Join Malia in this week's podcast episode as she answers questions about the transitions into high school and post secondary.
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Get With The Grove podcast. Today's episode is called "Going Through Changes and we will be talking about, you guessed it change! More specifically the transition into high school and the transition into University. My name is Malia and I will be your host for this episode. If you haven't already heard my voice in prior podcast episodes, I'm a youth ambassador at The Grove Youth Wellness Hubs based in Erin. For a little more background, I'm a psychology student at Wilfrid Laurier. And just this time last year, I was going through changes as I prepared to start my first year of university. Therefore, I've been in your position not too long ago, I still remember the whirlwind of emotions I was feeling as I geared up for high school and for university. Anyways, without further ado, let's talk about change.
So, as some of you may know, the podcast team here at the grove created a Google form asking you to share their questions and concerns as they prepare for the transitions into high school and university. Just a quick reminder that I am in no way a professional in the area of change. However, I have been in your shoes and will therefore do my best to answer all your questions. Today, we are going to start off with our questions about high school and then transition into the university questions. For those of you who have already graduated high school and are preparing for post secondary, feel free to skip ahead or stick around for this section. I'll start by answering our most asked question, how big will my classes be? Well, in all honesty, this kind of depends on what school you go to. So it can be a little bit tricky to answer this. So from my experience, usually about 20 to 30 students potentially more, or these class sizes could be bigger or smaller. For example, I went to a very small high school and I was in French Immersion. So I had a little bit bigger classes because there was only one class for the French students. So sometimes I had up to 35 students in some of my classes. But um, yeah, as I said, this really varies depending on how many students how many teachers, there's a lot of variables that play into this at each school, but you can expect maybe 20 to 30 students give or take a few. And next our next question sorry, is where are my classes? So as I said before, for the other question, this is also going to vary depending on what school you go to, obviously. But ways to kind of try and figure this out, is you could ask older siblings or friends that have previously gone to this school, the same school as you. I remember I used to cross reference with some of my friends and see if they knew where it was. Some schools even post like a map online of the school that you could find, and kind of study that a little bit. Look at it before you go to class. So you know, more or less the general idea of where your classes are. And of course, never be afraid to ask for help teachers, they're there to help you other students. If you're lost, you can always go to the office. And I'm sure that in the first week of classes, if you're a little bit late to class, you're at a new school, hopefully the teachers will be a little bit understanding about that. I know that through my experience, I've had my teachers be pretty understanding about being late to class because you couldn't find it. Our next question is,
can I change classes if I don't like them? So this is a great question. And the answer to this is yes. So again, don't be afraid to ask. There's guidance counselors that are great resources. And there's so many people that you can ask about. If a class isn't working for you, especially potentially you're in academic classes, and you're just not performing as well as you thought you would be. It's always possible to drop down to applied. Yeah, just always talk to your teachers, your guidance counselors, they are there to help you and figure things out. And it's absolutely okay. If you feel like you need to change classes if you're not really liking your classes. Everybody's path is different. So if you need to change definitely change your classes. Moving on to the next question, which is what clubs are in my high school? Before I answer this question, I just want to say that it is a great idea to join clubs in your high school. So something that you could do is you could ask around, you could also check your school social medias because they oftentimes post pictures of clubs going to like different events, if there's any competitions for like sports teams and such. Yeah, as I said, you can also check the school websites. Those are also that's also a great resource to see What clubs your school has, I'm not sure how many schools actually do this. But I would recommend to go to your school's club fair if they have one, I remember my high school did it. And that is a great resource to be able to figure out what kind of clubs there are at your school. And if there isn't a club, you can always go to the that you want to join. But there it doesn't exist at your school, you could always go to your the office and see if you could start a new club. And you don't have to join clubs when you first join, or when you first enter high school, you can honestly even join a club once you're in grade 12, if that's what you wanted to do. So yeah, that could be easily too easy to um, you can always just kind of feel it out for the first couple years, first year or two, and really get a feel for what clubs are at your high school. Next question is are the classes good. So this is going to be different for everyone. So to each their own, but I would recommend to find what you like and what works for you. Because everyone's experience is going to be different. So if you take classes that like electives that are more kind of closer to your interests, then the classes are going to be good for you. There's some classes that of course, you're not going to like like maybe math if you're anything like myself, but I'm sure that there will be at least a few classes that are good that you enjoy. Our next question. This one is also really good question. And it is what career would fit me best. So I remember in high school, I had a civics and careers class that really helped me I spent a lot of time on like my blueprint, trying to figure out what type of career would suit me best. I know that online, there's like surveys and stuff you can do that will match you up with a career that is suiting to your interests. Yeah, as I said before electives that interests you, that can really help you to realize what type of career you want to go into. So I'm in order to try and kind of figure out maybe you don't really know what interests you. So I would look into your hobbies, things you'd like to do in your free time and research careers that are similar to them. Because honestly, there's so many different things that you can do. There's oftentimes in high school, it seems like you were pushed to go into certain careers and do different specific things. But there is really a career that is suitable for everybody out there. And I promise you that you will find something that is suitable to you all, it just is going to take some time to figure things out and really figure out what works for you. Our next question is, can I be in a boy's gym class? And I'm going to assume that this is asking about CO Ed gym classes. So this is a little bit difficult to answer. I'm not sure if high schools do have coed gym class. This is something that you can always ask the teachers out your school, your guidance counselor's older siblings, friends, and try and figure that out. Um, I did do a coed gym class since I was French immersion. But most of the other classes that I heard of were not coed gym classes. So there's always the potential to be able to be in a coed gym class. But I would just ask
this next question is, who are my teachers. So I remember in elementary school, usually you would kind of go to the school with your student number. And on the door, there would usually be a list posted saying who your teachers are. But at least at my school in high school, that's not how they do it. And a lot of the time, we kind of figure out by word of mouth, sometimes on your schedule, it will say who your teacher is, sometimes it'll just say the last name for the class. But if not, a lot of times, there is ways that you can find out. I'm not sure how, but oftentimes other students are able to figure out who their teacher for this specific class is. Especially if you go to a small high school, there's a very high possibility that it's probably the same teacher that taught that class in previous years. So yeah, I would ask around, see if anybody else knows, cross reference schedules, see if anybody found anything out. And moving on to the last question, which I think is a really important and a really important question is where do I get my volunteer hours. So volunteer hours, you need a certain amount of volunteer hours to graduate. And these are not just something that I would recommend getting just so you can graduate, but their volunteer hours are also a really, really good way to gain experience and to without having to work a job, and also a really good way to figure out what you're interested in. And these This can also help you to figure out what career best suits you So, I would say that a really easy way to get volunteer hours is by helping to run school events. So whether that just be like fundraisers, maybe your school does bake sales, things like that, um, even joining clubs that do like after school things, you can get volunteer hours through that. I had really great experiences volunteering with things at my school. We ran like hockey tournaments and stuff like that. And I would love to volunteer and help run booths for like events and stuff like that. Even helping out at the elementary schools volunteering there, you can ask your teachers if there's any opportunities to do any volunteering through the school or to visit the elementary schools in the area and do some volunteering. Um, it's also really good to ask family friends, I don't think you can ask family for volunteer hours. I think it has to be somebody that's not related to you. But I'm not 100% sure. I do believe though that it's it can't be family. So I worked with a lot of well volunteered with a lot of family, friends who were running things in their free time. And I got a lot of volunteers hours through that. A lot of my friends and from talking to other youth ambassadors told me that they got their's scorekeeping at sports games in and out of school. So if your school has like a basketball team, I would go to like maybe the gym teacher or somebody and see if you would be able to score keep for some of the sports games, it's pretty easy. Also entertaining, you get to watch a sports game to get front row seats at the scorekeeping little booth thing. It's also great to get community hou- or volunteer hours out in the community. So whether that's just helping somebody in your community, you can even do babysitting, and not get paid for that. And you could get volunteer hours. Always ask your teachers, guidance counselor's for any opportunities to volunteer. Also look for opportunities on community pages, like Facebook pages, I know that there's like groups for mom's for a town and in the communities that would post volunteer hours. And oftentimes, people leave getting their volunteer hours to the very last minute, because it feels like a chore. But getting your volunteer hours does not have to be a chore and it can be fun. So I would recommend not leaving it to the last minute. So yeah, definitely look into if there's anything you can do in the community, anything you can do within your own school, anything you can do to help family friends, things like that. All right. So
this is all we have for the high school questions and concerns. And I was hope, I hope I was able to answer all your questions. And I wish all of you going into high school this year, the best of luck. Enjoy your time in high school and soak in every minute. I know it sounds cliche, and everybody's parents always say it, but it is over just as quickly as it started. So now we're going to move on to the university section, or post secondary in general. So our first question is, do I want to be doing this when I'm older? So I think this is a question that 95% of post secondary students ask themselves at some point or another, and it may take time to figure this out. And if it isn't what you want to do, it's okay to change your mind. So every path is still valid, I spoke to some admin at my university. And they let me know that they actually measure graduation times in a span of six years, rather than four years, even though a lot of university programs are four years long. So if you have to change your program and end up taking a little bit longer to graduate than you originally intended to do, that's completely okay. And it's natural to wonder if this is something that you actually want to do. But something you can do to kind of figure this out is if this is really what you want to be doing in your future is to take electives that interests you, it's basically the same thing as high school, try and figure out if you're actually interested in this area. And I would also recommend to talk to people who are in your chosen field of study and see if the lifestyle they live and the way that they work is something that you would like to do. Although everyone's experience is different, speaking to somebody that is already in the career that you are intending to pursue is very helpful to figure out if that's something that you would actually be interested in and see if their experience is something that you would be happy living as well. So how do I get my schedule for my classes? So the awesome part about university is that you actually get to make your schedule yourself. So I know that a few universities have these like Scheduleme things I actually still though I am going into my second year of university, use the registering for courses guide on the Laurier website. And I find that super helpful to just jog my memory of the steps and how to do everything, I'm sure eventually also memorize it. But if you're ever nervous, you want to make sure that you're doing your schedule properly, you can always look at the first year guides, even if you're not a first year. And, um, yeah, that's like, that's basically it for how you make your schedule, you get to pick the classes, sometimes it will be full. But you can always waitlist and change things around during the school year. Our next question is, Do I need a certain grade to pass so I'm not sure if this is talking about passing like university as a whole passing classes or even passing or like certain meeting certain grades to get into university. So for high school, you usually need to get a 50 to pass your classes. And in university, for most programs, there is an average you must maintain in your subjects ar- in your area of study, in order to remain in the program. This doesn't necessarily mean that you will be kicked out of university if you don't maintain this average. But you could have to change your program or even do summer school. Or you could get on academic probation, which academic probation is just like, kind of, you can get on academic probation from not citing your sources properly. So like plagiarism, and like not getting the proper grades. So for example, my degree I'm a psychology student, as I said, so I have to get a 60 and maintain an average of 60 to stay in the program. But for all my other classes, I still need a 50 to pass those. And once you get to university, you will hear a lot of people saying that C's do get degrees which is true, not encouraging you to do the bare minimum and only get C's. But that is what you need to pass. Our next question is do you need community hours to pass? So for university, you don't . You need community hours to graduate high school, but community hours are not needed to graduate university. So they're good for your resume. It's good to have the community hours, the volunteer hours to get that experience. But it is not mandatory.
What is the difference between early applications slash acceptance? And what are the pros and cons of the two. So I remember this was definitely a really talked about thing when I was applying for university and everybody was getting their acceptances. So in all honesty, there's not really any difference other than the time that you applied or got accepted. So when you're applying to university applications come in waves. So they'll do like one big group, and then another big group as time goes on. And so the first wave of of acceptances is called the Early acceptance, which happens I think, in November, which is at least that's when I got my first acceptance. And it really doesn't matter if you got early acceptance or not. It could have something to do with grades, it could just be because you applied right away. But it doesn't really there's there's nothing there's no pros or cons other than getting to know in advance and having more time to prepare for university. If you get an early acceptance. There is no extra like you don't get any extra benefits when you get an early acceptance. So there's no difference in scholarships, somebody could get accepted in the first wave of acceptances, and somebody could get accepted in the last wave of acceptances, and they'll still get the same benefits of university in their program. And they could still get the exact same scholarships and opportunities and such The only difference between with early applications and acceptances is that you it just came quicker than the other ones. Our next question is if I don't like the program I'm doing in university can I change it at any time or am I stuck with it for the rest of the year. So you can drop and change classes as much as you want in university there's times where if you drop a course before this day, it won't show up on your transcript and things like that. But for the most part, you can change and drop classes as much as you want to or need to. There's certain windows however throughout the year where you can only switch your programs at that point in time. But if you decide that you want to change your program in a window where you aren't able to change your program, I would recommend just starting to take the required classes for the program you intend to switch into. So then you already have the credits that you need, and you're already on the right track. But yeah, you can change classes basically whenever you want. But it isn't exactly the same process for if you want to change your program. But again, this could be different for every single school. And I would recommend reaching out to any admin at your school professors, they can probably help you as well as like students services and things like that, just send them a quick email, give them a quick phone call. There are a lot of hidden resources in universities that you sometimes have to dig for. And it's great to take advantage of those resources and talk to as many people as you can, in order to make sure that your university experience is one that is is a good is a good experience. So where is the best place to live on or off campus. So again, this is a excellent question. And this really depends on each person and what they value. So if you really value social interactions, and making friends is important to you. And having friends that live in a close vicinity to you, I would recommend living in residence because there's a lot of people that that are living in the same floor as you they're in the exact same boat as you all first year students. There's also residences that have you can live in that are specific to your program or specific to different interests. There's like non drinking residences, things like that. So if you do have specific values that you're looking for, like the more social aspects of stuff, it is very easy to meet people in residence, especially because residence runs a lot of activities throughout the year like in my my first year experience in residence, my building did like games and stuff like that. There's like house councils in residence buildings where they invite everybody out in the building to kind of come out and meet each other.
But residence isn't for everybody, there is people that won't enjoy residence as much. For example, during COVID, when you weren't really able to have all these events and you weren't allowed any guests in your room. This is a little bit more difficult because it is a little bit more strict. But residence also has resources in place for if you're struggling. So if you are having a hard time even with your mental health, with school, your don is there and can help you connect you to the proper resources that you need. But living at home is also an option which saves a lot of money. Maybe depending on where your university is in relevance to your home, this could be a really good option as well, because you're still able to socialize if you join things like clubs and stuff like that and make new friends, make friends in lectures, classes, stuff like that, especially if University is back in person after COVID. But yes, you definitely save a lot of money. But if you're living at home, I would definitely recommend to join clubs. And if you value studying in your downtime more often more, it might be good to live at home as well. Because there's not in residence buildings, there's kind of always something going on, it's a lot easier to study and enjoy your your alone time if you're living in your own space. But there's also a lot of different types of residence. There's like, you can live in residence buildings that have just single dorms, double dorms, dorms where you have shared kitchen and apar- sorry, kitchen and living rooms, but your own bedroom. So really look into that. I also know a lot of people that lived in their own apartment, which is also a really good option. So it just genuinely depends on what you're looking for. But I would highly recommend living in residence in your first year if that is available to you. And if you really want to get those social interactions, but if you are more so like to save money and things like that living at home is definitely a good option. Do universities look at my grade 11 marks since these are not predicted compared to grade 12 marks. So for the most part, they only look at them if you got early acceptance. So I know I said earlier that there wasn't that much of a difference. But considering the early acceptance is usually first wave comes in November, they will need to look at your university or your grade 11 grades. But they really do not matter as much as your grade 12 grades especially considering if you do get an offer and they're all conditional offer offers. So your grade 12 grades do still need to be good in order to keep that offer that you got if it's based off your grade 11 grades, but they could your grade 11 grades could still be looked at but I wouldn't stress it if your grade 11 grades aren't so great and your grade 12 grades are a bit better. This doesn't necessarily mean that you're not going to get into university just because you didn't do so well in grade 11 There's still a lot of opportunities for you and still a very high chance of you getting into university Get the grade 11 marks are nowhere near as important as the grade 12 grades. Are summer courses valued in university? So summer school courses from high school are usually treated the same as normal grades. However, in university, same thing, spring and summer courses are also treated like normal grades and classes, there's really no difference in them. Summer school courses in university are good if you need a lighter course load during the year because they'll still, as I said, be looked at as just a normal class. So if you take like a few less courses during the school year and take some spring or summer courses, that's also a great option to help to manage your course load a little bit. And this is a very important question. And it is what if I can't pay for the university program I want to do. So this is a very difficult situation to be in. And I want you to know that you're not alone. And there are plenty of hidden resources that can help you. So it would, I would recommend to reach out to the dean of students, student services, things like that. And sometimes there is I know at Laurier, there is a financial advisor you can get into contact with, I would recommend applying for scholarships, exterior scholarships, not just in your school, make sure that you look into all the opportunities for bursaries and get on to doing OSAP. Because as I said, there are a lot of resources that aren't exactly put out there like right in front of your eyes, you oftentimes as unfortunate as it is, do have to dig for some of the really good resources.
So just don't be afraid to reach out and ask for help. There are things that can help you. And I know that it can be a very disheartening experience to not be able to pay for the program that you want to do. But do not give up you can also do on campus jobs that will work with your schedule. So whether that be like at the food court, or things like that, but most universities do offer you to do work at the university and get it will work around your school schedule. Our next question is How different are university courses from high school courses? So what I noticed is one of the biggest differences is the size of the classes. So you go from having 20 to 30, 35 kids in your classes to like upwards of like 1000s of students in your classes hundreds of students in your classes depending on what university you go to. In university, there's definitely a lot more material that you have to learn and you have to learn it a lot quicker. So there's more independent work, you're not necessarily given time in class to do your readings like you would be in high school. You're expected to do your textbook readings outside of class and know your material before lectures. In university. There's also seminars and tutorials, and these are smaller classes more engaged you're, usually small groups talking more so more participation. There's definitely higher expectations for for in first year, a lot of profs are still a little bit nicer, not always, but a little bit more understanding about the fact that you're going through a huge transition. And if you are struggling, you can always reach out to your prof and ask for a little bit of help some support some ways to improve and manage the the things that you're doing. So what goes along with how what I mentioned earlier about there being readings that you're expected to do in your own time. This is a lot more than the readings you would get in high school. Oftentimes in high school, you be taught a lesson. And then you study it in class study in your own time and you move on, but you are given readings and even sometimes movies, things you have to watch on your own time for studying. And universitity is a lot faster pace. So usually your university term goes from September to April, so you have May to August for summer. So considering that the school year is shorter, you're definitely shoving a lot more into a shorter time period. But do not let this scare you. Educate yourself on the resources available to help you with your assignments there is writing resources, people that can check your work for you, you can get a tutor, you can ask your prof for extra help, like just make sure you're aware of your resources. And don't be afraid to ask for help. There's nothing wrong with that at all. Our next question is are the classes boring? And is it just the teacher telling me things like lecture style? So I'm not going to sugarcoat this one. I've got to be honest here. Yes, sometimes the classes are a little bit boring, especially if you're in a three hour lecture that can be pretty painful. For example, I was in a financial accounting lecture that I was not interested in at all and it was three hours long. So I would say that is boring, but I also took classes such as Love and it's Myths that I thoroughly enjoyed. And I would not say that that was a boring classes, a boring class. So if you're worried about your classes being boring, I would recommend to pick class courses that you're interested in, and it won't be as boring. So for your electives, make sure you're actually looking into them and not just picking what you think would be easy because even if it's easy, if you find the content boring, you're not going to want to go to class, you're not going to want to study. So if you are taking courses that are more of interest to you, that is very helpful to try and kind of curve the boredom of classes. And also, it really depends on the prof. I would recommend to go on like websites like rate my prof I'm not sure if you guys have heard of that. But it gives ratings to the profs and the professors, and allows you to kind of see what profs are best. And this can kind of help you to see what prof is going to be boring and which one's going to be more engaging. So I would highly recommend this to see some reviews of your professors before picking your classes.
This next question is what are some good career paths to go into and I I've always would recommend to follow what you actually like and make sure that you are not just following what you think you should be doing. But obviously jobs that will always be around always be needed are good careers to go into. If you're looking for that type of things so like maybe health care, social work, those things will always be needed finance, careers such as that. But that doesn't go to say that other other career paths aren't good either. Any career path is a good career path if you feel happy and content in your career. All right so that is all we have for today's podcast episode and potentially the last you will hear from me on this podcast. So thank you all for listening and best of luck on your new adventures whether it's high school or university you will be attending this year. Remember to enjoy your time there and your path. Each path is still valid no matter how many winds it takes how many times plans must be changed, and if needed, you can seek support and resources at one of The Grove Youth Wellness Hubs in Guelph. Erin Fergus or Palmerston, Ontario. For hours and more information visit www.the grovehubs.ca