A LETTER TO NEXT SEMESTER’S NEW STUDENT
Part of your final examination in this course will be to write a letter to next semester’s
new student following the guidelines below:
1) The letter must be dated.
2) It must begin with “Dear 2007 (or appropriate year) Student”.
3) It may not exceed two typed pages.
4) It must be signed by you.
5) It is due: ______________________
6) It must include a discussion of the following items:
a) Introduction: Introduce yourself to the student, explaining briefly where you
are from and what high school you attended. To get started, you might include
what you liked best about high school, why you chose this campus, and/or what
you are planning to study or major in on our campus. In addition, explain one
or two new things that you have discovered about yourself during this class.
b) Transitions: Explain what, for you, were the most difficult transitions in your
move to college. You might want to focus on meeting new people, adjusting
to college course expectations, managing your time, family pressures, elevated
stress levels, or money management. In the process, note ways in which the
college, fellow students, COL 101, parents, or faculty have helped you make
these transitions.
c) Discovering Our Campus: Another goal of this course has been to
discover the full range of educational opportunities and support services.
Briefly describe the most important things that you have learned about our
campus in these categories. Explain why these are important.
d) Learning Strategies: Explain which learning strategies have helped you the
most (no more than three). Also explain how you plan to make use of them in
your classes.
e) Becoming an Independent Learner: Explain three or four ways
in which you have changed or risked change over this past month. For
example, this could be personally, academically, socially, in your attitude
toward college, feelings toward your family, or in understanding what it
means to be an educated person. Have you become an independent learner in
the process? Why or why not?
Please write your letter in an easy, friendly style, paying attention to correct
spelling, grammar, and so on. Illustrate your general statements with examples whenever
possible, utilize logical transitions from one topic to another, keep the entire letter in
essay form, and try to be as concise and clear in your comments as possible.
Remember, the Writing Center is available for assistance.