Student Union
- By Ariel Hall
How to Be a College Freshman During a Pandemic
The beginning of the school year is anxiety-invoking enough, but add a global pandemic that changes all the rules, and students are scared and confused.
Incoming college freshmen who will enter a brand-new environment during a pandemic get a double dose. In addition to navigating the campus landscape, learning how to study for exams, and becoming familiar with college life, students will also have to adapt to social distancing and wearing a mask to help thwart the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Many say they feel lost and need guidance on how to take on college during the pandemic, which closed many campuses earlier this year and will open them only partially in a few weeks.
"My advice to incoming students is to come to campus with an open mind, fully prepared to step out of their comfort zone and ready to invest themselves in the college experience," Alphonso Garrett, director of admissions and recruitment at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, wrote in an email to VOA.
"Although Fall 2020 may be a non-traditional semester in terms of student experience and class delivery due to social distancing, universities like UMES are completely dedicated to student success and satisfaction," Garrett wrote.
Nadjia Haskins, a rising sophomore studying bioengineering at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, sent this advice to VOA for incoming freshmen: "Do as much research on your school as possible, because you could get there, and not like it. You might think it's great on paper or on the internet. But when you get there, chances are it's different, and you might not like it."
She also suggested that students double check their freshman course load to ensure it meets the direction of their degree path.
"Also, check what you're supposed to be taking as a freshman for your major, because if you don't know, then you don't know what classes to sign up for," she added.
Many schools have a degree/credit audit system that you can find online by going to your institution's website and logging in to your account.
Tuition and financial aid
"If you plan on going to college but you don't know if you have the funds for it, I recommend going towards a community college," advised Christian Gonzalez, an engineering student at the College of Southern Maryland. "It's a lot cheaper."
The average total cost of attendance at all four-year institutions was $32,595, compared with $15,766 to attend two-year schools, according to the National Center for Education Statistics for 2016-2017.
"Also, I would say stick with a full load of classes, form study groups which are very important for each class, visit your professors, and always pay attention to your syllabus," Gonzalez said.
"Because, when I gained the syllabus, I was able to time manage a lot better about where I can delegate my work and my time into study," he said.
Many colleges and universities offer student volunteers as peer advisers who work alongside admissions counselors to help new students adapt to the new environment.
Emma Sonnier, an orientation peer adviser and a student majoring in mathematics with an education minor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, has the following advice for students: "I would encourage incoming students, if they can, to live on campus because you'll at least get kind of used to what good independence is like."
"I think the second most important thing is just getting to know people, whether that be virtually or in person, like if you can go to classes in person, talk to the person that's six feet away from you, like, especially if you don't think you're going to be really good in that class," she said.
Another tip, Sonnier said, is to make connections on your campus "because it's so important."
"If you're indecisive of what you want to do in life, don't feel bad because, like, 80% of undergrad students will change their major. So, if you're, like, really confused about what to do, don't worry about it, basically everybody is," Sonnier said.
"An estimated 20 to 50 percent of students enter college as 'undecided' and an estimated 75 percent of students change their major at least once before graduation," author Virginia N. Gordon said in the book, "The Undecided College Student: An Academic and Career Advising Challenge" (Second Edition).
Leyla Middleton, a rising junior majoring in biology at Morgan State University in Baltimore, told VOA: "Don't go to college thinking you're invincible. Things can and will happen to you and those around you. But, I just finished my sophomore year, and coming in as a freshman, I would've never thought any of the experiences I've had would've happened to me or people around me."
Also, bring a TV, Middleton said, "especially if you're not the type of person who likes to go out" to parties and large social gatherings.
"I wish I would've known before I started college that it's not as hard as people make it to be," said Micayla Minnis, a student studying psychology with a business minor at Towson University in Maryland. "If you keep up with your work and manage your time well, then you will succeed."
Staying in control
A recent HuffPost article put it succinctly, suggesting students keep an "old school" calendar, be resilient, have a regular routine, be self-aware, ask for feedback, and use mistakes as learning opportunities.
"Also, one thing that every student should bring to school is a storage container with a lock so that you can keep your stuff locked up," like laptops, money and food, "because I've know people who've had their personal items stolen."
Many upperclassmen have taken to social media to advise new college students.
"My advice for college freshmen moving away from home is to never let your roommates try to dictate your life and the choices you are allowed to make! you're allowed to mess up and figure out who you are! don't let somebody else control your mental health!" @RiopelleJordyn tweeted on May 24.
A study by Virginia Commonwealth University in 2019 found that students' use of alcohol was influenced most by the drinking habits of their peers, including the greater college community, and not just their roommate or others in the dorm.
@MonroeRebekah tweeted this tip for freshmen on May 21: "My advice for college freshmen: ALWAYS WRITE DOWN YOUR FAFSA PASSWORD WHERE YOU CAN FIND IT AGAIN."
FAFSA refers to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), a form that college students use to apply for financial aid.
See all News Updates of the Day
Tips for first-year international students in the US
Book your flights right away, get a U.S. phone plan, make sure you have linens for your dorm and attend orientation – that’s some of the advice international students have for first-year college students coming from abroad.
U.S. News & World Report compiled helpful tips for students studying in the United States for the first time. (July 2024)
Survey: Social integration, career prep are important to international students
A recent survey of international students in the United States found that before starting school, they were concerned about personal safety, making friends and feeling homesick.
Inside Higher Ed reports that international students want specialized orientations, peer connections, career preparation and job placement to help make their college experiences successful. (July 2024)
US advisory council ends Nigeria visit, signs student exchange deal
Members of a U.S. presidential advisory council have approved a student exchange deal between an American college and a Nigerian university as part of the council's effort to strengthen collaboration on education, health, entrepreneurship and development between Africa and Africans living abroad.
The council also visited a health facility supported by the United States Agency for International Development in the capital.
Nigerian authorities and visitors chatted with members of the U.S President's Advisory Council on African Diaspora Engagement as they toured a healthcare facility in Karu, a suburb of Abuja, on the last day of the council's three-day visit to Abuja and Lagos.
The facility is one of many supported by the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, to improve the management of childhood illnesses, family planning, immunization and delivery.
The tour was part of the council's effort to promote African diaspora-led investments in technology entrepreneurship, education and healthcare delivery.
"They're doing a phenomenal job there, it really gave us a sense of what the healthcare system is in Nigeria," said Deniece Laurent-Mantey, executive director of the advisory council. "This is our first trip as a council to the continent and we chose Nigeria for a reason — the diaspora in Nigeria is very active, very influential, and they're really a source of strength when it comes to our U.S.-Africa policy. And so for us coming to Nigeria was very intentional."
The council was created by President Joe Biden in September to improve collaboration between Africa and its diaspora in terms of economic and social development.
Akila Udoji, manager of the Primary Healthcare Centre of Karu, said officials in Nigeria were pleased that the council members were able to visit.
"We're happy that they have seen what the money they have given to us to work with has been used to do, because they have been able to assist us in capacity-building, trainings, equipment supply and the makeover of the facility," Udoji said.
Earlier, the council signed a deal for a student exchange program between Spelman College in the southern U.S. city of Atlanta and Nigeria's University of Lagos.
Laurent-Mantey said education exchanges are one of the council's top priorities.
"In Lagos, we had the president of Spelman College — she's also a member of our council — she signed an agreement with the University of Lagos to further education exchange programs in STEM and creative industries between those two universities," Laurent-Mantey said. "And I think for us it's very important, because Spelman College is a historically Black university, and so here we are promoting the importance of collaboration between African Americans and Africans."
In March, the advisory council adopted its first set of recommendations for the U.S. president, including the student exchange initiative, advocating for more U.S. government support for Africa, climate-focused initiatives, and improving U.S. visa access for Africans.
The council met with Nigerian health and foreign affairs officials during the visit before leaving the country on Wednesday.
American Academy of the Arts College announces closure
The American Academy of Art College in Chicago announced it would be closing after 101 years of preparing students for careers in art and illustration.
WTTW news reported that like other art colleges, the academy saw enrollment drop after the pandemic, and officials made the decision to close the college last month. (July 2024)
5 killed, dozens injured in clashes over Bangladesh jobs quota system
At least 5 people were killed and dozens injured in two separate incidents in Bangladesh as violence continued Tuesday on university campuses in the nation's capital and elsewhere over a government jobs quota system, local media reports said quoting officials.
At least three of the dead were students and one was a pedestrian, the media reports said. Another man who died in Dhaka remained unidentified.
The deaths were reported Tuesday after overnight violence at a public university near Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka. The violence involved members of a pro-government student body and other students, when police fired tear gas and charged the protesters with batons during the clashes, which spread at Jahangir Nagar University in Savar, outside Dhaka, according to students and authorities.
Protesters have been demanding an end to a quota reserved for family members of veterans who fought in Bangladesh's war of independence in 1971, which allows them to take up 30% of governmental jobs.
They argue that quota appointments are discriminatory and should be merit-based. Some said the current system benefits groups supporting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Some Cabinet ministers criticized the protesters, saying they played on students' emotions.
The Bengali-language Prothom Alo daily newspaper reported that one person died in Dhaka and three others, including a pedestrian, were killed after they suffered injuries during violence in Chattogram, a southeastern district, on Tuesday.
Prothom Alo and other media reports also said that a 22-year-old protester died in the northern district of Rangpur.
Details of the casualties could not be confirmed immediately.
While job opportunities have expanded in Bangladesh's private sector, many find government jobs stable and lucrative. Each year, some 3,000 such jobs open up to nearly 400,000 graduates.
Hasina said Tuesday that war veterans — commonly known as "freedom fighters" — should receive the highest respect for their sacrifice in 1971 regardless of their current political ideologies.
"Abandoning the dream of their own life, leaving behind their families, parents and everything, they joined the war with whatever they had," she said during an event at her office in Dhaka.
Protesters gathered in front of the university's official residence of the vice chancellor early Tuesday when violence broke out. Demonstrators accused the Bangladesh Chhatra League, a student wing of Hasina's ruling Awami League party, of attacking their "peaceful protests." According to local media reports, police and the ruling party-backed student wing attacked the protesters.
But Abdullahil Kafi, a senior police official, told the country's leading English-language newspaper Daily Star that they fired tear gas and "blank rounds" as protesters attacked the police. He said up to 15 police officers were injured.
More than 50 people were treated at Enam Medical College Hospital near Jahangir Nagar University as the violence continued for hours, said Ali Bin Solaiman, a medical officer of the hospital. He said at least 30 of them suffered pellet wounds.
On Monday, violence also spread at Dhaka University, the country's leading public university, as clashes gripped the campus in the capital. More than 100 students were injured in the clashes, police said.
On Tuesday, protesters blocked railways and some highways across the country, and in Dhaka, they halted traffic in many areas as they vowed to continue demonstrating until the demands were met.
Local media said police forces were spread across the capital to safeguard the peace.
Swapon, a protester and student at Dhaka University who gave only his first name, said they want the "rational reformation of the quota scheme." He said that after studying for six years, if he can't find a job, "it will cause me and my family to suffer."
Protesters say they are apolitical, but leaders of the ruling parties accused the opposition of using the demonstrations for political gains.
A ruling party-backed student activist, who refused to give his name, told The Associated Press that the protesters with the help of "goons" of the opposition's Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami party vandalized their rooms at the student dormitories near the Curzon Hall of Dhaka University.
The family-of-the-veterans quota system was halted following a court order after mass student protests in 2018. But last month, Bangladesh's High Court nulled the decision to reinstate the system once more, angering scores of students and triggering protests.
Last week, the Supreme Court suspended the High Court's order for four weeks and the chief justice asked protesting students to return to their classes, saying the court would issue a decision in four weeks.
However, the protests have continued daily, halting traffic in Dhaka.
The quota system also reserves government jobs for women, disabled people and ethnic minority groups, but students have protested against only the veterans system.
Hasina maintained power in an election in January that was again boycotted by the country's main opposition party and its allies due to Hasina's refusal to step down and hand over power to a caretaker government to oversee the election.
Her party favors keeping the quota for the families of the 1971 war heroes after her Awami League party, under the leadership of her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, led the independence war with the help of India. Rahman was assassinated along with most of his family members in a military coup in 1975.
