready to learn.
So how do you do that?
Well, one of the ways is wehave this thing called Canvas.
If you don't know about it yet,get your dorm people or your
advisor or someone that you knowhere to tell you how to get
onto Canvas, because everycourse has a Canvas page and in
(01:12):
it it tells you who yourprofessor is, where the class
meets, it has a list of yourbooks, it has a lot of
information about how yourprofessor wants you to learn and
what they want you to learn.
A lot of times it will almostalways include the syllabus, all
of the assignments for thewhole year.
So get used to using that.
It's a regular thing thatyou'll be checking in on.
(01:32):
So that's the first thing Openup your class Canvas page and
there's a different page forevery course and let that orient
you to what's coming.
Second thing is enter theclassroom with your eyes wide
open, with your phone put away,and make eye contact with your
professor from the very moment.
Smile at him if you feel likeit, or at least don't frown at
(01:53):
him and act like you're there toget the work done.
If you know your professor'sname, that's always an
impressive thing to do is say Hi, dr Ross, I'm Ashley Worley.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
And I think there needs to be a mindset shift from
considering your professor oryour teacher as just the scary
authority figure in front of theroom where in college, they
really do want to engage withyou.
Is what I found, and the morethat it can be a relationship,
the more you're actually gettingout of this university
experience.
At some point you're going tograduate and you're going to
(02:25):
need letters of recommendation.
You're going to need to askquestions to people.
Some of the best academicadvising and just general advice
I've gotten is from professorswho I took time to say hi to and
go up and shake hands with andknow about them, and they're
super happy to give you goodadvice is what I found.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
And if shaking their hand seems a little too much the
first day, just making that eyecontact and acknowledging that
you're there and letting themknow that you're not terribly
afraid.
And I don't know how manystudents are really afraid.
I think freshmen do tend tofind it really hard, for example
, to use our office hours, and Iusually have to require
students to come to my officehours and I will offer them to
(03:08):
come in pairs or even in groupsof three if they're anxious
about it.
But as you say, ashley, you'vegot to learn how to talk to
adults, and not just like alowly student but more and more
like a peer.
And as you get into college,more and more your professors
will treat you like you'regetting a lot closer to being an
adult than your high schoolteachers did.
(03:31):
Number three sit up front.
Anybody who goes to the back ofthe room tells the professor
that they're trying to hide orthey're afraid.
So sit up front.
Don't ever go back to the backof the classroom.
If you don't want to sit in thevery front row, sit in the
middle in the second row andstay there.
One of the things that happensa lot of times in a class is
that the professors learn whoyou are partly by associating
(03:53):
where you sat.
They get used to you there.
And also you want to sit nextto other students and get to
know the students in theclassroom.
Later on we're going to talkabout how to make friends in
college and one of the ways isto sit next to people in class
and talk to them.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
I will say I'm very guilty of being a back row
sitter constantly, and I don'tthink it's necessarily because
we're scared of the professor,you know.
It's just that you get a littlebit more room to be detached
and observe if you're at theback.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
But being detached is not what any professor wants
you to be.
That's true.
They want you to be engaged,and so if you already go into
the back of the room in order todetach and observe, we don't
want you to just observe, wewant you to be an active
participant.
But I would add this You're nowa junior and you've gotten
pretty good at knowing how tospeak up and participating and
(04:42):
engaging in class and I knowthat about you from what your
professors have told me, so thatmay be less of an issue for you
, but if anybody out there isreally afraid of their
professors, embrace the fear andget up front.
So my fourth item, my fourthpiece of advice, is once you get
all settled in, get thatnotebook out.
You should have a notebook andyou have a pen or pencil, and if
(05:03):
you have an iPad or a computerthat you're used to using, put
it away, unless you're one ofthese people who has a stylus
and you take your notes on thefront of your iPad.
There's a lot of evidence thatnote-taking by hand is the best
way to really firm upinformation in your mind, and
professors love to see studentsready to take notes, and I'm
(05:25):
always rattling on to studentstake notes.
Take notes.
Look like you're interested inthe class.
Be taking notes.
A lot of times that first classday, the teacher is telling you
a lot of things that you'llprobably forget if you don't
take notes, because you're goingto be going to all new classes.
There's a lot of new stuff, andso that's a really good day to
take notes.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
I think I said pretty much one of the same things in
my notes about the handwrittennotes, and I think it's
something that students tend tooverlook.
We're all used to taking noteson laptops and doing things on
our laptop.
It's easy, it's convenient,it's fast, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
And legible, much more legible.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Yeah, but a lot of times the convenient solutions
don't make the information stickin my head.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
personally, Well, not just in your head.
There's research that supportsit.
There's this thing calledproprioceptive writing and this
notion that partly it's not justthat you're physically taking
the notes down, which takes youa little bit longer, but you
have to process, because youcan't write as fast as you can
type.
You have to think about whatyou've just heard and sort it
and figure out what's the mostimportant thing to write down,
(06:30):
and so by that simple act you'reactually getting your first
sort of dose of that information.
And then, by having it in thenotes and by writing it with
your hand, there's muscle memory, all sorts of sneaky little
things that happen that do helpyou learn better.
But what about phones?
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Oh yeah, I personally it's just kind of a habit I
have just to put your phone awayin class.
I mean you can't even do like alot of physical note taking, so
why even have it out?
Some people who are greatauditory learners, they can use
their phone to record.
But even then you set that up,you record, put it on the table
away from you.
You know you set that up, yourecord, put it on the table away
(07:06):
from you.
You know you're done.
There's no need to be lookingon your phone at that point.
If you can dedicate yourattention to whatever's
happening in class, you'll haveway better memory and actually
get more out of the informationthat's being given to you.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Well, I want to add a couple other things too.
You know, there's also evidencethat we're all addicted to our
phones and some people are veryanxious if they can't check
their phone very often.
But it's a real sign to aprofessor that you're not paying
attention, if your eyes are onyour phone or if you think
you're hiding your phone in yourlap.
And yeah, no, we see that andwe find it somewhere between
disappointing and annoying.
(07:40):
Again, you want your professorto feel as though you're there
to do the work.
Now there are times when astudent has a crisis going on at
home and they'll come up andsay, dr Ross, my mom may have to
go to the hospital, or my dogis delivering puppies today, or
you know something like that.
I said, okay, if I check myphone, and I'm happy to do that.
(08:01):
I have a 95-year-old mother whocalls me, sometimes in the
middle of class On occasion.
When I see it's from her, Iwill stop and I'll say folks,
she's 95 and she's in NorthCarolina, I've got to check this
.
So I think we're pretty humaneabout it.
But if you're really notpresent because your phone is
more interesting to you than theclass, why are you in class?
Speaker 3 (08:24):
What a waste of money , exactly, and time.
My gosh, you're going to spendfour years.
If you're going to be on yourphone for four years, why are
you even here?
For four years, you could be onyour phone at home and not pay
money.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Well, and some people have started doing that too.
One other thing, too, aboutrecording.
You have to ask a professor ifthey're willing to be recorded.
You don't ever want to recordthem secretly.
I have mixed feelings about it.
Some years I've allowedstudents to record my class and
I have had a few students whohad certain learning
disabilities.
(08:55):
Where it was valuable to them,so I allowed them to do that.
But generally it's frowned uponnow, so you want to be careful
about that.
Now one thing I have noticedabout taking notes students a
lot of times will pull out theirphone and take a picture of
what's on the board.
I don't really have a problemwith that.
I don't know if all professorsdo or not, but sometimes there's
(09:15):
all this chicken scratch on theboard which actually may be
helping you to see If so, if youwant to take a photograph on
your phone of what's on theboard.
But usually you ought to waituntil class is over before you
do that.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
And about the recording thing too.
The people that I've seen whouse audio recordings of lectures
are people who were blind.
It was something they needed.
They couldn't go back and lookat note cards or whatever the
thing is, so that was somethingspecific to how they learn, and
that's really what it was usedfor.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
And typically they've communicated that to the
university and the university'sspecial offices of accommodation
have communicated that verydiscreetly to the faculty
members.
The faculty member knows no onehas to be embarrassed or
anything like that.
But I also think if you'rerelying on a recording instead
of taking your own notes, youmay be missing much.
You know there's a lot of appsthese days.
(10:06):
There's a lot of AI and you seeit all the time now advertising
.
You know, get this app and youdon't have to ever take notes in
a meeting again, like for ameeting of the design team or a
meeting of the department.
I haven't seen them for classes, but when you're in a learning
situation, I think that stillyou should be the one taking
your own notes.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
And even kind of off track from that.
I think every situation in lifeshould be a learning situation.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Well, I agree.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Just because you already learned how to do notes
and learn how to do all thisstuff doesn't mean that now,
when you're graduated, you canjust put it away and you never
have to do it again.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Well, that's really true.
That's really really true.
And I've found I'm such aninveterate note taker that here
I am as a full professor ofEnglish who's been practicing
for 30 years.
I still take notes wherever Iam, and the last piece of advice
is to get up to leave, smileand nod at your professor.
This may seem silly to you andyou may be a little bit afraid
(11:02):
of professors if this is thefirst time you've ever been on
the campus, but in fact we'repeople and we really like to get
to know you and we don't wantyou to be afraid of us.
We want you to work with us andbe comfortable with us and
ready to ask questions, and so,as soon as you can, if you start
to sort of initiate some sortof human interaction between you
(11:22):
and your professor and yourclassmates, you'll find that
that's going to be a great wayto get started and it'll really
help you along the line.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
I thought that it was cool that you were emphasizing
to have a relationship with theprofessors, because college is
about so much more than thepaperwork and getting the degree
at the end of it.
If you actually have builtconnections with people who will
help you later on and who youlearn a lot from, who have a lot
more experience than you do,that's really what I think
(11:52):
students should keep in mind, orshould shift their mindset to
when they come into college isthat it's about building
relationships.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
I'm glad you said that, because I really agree
with that too.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
So first on my list, I have make a calendar of your
class schedule and be sure toinclude your classroom number,
your professor, your building,your textbook information, all
these little extra things thatyou can put in the notes section
of your calendar.
Make use of that.
It's really helpful to have itall in one place.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
What kind of calendar do you recommend?
Speaker 3 (12:32):
the native app on my phone.
There are physical calendarssome people can use those have
note sections as well.
Google Drive has a calendar.
Whatever really you haveavailable and that works for you
.
Definitely just make use ofhaving that repeatable calendar
and having your notes section.
I remember when I first set upmine and it wasn't something I
thought about until maybe acouple days before when I was
(12:54):
thinking wait, do I have all mytextbooks?
Which professor's name is this?
It's a lot to keep track of andI took it for granted that I
would remember the names, butwithout having it written down
and available, it will leaveyour brain.
There's just too many otherthings happening.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
We often talk about the first couple days of class.
You know, like drinking from afire hydrant and just so you'll
know.
Professors know that you'regetting a lot thrown at you that
first week and the things thatshe just talked about.
You can find those on yourCanvas page for your courses.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Yeah, but also having them written out somewhere for
you.
That will help them stick inyour brain, and having the
reminder too.
You know you have class at thistime, it's in this building and
it's taught by this professor.
You probably will stop thinkingabout it after the first week,
but having it available for thefirst week to keep repeating.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
You've got to get into a routine and you haven't
had a routine all summer,hopefully, although you may have
been working.
But it's going to be a verydifferent routine than the one
you're used to.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
For sure.
Oh, it never hurts to doublecheck your room locations
because sometimes they have atemporary location listed when
you register early and then itchanges, you know, for whatever
reason before the first day andI've gone to wrong classrooms
because of that.
It's just something that is apractical thing you've got to
keep in mind.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Yeah, that happens all the time.
I was just flying home from aconference in Chicago and they
changed my gate three timesbefore I finally got to my
flight home, and so fortunately,those things usually will be on
the Canvas site or there'll bean email sent to you by your
professor.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
And also it's good to keep track of the textbooks
that you're going to need to buybeforehand and have them ready.
But when you get to that firstday, it's worth talking to the
professor about whether or notyou actually will need the
textbook, because sometimesthere's a requirement to list a
textbook on the syllabus andthen when you actually see the
Canvas page or speak to them inperson, they're like I was
(14:48):
required to list this as thecourse material, but really what
we're doing is more discussionor more this or that.
So if you can access this firstchapter that may be available
free online, or I have a copy ofthis textbook that I've written
you can have a copy.
It's worth talking to them,because sometimes I've ended up
with very expensive textbooksthat we didn't end up needing
(15:10):
them or actually needing to usethem, but it was way too late
for me to return them by thetime I thought about it, because
it got buried under the slushpile of other things.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Yeah, if you order them real early too.
But I will say this the otherthing to ask a professor is like
in my case, I have three books,three novels.
Which one do I need the firstweek and that'll be on the
schedule, so you don't have tobring all three and that way you
don't have to carry stuffaround.
But on this note about books,have to carry stuff around.
(15:40):
But on this note about books,if the professor wants you to
have the book and you're goingto use it, bring it to class
every day.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Absolutely.
You should have it in classevery day along with your
notebook.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
So my second tip was to get on Rate my Professor, but
with caution.
Every ratings-based platformwill only ever attract pretty
much the people who love thething they're rating or who
absolutely hate the thingthey're rating A lot of people
who had an average experience.
It doesn't occur to them towrite about it because it didn't
really stand out that much.
(16:10):
So if somebody was just like astandard good professor, we had
a good time they probably didn'tthink about it all that much,
especially if it was a coreclass and won't have left that
kind of a review.
But Rate my Professor can be agood resource when you keep that
in mind.
You can go through the reviewsand find, okay, what are people
saying that they loved or hated?
(16:30):
You can tend to find thingsthat are not true as well.
So you're like oh, this personsaid they hated this professor
because they gave me a B.
You know Well, that just meansthat, okay, now I know about
this professor that they're anhonest grader and that I will be
asked to step up to the plate.
So if you're not just taking itas everything that the reviews
say is 100% true, factual, youcan actually get a lot of great
(16:54):
information.
You know, especially stuff thatyou couldn't prepare for
otherwise unless you'd talked toanother student who'd been in
the class stuff about theirteaching style, whether it's
very discussion-heavy.
There's a lot of writinginvolved, all these sorts of
detailed things that matter tostudents, but that is not really
available information.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Just a little subnote to that is that if you will
look at that Canvas page wherethe professor has their policy
statement, usually they'll saysome things in there about what
they expect.
And so, for example, I alwayssay I expect students to show up
and be engaged, and I'll evensay, even if you haven't done
the homework, show up, you'llget something from the class and
that can tell you somethingabout me as a professor.
(17:33):
The other thing would be, ifyou have a chance to find out
from other majors, majors arereally good because they've been
around for a little while andthey can compare a professor to
the other professors.
And keep in mind too, if you'rea first-year student, you may
be taking core classes.
Some of those in some fieldsare real large and, like in the
(17:55):
English field and I think inMass Comm, they tend to be
smaller.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
So all these little things will kind of help you not
be surprised when you show up.
I'm going to move to the thirdtip, which was to walk the
campus or have a map on handbefore your first day Really,
really important.
I used to be a tour guide andUT is kind of a smaller campus.
Before my first day I sort oftook it for granted that maybe
I'd be able to find things.
I even had a sister here whoknew where the layout was and
(18:24):
everything.
I'd had one tour, you know,during the summer and I was like
, yeah, that's probably enough.
You know that's plenty, but itcan be really overwhelming if
you've never been on this campus.
You're just kind of exploringit but actually class is in 10
minutes so we don't really havetime to wander around and find
where the room location is.
So it's just super important toprepare yourself and there's
(18:46):
nothing really like walkingthrough it beforehand.
If you can.
If you don't have access to it,maybe you could look at like a
Google Maps view sort of thing,do a 360 tour, just whatever's
available.
But actually walking to thebuilding, the room number and
knowing it physically inrelation to the other landmarks
on campus will help you a ton.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Yeah, and you know.
Another thing too is that a lotof times the classroom number
will be like HPR and you go,what does that mean?
Or Radcliffe North, orRadcliffe South, and so if you
have a map it'll have the namesof the buildings and then you'll
begin to not have to worryabout the H-P-R thing.
You'll know it's that one overthere, the big one with the red
top.
The other thing, too is, as aprofessor, I will oftentimes see
(19:31):
students walk on the campus onthat day before, and almost
always one of the professorswill probably greet you during
that time, and we love to seethat.
It's a real sign of a studentwho's trying to get themselves
launched.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Well, and the first day is stressful enough,
honestly, For us too.
You don't need to add gettinglost to the other things that
you've got to worry about on thefirst day.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Although I will add that professors tend to be
pretty generous about peoplebeing lost on the first day.
Although I will add thatprofessors tend to be pretty
generous about people being loston the first day because we get
especially for first-yearstudents.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Right.
Oh, and on that note also, it'simportant to scout out parking
beforehand, if you can.
It's not something that Ithought about, not something
that a lot of people think about, but boy, will you start to
think about it after that firstweek, or so, that first day even
, because everybody's showing upon the first day and
everybody's trying to find theparking on the first day, some
(20:21):
lots will automatically get morecrowded.
You know, and you won't haveknown about that beforehand,
this is your first time oncampus and other lots will be
kind of empty, but you won'treally know.
They're across campus, so am Igoing to drive to the other?
It can become a whole mess.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Oh yeah, other it can become a whole mess.
Oh yeah, and if your classstarts at 11 and you think you
can get a parking space at 1055,you will be sorely disappointed
.
Always get there a good atleast a half hour early if you
can, especially the first weekor two when everybody's figuring
out the parking situation, anda lot of times it's really smart
to park in one place that'ssort of central, so you can go
(20:56):
to all your classes.
But boy, I've had students miss30 minutes of class because
they couldn't find a parkingplace.
I myself have come rolling in.
Now there are faculty spacesreserved for us, but even then
sometimes those are all takenand that's such a downer to have
everything ready and then toblow it because of parking.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Yeah, you cannot overlook it, and I've never
actually been to a university orheard from somebody else who
was at another university thatsaid we have great parking.
There's no parking problemshere.
That's never the case justbecause there's so many people
at so many times of day, andparking will empty after certain
times of day too, so you've gotto learn when the rushes will
(21:37):
come and when they're not.
Again, if you have access toanybody who is already on campus
or who you know at theuniversity, this is something
worth talking to them aboutbeforehand.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
And if you're living on campus, don't drive, just
walk, because what you're doingis you're getting in the way of
the poor commuters.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Oh yeah, I know I'm a commuter.
I come from about 45 minutesaway and we're scrapping it out
every morning, me and the othercommuters.
Oh, but also the other thing tonote about scouting out your
campus layout beforehand is thiswill help you to find where the
community spaces are, andthat's something where, if you
don't look for them, you mayforget to look for them later
(22:16):
and find yourself in betweenclasses like wait, where do I go
?
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Where's the ladies room and the men's room?
Where can I get some food or adrink?
Where can I just throw my stuffdown and put my feet up for a
little while?
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Where can I sit and study for the 30 minutes I have
between classes and where can Isit and study that's as near as
possible to my class so that I'mnot having to run or that kind
of thing?
Speaker 2 (22:40):
And I'm glad you brought that up.
We're going to talk a littlebit more later on about making
friends and stuff, but thosecommunity spaces end up being a
part of the social story ofcollege too, and so we'll be
talking about that again.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
My fourth tip is actually something that Dr Ross
already said is to get anotebook, a physical notebook,
or else, you know, have a stylusor something that you're taking
notes by hand with on your iPadthat the more effort you're
(23:18):
putting into actually retainingthis information and the more
you're having to summarize inyour own words what's being said
, the better that information isgoing to stay with you, and for
longer.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Also, there's a lot of evidence that if you don't
take notes period, your memoryis not nearly as good as you
think it is, and people tend toforget as much as 80% of what
they heard within two or threedays.
And so by taking notes you'rehopefully getting closer to 40
or 50%.
That you'll sort of solidify inyour sensorium, in your brain,
(23:48):
but then you also have the notesto review.
So, yeah, note-taking is areally important skill.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
And the funny thing is that's something I even knew
about beforehand and I had allmy notes, stuff with me, but I
still didn't even consider itimportant.
I'm like this is just somethingthat you do, but what I found
is that, like personally, yes,it does help me to remember them
better.
But the other funny thing too,in terms of just what
handwriting can do for yourmemory I have been habitually
given journals for like everybirthday since I was born.
(24:16):
For some reason I don't knowwhy I must look like a journal
person to people I've neverjournaled, and it got to the
point where, about when Istarted college, I just had
these shelves full of emptyjournals and I'm like I either
got to get rid of these or startusing them.
So what I decided to do was youknow what?
I'm just going to writesummaries of what happened every
day and the most unimportantthings.
(24:36):
You know, like I ate eggs forbreakfast.
These are the most boringjournals you will ever lay hands
upon in your life.
But what I found is that bydoing that, I actually have way
better recall of what happenedand better recall of how I felt
in that situation or what thespecific situation was, things
that I didn't write down aboutit.
I remember and it just helpswith that clarity.
(24:57):
So much and it's not somethingI ever would have thought about.
But now I journal every day.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
And I'll add this to a professor who sees a student
just sitting there passivelydoing nothing during a class
really wonders how engaged theyare.
And because we know whatAshley's just said about the way
we learn from taking notes, weknow that you're not learning as
much as somebody else and wewant you to not do that.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
And my fifth and final tip again something Dr
Ross emphasized, but it's toread the syllabus, sign into
Canvas, check your universityemail, all this housekeeping
stuff we tend to not think aboutbefore the first day.
It was something that I waslike.
You know what?
I'll do it on day one, becausethat's when the classes are open
, that's when all thisinformation is available.
(25:41):
Actually, most of the time it'savailable as much as a week
before the classes even start,and so that gives you enough
time to again know for sure yourroom numbers, read about the
professor and their background,your textbooks, all this
housekeeping stuff.
That's not so much fun to thinkabout on your first day,
honestly, but it's verynecessary.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Yeah, just good taking care of yourself, to be
honest.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
Reading your syllabus , signing into Canvas.
If something like a classroomlocation change or a textbook
change, class cancellation, ifstuff like that comes up, you'll
be ahead of the game for that.
So it's a good idea to be up todate on that beforehand, just
so that you're not going to theclassroom and finding out the
class is canceled.
I've done that a number oftimes and also it's just going
(26:26):
to head off some of the stressthat you might have for the
first day and some classesactually will have homework due
ahead of time.
That's kind of rare.
I've not encountered that.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
A lot of times, professors, you know we want to
get to know you ahead of time ifpossible, and so, especially if
we open our Canvas course early, we might ask students to send
a brief paragraph introducingthemselves, or I oftentimes will
ask students to send me apicture and three things they'd
like me to know about, and it'sreally interesting to see which
students find that assignmentand turn it in and which ones
(26:58):
missed it completely.
It's usually the ones whodidn't follow Ashley's advice
who missed it completely, andit's always nice to know ahead
of time.
For me, as a professor who'salready paying attention,
because, you know, the truth isis attention is one of our
biggest commodities, and youneed to learn how to direct it
at the things that are mostimportant.
I think if we were going towrap this up, I'll let you wrap
(27:32):
up too, but I hope what you'veheard is that, first of all,
we're real excited about theopening of school.
It's a fun time and we want youto be ready to get as much out
of it as possible, and thatincludes being ready to learn,
being open to getting to knownew people and new ideas, and
(27:52):
also being proactive aboutlooking out for yourself.
Your mom and dad aren't there,or your grandparents or your
guardians are not there to tellyou to wake up anymore.
They're not there to make sureyou get to class on time.
Or did you fill up yournotebook?
Did you put all the stuff inyour backpack?
It's your turn to start beingthe grown-up, and that's kind of
(28:13):
fun too, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Yeah, it is too, isn't it?
Yeah, it is, and in a similarvein, before you come to class,
it's great to just go ahead andleave behind the idea that the
learning will only happen inthese formal circumstances or
that school doesn't start untiltomorrow, so I'm not going to
check my email until tomorrow.
College is a phase of life.
It's about the relationshipsand learning, which doesn't
(28:36):
necessarily happen always inthose very formal parameters.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Oh, it's so much more than what goes on in classrooms
.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
So if you're confining yourself to I'm just
doing the work when I'm in classor I'm just thinking about
school stuff in your businessbrain, basically while I'm in
class, you're going to miss outon a lot of stuff and you're
actually probably going to fallbehind in your work because
college requires you to spend asmuch time as you're spending in
(29:05):
class.
Spend that much time outside ofclass working on it and
actually developing your skillsand yourself.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
And you're going to be exercising sort of new parts
of your brain and new parts ofyour life, and it's fun.
But it will be frustrating andyou'll make some mistakes, and
mistakes are okay.
In fact, one of the things Ialways tell my students you
always learn more from makingmistakes, and sometimes even by
failing, than you do by beingperfect all the time.
(29:31):
So be kind to yourself, butalso take good care of yourself.
Give yourself a chance to shine.
So we're looking forward toseeing you on the first care of
yourself.
Give yourself a chance to shine.
So we're looking forward toseeing you on the first day of
class and we're looking forwardto seeing you on the last day of
class.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
And if anybody has any questions that they would
like to submit before theirfirst day, anything that we
could help answer, feel free toleave a comment below or to send
us your questions atadrquestions at gmailcom.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Sounds good to me.
So well, that was prettyinteresting.
I enjoyed that.
I guess that's a wrap, ashley.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Yes, ma'am, this has been the Ask Dr Ross podcast.
Thank you so much for listeningin with us today, and if you
have questions about collegelife or any of the topics that
we were talking about today,please send us your questions to
adrquestions at gmailcom.
We'd love to hear from you.
In the meanwhile, we'll see youin the next episode.
Thank you very much.
This is Ashley Wirtlech signingoff.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Bye-bye.
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