Consider college in three steps. Step 1) Getting in Step 2) What to do Step 3) Getting it done (The hardest part) Disclaimer: Anything that I missed shouldn’t be considered “not important“but rather something I just missed. Also, this is a personal reflection of my experience and may not be wholly accurate. Lastly, my experience is dominated by STEM, specifically Electrical Engineering so thus there is a greater depth of understanding of the inner workings of the College of Engineering and a lesser depth of the inner workings and details of other majors/departments. Step 1) Getting in This is your application process. I’m sure your high school has provided you with all sorts of tools and resources but ill go through it just to be thorough so we are on the same page. Anything that I missed shouldn’t be considered “not important“but rather something I just missed. Your application can be boiled down into three parts. The first part is your scores (Grades, GPA, ACT, SAT, APs, IBs, etc). These are the quantifiable numbers. The second part is your extracurriculars. Clubs, volunteer work, personal projects, etc. A friend of mine who goes to Yale often wrote programs and pitched business ideas. He even wrote a bot that would buy Supreme drops automatically. Helps with scalping. This is just an example of personal projects. He’s a CS major btw. The third part is your essays. You have your common app essay and the madison superlative essays. Parts two and three are the parts where you really let yourself as a person and your character shine. In a world where everybody is exactly the same (Same test scores, GPAs, clubs, and achievements), this is where students are differentiated as nobody writes or expresses themselves exactly the same. Take note of those core purposes of parts two and three of your application. Your essay should do exactly that whilst following the prompt: Differentiate yourself in your expression of yourself through writing. Make up for your weaknesses, triumph in your strengths, show something that the rest of your application doesn’t show, the options limitless. You want to show that you are the right fit for their CULTURE. This is the human part so show that you are the human being they want. Also, the important thing is (I believe) “2” letters of recommendation. Ask your favorite teacher, teacher your closest to, teacher who likes you, and ask them to write a letter of rec. With pleases and thank yous. Don’t forget to get them a gift! Step 2) YAY! You’ve been admitted. What do you do now? Just as you went through high school, creating an application in which you will submit to schools, you are going through college to create a resume for future employers. Resume and cover letter to be exact. You might need a portfolio too depending on your career path but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. What going to happen is that you are going to be assigned an academic advisor. He/She will be the number one go-to person for helping you strategically navigate through college. Then you will be given a school email: “username”@wisc.edu. Then there will be a 1) Canvas account 2) MyUW account 3) Student Center. You can log in to all three of these items using your wisc login (your school email). 1) Canvas is where your grades, assignments, class announcements, etc will be announced. You’re going to use this the most. Next is the 2) MyUW account. This is the bigger thing where resources NOT related to your courses will be. Here’s where you fill find the academic navigator, course search and enroll, course schedule, course map (where your classes are), apply for scholarships, etc. You can also access the Student Center here. This is just a big terminal for resources (but not all of it). Lastly is the 3) Student Center. Here is where your tuition will be paid, academic records, financial aid, and the real nitty-gritty things. It’s also here where you will see academic holds and to do items such as verifying FAFSA (btw, if you haven’t done it yet, DO IT ASAP!!!). So in summary, Canvas is where you make sure you are on track in class. MyUW is where you make sure you are on track for your degree. Student Center is where you make sure everything is paid up and standards are kept (agreeing to the terms and conditions of the school). Explore these and familiarize yourself with these three things. Next, you’re going to be picking courses. Your AA(Academic Advisor) will help you with that. There are three cases I can think of. Case one is you have your major(s) selected. Case two is undecided. Case three is that you have a major in mind but you’re unsure (that was me). Case one: awesome. Makes things easier. Case two and three: That’s ok. What you need is time and you need to spend it wisely. So the courses you’re going to want to pick for your first semester are courses that have the greatest overlap with other majors. Those will be your General Education classes including but not limited to: Communications, Liberal Studies, Ethnic Studies, humanities, math, science. These are your “core class” that you had in high school but with typically fancy names. Communications = English. Liberal Studies, Ethnic Studies, humanities = social studies Math = Math Science = Science Now I have math and science on the list of Gen Eds when technically they arent General Education requirements for two reasons. Firstly, different majors and departments have different math and science requirements. Chemistry, Physics, Computer Science are all “science” electives but different majors study and need different sciences. Same with math: Algebra, Geometry, Calculus, Linear Algebra, Statistics, etc. But more or less, LOTS of STEM majors need basic chemistry. EVERY engineer needs basic physics. I wouldn’t be surprised if lots of science majors need some computer science (programming) background. So these basic, general classes may not be technically classified as Gen Eds but let’s be honest here, they fit the name of “general” education. These classes are known as another name: Freshman Classes. Anyways. The reason why I bring this up is because if you’re ever uncertain and need time to pick a major or something, first take these Freshman/Gen Ed classes. You have to take these as prerequisites for higher-level courses anyways and as graduation requirements. And in this time, it is paramount you discover exactly what you want to do. Explore explore explore. Cannot emphasize that enough. Take stupid surveys for career paths. Talk to your AA. Take an introductory course. They have these intro courses for all types of majors such as intro to finance, intro to engineering, intro to CS, etc. But because it’s a class with credits, if you didn’t like it, you just wasted your time. Join/explore clubs. Explore explore explore. Your academic advisory will walk you through the rest as there are so many important details at this step I am missing. That would include picking a dorm. If you want details and information about that, lmk and we can talk more about that subject. Step 3) Getting it done Just as you went through high school, creating an application in which you will submit to schools, you are going through college to create a resume for future employers. Resume and cover letter to be exact. You might need a portfolio too depending on your career path but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. Step two of picking courses, checking that you’re on track with your major, talking with your academic advisor, and exploring is going to repeat every semester. There’s that and taking advantage of drop-in tutoring, meeting with your TAs, talking to your professor, etc etc. But going back to the concept of resumes and cover letters. The resume is where parts 1 and 2 of your college app will be. Your cover letter is your part 3 of your college app. This is an overgeneralization but you get the idea. You will learn as you go. At some point here, you’re going to be going to career fairs, talking with career advising, doing mock interviews, etc. You’ve got a long road ahead of you (and me) now that you’ve gotten into the school. Don’t let that scare you. It’s an exciting and necessary part of life: learning. Balance your school life with your personal life. Enjoy your time here. Make new friends, get to know your roommate, get to know your dormmates, try the food, explore the campus, really make yourself at home. People are going to be the greatest resource.
