Author: Peanut Butter Cookie

Dear Sam,

As you prepare to go on your college journey, there are a lot of new things that are going to happen. Although I do not live at the dorms, I have experienced life in one during a summer camp at another college. You should always make sure to try to befriend your dorm mates, as you will be spending the better part of your time at home with them, especially when your schedules overlap. Another big thing is food. Here at UWGB, we have a relatively cheap lunch for $8 that can feed you for a day. It’s a buffet with a takeout tray, and if you bring extra containers, you can even prep for the next day too. Another alternative to that is finding a local chain of membership warehouses like Sam’s Club or Costco, as they have relatively inexpensive food, and you don’t need to be a member to eat. I’m saying, like, less than $3 for two big slices of pizza and a big drink. One of the major feelings you get is the overwhelming amount of freedom you have. You get to decide what you do now, how you spend money, and what you want to do with your days.

But you still want to succeed in school. Now, “How do I do that?” you may be wondering. It’s really simple. You need to stay organized and disciplined. Staying disciplined is not just going to classes; you need to actively engage in them, participate in the classroom discussions, and make sure to embrace all of what your professor is teaching you. Another part of being disciplined is being able to tell your friends “no” if they want to go out, and it’s your time you dedicate to studying. Sure, you could say, “Just this once,” but that is a dangerous slope to fall on, and if you do it enough, it’ll be tough to crawl back up. Another important thing you want to do in college is ask questions. If your professor has office hours, stop in if you are confused on something. Don’t just simply email them; go in person and ask. It’ll show them your determination to succeed in their course, and along with your participation in class, it may win you some favor when it comes to grading. Also, you want to make yourself a study routine that you follow through every day. You want to find yourself a comfortable and quiet place where you can study daily; it should be where you feel most comfortable doing work. You also want to avoid doing other things in the spaces where you study, so whenever you do arrive, your brain knows that this spot is there for studying or homework. Lastly, as you manage your way through college, you should also remember that succeeding in college doesn’t simply mean getting good scores; it means being diligent, determined, and showing resilience in the face of hard challenges. I wish you the best of luck in college.

Warm regards,

Gael Villalba

Everyone who will or has gone through school, especially those in higher education, will face academic stressors. Two of the major ones I face are time management and balancing my workload. Time management is one of my greatest concerns, as I currently juggle multiple responsibilities, such as being a student athlete where I need to make it practice every day from 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. while also dropping off a few teammates who can’t drive so I am not home until 8 p.m., and fulfilling family obligations such as driving my older brother to work in the morning and my sister to school while also giving myself time to make it to my high school for my AM classes there. The added pressure from wanting and the expectation of succeeding in school leads to the feeling of being overwhelmed, especially when deadlines are getting closer. For example, near the end of last semester, I had multiple essays and larger assignments to do in both my high school and college courses, and when I did have time, the weight and depth of the assignments overwhelmed me and made it harder to focus on one sole assignment. Managing my time while balancing personal life and striving for academic excellence is not as simple as creating a to-do list; I face some personal issues that complicate this process, from the aforementioned responsibilities to needing to make sure I have gas to drive everywhere so I need to work, so that leaves even less time on the weekends, and with a rocky relationship with my mother who doesn’t like me, my time at home is usually very stressful even when I am working on assignments.

Moreover, workload is what mainly contributes to my time management issues. An excessive workload can feel overwhelming and make it hard for me to feel like I could succeed. As my coursework increases, the expectations of succeeding in school increase as well; thus, with the mixture of poor time management skills, it is easy for coursework to pile up on me if I make too many little mistakes, like forgetting about an assignment, sleeping when I should be productive, and simply not finding the time to do an assignment that’s due. The fear of falling behind and failing is one of the more major stressors, and when I do fall behind, completing that bulk load of work leads me to feel burnt out and not as happy with my results. This happened last semester after I had gotten a concussion, and it was even harder to work on assignments. Another challenge related to workload is that being a dual-enrolled student significantly limits my leisure time and opportunities for relaxation, given that I have school throughout the semesters where I do not have a full break. For example, this past spring break I had school at my high school, and during my high school spring break I still had classes at UWGB. Striving to balance the workload and effectively manage time as a student in both high school and college is challenging; with each misstep, the subsequent efforts to fix the imbalance become ever more arduous and stressful, like missing an important assignment in ELA and focusing my time on it, which leads to me not working on another assignment in my Spanish class, and the dominoes will keep falling until I somehow manage to get back on track.

source: Hornshaw, Marija. “Man Holding Planet Earth on His Shoulders.” Adobe Stock, 12 Mar. 2021, stock.adobe.com/images/man-holding-planet-earth-on-his-shoulders/57405555.

As a student who is in both high school and college, it is easier for me to notice the differences between high school and college. In high school, the daily routine for every student is similar. A set schedule. We all have 3 hours to pick from for our lunch hours; otherwise, everyone’s schedule is the same. 1st hour, 2nd hour, advisory, 3rd hour, and so on. We all get the same 5 minutes between classes as a passing period, and we all have the same amount of time in each class. The high school environment is highly structured, leaving little room for freedom beyond the choice of classes. However college is almost the complete opposite, you have a structured day, but you essentially design it yourself. Students must make time for meals, studying, work if they do so, and socializing based on their preferences and commitments. The responsibility of designing one’s daily schedule falls more heavily on the student in college rather than on the administration.

source: Shuler, Kiley. “Your High School Schedule Vs. Your College Schedule.” Unkadmissions, 7 July 2017, unkadmissions.blogspot.com/2015/07/your-high-school-schedule-vs-your.html.

Another one of the more major differences between high school and college is the workload and self-learning. In high school, the workload is lighter because most assignments are shorter and less challenging. Typically, high schoolers have around 6-7 classes per day, with homework assignments that lack challenge and are mainly based on what you learned in class that day. Although, like anything, there are outliers. Certain high school classes, such as AP classes, may have a heavier workload like college courses, but the disparity between them is noticeable. In high school, you also are not really teaching yourself coursework outside of class unless you missed a day or want to get ahead of the curve, such as studying for AP exams. However, in college, most classes have you study on your own, conduct research, and explore topics beyond the course curriculum. As well as having longer and more In depth homework

source:Valentin, I. “Still Life With a Stack of New and Old Books Stock Photo.” iStock, 15 Dec. 2018, www.istockphoto.com/photo/still-life-with-a-stack-of-new-and-old-books-gm1082262102-290238797.