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When I started college, I was really confident about everything that I was going to do. It only took one week to lose all of it. However, I wouldn’t call this journey as bad as the first semester because it has taught me many values. I always believed I was really good at time-management, but it only took three weeks of college to realize that I am bad at it. It was not just time management I had to change a lot; I also had to change my study techniques and the way I write. I had to stop procrastinating English papers. Basically, I had to reinvent myself. UIC was my dream school, and I had to prove myself here. There are some ups and downs, but never let yourself stay down. Here are a few things I learned during my first semester.
Go to your professors’ office hours. It is really important to go and talk to them. If you have any questions, they can explain it very clearly and they will get to know you very well, which will be useful for future letters of recommendation or for research opportunities.
Talk to your TA’s and LA’s. It might be really hard for you to go to your professors office hours sometimes due to time conflicts. TA’s and LA’s are the next go-to people. They will help you with any questions you have. They might even help with your projects and lab by looking into them more often because they only teach a few people compared to professors.
Make friends and join clubs. College is not just about studying, it is about exploring yourself and making genuine friendships. Those GPA’s and projects will never come to support in your downtime, make good friends and join clubs with them, so you can learn something new and spend time with your favorite people at the same time.
Go to Career Fairs. It is very important for you to go to them during your semester of college because you will get the experience for your next fairs.
Use all of the student benefits. The best thing about a college student are the discounts, you can get free prime for six months and for UIC students, we get CTA – UPASS (Unlimited rides during the semester). Try exploring the city, learn new things, and enjoy all the discounts.
Everyone has their own experiences during college, so enjoy every moment of it. Once you look back at your college life after 15 or 20 years you should never have any regrets. Make it memorable, insightful, colorful and keep exploring.
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