So, you finally got accepted to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. First off, let me say welcome to the Warhawk family. Secondly, you’re going to have a ton of questions, and probably no one to answer them. Don’t get me wrong, I love Whitewater. I couldn’t imagine going to any other school. But I have to be honest… not everyone is going to be able to answer your questions, unfortunately. So, I’m going to try and offer some advice for all you incoming freshmen, directly from an outgoing freshmen.
Don’t worry if you don’t know what you want to major/minor in
There are so many people that don’t know what to major/minor in. You don’t really have to worry about a minor until your second year or so, usually, and not all majors even need a minor. Honestly, if you don’t know, just explore your possibilities. Take classes that seem interesting. If you walk in the first week or so of class and don’t really like the class, just drop it.
You’ll have a certain amount of time to drop a class without a “W,” or “withdrawal.” After the first week or two of class you can still drop, but the W will show up on your transcript—I’ve been told one or two are fine, but you don’t want a ton of withdrawals on your transcript.
If you do know what you want to major in, take a class either your first or second semester (if it fits)
When you go to Plan-It-Purple, you will sign up for your classes. The professors and advisors there will probably recommend a few general education classes, like math or English. I took three general education classes my first semester, and one class for my minor. I also took the freshman seminar class, which is just a 1 credit class that basically helps you get to know people and the campus a little better.
I took a minor class instead of a major class because my major required the completion of both general education English classes, so you might want to look at the requirements for your major.
Don’t feel the need to overload yourself with credits
I took 16 credits my first semester, but usually they recommend 15 credits a semester if you want to graduate in 4 years, but this also changes depending on your major. Some education majors may take 4 and a half years because of student teaching, and other majors take longer.
You’ll probably need about 120 credits to graduate, which translates to 15 credits on average a per semester if you plan on graduating in 4 years. But remember, you’ll need at least 12 credits to be a full-time student. The maximum number of credits you can take is 18, and I do not recommend doing this your first semester. I took 18 credits second semester and it is A LOT.
If you need help figuring out how many credits to take, think of it this way: 15 credits usually translated to roughly 15 in class hours, and I’ve been told that you can expect between 1-3 hours of homework per in class hour. So, if you’re taking 15 credits, you can expect between15-45 hours of homework. This also depends on the difficulty of the class—in general, 100 level classes are less difficult than level 400 classes.
When you move in, you probably won’t need as much as you think
If you’ve moved in with too much, you will notice at the end of semester when you’re packing up things and think “oh, I never used this” more than 100 times. Also, don’t try to bring all your clothes at once, unless you don’t really have a lot. I made the mistake of bringing all my winter and summer clothes and suffered when I could barely close my drawers.
Go to class
Lastly, the most obvious. Go to class. It can be super easy to want to skip, especially if you have early classes. However, if you go to class more often than not you will probably notice an improvement in your grades and a lot of professors are more willing to help students or give extra credit to students that come to class. I’ve missed 3 class periods, two because I had strep throat and one because I wanted to skip a 9am.
Most professors will offer a few skips per semester, but use them wisely. I’ve had professors give three skips and then after that they took off 10% off your final grade per skip.
At the end of the day
College is an amazing experience, and I hope you enjoy your time at Whitewater. College is the time for you to embrace yourself as an individual and find out who your really are, so have fun!
