Recent Grads Offer Words of Wisdom
In early January, the Colorado Academy College Office hosted an alumni panel featuring CA graduates from the past four years. All juniors and seniors attended and benefitted from the outstanding insight passed along. We will let their words speak for themselves, but thanks to the following participants: Maeve Moynihan, junior at Middlebury College/transfer from Tufts University; Mackenzie Timbel, freshman at Whitman College; Charlie Naus, freshman at Miami University of Ohio; Noah Henry, freshman at CU-Boulder; Petal Niles, freshman at Scripps after a gap year; Marin McCoy, freshman at Swarthmore College; April Edwards, freshman at Goucher College; Juliana Rodriguez, freshman at Harvard University; and Maggie Sherrill, senior at the US Air Force Academy.
Our favorite piece of advice from the program:
- Use your resources. CA knows how to help students apply to college. Go to the College Office, be annoying, and remember to keep perspective. It’s a blessing and privilege to be able to go to college, so keep the process in check. Be aware of where we stand, being able to have this kind of journey, and be grateful.
What alumni say was the biggest surprise or transition:
- Adjusting from civilian life to military life, and going to basic military training for six weeks at age 18 to learn how to march, say “yes, sir/no, sir,” etc. It was also a huge time-management adjustment to juggle academics combined with Division I volleyball commitments.
- Clubs in college are much more demanding than expected; many require an application and rejection is common. Very different from the relaxed and inclusive club environment at CA.
- There’s a lot less class time in college – 2 ½ hours per week per course – and there’s so much more that you need to do on your own.
- In high school, everything’s structured around school – you set your alarm, commute to CA, spend all day there, do sports, come home, do homework, go to bed, and the cycle starts again. In college, that totally changes. You can roll out of bed five minutes before class and be done with classes before noon. You need to sit down, train yourself to put your phone away and adjust to a new style of learning that is much more independent.
- Food quality was a big challenge. Many options are poorly seasoned. It may sound superficial but good, comforting food is important when you’re adjusting. It was helpful to find people who like to cook and organize weekly Sunday “family” dinners.
- It’s a totally different type of social environment– you have to try harder to find your people. Unlike CA, you don’t all go to class and lunch at the same time in college. Also, living in a dorm means you’re never alone; you have to work hard to find ways to be by yourself, but at the same time, find people you want to be your friends.
- Adjusting to the size difference at a big school of 30,000 people can be a challenge at first. Class sizes are so much bigger; you can have lectures with hundreds of people. But then, you have smaller recitations of 10-20 people where there is time for questions/review.
- Managing time. Do I play X-Box with this four-hour window in the middle of the day or do my homework? You learn that the answer is: Do your homework, don’t put it off, and we actually have CA to thank for that – it helped me learn that lesson quickly. Also, it’s a big change to realize, whether you’re at a small school or large one, you will go outside your dorm and see people you don’t know every single day. It’s not like CA where you see the same people over and over again. So, you have to take initiative, join a club of interest right away, and have the self-discipline to take the risk to meet new people.
- The social transition is big – it’s really hard to immediately find people who are your genuine friends and to cultivate real relationships, not just acquaintances. It’s tough to break that wall down, and it takes time. You’re anonymous at the start; you’re meeting lots of new people, and you need to figure out ways to introduce yourself.
- A note about women’s colleges: you will notice a difference in how women behave in the classroom, and people talk about issues that uniquely affect women. It’s a very supportive, diverse environment (the stereotype that all students are lesbians is plain wrong) with lots of really strong and interesting people. There’s also a tradition on women’s college campuses of social activism and testing boundaries.
Most helpful ways to research colleges:
- Think about your day-to-day needs, make a list of what you enjoy and don’t enjoy about your day at CA, and then think about what kind of college would facilitate that kind of experience. Don’t think about big things like college reputation. Because when you wake up in your dorm room in the morning, that factor doesn’t affect how you feel.
- I couldn’t wrap my head around what going to large school would be like. I should have just driven to CU and DU to tune myself in sooner to what a larger size feels like. But remember, college is what you make of it – you can make a great college experience anywhere.
- Don’t worry as much about size but about security of being able to do what you want.
- If you change your mind on your major, do you have to transfer? College is for exploring different academic areas, so don’t narrow too soon. Also, don’t be afraid to look at both sides of the spectrum when it comes to size. What matters most is the campus and feeling like it’s a home – I knew the campus and town would get me through any struggle.
- It’s important to find a place where you will like being – for me, southern Cal, the fruit trees, the farm… it felt right and I just like being there. College guidebooks make all schools sound the same. If you have a way to talk to a current student who doesn’t have a script (not the tour guide!), do it. Find real people.
Sports:
- Start looking early on. I didn’t decide I wanted to continue playing soccer until end of junior year which made the process stressful. If you’re considering competing, just go to some camps – you don’t have to stress about it, you don’t have to finalize your list; just talk to some coaches and put some feelers out.
- As a recruited athlete, know you will be juggling pressures from coaches to commit early on. Figure out what’s important to you day by day. There will also be pressure from people outside of family. As soon it starts, find someone who can support you. Do your research and be educated in where you want to go and why.
- Go on a separate tour from parents and ask what people do on the weekends; ask about how inclusive social life is? Also, ask what systems of support are there for when you’re struggling.
Taking A Gap Year:
- I decided in July to defer for a year. My parents were worried I’d never go back. When you take a gap year, people think there’s something wrong with you. I’m so glad I did it. I traveled along the Mekong River, worked in Colorado and made money, and now, I have job offers that came from experiences I had. I was a lot more excited to go to college after my gap year; it gave me time to figure out what college really means, how education is really a privilege, and what I want to get out of it.
Greek life:
- I never expected to be involved in Greek life; the Greek organizations seemed to have the social capital and run weekend social life at my school, but every school is different.
- I’m rushing second semester, but I would discourage things like Greek life and a good football program from being a big factor when you’re looking at schools. I thought they were for me, but now I’m at a school with a terrible football team and deferred rush and realize it’s not necessary. It’s just another social opportunity.
- Some people rush to make friends and meet other people and it’s useful for that reason, but not always needed. Follow your heart. You can rush and if you don’t like it, it’s easy to de-pledge.
- Definitely look at how dominant Greek life is on campus. Greek life can be both positive and negative, and some schools are better at managing it than others.
Roommates:
- If you can find someone whom you can live with and get along with, you almost don’t want him or her to be your best friend. Some roommates who were super close first semester now hate each other.
- Be open and honest, have integrity, and have a conversation about issues. Think about all of the skills you’ve learned at CA about having honest conversations. Be honest about your needs.
- The best thing you can do is to stay open. Be up front. If you have a bad roommate, talk to the Resident Advisor; life goes on. Having a bad roommate doesn’t ruin the college experience.
- If you encounter issues like feeling racial tension… talk to your RA or go straight to the residential life office.
If you could go back and do it all over again, would you do anything differently?
- If you’re committing to a service academy or an athletic program, but sure you go on an extended visit where you shadow a freshman.
- I wish I’d taken a gap year – “time out or burn out.”
- Find your spaces on campus; during orientation, go to the “meet and greets” for affinity groups because that’s where you find the real scoop. The colleges don’t always provide that info.
- Pay attention to what classes, departments, and majors are offered at your schools because you can get somewhere and discover certain majors you’re interested in aren’t offered.
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