Advice from a First Year

Much attention is paid to the transition from high school to college. Students who have recently gone through this transition may have some of the best advice to offer in-coming first year students. With this in mind, 152 students completing the second course of a common first year engineering program were given team assignments (for a total of 42 teams) asking them to provide approximately 6 pieces of advice for next year's first year students. Major advice offered by the students included the following themes: time management, utilizing resources, hard work, preparation (the importance of which may be emphasized by the "flipped "class format), teaming (which may have arisen due to the team-nature of the first year program projects), class attendance, social activities, self-care, and persevering through lower grades. These recommendations were then provided to first year students the following fall.