Tips for Incoming College Students

The days and weeks leading up to move-in day for incoming students are fraught with excitement, anxiety and questions. What do I need to pack? How do I meet people? Where do I go for help? It’s easy to get overwhelmed, and it’s important to remember that many other students have been in your shoes!
In this episode we get expert advice from three CofC student orientation leaders on how to meet people, learn to do laundry and pack minimally!
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Hello and Welcome to Speaking of College of Charleston. I'm Amy Stockwell from University Communications, and on today's episode, I'm speaking with some of our orientation student interns, Jalen Newell, Bella Pack and Lauren Pinto, who were kind enough to share some practical tips. Like don't forget to add water to your microwave mac and cheese to our incoming students. Let's get started. Here's my conversation with the students. Thank you guys for coming today. I really appreciate it. We are going to talk about we're going to offer some advice and tips for incoming students. So let's I'm gonna go round and have each of you introduce yourself and talk about your major and where you're from and what year you are. Sure. Awesome. Okay, so my name is Lauren. I'm a rising senior here at the college. I'm a double major in finance and mathematics with a concentration in Actuarial Studies. I'm originally from White Plains, New York. I don't know if I said that already. But I'm just gonna repeat it. And I am a CSL tutor, which is the Center for student learning, which is a major resource here on campus for tutoring services, and I am also a supplemental instructor, which means that I go to a specific class and sit in and get to teach them throughout the whole semester. So amazing. Hello, everyone. My name is Bella Pack. I'm a rising junior here at the college this year. I'm from Murrells Inlet South Carolina's not too far away from Charleston. I'm actually a philosophy major on the pre law track with a PPL W concentration, which is politics, philosophy and law, and a Spanish minor. And then some things that I'm involved in on campus. I'm a second year RA at Kelley house as well as a peer educator for the first year experience department. First year orientation intern as well as a VP for CMC Red Cross Club. Yay. So hey, cougars. My name is Jalen Newell. I am a rising sophomore at the College of Charleston with a double major in biology and International Studies with a minor in neuroscience on the pre med track. I'm from Goose Creek, South Carolina. So I'm not that far away from Charleston. And you can find me involved on campus in our Black Student Union. And our and our Student Alumni associates. And I am also a 1967 legacy scholar. thanks, everybody. So my first question today is what it is, you guys have been doing orientation all summer for new students? What's the most common question that you get asked? I think I would say one of the most common questions we get asked is, can I have a car on campus? And why does it have to be 60 credit hours to allow you to get that parking permit, I would definitely say to those who are looking to bring their cars their first year that you're probably not going to use it as much as you think you are. And if you do, you will find that one friend that does actually bring their car down, and they will take you anywhere you need. So it's really not an necessary thing to have. But if you do bring your car on campus and you're looking for parking places, the Charleston County page has some really good parking permits that you guys can find or you guys can look on Facebook pages to find some other rentals that are being sold. Yeah, that's definitely a great one. I would say the most question I get asked is how do I make friends. That's probably a big scary thing for a lot of college students coming in, you know, they're leaving home, they're leaving their, their little nest area. So they're a little nervous. But I always reassure them that you know, I personally didn't meet my best friends till sophomore year, so you have plenty of time to grow, find yourself, see who you are. Always get involved on campus. We do love to shout out Cougar Connect. We have over 200 clubs and organizations on campus as well as our Weeks of Welcome to go to. And for me a common question that I usually get out orientation is due I have to get through all of my Gen Ed's my first semester. And I just want to reassure you guys that no, that is not the case because your gen Ed's are met last year through all four years. So don't worry about trying to get like all your spam wishes, or your maps all done your first semester because you still have seven more semesters to go. That's a great tip. Bella, you were talking about clubs. What are what, what clubs are you involved in? So I'm involved in the CMC Red Cross Club, of course, everybody's like, Oh my gosh, is it donating blood? No, it's actually more than that. I promise. I mean, you can donate blood if you want to, you know, save a life, whatever. If that's not your type, that's fine. So we actually do volunteer hours quite often. So We do stuff around our campus, as well as we host events like tie dyeing or stress ball making recently in 2021. Like for me personally, I teach international humanitarian law for the American Red Cross. So I'll host events on campus with that you can get involved that way. Wow, that's very cool. Are you guys in clubs are their view? Um, I know I am Mr. Black Student Union and our student associates. So yeah, it's like I joined my freshman year just to like, get onto campus, but like, through actually like participating and actually getting some leadership roles. Like, I feel like I found my place on campus. And I found like, the activities that I like to do, and the people that I like to do the activities with, so it's just like, I just wanted to share that, like, there's a club here for everyone. Because we have over 200 plus clubs, we have a cheese club for like God's sake. So I mean, there's a lot for you guys to choose from. If you're lactose intolerant, still go for it. So before as well. But what is your best advice that you can give kids about moving into the dorm? Like, what should they bring? What should they what do they not need to bring? Can you can you shout out some ideas. Yeah, so I mean, I've been an RA since my freshman year, spring semester. So I've kind of seen the ins and outs a little bit of it. Honestly, I would say be very minimalist, I'm definitely a person that loves to have a full wardrobe, even though we're the same outfit probably every week, and the same shoes. But I would say keep it minimalist for the first part, you know, you always end up needing less than you think. So you don't really need to bring that beanbag in that dorm to sit when you're really going to be at the library like for, I don't know, three, four hours a day. And I would also say just double check with your roommates also, like if y'all want to kind of co - share things and you're like, yeah, like, I'll bring the silverware, I'll bring the dishes, just stuff like that. A tip I have always for freshmen is please come in knowing how to do your laundry, the amount of times I have come in and had to be like, Do you guys know how to do your laundry and they're like, Oh, I'm actually not really. And I was like, okay, that's okay. But it's just something you should know, before you get here major tips. I would also say that you're going to need as Bella said, minimalist, you're going to need a lot less than you think you are, I brought a ton of clothes with me my freshman year and I did not use any of it, you're not going to need those dresses, you're not going to need those fancy shoes, unless, of course you're recruiting you're going to need them. But for the most part, it's not something that you're gonna necessarily need right away. And we are super close to King Street, which means that you can just go shopping for things if you really need it. And we have a target on campus now, which is awesome. And I know everyone's going to love that target on campus. So if you do need anything, we can just go right over there to get it. And for me, an advice I would give is just be prepared to sweat because no matter what temperature it is outside, like you'll be sweating on moving day. And I just want to emphasize just be very minimalistic when you are moving in. Because you're in college, of course, you're going to buy like 100 more new things to bring with you. So when move outcomes, of course, you will have to take all of that out of your room. So just to make things easier. I feel like it's better to get stuck throughout the year than to have all that stuff with you at the beginning of the year and add on some more throughout the year. So just keep in mind of that. Absolutely. And then I would also say you will grow out of a lot of old styles that you thought you liked. So if you really like wearing mom jeans, you might like wearing skinny jeans now. So just you know, be prepared. And yourself grow. And just numbering anything that's burned down the dorm rooms don't bring anything that'll burn anything. And you guys will be all set. And please put water in your mac and cheese. I highly, highly, highly put that out there to put water in your mac and cheese. Does that have something to do with the burning? Yeah. Oh, yeah, of course. It's always the mac and cheese, the popcorn. That's great. What else? What are some other questions that they ask? How about? Do they ask you about favorite classes? Or is that a common question that you get? I would say so I've gotten that. The past couple sessions of orientation. I always kind of go for the Humanities there. Especially for me personally, like I came in on the pre med track. I literally completely flipped to pre law. As you can see, you know, I was so destined to be the next Dr. Pimple Popper wanted to do that the rest of my life. And then I took my first biology class and I was like lol This is actually horrible. I can't do math either. So I was like, let's try to figure out something else. And then I took my first philosophy class philosophy to 10, which is philosophy law on the arts. And I started writing my first papers learning about and I was like, wow, I was like, I absolutely adore this. So see and I was the exact opposite. I came in and being like, I know I'm good at math, but like I hate stats, I'm never taking stats here. I'm gonna suck at it and I came in and aced it. And now that's the track I'm on. And I'm just kind of riding with it. So I, I know that we all think we know what we want to come into college as, or we have some sort of idea. But take those random classes, take something interesting, or just take something that you're like, I don't know if I'm going to be into this or not. Because you might get into it. And you'll be like, Wow, this was really cool. I want to change my major, like, I want to do this instead of what I thought I wanted to do. So college is really where you get to experiment on what you want to do after college. And it's okay to switch it up a couple times, you don't have to know exactly what you want to do at 18. Trust me, I don't know what I want to do at 21. So it's you get to look GRE grow and learn here at CofC. So try those classes have those experiences because it's different for everybody. But you might find something that you never thought you would be into. And just to emphasize that that's about choosing interesting courses. I know I came in as a biology major dead set on like everything medical wise, things like that. But I actually picked up my second major international studies from taking Dr. Day's Model African UN class. And mind you I've never taken like in Model UN class like I had no experience going in. But as I was going like throughout the course, throughout the semester, I started to love it. And I was like, I feel like I can get something out of this course and apply it to like what I want to do in the future, which is basically immunology. So just explore classes, because you never know what might seem interesting to you. And you never know like what that can bring to you in the future. Oh, tell me what, tell me about a peer educator with us. Yeah, so peer educator, um, it's just a semi like professional role. So you're basically a peer with each other. So you have like a classroom about maybe 20 plus students, first year students, of course, and it's almost like a college one on one thing, like you're giving them not the basics, but honestly kind of like not how to survive either. But it's like, I'm your buddy, if you need it. Like let's talk about life. Let's talk about the things that you can do here. Let's talk about the resources if you need it. excetera I have a lot of fun, always love to play games with my students or always like to make it as if like, if they ever need me like I'm like, Yeah, I'm an RA. Like, if you're really sick one night and like you can't make it back to your dorm. Like, just let me know, like, I'll come grab you like, don't worry. So it's almost like having little besties at that point. Nice. Did we talk about how to meet people how to make the best way to meet, make friends? Well, share share? Well, I had a very different experience. And I think a lot of people did, I had a Snapchat group shot that turned into me meeting my best friends of all time, two of which I currently live with. And I've known them since my senior year of high school. And we're still best friends. I mean, I got a tattoo with one of the girls that I met like we are best friends to the point where I'm with her 24/7. And that's all because of coming to CFC. It really made my experience here. I was one of those kids that came in that didn't know if they wanted to stay here thought about transferring was really like iffy about it. Came in met my friends and knew immediately that I wanted to stay here just from the experiences. But I also would say that like getting out into the dorms and seeing people there is a really good way to meet people as well. Because you do end up making friends with a bunch of people on your floor. I still see people all the time. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, hey, like you lived on right next door to me freshman year like how are you? How's it going? And then we'll get to chatting and then become friends and ended up hanging out with each other. And it's really just about putting yourself out there and really making those connections. You can make friends here pretty much anywhere in the dining halls in res life like in at Yeah, on the street in any sense of of life. You're at CofC, you'll find some some sort of friend in some way. Yeah, absolutely. And like, for me, my year was also different. So I came in during the COVID year, so I was strictly online, kind of not locked down in the dorm. But basically, because we didn't have any classes in person. We had hybrid, but it'd be once a week. So that was kind of a bummer. But other than that, like I just reached out to people on Zoom. I was like, hey, besties I'm like you want to be friends. And if they didn't respond, I was like, LOL that's okay. But us kind of gotta be out there. And if people don't respond to you, that's okay. That just means you're so cool that they're just like, oh my gosh, I can't be friends with a cool person, like, oh my gosh, so and I had a very different year as well. So of course, I came into the college last year and that was like, kind of around the time where we were kind of reverting back to normalcy. Um, and I would say that I did have the privilege of attending spectra and that really opened me up because I was able to meet other students of color and it was just a great experience. But for coming into the coming in your first year, I would say just talk to pretty much anybody Because anybody at the College of Charleston, like they want to make friends, especially freshmen, just because they don't really know anyone yet. And I know in my experience, my social battery was like through the roof, like I had no idea how I did it, by literally like, went to like every person that was living in my dorm college lodge door, I knocked on the door, and I met every single person in my dorm. And to this day, like, every time I see like one of them on the streets, we always like catch up. So I would just say, just like, talk to everyone, because everyone is there to make a friend and like, you'll know that the people that I really don't want to be talked to, but like, in most cases, they're they just want to have somebody to talk to. Those are great tips. How about how about what like, what do you do in your free time? Where's do you do go to the beach? Do you go out to eat with do what do you do in your free time? Yeah, so I would say that you have any free time. I don't really have that much free time. I'm a I'm a Go Go Go person. But I will say when I do have free time, I try to make it to the beach. Especially someone like me who grew up an hour and a half from any beach, anywhere near me. It's nice to be 15-20 minutes from the beach and just hop on the highway and go. But I will say that King Street has kind of a place in my heart always. It's there's always new shops going in. There's always new things happening on King Street Second Sunday is a really good event to go to and get to know a little a couple people and they have doggies walking around all the time. And they're so cute. I just want to hang out with them the whole time. But they're always walking away from me. But I mean, like really go to those things go to Second Sunday, go to the market and Saturdays in Marion Square. Those are so fun. They have smoothie bars, and really cool artists that go and show their art. And it's a really good way to small support small businesses, which is awesome. And a really good way to just kind of walk around and see that there everything there is to offer here in Charleston. Absolutely, definitely. When I get free time I love to snag my friends, we'd like to go to the beach. But other than that, like if I'm ever by myself, I love to just take a walk. I love walking to the battery every other day when I have the energy, of course. But my favorite thing to do is kind of take pictures, little snapshots, be a little photographer, listen to music act like you're the main character for a minute and just be like, Wow, I'm in such a beautiful city. But and I also love to read College has made me read a lot more than I normally do. And I'd love to just pick up a book now and be like, oh yeah, this is what I'm going to read for the weekend. With free time, I would say that it is good to explore Charleston because I want to let you guys know, like we do not live in the middle of the mountains. We live in the cities. So like it's always great to explore. Because I know my first year, even though I'm from Goose Creek and Goose Creek is not really far away from Charleston, like I was never really downtown as much. So I really didn't know like my surroundings as well as I thought I would. And then just going around and seeing like all the historic buildings, the extort graveyards, the monuments, it was just an amazing experience to have in this art. It's extremely amazing when you're doing it with your friends as well. And I just wanna let you guys know that free time does come is just you have to learn and master time management, there's one thing that I want to tell you guys is that time management is key in college. So yeah, that's a great point. And I was just thinking about, what about students who are struggling when they first come in and either with homesickness or with anxiety, and what kind of services do we have at the college to help kids like that? Well, I have a really unique perspective on all that stuff. So I graduated high school, and moved down to Charleston two months afterwards, and my whole family moved down here as well. So I had a whole different form of homesickness than a lot of my other friends did. I wasn't going back to my hometown for Thanksgiving or Christmas or anything like that. So it was really weird for me to be so far away from my friends. But you know, you make different friends in college, I will say that your high school friends, you're going to be friends with most of them or some of them, but your high your college friends are the ones you're making for life, like those are the friends that you're going to meet. And you're gonna be like, Okay, I see myself being friends with these people for the rest of my life because they're, you're on a different path than a lot of people you went to high school with or you're just doing different things in life or like someone like me who just didn't go back home and everyone else was together. I just had to find a new path that I wasn't used to is a lot of change for me all at once. And I had a lot of homesickness and I mean, call your friends they want to talk to you too. They're probably expected ain't saying the same thing from miles away. And they're probably like I missed them, I want to talk to them or I'm too busy and I can't call, just call them up, they'll love talking to you. So I definitely think that homesickness is a hard tackle to face, but it's very manageable, and your friends here will probably be going through the same thing. So just reach out, I've had plenty of talks with people about some real hard stuff here. And I think it's brought us closer, more than anything, and we all learned that we're going through the same sort of sort of things, too. Absolutely. That's a great point. And like, even though you know, homesickness, it's, it's a really bumpy thing to go through. And it's even anything just in general, but that is the beauty of college. And that's the growth of yourself, like you're kind of shedding your old skin, going into this new form. I was like to say anyway, but that's also when you have your resident assistance. So you have you alright, now be peer educators, you have even professors, like, you're gonna have some professors that are so down to earth, you're like, yeah, that's my, you'll be like, yeah, that's like my grandpa, like, basically. But um, other than that, like, you will find people that are going through the same exact things, and you can just relate to them on a whole nother level. So yeah, going off for that, I just wanna let you guys know that everyone at the College of Charleston, like all faculty offices, like they're there for you. So they will do anything in the power to help you. So like during exams for weeks, like if you're ever feeling stressed, or if you're having like anxiety, like I know many departments will host like stress reliever. Things to help students relieve their stress, I know at MSP they do Motivational Monday's to motivate you throughout the day. And I know, we also have our students, this was MSP, MSP the Multicultural Center. So we had that at MSP. And then we also have our Students for Support. So it's a student led organization, and they do things like dog therapy, and things like that, just to help students, you know, get some of that stress off of them. Because we know like, even though it is college, and even though college can be fun, and things like that, like stress is a thing that does come with college. So it's just great that we have all of these organizations in the offices here to help us to release some of that stress. Absolutely. And then also, the Counseling Center. They're wonderful, we absolutely adore them, you can always make appointments online. And then we also have something that we'd like to point out called tau, which is therapy assistance online. So you can kind of go through modules on how to deal with homesickness is actually one on there. And just even loneliness or overcoming, you know, things like depression, anxiety, how to meditate, even if that's your style. That's great. There really are a lot of services out there. So I'm running out of questions. What, what have I not asked you guys, like, if you were looking back at your freshman year yourself? Is there anything you would have done differently? What would you tell that freshman yourself now I got a good one. So as a as a tutor of the Center for Student Learning, I highly, highly recommend, please go for help. If you're struggling in a class, I know that I am one of those students that's like, No, I'm going to do it on my own. I'm going to figure it out. I'm going to stress through it. And I'll get through it, all that sort of stuff. But we're here to help. We've taken the class, we've aced the class, we've done it, we know how it works. We know how the professor's think, and all those sorts of things. So please come to us. Please ask for help. Even if you're like, I need help in this subject, and I'm there like I don't know that subject that well, I'm gonna find some way to help you in some form or not. And the CSL also has this thing called Academic Coaching, where they take the workers in the CSL will take students either twice a week, once a month, that sort of situation and sit down with you and focus on those time management skills. And there's organization skills and classes, because not all of us learn those in high school and we're coming in, in a new, fresh way. So we need to build those skills up. And that's a really good way to do it. And they're all so nice in there, and they want to help you as much as possible. That's what they're there for. So please, please take advantage of it. That's wonderful. I would definitely tell myself to take more risks. Especially as you grow older, you know, you kind of realize, especially when you get in college life is really short. And these four years fly by like I feel like I blinked on my junior and I'm like, Wow, I'm like, where did it go? Um, so I would definitely say, you know, don't be afraid to put yourself out there. You don't know if you're gonna meet the best people of your life or you're like, oh my gosh, I never want to talk to you again, like your lesson, not a blessing. So, but other than that, and I would also say, like, just enjoy your life. And that's just solely because, you know, when you look around and you wake up every day, and you're like, wow, like I get to actually live in Charleston, I actually get to go to school. Like to me, you know, college is very much a privilege, especially in this day and time and I kind of like to look at it that way. So try to stay positive is the key there. And what I would say is a Of course, you're at college to have your fun. However, please remember that you are there for your academics first and things like that. And just make sure that during your first semester, you're like taking some of these courses seriously because you guys are probably going to be taking like a lot more like easier classes with like a much lighter load. And it's always great to do great in those classes because you want to start off with a 4.0 as that's going to open the opportunity that's gonna open up a lot of doors for a lot of opportunities down the other years of your college career. And I would just say utilize CSL as Laura was saying, because I know last year bio 111 I'm not gonna lie, it was it was kicking my behind Not gonna lie, however, I went to CES. So I was like, Okay, I need help. And my grace, improved drastically leads has greatly improved. So just utilize CSL because it truly is like a wonderful service that we offer at the College of Charleston. Yeah, I would. I would also add to that, don't worry about getting into things right away. I didn't start my job here at CFC until my second semester my sophomore year, and I didn't feel excluded from anything or like I was out of place in any way. I still went to events and things like that. But it wasn't as I was not as evolved as I was. And so or I am now I would say, but it doesn't necessarily have to start right away, you can give yourself a year to figure it out. College is about you figuring out how you want to be in your life. And we all find our identities and formulate new opinions and points of views. And that's what you we want you to do here we want you to think for yourself because not everybody is going to be there all the time to help you and you need to kind of find that out on your own and really find your way here. You guys are absolute pros. We are so lucky that you agreed to come and talk to us today. I can't tell you how much we appreciate it. And how lucky all of these kids coming in for orientation are to have you cheering them on? I can't thank you enough. And, and I look forward to seeing you around campus in the fall. Yes. Thank you for listening to this episode of speaking of College of Charleston with today's guests, Jalen, Bella and Lauren. For more episodes and to read stories about our guests. Visit the College of Charleston official news cite The College Today at today.cofc.edu. You can also find this and past episodes on all major podcast platforms, including Apple podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a review. This episode was produced by Amy Stockwell from university communications with recording and sound engineering by Jesse Kunze from the Division of Information Technology. Thanks again and we'll see you next time.