Organization Archives - No Place Like College

7 Ways to Know if You Can Skip Your Class

21 Mar

Should you skip class in college? The answer isn’t an easy “yes” or “no.”

Rebecca and I were both A students who had lots of fun projects on the go. We were really busy people.

In my senior year at Ohio State I was working in a Tuberculosis research lab about 10 hours a week, taking a full load of courses, planning my wedding, preparing to move to Canada, and I was driving 3.5 hours each weekend from Columbus to Pittsburgh so that I could spend my remaining time stateside with my family. It was a lot.

And when life is a lot, we have to find ways to cut back so that things go at least okay. And even though I was a straight-A student, one way I did that is that I skipped a lot of classes. But I was very strategic in which classes I cut and why I cut them.

Now I want to be clear: the majority of the time you should be going to class. The default should be “GO! Get your butt in that chair!” But that’s not always the case. So if these 7 things apply to you, it may be time to skip that class.

1. It might be a good idea to skip class if you aren’t a freshman

If it’s your first year of college, you are not ready for class skipping shenanigans, young grasshopper. Get a few semesters under your belt in which you attend every lecture and then you’ll know where you stand academically and can better evaluate whether or not you’ve got the wiggle room required to skip class.

Bonus: if you’re an upperclassman and you’re grades weren’t good in first year, you’re better off trying to bring your grades up before you start monkeying with efficiency by skipping class.

2. It might be a good idea to skip class if your prof doesn’t give points for attendance and there aren’t pop quizzes

I think this is pretty obvious: if there is an attendance grade, skipping class is a no-go. Your instructor will notice and you will lose points. There is usually an absence policy in such classes, so be sure to review it so that you know how much you can and can’t get away with.

3. It might be a good idea to skip class if you find it easy to understand the course material

This is different than finding the class difficult. I once took a challenging food microbiology class in which the professor was a really poor teacher. I found that my studying time was better spent at home instead of listening to an unhelpful lecture. I went when I could, but if something else was going on, I didn’t mind skipping out on class. The key for that class was just brute force memorization, it wasn’t terribly hard for me to wrap my head around it. Classes like that are ripe for being skipped.

4. It might be a good idea to skip class if the class is huge and the prof won’t notice

If you’re skipping a small class, the professor is likely to notice and that could affect how they grade you when it comes to exam time on a subconscious level. Also, if you want to lobby for getting grades back, they’ll be far less receptive. However, if you’re in an intro physics class with 500 people – let’s just say that I skipped entire SEMESTERS of physics lectures without issue.

5. It might be a good idea to skip class if the professor reads the slides and doesn’t add information

One of my favorite professors put blanks in her notes. It was a very understandable and excellent way to incentivize attendance. Most professors aren’t that sophisticated. And let’s be real–I can’t tell you the number of lectures I’ve sat through where the prof just read through the slides. If that’s all a professor is offering, well, they should reevaluate their teaching methods. I usually wasn’t going to their class unless I had to because of an attendance requirement.

6. It might be a good idea to skip class if you are more efficient at studying at home for the allotted class time than being in class

If a prof is reading off the slides and generally not giving good instruction, oftentimes it’s more efficient to study the slides on your own time and skip class. Now, this is going to be dependent on learning styles and all the rest of it, but if you’re going to use the 55 minutes you would have been in lecture more efficiently if you’re at the library, a coffee shop, or at home, then you’re likely better off using your time that way.

7. It might be a good idea to skip class if you aren’t an auditory learner

If you’re like me, and you learn best reading and writing, or if you’re a visual or kinetic learner, class might not be the best place for you to cement your understanding of the course material. Think through how you learn best to come up with the most efficient and effective studying method for you, whether that involves skipping class or not.

What has your experience been with skipping class? Let me know in the comments!

4 Lessons in Staying Motivated in College — that I learned from my pet bunny

12 Feb

One of the main things we want to write about here at No Place Like College this year is staying motivated.

We’ve got tips and tricks for the beginning of term, the middle slog, and the final push to finale. We have ideas for how to make sure that your motivation issues aren’t due to simply not being in the right place and we’re gearing up to talk about how anxiety affected us and our motivation to study throughout our university careers.

But before we start the nitty gritty, I wanted to share a few overarching tips that really help with motivation… using examples from my pet bunny’s exploits.

4 Things I Learned about Motivation in College — from my pet bunny!

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A little backstory

My husband, baby, and I were living on a horse and alpaca farm which was also home to many furry woodland creatures, geese, chickens, a barn cat, and a lovely dog. We were moving in a few weeks to town and I knew I’d be horribly sad to leave all of my animal friends. One day, out on a walk, we saw three separate baby bunnies playing in the grass. My husband had grown up with bunnies and so I asked, with no hope of him agreeing it was a good idea, if we could get a pet bunny. He said yes. Despite the bad timing, I immediately started looking online for rabbits.

A week before we were moving, I found an ad for the perfect bunnies – they were a mix of the two breeds I wanted and they were little babies. We went after church and came home (gasp!) with our very own baby bunny. She was immediately beloved by all of us and has become a wonderful part of our family, though we experienced some major growing pains.

We named her Roa, but it doesn’t suit her, so now we just call her “bunny” and we trust that once the baby can talk a little better, bun will hopefully get a cute little moniker from the little human. Or we might start calling her Karen. Who’s to say.

Here she is the day we brought her home. She was so little!

1. Find a friend and relax

Bunny has become the definitional “cuddle bunny”. She hops up to the person she wants to be cuddled by and will sit in perpetuity with you if you’ll agree to pet her head and stroke her ears. In fact, stopping will get a reminder nudge and she’s even been known to shove her head underneath the hand she knows ought to be giving her pets.

Look, I know firsthand that college can be super overwhelming and stressful. I spent my 20th birthday studying so hard for an organic chemistry midterm that my roommates had to force me to go out for ice cream.. and I struggled the whole time not to think about the test. That’s honestly no way to live.

Studying for exams doesn’t need to mean you never see friends. Try to make time for breaks that bring you life again!

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Taking breaks to do things that help you to relax will make you more productive in the long run. Do 10 minutes of yoga, watch Bob Ross paint a mountain, take time to pray or meditate, get a massage at the rec center, whatever works. Burnout is a thing and protecting yourself from burnout means making time to relax.

She gives kisses constantly… and is forever asking for pets.

2. Maybe what’s bothering you isn’t really what’s bothering you

While bun and I are on fabulous terms right now, it wasn’t always that way. In folly, I switched her shallow litter box for a new, higher walled litter box. She hated it. I was oblivious.

What followed was 6 weeks of her not allowing me to pet her, hiding under the furniture, and running away from the room where she lives at every opportunity. I was so frustrated and I felt like I’d been a fool for getting a bunny.

But here was the problem: I needed to groom her since she was blowing her coat and I thought that the grooming was what was causing the bad mood.

When I wised up and switched out the litter box, within a week she was the snuggliest, sweetest bunny you ever did see.

Sometimes we humans are like that, too. During law school, my husband was really stressed and so he used video games as an escape. It took us a long time to realize that the excessive gaming was a symptom, not the problem itself.

Fixing the underlying problem didn’t actually change his GPA, but it did make him a better person. We should all stop and consider whether what we think our issues are in staying motivated and what other causes could be underlying them.

3. We all have to do hard things, what carrots and sticks can you use to get yourself to do them?

Bunnies love to dig. It’s a major part of what makes them rabbits. Our bun is no exception… and she’d love to destroy the couch. It would be, she tells me, her magnum opus.

Given her lack of couch-respect, I can’t let her free range without supervision and even when being watched, she often jumps up onto the couch to dig at it. I’ve tried taking her off the couch, I’ve tried telling her “no” in a firm voice, I’ve tried sprawling on the couch myself to prevent her from coming up. Nothing worked and she always ended up mad at me and hiding when I took her down. Ugh.

My husband recently cracked the code: bunny understands that a thump means “I don’t want you to do that”. I get thumped at if I run the vacuum cleaner, if I pick up the bunny, and sometimes if I try to get her to go to bed. And so, if we find her on the couch, we take off our slipper and hit it onto the floor, in an approximation of a rabbit thump.

We do it far away from her, so it isn’t a threat of violence, we’re just trying to articulate “please don’t ruin the couch” in terms she’ll understand. And yep, one thump and she’s off the couch and back for another cuddle. She’s motivated by the thump, not by vocalization.

When you have been successful at staying motivated, what were the reasons you were able to do it? The same tactics that worked for a friend might not work for you and that is totally fine. Figure out how to feed your soul so that motivation is easier to muster.

My baby and my bunny are wonderful friends. They love exploring together.

4. Take joy in your life

College is a stressful time, but it’s also a very free time in your life. You have options, time, and fewer obligations than you’ll have shortly. Enjoy the stage. My mom likes to say “this too shall pass”, and she means it both positively and negatively.

The hard things of this stage will pass, but the good parts will too. So focus on enjoying college as much as you can. Bunnies do twitchy hops called “binkies” when they’re happy and they do “zoomies” of sprints around to show their delight. They’re unabashed in their delight at the world around them.

Staying motivated to study is tricky, and college is definitely hard work, but there’s so much joy to be found. Seriously, how often is some group or other giving out free pizza in the student union? (This is a lovely perk!) So enjoy the season for all you’ve got!

What is one of your best de-stressing tips for college? What has helped you put things in perspective and stay motivated? Share your tips in the comments below!

9 Tips for Choosing Your Course Schedule

12 Sep

I loved choosing courses in college.

It was so exciting–which profs was I going to get? What electives were available? Did I have any friends in my classes?

Well, I found choosing college courses fun after I learned how to hack the system. Because choosing courses–like everything else in college–has some tricks to it.

I’ve put together 9 of my best tips for how to choose your courses to set your semester up for success. Check them out, and I hope they help you!

1. Choose your mandatory classes first

There is nothing worse than getting the exact elective you want and then realizing it’s at the same time as your mandatory stats class. Get the mandatory ones out of the way first and then build your electives around them.

2. Try to spread out boring or difficult mandatory classes across semesters

One year I had the great idea of putting all of my mandatory classes I was dreading in one semester so I could rip it off like a band-aid.

Boy was that a long band-aid.

Take it from me: it’s better to have one or two courses you find boring each semester than one semester filled with boring classes. Spread out the mandatory classes you’re dreading over multiple semesters so you have lots of room for classes you find interesting.

3. When choosing college courses, know your attention span

For some people, scheduling all their classes on two or three days works great. But for others, having class for longer than 3 hours in a row can cause a lot of attention difficulties.

Are you someone who likes to power through, or who needs to have time to get up and walk between classes? Don’t schedule yourself for a huge block for the sake of a day off if you’re just going to feel frazzled, stressed, and tired because of it.

4. Be cautious with morning and evening classes

Are you a morning person? Then maybe try to steer clear of the 7-10 PM classes. Or maybe you like to go to the gym in the morning, or aren’t really awake until 10:00 AM. Then, whenever possible, swap the morning class for an afternoon or evening option instead.

Look at when you are most awake, alert, and able to study effectively and try to build your schedule around those times. There’s nothing worse than a 3-hour night lecture if you’re falling asleep 20 minutes into it.

5. Try something outside the box

When you’re looking at electives, try something new! I was a psychology major, but for my electives I took Spanish, Children’s Lit, Celtic studies, and Studies of Christianity and Judaism in Late Antiquity. And I loved them all!

Don’t just do the normal basket-weaving classes at your school, or five million electives in your major (unless that’s what you find most interesting, of course!). This is an amazing opportunity to tap into other disciplines and faculties–so test the waters a bit!

6. Don’t be afraid of choosing college courses that are a challenge

Something challenging but interesting will seem easier than something easy but boring. My religious studies course was my favorite even though I had a 20-page research paper, bi-weekly assignments, a midterm and a HUGE final. Despite the workload, it felt like a breeze because I was so interested in the material. The same semester I was taking a seminar course with a bunch of friends as an “easy elective.” All it had was a paper and a final, but I found it so difficult and frustrating because I wasn’t interested in the material one bit.

Often when students look for electives they only look at easiness. But remember: difficulty is relative. What you find difficult someone else may find simple, and vice versa. So find something that doesn’t just have a high class average: find something you’ll thrive in.

7. Look into online courses or virtual classrooms

For those mandatory classes you’re not thrilled about, or for electives you can’t get to fit with your schedule but you rally want to take, consider an online alternative. Both my husband and I took some courses with Athabasca University here in Canada, since they have a huge course selection and their classes are accredited and accepted as equivalencies at University of Ottawa (where we went to school).

Many schools offer online versions of their classes, as well, with pre-recorded lectures and online discussion forums. They’re worth checking out, since they offer so much flexibility and teach a lot of self-discipline, as well.

8. Consider taking a lighter course load and then taking summer classes

During my final year of school, I had an honors thesis on top of my normal course load. It was a lot. So I cut down on courses and finished up my degree the following summer. Sure, I graduated the year after many of my friends, but it saved me so much stress and frustration during that school year. It was 100% worth it and I have never once regretted that decision.

If school is a bit overwhelming, or you’re facing a difficult semester, why not look into summer courses as an option? I truly don’t understand why more people don’t do it–it’s often better to do a few courses all year through than to do more courses than you’re able to do well, even if it means you get a summer break.

9. Use Rate My Professor religiously

This is my #1 tip for creating your course schedule. Use Rate My Professor. I repeat: use Rate My Professor! Rate my Professor was a game changer for me. No matter how smart you are, no matter how hard you work, some professors just aren’t going to give you a good mark unless you’re incredibly, incredibly lucky. It’s the unpopular truth about college, but there it is.

Use Rate My Professor to figure out which section to sign up for to make sure you get the right professor. All the professors are horrible and it seems impossible to get anything higher than just barely passing? Take that course online instead.

This also takes a lot of the risk out of choosing electives, too. There were many courses I thought looked interesting until I saw that the professor had a 1/5 rating. YIKES.

Your course load really affects how the semester goes. And there are so many easy ways to make sure it goes well.

So those are my 9 best tips–what are yours? Share them in the comments and we’ll chat about it!

7 Ways to Start the Semester Right

7 Sep

Want to get organized in college but don’t know where to start?

I get it. Life seems crazy with midterms, assignments and studying starting to pile up from day one of the new semester.

But what if it didn’t have to be so hard?

I found freshman year crazy stressful because I just wasn’t organized. Learning to get organized in college helped my stress levels so much. And I want to share what I learned with you! So here are 7 ways to get organized in college:

1. Get organized in college by organizing your assignments and tests NOW

The absolute first thing you should ever do as soon as the semester starts is write down your assignment and test schedule.

Start by creating an event in your calendar for the due date with the course code, assignment name, and its weight for your final grade. Now we’re going to work backwards to make sure it doesn’t sneak up on you. Add in the next few dates (we’ll start with assignments, then go on to tests):

Three weeks before the due date: Reminder that the assignment is coming up; start prepping/thinking of topics
Two weeks before the due date: Start working on the assignment. Take notes on research articles, create outline
One week before the due date: Write the assignment so you have one solid first draft done.
Three days before the due date: Bring questions/concerns to your professor so you can make any necessary last minute changes.
One day before the due date: Assignment due tomorrow reminder
Due date: Assignment due!

For tests, it’s a bit easier. Here’s what I used to do:

Two weeks before the test: reminder to organize and input all my notes up to that point
One week before the test: Input the last remaining notes, create flashcards, and start studying!
Three days before the test: Ask professor any questions you have and study crunch time!
Day before the test: Last minute cramming!
Test day!

Do this for each big assignment or midterm you have. Smaller assignments that are only going to take you a day to do start to finish I usually would only add a reminder a week before the deadline and the day before, but for larger projects I found that having a more thorough schedule written out took away the fear that I was forgetting something and kept me on track.

2. Get organized in college by getting to know your professors

Throughout my undergrad I was consistently amazed by how few of my classmates ever talked to their professors. Your professor is your golden ticket to the course–if you don’t understand something, they have the answer. And believe it or not, the prof wants you to succeed! Some of them are more gruff than others, but you’re an adult–and you’re paying for an education from this person. So go talk to them! Get to know them! You never know–maybe they’ll be a good contact for later research projects or part-time jobs in your field.

If you feel overwhelmed, get to know your profs. They can help you with studying more effectively and by talking to them you may start to feel more on top of things before you know it.

3. Get organized in college by creating a study schedule

If you want to get organized in college, plan when you’ll study each class. If you take 5 classes, for instance, maybe assign each day of the week to studying a different class with your busier days getting your easier classes and your more free/open days getting your more assignment-heavy, difficult classes. I found Spanish really easy, so when I had only 2 free hours on one day, that was the one that got Spanish, whereas the class that I had an open block from 10 AM to 2 PM got my child psychopathology class.

If you stick to this schedule, where you get everything you need to do for that week done on the allocated day, you’ll never be behind. Dealing with the course load of one class a day is a lot less overwhelming than thinking about all 5 every day!

4. Get organized in college by creating a master binder for notes

A lot of people use notebooks, and that can work too, but I love using binders for notes because of the flexibility! Missed class one day? Simply copy someone’s notes and slot them in where they should have been. It’s all in order, and you can take out one day’s worth of notes at a time without tearing them out of the notebook.

I used to have a binder with dividers that I held everything in. I had one divider for each class and one for blank paper. Then at the very beginning of the binder I had my class schedule and any other important information I needed (emergency numbers, for instance) printed on one sheet of paper.

My first year of school I was completely unorganized. I had notes all over the place spread between 3 different notebooks and when it came to midterm season I didn’t know where to start. By switching to having everything in one binder I found it easier to get organized in college and–bonus–I was way less stressed!

5. Get organized in college by printing out all the information you need and keep it in your binder

The great thing about the binder is that you can insert other pages, not just notes. So take that syllabus you got the first week of class, print it out, punch holes in it and slot it into your binder with the appropriate notes. That way you always have that important information with you–no more stressing about what office your prof’s open hours are at again!

6. Get organized in college by setting up a file organization system

Although I loved my hand-written notes in college, I did transfer them to my computer. I liked keeping my notes online in Google Drive so that if anything happened to my computer or my binder, I wasn’t without my notes. But just like I learned with my handwritten notes, I quickly learned that having a ton of random files of notes didn’t help me much.

The method I use to organize notes is this: I have a folder for each class and within that folder I have (a) the syllabus (b) a file for each assignment (with the assignment information/instructions in it) and (c) one master-file with all of my notes for that semester (class AND textbook).

That way, instead of having a file for notes for the September 28th lecture on Chapter 3 and a file for Chapter 3 Textbook notes, it was all in one place. There’s less redundancy that way, saving you time.

7. Get organized in college by scheduling in some fun activities–don’t study all the time!

It’s tempting at the beginning of the semester to over-schedule your study time and forget that you’re a human who needs rest, too.

Make it a habit from day 1 to take some time to just relax every now and then. Join the Zumba classes on your campus, or start rock climbing! Go to the park on Saturdays with a good book while the sun comes up. Whatever floats your boat, do it and do it consistently. Burnout is real, and taking time to enjoy life is a great way to still feel human–even when midterms hit.

What are some of your best organizational tips for college? Share them in the comments and let’s chat!

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The Freshman’s Guide to College Day 9: Tips for Time Management

13 Aug

Welcome to the Freshman’s Guide to College! We’re 9 days in, and this is the second-last post!

All of the other posts in this series are vital, but time management is what ties them all together!

The most important piece of guaranteeing success in college (as much as is possible), in my opinion, is learning how to manage your time wisely. Without good time management skills, you will never be able to just enjoy your college experience because trust me–stress will consume you! Time management was a hard lesson for me to learn, but this last semester I finally got on top of things and my stress level dropped when it came to making sure that all my work got done before exams came.

So here are my top tips and tricks to college student time management!

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The Freshman’s Guide to College Day 7: What To Pack for College–and what to leave behind!

11 Aug

It’s Day 7 of The Freshman’s Guide to College, and today we’re talking about packing for college!

Confession: I never actually lived in residence! I moved straight from my parents’ house into the basement of a condo that I rented with 3 other Christian girls (great experience, btw. I highly recommend it). That being said, my best friend Hillary lived in residence her first year and I spent quite a bit of time there visiting, and then have shared a bathroom with 3 other girls for the last two years, and then moved into a very small apartment with my husband. So I have some experience with living in small spaces and making every inch count!

Even though I’ve never lived in a dorm room myself, I’ve asked a bunch of my friends who did and thought back on my experiences listed above, and I have compiled a list that can hep you as you’re trying to figure out what to bring and what to leave as you go to college this fall!

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The Freshman’s Guide to College Day 2: Choosing your Courses

4 Aug

It’s Day 2 of The Freshman’s Guide to College and today we’re talking about choosing your college courses!

Yesterday we talked about how to make sure you’re not spending unnecessary money on supplies you’ll never use. Back to school shopping is a ton of fun, but courses are a whole other story. Choosing your course load can be overwhelming, especially if you’ve never had to do this before! What’s better? Having one or two courses every day, or two insane days but a 4-day weekend? How do you know which professors will make your life a living hell, and which will light a fire in your heart?

It can seem overwhelming, but I’m hoping that with these tips I make it a little less scary for you!

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The Freshman’s Guide to College Day 1: Back-to-School Shopping

3 Aug

Welcome to the Freshman’s Guide to College series! This is the first part of the ten-part series I’m doing as college is starting up again! I remember how scary everything seemed in my first year at college, so to try and make the transition easier for you I’m going to compile all of the tips and tricks that I have learned over my 3 years in university so that you don’t have to make the same mistakes I made, and but have a much easier time of things instead. The first instalment is about back to school shopping!

I love back to school shopping!

There are so many things to choose from! The trick is to only buy what you need and save money by not buying too much. [Read more…]