Congratulations! You’ve made it past what you may (or may not) have thought was the hardest part of your life: high school. While those four years may have seemed tedious and like they weren’t worth your time — or else like they were the best time — college will assuredly be more worthwhile, and will no doubt have a greater impact on your future pursuits.
College is that suspended period of time in your life when you get to experiment with who you want to be and where you want to end up. Entering college, you by no means have to have everything figured out, contrary to popular belief. No one, aside from maybe the occasional ambitious relative, will rush you to figure out what you want your next step in life to be. So, first and foremost, breathe, and let me welcome you to the beginning of the rest of your life.
The U offers a wide variety of classes for students. Classes related to your major, that can help you along that path, and many that sound fascinating but will not help you graduate. What’s more, you have more power than you think coming in as a student. While your major may dictate what kind of classes you need to take, the selection of those classes, as well as the teachers, is in your hands.
Now, for a small piece of advice before your schedule is cemented in place:
If you are new to the U or not sure which professors to take classes from, student reviews are the way to go. End-of-semester reviews are where students hold more power than anyone is willing to openly discuss. In the final weeks of each semester, students have the option to rate their experience taking a course as well as the professors themselves. This data is then collected and put up through the U for students to see and make evaluations. Not only does this help students with choosing courses, but it helps teachers and professors see where they may need to improve as well.
These reviews are valuable and worth a student’s time to anonymously take. The U’s administrators read student reviews to decide whether or not a class or professor is valuable to students. In fact, these reviews are often linked with job security for professors and dictate much of what is taught at the U.
With classes starting up soon, I would advise new students to not only take a class or two that would be interesting to them, but look closely at student reviews to better choose which classes have been helpful or pointless to your peers.
Welcome to the next part of your life and education, where you have a say and a voice about what and where you want to go. Welcome to being a Ute.