In this week's episode of College Bound, ND Admissions interns Catherine O'Leary, Hailey Oppenlander and Adeline Chappuis discuss how they navigated making the transition from high school to college during their first year at Notre Dame.
In this week's episode of College Bound, ND Admissions interns Catherine O'Leary, Hailey Oppenlander and Adeline Chappuis discuss how they navigated making the transition from high school to college during their first year at Notre Dame.
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Welcome to College Bound: Intern Edition. We're you're hosts. I’m Catherine O'Leary.
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I'm Tajae Thompson.
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And I'm Hailey Oppenlander. We are here to give you the student take on Notre Dame.
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Hey, guys, welcome back to College Bound Intern Edition, we're your hosts, Hailey,
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and I'm Catherine,
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And Tajae's out for this week, but she will be back soon. Today, we'll be talking about our transitions to college. And we're here with our fellow intern and special guest, Adeline. Adeline, do you want to give us your Notre Dame intro?
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Yeah. Hi, guys. I'm Adeline, and I am a resident of Walsh Hall, but I'm originally from New Orleans, Louisiana. I'm a design and theology major in the College of Arts and Letters.
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Awesome. So, Adeline, do you want to tell us a little bit about your transition to Notre Dame and what that was like for you socially?
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Yes. So transitioning socially was really kind of interesting because when I was accepted to Notre Dame, we kind of all found each other on liking the Instagram post of the "Welcome Home" on Instagram. And so from there, we made a group chat and we actually got to know each other pretty well. For those of us who actually, like, texted a lot in the group chat and those actually ended up becoming one of most of my best friends here on campus.
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I remember, I got I had been waiting for my financial aid package and it took a long time for that to come in, and once it did and I was able to come to Notre Dame, literally, everyone was so excited because that meant that we were all going to meet each other and that no one was going to really be left behind. And so that was super exciting. And then when we got to campus, many hugs and tears happened because it was just awesome to meet people from all around the country and some internationally and then be all together in one place after, like, all that anticipation. So right from the start, Notre Dame was definitely a easy place to transition into some high school.
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That's so cool to hear. I feel like even though I'm only a year older than you, I feel such a generational gap. Like I mostly met people once I was here. But even my brother, who's a freshman now, was having Zoom calls with people he'd never met the summer before he started here, so I guess that's a good part of technology. And Zoom calls nowadays means people come in a lot of times knowing future classmates and friends. Catherine, do you want to tell us a little bit about your social transition to Notre Dame?
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Yeah, so I'm in kind of a unique case. I actually had two siblings here, so when I was coming in my freshman year, my brothers were seniors and they're twins. So that was I mean, that was a definitely a big part of me feeling like initially, you know, at home right off the bat at Notre Dame. But I, I know a lot of people some people come here and have some people from their high school that are also coming here, like from their hometown. But coming from South Carolina, there are like two other South Carolinians in my year. And so I really wasn't interested in having my brothers here.
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You know, I didn't come into freshman year knowing a lot of people. And so I will say, like, that Welcome Weekend was kind of huge and like meeting a lot of people from your dorm. Also, you didn't ask for advice, but if I had to give advice about kind of like, you know, transitioning to the social life at Notre Dame, definitely I'd be open to meeting people in your dorm. And just I would remember that, you know, this isn't in general, this is not a school where people go to with like their entire high school friend groups, like most people are coming here without close friends. And basically everyone really wants to make good friends.
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And just like even if you're not super extroverted, just like be as outgoing as possible kind of early on freshman year and, you know, you'll be rewarded for that. And I also say, you know, I definitely like to take advantage of dorm life and making friends in your dorm, but also be open to making friends from anywhere, like in your classes. I mean, honestly, there are people that I just sat down next year and talked to and they've been some of my favorite people out an entire day just from like my biology class as a sophomore.
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And so, yeah, just like stay, you know, stay really open to making friends, remember that, like, people are here because they want to be here and everyone also wants to make friends, especially freshman year. So those are my piece of advice.
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I will say it's interesting that you brought up the fact that, like a lot of people aren't coming to Notre Dame with their, like, high school social group, because that's so especially I feel like in southern schools. I can't think of how many of my friends went all went to the same school and they were all picking out dorms that they wanted to stay into all their classes already. And it was like March. And I was like, what is this? And so, yeah, it's interesting that we all kind of get together from everywhere without really too much from back home, and then we were able to really get to know a lot of other people.
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I definitely was one of the lucky ones because my best friend from high school also goes to Notre Dame. So I had kind of a leg up of just already having, like, the person that was closest to me be here. So that kind of made it easier to feel at home right away. But I also agree that it's really important to reach out to people in your classes. I think the first couple weeks of freshman year in class, everyone would get there early, but just would sit there. No one would talk to each other. And then after a couple of weeks, we realized that everyone's really cool and chill and we became good friends.
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And they're still people that I had in random classes freshman year that like we have a standing weekly dinner date. So I think that's honestly just like one of the best ways to meet friends is talking to the people sitting next to you in class. And I feel like my social transition honestly happened more sophomore year. I felt like I had met a lot of people freshman year, but I wasn't totally in like a cemented friend group. And so that kind of bothered me at first because in high school I was very opposite. I had a very clear, like defined group of people who I did everything with.
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I would also say, not to get too preachy, but just like really be open to finding connections anywhere. You can have a defined group. You don't have to if that's not how things are going and you can meet people and you're in school. So that's kind of the fun side of the college transitions. Now, we'll talk a little bit about academics and the successes and the struggles of transitioning to college. So, Catherine, do you want to kick us off?
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Yeah, definitely. I would say. OK, so it's really interesting. I remember coming to Notre Dame and just kind of seeing the name makes it like insurmountable. Obviously, if you get into Notre Dame, you're you know, you're academically capable and you're strong, you're a strong student. But I remember because it was such an amorphous ideal at college classes and like, you know, GPA and all that kind of stuff, it just felt like a mountain that I was never going to climb. And now here I am, having almost finished the mountain and looking back like it's totally doable.
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But I don't know if anyone ever felt that way. I definitely did. And even weirdly, I feel like every semester I kind of feel that way about each class. I'm like, oh, how am I ever going to get through this and then you do. So I don't know, I just would encourage you that can do it, but I guess in terms of the transition, be as organized as possible. Being organized will benefit you. Like get yourself a planner immediately and just, you know, beat the crap out of it like a write in it, scribble in it, put everything in it, and you're going to you're going to need it. You're going to use it. But that will really help you.
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And I would say another thing I can think of is, as we were kind of talking about, like, you know, making friends in your classes, definitely. I would definitely encourage that also for academic purposes, because there is going to be a time when you're, like, confused or you have questions. And, you know, as you spend more time at Notre Dame, you're probably know more people in your classes. But like still I mean, I'm a senior and there's one class that I know one person in this semester. And so, you know, you can't be afraid to just go up to someone, say, like, hey, did you understand that? Or, you know, can I have your number, and can I text you later about some questions? And people will say, yes, because people here are nice, but honestly, like, really, you know, relying on your peers for help has just saved me time and time again.
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So I would definitely recommend, like, making yourself a little class group and it's always going to benefit you.
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Yeah, totally. Classrooms are the way to go. Yes. Adeline, do you want to share a little bit about your academic transition at Notre Dame?
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Yeah. I guess I'll start with the kind of struggles first, growing up, I feel like it was a huge push for me to go into either STEM or medicine or law. And so those were kind of the only three things I ever really explored in high school. And so coming to college, I started taking science classes and I was really struggling despite having having taken AP classes and honors classes and all this other stuff.
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And I then had to take a moment and really kind of think about if this was just hard and I just needed to push through it and, you know, seek help with all the right resources, which I already was doing, or if maybe something else was really my calling. And after thinking that through a little bit, I realized actually through this internship with admissions and new media that, you know, I'm really into storytelling and I'm actually kind of good at it. And by switching into Arts and Letters and seeing all the different job possibilities with storytelling in design and video storytelling, that there's actually like a really good future career for me in that.
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And so the classes were hard. There's no denying that. But I think it was really nice to have to be empowered honestly by all the job possibilities in Arts and Letters. Now that, like, I'm in design and I'm in the middle of my classes, I'm really like, it doesn't feel like a chore to go to class, really. It feels like fun. I'm in the studio designing, making stuff, and it's great. I guess a positive to academic transition was like really getting to kind of, I guess, the center stage of everything, because I feel like every class taken in middle school and high school, it's like, oh, this will prepare you for college, and here I am in actual college classes doing the thing. And so that was really interesting to do and to be able to take and actually have time to take a whole bunch of different varieties and classes. That's I think the basic summary of the transition as far as academics go.
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Yeah, we love College of Arts and Letters, so I'm American studies and sociology major. So I also I'm in the College of Arts and Letters and the first semester was also just like a lot of really great exploration of those majors and kind of discerning what I liked and what I didn't. It definitely is like a rigorous academic environment. But I think if you like Katherine, we're saying connect with people in your classes, connect with your professors. It's definitely not overwhelming if you're on top of things.
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So I think for me, it felt like a good transition just growing up a little bit, knowing how to utilize my time, especially since college schedules are so different and it just like you get better at it every year of school. So, yeah, and I know we've been kind of dropping pieces of advice this whole time, do you want to close us out with some pieces of advice for prospective students and kind of summarize what we've been talking about?
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Yeah. So one thing I have to say about transitioning is that there is a gigantic world of a whole bunch of industries and disciplines that you can go into. Don't be afraid to take a chance and take a class that you didn't think you were interested in. But it kind of sounds cool because you never know where that can lead you. You know, I was once premed and now I am fully happy in design and realizing my creative side a lot more. So don't be afraid to take that new language class that you're thinking about taking, or that art class, because it makes you think in different ways and you make different connections in your brain. And so it really lets you kind of explore the full range of academia, really. So definitely don't be afraid to branch out of what you think your career.
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That was perfect. That should be on a poster for Arts and Letters in Notre Dame. Well, so thanks for tuning in, guys. Don't forget to follow us on social media @NDAdmissions, especially our new TikTok account. We have some exciting content coming on that. And thanks for listening. Go, Irish!