Freshman advice

All right, some freshman advice that I'd give to all those freshmen out there would be to treat school like a job. In fact, I got this advice from my dad but it was to go to the library at 9 a.m. and don't leave until 5 p.m. It was arduous and it's an annoying task but I really find myself searching for things to study to do. In turn, you'll get good grades, you'll also meet a lot of cool people at the library, you'll familiarize yourself a lot with so I would really recommend treating school like a job, 9 to 5.

Video 2 Transcript

Be best friends with the TAs in your classes. Seriously, they can make such a difference. They know what's going to be on the test, they know how assignments are going to be graded, so if you go in to the TA lab or use the TA hours, you can really get ahead in classes.

Video 3 Transcript

My main advice I would give to freshmen is just kind of pace yourself. You don't really need to like blast through college but you also didn't need to pick a major right off the bat and I think the major parts like picking a major is the most important. So like maybe spend the first couple years just getting generals down because you can easily get like a lot of any major courses that you decide to change to if you decide to change down in about two, two and a half years. So you got like one and a half, if not a little longer to decide that. So that's my main advice.

Video 4 Transcript

My advice is if you ever walk up these stairs, don't talk much so I'm gonna end the video right here.

Video 5 Transcript

I like to tell all BYU prospective freshmen that BYU is an interesting math problem that you've never been presented before, that there are 30-35,000 members of the church at BYU, and mathematically speaking, there's a high percentage chance that you're going to run into members of the church and students at BYU who you disagree with a lot, and you might even dislike them, and that can be super frustrating, and you may have bad luck that one of those people may be your roommate, and that can be really frustrating, but here's the truth. If you're patient and you wait, mathematically speaking, there's people who you definitely jive with. There's 30-35,000 people there at BYU. Keep your eyes open and you'll find someone.

Video 6 Transcript

I personally would recommend taking the easier professors for classes using Rate My Professor so you can get a 3.9 or 4.0 GPA and not have to pay for tuition, get scholarships. I would also recommend taking classes that give you lots of technical skills, marketable skills. I'd also recommend looking for a future spouse because there's tons of wonderful people there that you could search out to find your future spouse. Choir is awesome, I don't think you need a car when you're at BYU. And more than anything I'd recommend praying for guidance so you choose a meaningful career not based alone on the amount of money you could make but an impact that you could make on the world. I'd also suggest getting involved in the service projects on campus and also making it a habit to go with some friends to devotional every Tuesday.

Video 7 Transcript

Talking to just one person in every single one of your classes, getting to know someone each day, is something that's really helped me to have a good start at BYU. Just right from the get-go, making that commitment to go and talk with people and try to get to know this university and the students here better, really helped me to gain a lot of friends when I first came here, but also to have a lot of great memories in those classes too now that I had friends in those classes. So I think just opening your mouth, having a little bit of confidence and trying to understand others is really what's made my BYU experience really kind of special.

Video 8 Transcript

The professor will probably share the slides. This means that you do not have to write down every word that's on the slides because you'll already have access to that. You do not have to take a picture of every slide because the professor already gives you the slides. So don't waste your time and don't waste everybody else's time saying, hey, can you go back to that slide so I can write it down? No, he already gave it to you. You already have access to it. You don't need to do that. Save us all some time. Thank you.

Video 9 Transcript

College is both easier and harder than you think. It's easier in that, no, you don't have to show up to class and you still kind of can pass, but that doesn't mean you should skip class. If you do, you're not going to get amazing grades and therefore you're going to have a harder time in college. So go to class, but also if you need to skip a class, not a big deal.

Video 10 Transcript

Another piece of advice that I would offer to freshmen is to create a routine. You may not think that you're a morning person, but anybody can be. And it's really easy to get locked in this trap of going to bed at four or three and then waking up really, really late. And then it can put a lot of stress on you and a lot of stress on your classes. So it's nice to just make those rules and set that routine early on so that you don't have to go back later and try to correct or backtrack on any mistakes that you've made.

Video 11 Transcript

I think freshman advice, one of the things that's most important is going to church, being social, and just talking to people. If you if you don't want to talk to people and you just sit in your room you're not gonna just make a lot of friends so just be just be social even if it's awkward for you. I would suggest for your freshman year especially just take it easy on the class so there's a lot of adjustment and so there's a big difference between college and high school so take it easy especially your first semester to get into the groove.

Video 12 Transcript

Do what you want to do. Now my freshman year I came to BYU and there was so much going on and you know classes and everything but I knew that I wanted to have a good time. I knew I wanted to make friends and I knew I wanted to explore things I was interested in like music. I really enjoyed singing so I took time to try out for one of the BYU choirs and I happened to make it and that was great you know and I tried to be active in my campus community like in my singles ward and I made so many friends and I just made an effort to go out like to ward activities and meet people and to make friends with people with me in the choir and in classes. You know just try to try to meet people and make friends wherever you go. You won't hit it off with everybody but you'll hit it off with most people and there's just good times to be had. You know if you're looking to have a good time to be nice and meet people then you will. You'll find what you're looking for.

Video 13 Transcript

Pay attention to the resources that your department offers, especially on the website, and even reach out to your teachers and ask, because there are resources out there that you may not know about yet, but you'll want to know sooner than later.

Video 14 Transcript

Freshman advice, I think for me, Freshman Academy was a super cool thing. Gave me an opportunity to to get acclimated, especially I was living at home, so since I was local. Also gives you, since you take the same classes with all the people in Freshman Academy, it's a pretty natural transition to learn to study together, which is, I think, an important skill in college. So, definitely recommend looking into signing up for Freshman Academy, again, assuming that's still a thing at BYU.

Video 15 Transcript

Advice I give to freshmen is this, find a balance. School is important and you need to learn, but there's so much more to BYU and to college than just the classes. Get involved with the sporting events or extracurricular, do activities in your ward, but get involved. It's not always all just about studying.

Video 16 Transcript

I feel like for me, one thing that helped as a freshman is just really trying to stay on top of everything. So if you have a planner, please, please, please bring your planner and she's going to help you divide up your time so that you have time to be social, you have time to be spiritual, you have time to get your academics done. So going to school is not just about getting good grades, but it's having good balance. So I think planning, planning in advance, doing weekly planning if you served a mission before, just getting into the habit of planning every week would really help with that.

Video 17 Transcript

If I had to do it again, I would study more. A lot of the early classes were easy, so I thought that the experience would be easier, and it got harder as it went. One thing that I always found interesting was going down to the library to study, but I always ended up falling asleep. So if I needed a good nap, there was a place to study.

Video 18 Transcript

By far the best advice if you're a freshman in Provo is to not get caught by University Parking Enforcement. Make sure you know the rules of every housing complex that you visit. Make sure that your parking stickers are up-to-date. Everything, because they will tow you and they will boot you and it gets expensive.

Video 19 Transcript

I have some good freshman advice. Go to school. Yeah.

Video 20 Transcript

I'm on my senior year so it's been it's been a while since I've been a freshman but I've been able to attend college with my sister and my brother during their freshman years and so I give this advice to them and I give it to anyone else really just just get involved do anything go to the sporting events go to clubs talk to people on campus honestly do not have headphones headphones are the worst you're like your worst enemy when you're when you're on campus you miss out on a lot of things just because you're focused on your music you're focused on on whatever you're not paying attention to the people around you if you don't have headphones in you're more likely to talk to somebody strike up a conversation with somebody ask a girl out any number of things so that's that's my advice get involved and don't have headphones

Video 21 Transcript

My advice to any incoming freshman is to do what you want and don't let you hold yourself back. I know there are multiple times that I let fear hold me back so I was like oh I'm not good enough for that class or I shouldn't audition for this and don't be the one to tell yourself no. Let them tell you no because then at least you have your foot in the door and you have that experience under your belt versus later on realizing that like you could have done that and having this what-if factor rather than just putting yourself out there and like don't tell yourself no you're in this like really great part of your life you tell yourself yes and let someone else tell you no.

Video 22 Transcript

Try and have friends that you are pretty close to in every class, or make a friend. Because it really helps to have someone to ask when's the test, or what's going to be on the test, or study with. So try and meet people who are taking the same classes as you.

Video 23 Transcript

Get involved, get involved in everything you can. Get involved with your ward, get involved with your college. Maybe you don't know, maybe you don't have an official college yet, you don't know what you want to study, but go to some extra forums, get involved in some clubs. The more involved you are, the more fun you are going to have.

Video 24 Transcript

Honestly, it's one of the biggest things I've seen is just to manage your time. A lot of people say how hard BYU is, and it is a little, it is a little intense. There's a lot of intensity and a lot that you have to get done. But it's never something that's unmanageable. It's always something that you can do and get done. It's just a matter of putting in the time and planning ahead and you're going to be sacrificing some social opportunities. So you can't go to everything every single night. And sometimes you may have to take a week and just not be able to do too many activities, but you still have plenty of time to do all those things. You just have to be smart about how you balance your time. And even though my professor may scare you a little bit, really, all the professors are there to help you and they totally give you the materials and the resources you need to succeed. But it just comes down to you managing your time. Everyone can get it done. It's just a matter of how much you're willing to put in.

Video 25 Transcript

So if I was able to give my freshman self-advice, it would be to not feel so much pressure to know what I want to do. I wish I would have enjoyed taking fun classes and electives more rather than just focusing on getting my generals and my major classes done. So I would say just enjoy, but I would also say to not enjoy too much because your freshman year does matter. And so to just make sure to prioritize school while still not putting too much pressure on yourself to have everything figured out.

Video 26 Transcript

So my freshman year was really hard. I had a lot on my plate and I took some really hard classes that I wasn't really prepared for. I was a really good student in high school as I'm sure pretty much everyone that was at BYU was and I'd never really had to study before so I thought I would just like blow through freshman year and it would be easy peasy but it wasn't and so my biggest piece of advice for freshmen is don't overestimate your abilities and I don't mean that in a bad way but just take classes that you think you'll be able to manage and then once you get your feet under you take those higher level classes because you'll learn study habits in your freshman year that will bless you for the rest of your college experience.

Video 27 Transcript

One of the best advice that I could offer to freshmen is that it's really easy to get latched on to your roommate especially because you're spending a lot of your time with them and they're technically your first friend at BYU for most people in most cases but I would recommend that there you wouldn't do that you shouldn't get attached to your freshman roommate and instead you should branch out and try to make as many friends as possible get into as many friend groups as possible like just be as extroverted as you can be and if it does or doesn't involve your roommate that's great but you shouldn't you know just isolate yourself with your roommate.

Video 28 Transcript

Don't skip class. I know there are usually readings that go along with class and you might be able to see the lecture notes afterwards, but I recommend, I don't think anything beats going actually to class and listening to what the professor has to say and taking good notes. In my experience, that's usually what shows up on the test is what the professor says, not exactly what is written in the textbook, even though the textbook is important. So go to class, pay attention, and take good notes.

Video 29 Transcript

One big piece of advice I have is get an on-campus job where you can learn about other departments and stuff like that. My first on-campus job was janitorial and that wasn't super helpful for that but once I got an office job that really helped me to know kind of how the different departments on campus work and I'm able to explain a lot of it to other people which I don't know has made me know about more of the resources that are available at BYU. Another thing that's good advice is right when I got to BYU I expected to have a social life that was like immediate that I would have friends and then I realized like after like halfway through the first semester that I still had no friends that I made at BYU and so definitely like at first I wish I just focused on schoolwork and doing that and then afterward you can along the way sit by people make friends do the best you can.

Video 30 Transcript

Take the fun class. That class that you think is so interesting, sounds so fun, and you really want to try it, but it's not in your major, and it's not in your minor, and it doesn't have anything to do with what you want to do. Take the class. Take the class. This is the only time in your life that you will have the opportunities to take whatever classes you want and learn about whatever you want. And, I mean, once you hit full-time as a student, the price is the same anyways. So, like, just take the class. Even audit the class that you want to. But I just think it would be so sad if you went through your whole college experience, rushed through in three years, and you look back and you're like, I never took that language class I wanted to, or the dance class, or whatever. Like, just take it, because you will not regret it. Those classes have been my favorite classes every semester. So, take the class.