Starting your first year of university can be daunting: living away from home, thousands of new faces, and an entirely new academic environment. Freshmen will naturally have certain expectations about schoolwork, but are these assumptions true or false?
Megan McBain, a first-year Brock University student, said her older siblings helped her shape realistic expectations about university academia.
“I thought the workload in university was going to be close to unbearable,” McBain said. “Now, having seen my older brother’s different assignment and essay requirements, I believe it will be far more manageable than I originally believed.”
Kiera Warhurst, a first-year student at Wilfrid Laurier University, said her high school teachers made her worry about whether or not she will be able to handle post-secondary academics.
“I slacked off a lot in the first few years of high school,” Warhurst said. “All of my teachers had told me the same thing: I would never survive in university if I kept slacking off.”
Warhurst added that her fear of first year has made her more determined to go to class and finish work on time.
But not all students enter university with pragmatic expectations.
Larissa Girard, a second-year University of Ottawa student, said she entered first year blindly without the guidance of an older sibling or the advice of any previous teachers.
“I figured it would be different, and I guessed that it would be harder,” she said.
Girard said she worried she would be unable to keep up with the high demands of university.
“It was scary, not knowing what to prepare for,” she added.
Regardless of one’s expectations, there are undoubtedly many differences between high school and university academics.
University means more work
Shaya Lingaratnam, a second-year Carleton biology student, said the biggest challenge she faced when transitioning into university was the heavier workload.
“We had to write three lab reports every week and study for tests,” she said.
Lingaratnam said she was also surprised by how much time she spent completing schoolwork, since each lab took about five to 10 hours.
According to Lingaratnam, university can be more difficult than high school because professors do not provide as much one-on-one attention.
“You’re on your own a lot more,” said Lingaratnam. “The teacher isn’t looking out for you and checking to make sure you’ve done your work.”
Since university classes are much larger in size, Ashley Blake, a second-year Carleton criminology student, said she felt overwhelmed trying to master class material and study with less class discussion.
Lingaratnam added she felt extra pressure completing university work because her courses had fewer assignments with more weight compared to high school classes, which made university seem tougher.
“If you mess up an assignment that’s worth 50 per cent, it can be hard to make up for it,” she said.
Living away from home can be stressful
Blake said living away from home skewed her natural study methods and made it more difficult for her to concentrate on essays and assignments.
“I had to call my mom all the time, and that definitely distracted me from my work,” she said.
Lower grades are normal
“It’s true that your marks may drop because universities use a different marking scheme,” said Maya Friszman, a second-year student at Sheridan College. “Mine did drop around 10 per cent, but don’t worry. That’s normal.”
Girard also noticed her grades declined, but she attributes this to the difficulty of the assignments.
“Mine dropped by about five per cent,” she said. “Maybe because the work itself was more demanding—longer essays, harder tests, much more material.”
Good grades can still be achieved
Matthew Curtis, a second-year Carleton journalism student, said he found it wasn’t as difficult to achieve high grades in first year as his high school teachers had made it seem.
“I was expecting to get my mind bent by the subject matter and to drown in a sea of papers and textbooks,” Curtis said.
“My English teacher told me the essays I wrote [for] her would get sixties,” he added.
Curtis said he minimized his social activities when assignments were due, and as a result “got an A in [an English] course in first year.”
Learning to prioritize schoolwork, attending class, and making notes are what Friszman said are the keys to good grades.
“It’s easy to slack off and skip class or spend the whole hour scrolling on Facebook, but don’t,” Friszman said. “Always stay on task.”
McBain said she plans to treat her academic work as if it were a full-time job by getting work done on time and dedicating chunks of time to studying and reviewing material.
“I’ll spend the morning working and won’t stop until I’m done,” she said. “That way, I won’t feel bad about relaxing in the evenings.”
Though McBain said she has some worries, she said she is excited to start university because she knows her professors and classmates will want to see her succeed.
“University should really be something kids look forward to,” she said. “Not something they fear.”
