UWGB Admissions Blog

Signing up for classes is pretty easy. If you are going to be a new student at UWGB, you will probably be signing up for your first semester of classes during the FOCUS program in early summer. You will have very helpful people walk you through the process there, but I will give you a little look inside the process of signing up for classes each semester.

I actually just signed up for my spring 2009 classes a few days ago on Thursday November 14^th. So as you can see, you sign up for classes well ahead in time for your next semester. There is a lot of students here at UWGB: freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. But everyone doesn’t sign up at the same time. There is about a week that is set aside for signing up for classes and the time that you get to sign up is determined by the campus and sent to your SIS so you can prepare your class list. The order is determined by how many credits you have so far in your academic career. It usually ends up where seniors get to sign up first, then the juniors, and so on and so forth.

But don’t worry, you almost all the time get into the classes that you want to. For me personally, I have not yet run into a problem trying to get into a class that I wanted to.

There are some classes that are lower level classes that anyone can sign up for and then there are some classes that are upper level that require prerequisites. Prerequisites are classes that you must take first before you take an upper level class and each upper level class will have a different combination of prerequisites. Some might not have any at all.

And for you guys, you might want to take some general education courses, which are classes you must take besides your classes for your major and minor. There is a complete listing on the UWGB website where you can refer to when you are deciding which classes to take each semester. Hope you guys are excited to come to UWGB and if you have any questions about signing up for classes or anything else…please feel free to drop a comment on here and I will get back to you with an excellent answer!

Some of you can’t wait for college so that you can live on your own finally. Some of you have never spent more than a week away from your family and don’t know what to think.

When the first day of college comes you will probably have a mixture of excitement and nerves. Some people might not show it, but I think everyone is at least a little nervous…so you’re not alone. It’s a moment that not a lot of people will experienced until the morning of move-in for that first year of college…knowing that you will be living on their own. No parents means freedom right? No curfews, no rules, no one standing over your shoulder telling you what to do. But, no parents also means, no one to cook for you, to clean for you, and to do your laundry. And I can’t say that this will be how it is for everyone. Some of you might already be used to doing all of those things yourself, but for others it can be kind of scary.

It might be scary, but it’s just something that needs to happen for you to become an adult and grow independent from your family. College is a time for you to live on your own, make your own smart decisions, and take care of yourself. It is a very good middle stage between high school and the real world.

College prepares you for real life in more ways than one. Besides the education that will stay with you forever in finding a job, but you will grow in every aspect as a human being. You will come into college with excitement and youth, and leave with experience and knowledge for the future.

So I say live on campus! No matter where you are from, even if you already live in Green Bay, live on campus and get the experience of a lifetime. I understand that it may be much cheaper to live at home, but if it is at all possible for you to live at a resident hall or apartment on the UWGB campus, then take that chance! You will not regret it!

Like always…post any questions you have for me and I will get back to you ASAP!

• Watch the Intramurals @ UWGB video on YouTube…

The Kress Events Center on the UWGB campus is a wonderful facility that is free to students to use whenever they want, given that the Kress is open. I’m sure that many of us would love to jog a few miles around the running track at one in the morning but sadly the sports center is not open that late.

The hours of the Kress Center are:

Monday — 6:30 am -11:00 pm
Tuesday — 6:30 am - 11:00 pm
Wednesday — 6:30 am - 11:00 pm
Thursday — 6:30 am - 11:00 pm
Friday — 6:30 am - 9:00 pm
Saturday — 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Sunday — 2:00 pm - 8:00 pm

The Kress Center is not just for Phoenix Athletics, even though you can catch Phoenix Women’s basketball and volleyball there for free being a student. The facility is very much like a YMCA where you have a variety of different activities you can do any day of the week, although there are certain things that take priority over general student usage. For example, a group of students may want to play basketball in one of the many gyms at the Kress Events Center and the gym may already be in use for a men’s basketball team practice. But this only happens once in a while, and the desk at the Kress can supply you with a complete list of scheduled practices so that you can avoid this disappointing occurrence. Because believe me, there is nothing worse than getting amp’d up to play basketball and finding out you can’t play for a couple more hours.

What also takes priority is Intramurals. Which I will recommend for everyone to take a part of sometime during there stay here at UWGB as a student. It is a great way to play competitive sports with out having to dedicate a huge amount of time.

There is a huge variety of sports you can take part of here at UWGB:

Softball
Flag Football
Tennis
Dodge Ball
Soccer
Volleyball
Basketball
Ultimate Frisbee
Wiffle Ball
Disc Golf

Games are usually late afternoon to the night and are a few days a week. You might have one game on a Monday and Wednesday night or you could have a game on Tuesday and Thursday Night. There are pretty flexible and you can usually come and go when you can as long as your team has enough players. And teams are up to you guys. You pick a captain and form your own teams. Then when it comes time to sign up for a particular sport, you submit your team and pick which league you want to be in. There is an A league and a B league with A being the more competitive league for you all-stars out there.

So once you get to UWGB, think about forming an intramural team. It’s tons of fun and keeps you in shape. And you can’t go wrong with doing things at the Kress Events Center…IT”S FREE! You are paying for this facility anyways, you might as well take full advantage of it and play some intramurals, go work out in the morning, swim a few laps in the pool, or do any of the countless activities that the Kress provides day in and day out.

If you have any more questions of the Kress Events Center or Intramurals, leave a comment for me and I will get back to you ASAP!

It’s about that time of the semester…Midterms!!! I would say that midterms and finals are pretty similar to exams in high school, but there are some things that are very different. It all depends on the professor and the class. Lets take a look at all the different ways you can be tested here at UWGB.

First off, you can expect pop quizzes from professors. Not everyone likes to do it, but it doesn’t hurt to always be prepared for a pop quiz. The easiest way to do this is to keep up with the readings that are in your class. It’s always better to be safe than sorry. Quizzes are usually pretty short, but can be easy points if you are prepared for them. Most professors make homework and quizzes worth less than midterms and finals, but they do this because they expect you to do very well on them.

I’m sure you are all familiar with scantrons at this point in your educational careers. These are the multiple choice/ true and false exams that you fill in the little circles with your number two pencils. This exam format is used quite frequently due to quickness in grading. What’s also nice about scantrons is students are able to see the results of their midterm or final much faster than if you had to wait for a professor to grade each individual exam by hand. There is a spot on the scantron where you put your student ID number that allows your results to be emailed to you. Results can get to you as soon as the same day as the exam. This format also saves many trees, which is good for the environment.

Another format for a quiz or exam is on D2L. D2l is web-based learning tool for UWGB that many of you are probably not familiar with or don’t know what it is at all. D2L is a tool in which some professors use and some don’t. Professors can post information about the class, powerpoints of class discussions, and host discussion topics for the class to participate in. What they can also do is give quizzes, midterms, and finals at a certain time right there on D2L. If it is usually for a midterm or final, you don’t have to physically go to a classroom and take a test, all you need to do is log into d2L during the specific time your professor sets the exam for and then take the test. Then there is a certain amount of time that you are allowed to take the test. For quizzes you sometimes only have 15 minutes, but for midterms you can have 3 hours or even more to take the exam. The cool thing about these tests are you can use resources such as your textbook or the internet to double check or look up answers that you wouldn’t be able to do in an in-class situation. But again, It always helps to be prepared before hand and if you know your stuff going into an exam on D2L, it will be ten times easier and faster!

Being a communication major you will have to be a good public speaker. For some classes, speeches and presentations are commonplace for midterms and finals. Personally I had two midterms this past week that required speaking in front of the class. The upside to this type of midterm or final is that there is usually no written portion or test that comes along with the presentation. So this is perfect if you are not a person who is great at tests, but bad if you are the type of person who hates presentations. As long as you are prepared for the speech or presentation, you should expect a good grade. In my opinion it is easier to get a perfect grade on a presentation or speech than an exam.

I’m not a science major, but I hear they have lab midterms and finals that are similar to chemistry or biology exams that you would have in high school. So you can see that there definitely is various ways you can be tested here at UWGB. But I wouldn’t worry too much, exams are pretty similar to what you are probably used to already in high school and if not, you will get used to it quickly. Just remember to always be prepared and keep up with the readings and the assignments in each of your classes. This will help you out tons on midterms and finals.

If you have any more questions on midterms, finals, quizzes, D2L, or anything else…please leave a comment and I will answer it in the best of my abilities! Also, check out this link below for a funny video on d2L!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=066IxoZUBg0

I apologize for my lack of writing the past two weeks or so. Once a semester this funny thing comes around called midterms and it sucks up a lot of your time.On the upside, when the word “midterm” starts buzzing in your classes and appearing on your exam schedule it is like a big flashing neon sign that says “Congratulations! You Are Half Way Done!!!”

So, since I’m a little tired of writing essay after essay of applying what I learned in the classroom, I will now share with you some fun tips I learned while here at UWGB.

1.)    The tunnels aren’t scary! When I came here I thought I would get lost all the time! Yeah, after the first week I could just barely make it from class to class without a map. I am now what I would like to call “grandmaster” of the tunnel system! A group in the hallway asked me for directions today- I KNEW! It was a very proud freshman moment!

2.)    You cannot clean fish tanks with dish soap. Sadly, I was never informed, and didn’t think dish soap could harm fish if you rinsed it out. It can. So unfortunately, I lost my loyal dorm fish Paulo. But I did get two new ones. Having dorm fish is a good idea to make your room homier if you’re into that sort of thing.

3.)    Do not walk while tired. Every morning, I stumble to class just fine, but am always faced with one major obstacle…stairs. So far, I’ve been lucky to not simply trip over my own feet and fall…but this morning was different. This morning, I was running just on time for a group meeting so I did not have time to get a coffee and was rushing down the stairs into the tunnels. Wouldn’t you know it…I fell completely down, sliding the extra four stairs, in front of a group of people who were polite enough to ask if I was ok,  and walk all the way down the hallway before laughing.

4.)    Late night projects are best done with someone to keep you sane- or be insane with you. Last Tuesday when I was assigned five essays for one class I doubted myself drastically. I had one day to complete them, and due to my schedule, I really only had one night. So from 8 PM until about 1 AM I was diligently pulling the classic-all-nighter to complete the assignment. My roommate is not someone I would typically be friends with outside of this environment, but when you put us together at 1AM, overtired and giggly, we can have some good times. A dance party then ensued in our room. Twenty minutes of jumping around and singing together, taking silly pictures and exhausting ourselves even further.

That is just a brief behind-the-scenes look at the life of a UWGB freshman. More to come, but until then, I have my last MIDTERM tomorrow!!! Wish me luck!

I think I had senioritis as a Junior in high school~can any one else relate?

It’s getting to be that time of year when Seniors are feeling the senioritis bug biting pretty hard. Do whatever it takes to avoid this disease-it can really hurt your chances of success in college. Did you know that colleges do “take-backs?” They do-trust me.

Seniors get accepted to colleges during the fall of their senior year and then kinda sit back and enjoy Senior year not realizing that when you graduate, colleges get your final transcript from your high school. We see how bad senioritis really is…we see the low grades, dropped course or fluffy senior years. Evidence at UWGB shows that students whose gpa  drops or they drop courses senior year tend to do poorly when they come to UWGB. So we have gotten a little tougher with senioritis victims- it’s called rescinding admissions (AKA: take-back).

So I know the senioritis disease is catchy and spreading in your high school. Avoid it. Do whatever you can to finish your senior year well. Trust me, you will be glad you did.

If you already have senioritis and you think it might be influencing your grade point average…let us know what’s going on. It’s much better to hear it from you rather than on your final transcript. We are here to help you-please don’t hesitate to contact us.

UWGB Nites – Good things happen late at nite!

Once a month, the sun goes down, the children and elderly get tucked in, and Green Bay Students stay up till one in the morning at UWGB Nites.

UWGB Nites is a program hosted by various campus departments and students orgs geared towards the bored student that is looking for something fun to do late on a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday.

I attended this months GB Nites a few days ago on Thursday October 16th. The night of fun and entertainment lasted from 9 PM to 1 AM and had tons of great activities that are FREE to keep you up through the hours.

Here is a list of all the fun things they had at UWGB Nites:

1. Inflatables – Bungee Sport Game, Obstacle Course, and Jousting!

2. Crafts – Decorate a Trucker Hat, Marble Painting, and Design a Button!

3. Food – Decorate Cookies, Ice Cream, and a Nacho Bar!

4. Video Games – Rock Band, Wii stations, Game Cube, and Xbox 360!

5. More Games – Pool, Air Hockey, Foosball, Ping Pong, and Shuffleboard!

Also , the Common Grounds Coffeehouse was open until 12 AM with performances. And as always they serve great snacks and hot beverages! And the Phoenix Bookstore was open 9 to 11 PM for special deals and steals. When I was there on Thursday, the bookstore had a huge mug by the entrance where you could pick out a piece of paper and see what kind of saving you could get for the night. The coupons ranged from discounts on particular items to 50% off anything in the store!

So remember good things happen late at nite here at UWGB. There is always something to do and fun programs to attend when your bored and all finished with your home work for the week!

Here is a list of dates for the rest of the UWGB Nites this year:

Friday, November 14th, 2008

Friday, February 13th, 2009

Saturday, March 28th, 2009

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

Some of my greatest adventures came just in the past two years while I have been here at UWGB. You might come to campus with a few people you know from high school, but I promise you that you’ll meet new friends for life.

My freshmen year I lived with my friend Aaron from high school. It was nice to know that I at least knew one person in the whole school. But I think you’ll be surprised how fast you meet and get to know new people. Aaron and I soon made good friends with two guys who lived on the second floor and we’re now all currently living together. I never thought I would make such good friends so quickly, but I’m happy to say they will be my friends for life.

One thing that we love to do is go on road trips! It has been a tradition of ours since our first semester here at UWGB. Our first semester we went to the Mall of America. It was a nice short 4-hour trip that got us hooked. The fun part of this trip was how random it was. We literally woke up on a Saturday morning and were all bored, so we decided to go to Minnesota for the day. We didn’t leave our place until noon and we didn’t arrive to the mall until 4 PM. We did everything we could until the place closed. We ate at fancy restaurants, shopped for Christmas presents, and basically just had a fun time doing what ever we wanted.

Our next trip was a little further and took us down south to Kentucky. This trip was in the spring of our second semester and we had a good reason to pick the place that we did. We picked Kentucky because it was the closest place to us that had good enough weather to play golf. My roommates and I are pretty big golf fans and we were excited to get out of the 20 degree Wisconsin weather to the nice 55 degree Kentucky air to play some golf. On a side note KFC is even better down in Kentucky!

And in the latest addition to our Road Trip traditions, we took the long 23-hour drive to Orlando Florida NON STOP! We took this trip in the spring of our sophomore year and stayed with my roommate Aaron’s Aunt and Uncle who live down there. So yes, free room and board and they made great food! We stayed in Florida for 5 days and drove for 2…it was tons of fun. We arrived at 8 in the morning and went straight to bed because we were so tired. When we got up, we went to the Arnold Palmer Invitational golf tournament to watch Tiger Woods. It came right down to the wire and Woods ended up winning the tournament with a birdie on the 18th hole. The place was so loud and it was the greatest tournament that I’ve ever been to.

On the next day of fun, went further down south to Coco Beach. We parked the car and walked the beach up and down. We toured the town, played some mini golf, and ate a fancy dinner at a place called Coconuts. It was nice to get out of the cold Wisconsin weather into the hot sand on the coast. Later in the week we went to Epcot at Disney World where we did everything humanly possible. We road every ride and visited every nation, tasting most of their food. And to round the week off, we did a little golfing for ourselves on some beautiful golf courses and afterwards we got to drive past where Shaq lives!

This trip was awesome! The only bad part maybe was the ride back to Wisconsin that took 24 hours and through a snowstorm in Chicago. And what made it so great was that I got to make this trip with my roommates. College may be scary, especially if you don’t know anyone…. but I promise you will meet people and potential friends for life. And you’ll have your own fun traditions too, if it road trips or Movie Monday it will be a blast!

Hello everyone,

I was sitting around the other night and made these! ENJOY

I used words that are important to our campus and will hopfully teach you alittle more about UWGB!

Wordsearch!

Crossword!

Hint: The words in the wordsearch may or may not be the same words used in the crossword puzzle!

Hope everyone likes these, and if you have any questions at all about UWGB…please feel free to ask!

I was always told that in college you get so many new opportunities and experiences- this week- I finally understood what everyone was talking about.

For the Freshman Seminar classes (small classes offered exclusively to freshmen in the Focus program that help to enforce Green-Bay’s interdisciplinary approach to learning) each class had read a book by Kevin Sites called In The Hot Zone: One Man, One Year, Twenty Wars. Kevin Sites was a foreign correspondent for ABC, NBC, and CNN until he decided to be a self-sufficient journalist for Yahoo!. He won several awards for his reporting, book, and documentary on this year-long journey through all of the world’s conflict zones.

As an aspiring journalist, nothing was more exciting to me than when I saw the posters go up about Kevin Sites visiting campus. He would first give a program to show his documentary based off the book. The next day he would do a special visit to the Freshman Seminar classes to discuss what it’s like to be a journalist and about following your dreams. That night he would do one final presentation about his novel and fighting for peace.

As I expected, each individual program was uplifting, eye-opening, and most importantly, inspiring. But what was most inspiring to me could not be found in the middle of a large lecture program. After the first night I lingered in the meeting room with a dozen or so others to get my book signed. Mr. Sites was more than willing to sign the books, take pictures, and chat with anyone who wanted to stick around. Because of this willingness, it took quite a while. My friends had already been gone for about a half an hour when I finally stepped to the front of the line.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience not only to have a journalist sign a book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading, but also to have a personal conversation with him and have him wish me luck in my journalism career.

It was definitely the highlight of the past few months to have someone who has been through all of this education business before, has made something of himself, and is now coming back to it an inspiring others, to be right in front of you for three separate events giving you that extra boost you needed to believe in yourself.

It’s awesome that at UWGB we have so many great opportunities like these.