Whether it’s learning to manage assignment deadlines or trying to find your niche on campus, adapting to college life can be tricky, challenging and — at times — frustrating. Luckily, the faculty at Bates is here to help. This summer, The Student asked faculty members for advice they’d like to share with first years. From reading for fun to falling in love, 11 professors and instructors share the tips and tricks they believe will help you thrive at Bates — or, at the very least, survive finals week.
Advice from Associate Professor of Acting and Directing Tim Dugan: Let your curiosity take the lead in building a new community.
First off, welcome! As you get settled in and kick off these early days on campus, I would offer that the sooner you become active in the Bates community, the more you’ll feel grounded as you make your new home. Let your curiosity guide you. Try something you’ve never done before. Explore an event that’s perhaps new territory. Attend the Academic Fair or any of the incredible open houses (shameless plug for Theater & Dance’s on Tuesday, 9/2 @ 2pm in Schaeffer Theater-join us!). Check out a new space on campus just because. Walk into one of your professors’ offices and introduce yourself just to say hello. It doesn’t have to be a big thing, but your openness and commitment to connecting with others puts the community-building in motion. And it’s generative which is super exciting and why I enjoy being at Bates.
Professor of Psychology Helen Boucher on building a routine and using extracurriculars (like The Student) to get involved with your new home.
I would recommend two things:
1) Try to establish a routine. Some of the difficulty of transitioning to college from high school is that while high school is highly structured, college is almost completely unstructured. In my experience, students do better when they create structure for themselves. That could be anything from established study times at the library, going to the gym at a certain time, or trying to be in bed around the same time each night. Use tools like Google Calendar to schedule and pre-commit to keeping to your planned routine.
2) Take advantage of all the extracurricular opportunities that Bates provides, and do it soon. There are so many wonderful clubs and organizations where students can pursue shared interests, and importantly, get to know each other.
Professor of Art and Visual Culture Cat Balco urges students to prioritize what matters most.
While of course your studies at Bates are important, the friendships you make and the community that you build will in many ways be Bates’ most enduring legacy. Take the time to prioritize building friendship and community!
Associate Professor of History Joe Hall’s advice: Embrace office hours and make professors a part of your community.
Go talk to your professors. Do it early, and do it for no reason at all. Drop in during their office hours or make an appointment or ask them after class when you can meet. If it’s easier, find a classmate who can do this with you. And then find out a little about them. What led them to their fields of study? Why do they teach this class? What did they do this past summer? It’s a great way to gain a little confidence talking to your professors (in class and out of class), and it’s also a great way to figure out a little better how you connect with different people at Bates.
Associate Professor and Chair of the Psychology Department Michael Sargent’s advice on how to find your major.
In a fall Convocation address given years ago, one of my colleagues (now retired) gave incoming students excellent advice: Try to fall in love. As she explained, what she meant was that she hoped each student would fall in love with at least one area of study. I would say that if you find at least one area of study in which you fall in love — an academic area where you’re excited to go to class, and you can’t stop thinking about the questions asked in that field, and you’re excited to tell friends and loved ones about what you’re learning in those classes — then that’s an area that you should consider majoring in. And if you think you should choose a major merely as a steppingstone to the career that you think you have figured out, stop thinking that way. If you don’t love the material in the classes, then no matter how useful it feels as a prelude to a career, you’ll be missing out on opportunities to find joy in your academic work, and to find the kinds of work that you find joyful.
No matter what major you choose at Bates, you’ll be developing skills, knowledge, and habits of mind that set you up for success in any number of careers. Additionally, the fantastic staff at the Center for Purposeful Work are there to help you explore the many careers that Bates graduates from many majors can pursue. And they will not only help you explore, but they’ll also help you think strategically about how to make many career options viable (through summer internships, for example).
In the end, my advice is (1) explore a wide range of courses, especially during your first year, and do so with little, if any, regard for what careers you think it might lead to (because you might be wrong about what careers it can lead to, and you might be wrong at this stage about what kinds of careers will be best for you). (2) Wait until your sophomore year to commit to any major, and even then, only major in something that you love. (3) Start going to see the fantastic staff at Purposeful Work during your first year.
Associate Professor of Neuroscience Justin Hulbert on what academic success really means.
Meeting the course requirements certainly matters, but true growth comes from chasing ideas that spark your curiosity—even when they’re not on the syllabus. Let grades be signposts, not finish lines; aim to learn for the thrill of discovery, not just for an A.
Senior Lecturer of Education Anita Charles on dealing with college stress and one of its main culprits — assignments.
You will, by the very nature of the college experience, face stressors and anxieties —
social, academic, personal. Build (or enhance) your “toolkit” for stress management that you can rely on throughout your college years and beyond. Develop several key strategies to use when stressors hit, such as: finding a trusted adult to talk to; taking a walk (or other exercise); maintaining healthy sleep and eating habits; breaking tasks into smaller pieces; etc. Having clear and explicit strategies for stress-management will allow you to grow and learn without becoming overwhelmed or debilitated.
Basic strategies for managing course work: (a) Read the syllabus! Mark down due dates and important information about assignments. (b) Note the prof’s office hours and go visit the prof early in the term to say hello. This will not only give your prof a better introduction of yourself, but it will pave the way if you need or want to meet later about course work. (c) Get a headstart on big assignments, breaking larger assignments into smaller steps or chunks. If you procrastinate, you may find yourself with 3 big papers due in the same week, and no clear way to manage the workload. (d) Don’t use the “avoidance” strategy!! If things start to pile up, or feel overwhelming, or you don’t understand something, immediately reach out to the professor and address the situation. If the professor reaches out to you with any concerns, respond immediately. Please don’t put off that communication — it will only snowball and make things worse.
Be gentle on yourself. You don’t need to be (and won’t be) perfect. You are learning and growing and experiencing a wonderful journey.
Struggling with your readings and/or writing papers? Assistant Professor of Classical and Medival Studies Sarah Lynch knows a trick that can help you get better at that kind of coursework.
How to become a better reader and writer? Read for fun! Read novels, pop history, sci-fi, true crime, sports biographies, short stories, poetry, basically whatever floats your boat. (Even 10-15 minutes a day.) The more you read, the better you can process information. You also stop automatically associating “reading” with “work”. And (as my old English teacher used to say) when you read, you pick up new vocabulary and firm up how to build sentences, paragraphs, and chapters. P.S. If you can, try to read something on paper… just to give your eyes a rest from screens!
Debating whether to add a language course to your schedule? Here’s Associate Professor of German Raluca Cernahoschi’s take.
Take a language in your first semester! You won’t know if a language is the right fit for you until you try it, and it takes a while to build confidence in a language. (Also: most languages start in the fall, so if you miss out on the fall course, you’ll have to wait a full year to take it again.) The sooner you start, the farther you can get in your four years at Bates and beyond. I’ve never heard a graduating senior say they regretted studying a language — but I’ve heard plenty say they’ve regretted not studying one or leaving it until their senior year and not getting as far ahead in it as they would have wished.
Associate Professor Gina Fatone on taking advantage of all Bates has to offer.
As you learn to balance your social and academic life and make many of your own
choices, be mindful of unique opportunities presented to you — those you are unlikely to encounter after leaving college — and take advantage of these possibilities as best you can.
Professor of French and Francophone Studies Alexandre Dauge-Roth offers advice — with a French flair — on how to push boundaries, lean on friends and live your life at Bates with no regrets.
First “Impossible n’est pas français” : an encouragement to push beyond the borders of
what you already know and explore unfamiliar academic subjects and forms of community engagements that intrigue you. Second, do so “With a Little Help of my Friends” as you will find more joy, sense of belonging, and purpose by reaching out to others and being attentive to the needs of those around you. Finally embrace each class, encounter, or project by giving it your best so that you can hum, at the end of the day, “Je ne regrette rien!”
