Uni-Life
Here we provide general hacks for mastering Uni-Life. The following things seem essential regardless of the university you are in.
-
Get Oriented
First few weeks are a lot to absorb (regardless of a semester, although the first one is obviously the most difficult one), which is completely normal.
What you should do at the beginning of every semester is to familiarize yourself with the university. Where are the rooms? What software does the university offer? Where is the library, and how do you use it? Where are the gym and sports facilities? Can you rent a locker? Does your university provide lecture recordings? If yes, where can you find them? And so on... -
Choose Courses Wisely
If you have the freedom of choosing courses, go to as many courses as you can (in person) to see how the courses are and what people are taking the course. This is very important as it can completely determine your semester experience. Get all the learning resources you will need for all the courses (textbooks, old exams, scripts, etc.). -
Building Your Network
Get to know as many people as possible. Attend events organized by the university itself but also by student-led associations. At the beginning of the semester, you do not have anything to learn yet, so use this time to meet people. It is completely normal that you will meet some people and never get in touch with them again, but usually, you meet these people in some class, event, and so on later, and so immediately have a first contact. This can get underestimated, but it gives you fruits later. Moreover, university is, in our experience, more about networking than actually learning, which is becoming now more apparent than ever. -
Form Lasting Connections
If you get lucky, you can meet a person or a group with whom you will stay throughout your whole studies, which is invaluable. Also, you can get through your network access to things such as old exams or tips on mastering classes by particular professors you would otherwise have no chance to get.
-
How to choose Courses
First, there are commonly two aspects that students consider when deciding to take a course. (Of course, if you take a course just to get credits, that does not count.)
1) The course is didactically very well done.
2) You believe that you can get a very good grade (with little to do outside of class).
Now in an ideal world, you can take only courses that satisfy both aspects, which is unfortunately almost never the case. But one observes that if any of the above is satisfied, it depends solely on the professor. -
Research Profs
So, to choose the right course, you should get to know the professor well (this does not mean inviting the professor for lunch). Look up his/her old exams (this is crucial, even though the professor can be nice and the lectures can be fine, if you need to take lubrication to the exam whole with you, it is maybe not the best idea to take the course). No old exams, or the exams are oral? (Ask people who already had the professor and ask multiple of them. Asking one person is usually worse than not asking at all.) Attend the first few lectures to see the professor's lecturing style in person. If the professor does not tell anything about the exam at the first lecture, it is usually a bad sign. You should ask during the first lecture if he/she can tell you how the exam will look like. (We have seen lectures where students did not know how the lecture would look (oral, written, how long, and so on) until the very last lecture... wtf?)
Research profs across years! It may well be the case that the Profs change up every year, so it might be worthwhile to wait a year and take it with another Prof!
-
Sometimes We Sacrifice
Of course, there are (very rare) instances where you are willing to sacrifice the best grade, but this should not be the case in every course. You should know why you are willing to voluntarily want to do that. Reasons for that can be: there is only one professor teaching this subject, and you want to learn it, you need this course in your major, or the professor is really good at teaching. Reasons that are not really fully justified: my friends are taking this class (take a class that suits you better and make new friends – win-win).
Try to enter at least some of the student-led associations. And by that, we do not mean an association of your major (e.g., if you're a biology student, do not be only in the biology association). Of course, be part of the association connected to your major, but try to expand your horizons by entering associations outside of the major. Usually, your university has a webpage with all the associations, which should be your first point of search.
Why is it useful to know people from other associations? Very often, people from different departments know about useful resources, which for some reason nobody knows about in your circle. You will expand your thinking, and sometimes there are student-led unofficial events and clubs you get to know only through people!
Well, this is not easy in general. So far, the easiest way is to choose one social media (usually Instagram in the EU or USA) and follow all of the clubs and organizations you are interested in. Put all the events immediately into your calendar. You can put events happening at the same time and decide later, which often pays dividends.
Well, we already answered this question above. To conclude, it was Sam Altman, not us, who said that while at Stanford, he tried to go by the "work hard, play hard" motto as he aimed at attending all the events he could.