By Danielle Lane, Managing Editor
Every year freshmen are bombarded with lots of different advice on how to be most successful in College. The advice typically ranges from getting enough sleep and eating right to the best places to score free food. While some advice is more useful than others, it’s all given with the hope that it might help new students adjust to college life. As a senior, I hope that I too can pass on some advice to the incoming class of Yeshiva University students.
When I entered Stern College for Women in the fall of 2018, I was a true freshman, and had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I had no idea what to major in or what to be when I grew up. I felt lost all throughout orientation, surrounded by women who knew exactly what careers they wanted and how to achieve their goals. While these students might have known how they wanted their college journey to end, they were just like the students who didn’t know what to major in, in that neither group knew how to navigate their college classes. This is a result of the many class requirements for YU students. It can be hard to fulfill all of the core requirements AND complete your major in just three or four years with the advising center’s help, it is nearly impossible without their expertise.
So here comes my advice: take advantage of academic advising. I was blown away by the number of students who blindly signed up for classes without consulting the professionals whose job it is to help you pick out the right classes. By not strategically picking the right classes you may end up taking the wrong classes and wasting your time. Going to academic advising means you will be starting your college career off right by getting the help you need to choose the right classes, regardless of your major.
Academic advising can also help you pick a major as it did for me. I made a meeting to meet with an advisor my first week in school and I genuinely don’t know where I would be had I not. In my first meeting, I learned about the YU joint program with the Wurzweiler School of Social Work. The joint program allowed me to complete my undergraduate degree in three years and the transfer to Wurzweiler in my fourth and fifth year. This means that in just five years I’ll be able to complete both my BA and Master in Social Work.
Had I never gone to academic advising I would have wasted time, money, and energy in classes that I would not have necessarily have been able to use towards my degree. Instead, I was able to start productively working towards my future in my very first semester of college. So while it is important to get plenty of sleep and know where to get free food, it is also important to make sure you are taking the right classes at the right time. You can make an appointment with academic advising here.