Making the most of university [GUIDE/DISCUSSION]

[Joseph41]

A huge, HUGE, HUGE, HUGE, HUGE thank you to mahler004, heids, EEEEEEP and appleandbee for their contributions. They have now been added to the opening post (with an added apology to mahler004, whose post I somehow missed when updating the thread last time!).

[Joseph41]

Bump for benefit of new university students!

[lovelyperson]

Random question, but how should I address a uni teaching staff member in emails? "Professor"? "Dr"? Their full name? First name only?

[K888]

Random question, but how should I address a uni teaching staff member in emails? "Professor"? "Dr"? Their full name? First name only?

In my experience it's just been by first name (we have to put Dear first though to sound professional or something) - a fair amount of the teaching staff in my course have PhDs and I haven't yet met any that want to be called Dr. haha.

[Sine]

Random question, but how should I address a uni teaching staff member in emails? "Professor"? "Dr"? Their full name? First name only?

For the first email definitely be professional and address them properly by using Dr/Professor or whatever is stated when you look that person up. Once a few exchanges have occured and if they sign off with something more casual like their first name it's probably fine to use that from that moment forward.

[Joseph41]

For the first email definitely be professional and address them properly by using Dr/Professor or whatever is stated when you look that person up. Once a few exchanges have occured and if they sign off with something more casual like their first name it's probably fine to use that from that moment forward.

Agree with this. Definitely better to be more formal than casual if unsure.

[Bri MT]

bumping for 2018

1. Did you find it difficult to make friends? How did you go about doing so?
Not at all. I had more than 20 good friends by the end of the first week & this has only built.
- Camp before semester
- Talking to randoms at lectures, labs, tutorials/support classes etc.
- Getting involved with society activities
- Attending networking events

2. How did you find the workload compared with high school?
Much higher. I found this year significantly more time consuming than my year 12, but I also know people for whom the opposite was true.

3. Did you partake in extracurricular activities? If so, did you find these beneficial?
- Access Monash Mentoring program. "Beneficial" not really, I'd say it has been a net negative but that's been very highly influenced by personal circumstances. (I'll be doing the program next year )
- Committee member for a small society. I've met people and learnt things that I otherwise would've had no or low exposure to (and will be continuing this next year as I think it's valuable)

4. How did you balance uni with working, volunteering, family, and other commitments?
With extreme difficulty, but I've been getting better at this overtime. At the start I tried to do this using a planner/bullet journal but I've found it more effective to just try and get stuff done when I can - and learning when I can has been important. For example, I learnt that I can download lectures I've missed and watch them on the train. (Contrary to what I thought at the start of the year, choosing to miss a lecture can be a good decision - especially if you won't otherwise be on campus that day). Lab reports, math assignments, flashcards, writing emails etc can also be contributed to on the train/bus. I don't recommend doing assessed quizzes on the train as it's difficult to check your answers and some things may not display properly. Sometimes you've also just got to take a break.  Sometimes good opportunities should be passed up and you need to say no.

5. What did you do well in your first year? Do you have any regrets?

I've made strong support networks and connected with people who aid my resilience. I don't really regret anything because first year is a great time to make errors in judgement and learn from them.

6. Do you have any other thoughts or advice for first year students?

Grades aren't what they were in high school. My approach to classes is something like this: Always attend labs, miss a couple of tutorials if you really must, have a habit of attending/watching a lecture within the week it occurred. I didn't buy any of the textbooks (even the prescribed ones) and I've been fine - check subject reviews to see if people found it important for your unit and reflect on how you study best.

Uni is highly individual and what you make of it, so the perceptions of others can only be a rough guide - you forge your own path


Edit: I want to reinforce that some of the difficulties I have faced aren't typical uni student things that you can expect to impact you.

[Sine]

1. Did you find it difficult to make friends? How did you go about doing so?
Not really, you'd probably create most of your friends during tutorials and rarely during lectures. Tutorials allow you to interact for periods of time and also work outside of class together whereas in lectures you could maybe talk to someone for 2-5 mins before the lecture started then a couple mins when you are leaving so isn't the best ground for making friends imo.

Also sometimes certain faculties will run sessions outside of class if you want to clarify anything or get some extra help which is great in making friends with others who want to do well.

2. How did you find the workload compared with high school?
Tougher workload, although this would really depend on what you want to get out of uni and what your aims are. It's definitely possible to take a more relaxed approach and possibly pass. Although for others it will be harder and it can get quite hectic and demanding in the days before MSTs (Mid Semester Tests and during SWOTVAC/last week of uni)

3. Did you partake in extracurricular activities? If so, did you find these beneficial?
Yes, I did some mentoring programs which meant I had to go to a nearby primary school once a week for a few hours. Definitely really useful in terms of personal development but also can make some friends with others who were volunteering. I also tutored VCE students and played sports for parts of the year - I would definitely recommend at least 1 extracurricular since you can't only be studying. Also recreational sport was great for keeping up friendships from highschool.

4. How did you balance uni with working, volunteering, family, and other commitments?
I think the key to balance is maximising your study efficiency and prioritisation of assesments. Also you need to know when you need to get something done but also you need to know when it's okay to take a day off if you need it.

5. What did you do well in your first year? Do you have any regrets?
-Did well on in-semester marks so wasn't too stressed for exams and this probably enhanced my exam performance.
-Developed friendships which allowed me to work together with others and this also extended to second year.
-No real regrets since I have learnt from it all and allowed me to be better the following year.

6. What did you do well in your second year? Do you have any regrets?
Same as first year but I feel now I have a much better understanding of preparing for assessments in university - especially the MSTs and exam. I think I can still improve keeping up with content in a weekly basis.

7. Do you have any other thoughts or advice for first year students?
Your first semester will generally be your hardest semester. This might not be in terms of content or concepts but in developing good habits that work for university and you will get better with experience. For a lot of students what you did in highschool will not work for university. For example, in highschool you could literally find 100 practice exams for certain subjects but in uni you will be lucky if you got one. Every core unit (except 1) that I have didn't have a single past/practice exam.

Also the speed at which content is thrown at you is a major factor in what makes university difficult for students. E.g. This semester I did BMS2042 - Human genetics and we covered the whole genetics component of VCE Biology in a couple of hours.

[Joseph41]

Who's looking forward to starting uni?

[Joseph41]

Bump for the Class of 2019, or for anybody else beginning their university experience.