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Advice for New SFU Students
As I'm sure many of you can relate to, the first year of university is often the most confusing. I didnt know the first thing about registering classes (why is that newspaper thing so complicated anyways?), i didnt know where my classes were, or even how to do well in them. Now that Im going back and re-doing some of those classes from first year, I've had a chance to talk with a lot of the new students and it made me realize how much I've learned over the past 4 years. More importantly, I realized how much my habits have changed.
I started this post for everyone to give there suggestions and advice for students just starting out at SFU. The biggest thing I would say, is knowing where you wanna be at the end of your degree. It not only helps you focus and do well in your classes, but it keeps you disciplined.
What advice would you give a younger sibling who is new to SFU?
I started this post for everyone to give there suggestions and advice for students just starting out at SFU. The biggest thing I would say, is knowing where you wanna be at the end of your degree. It not only helps you focus and do well in your classes, but it keeps you disciplined.
What advice would you give a younger sibling who is new to SFU?
Comments
Also, in first year, be friendly with your TA. They'll go the extra mile to help you if they at least THINK you're willing to apply yourself and can grasp the material.
(And I speak as a Chemistry lab TA ;) )
Budgeting is another thing. What I like to do with student loan stuff is to pay all my bills up front. Tuition, rent, utilities, the whole shebang. Whatever's left over is then mine free and clear. End of story.
If you're absolutely sure you know you want to be a major in a given faculty, then by second year, start getting to know some of the professors. The right prof can REALLY jump-start your career by the time you're in fourth year and/or considering grad school. Me, I wouldn't be anywhere near as advanced in nuclear science if it hadn't been for my fortunate good acquaintance with one of the nuclear science professors here at SFU.
Thanks again and have a great year.
Try to bang as many chicks as possible.
Tip 1... be sure to buy something other than sugar cereal and gummy bears at the grocery store. My first visit to the store on my own led me to feeling so sick! I knew then why my parents fed me from all of the food groups.
Tip 2... (along with what the others have said)... keep up with the assignments. Sometimes the syllabus can be SO daunting. Break up the semester and work on little bits at a time. Try not to get overwhelmed. Getting overwhelmed often leads to doing nothing at all.
Tip 3... try to actually get some sleep! It is easy to end up with next to no sleep because no one is telling you to go to bed. I'm telling you... go to bed!
Relax and try to enjoy the start of your college career. Go to class, but enjoy yourself!
Go to college for 2 years: Save money, smaller classes, and easier workload.
Then transfer to SFU (shitty fuckin' university)
1.) Use RateYourProfessor.com when choosing courses.
2.) The SFU administration are retards. Therefore, spot mistakes they made early and confront them about it. You are a customer and you pay them for their service.
3.) If you already know what you want to do up here, plan which courses you want to take. This way, you will not take unnecessary courses.
4.) Fellow students are better academic advisors than the official academic advisors. Use them.
5.) For all Arts students: Many ancient texts (ex: Plato and Shakespeare) that you will read are on public domain, don't buy them from the Bookstore.
6.) The WQB requirement is annoying but managable. Try taking courses that give you double WQB credits.
-take a variety of courses... you never know what you might like
-join a random club to try something completely new... university is all about finding yourself. you'll have a much enjoyable experience at sfu if you are involved in the student community.
-move out as soon as possible! living in res is really good for first years. You make new friends, feel more like you fit in at SFU, gain new independence and confidence in yourself, learn to take care of yourself etc.
-remember to take courses that interest you, not courses that your sibling/mother/whoever thinks you should take (although looking at their suggestions is definitely not a bad thing)
-know that you'll probably not receive the percentage grades you received in high school. at SFU it's all about the bell curve
-don't party too much... remember that you pay to come here and thats your main focus. though I am not saying don't party. make sure to have some fun!!!
Students are also products, and employers outside the University are also our customers. These customers have a right to complain if our graduates are lacking in skills, knowledge, and motivation. They have a right to complain if we certify someone as being a potentially good employee and that person turns out to be unqualified.
Despite the rising share students pay for their college education, students still only pay 40 per cent of the total cost. That means the University's responsibility is 40 per cent to students, and 60 per cent to the community. And our customers in the community want people who can communicate, reason, and have a good general stock of knowledge they can call on for unexpected needs. They also want us to provide an assessment that accurately reflects the quality of work students are likely to turn out as employees.
1. There are no tutorials in the first week of class. No one ever told me this when I started... of course, you probably know this by now.
2. Don't go into computing science unless you already know and love programming. I was surprised by the number of newbs in our first year. If you don't already love the joys of programming and ripping your hair out finding that retarded bug, this probably isn't the place for you to be. Also, it's ridiculously mathy. I never thought I'd be doing matrix calculus...
I lied. One more penny:
3. Don't buy the recommended textbooks. Usually you can get away without them. I've barely cracked open a textbook to date, so now I have a big expensive stack of fire-starter. I've only really needed them for math... everything else can be found on wikipedia.
You can usually find out whether or not you have a tutorial on your course page or whatever.