Developed by Professor Goodlad + Professor Paruolo
We invite you to tell a story about how you are preparing to be a City Tech student.* Research has shown that first-semester students often worry about their transition in to college, yet eventually they become comfortable and find a community of people with whom they are close and feel they belong. In the space below, share your own story of preparing to be a college student.
*This reflection is inspired by the “Our Stories” project.
Karen Goodlad and Sarah Paruolo, 2022: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
© 2024 City Tech 101-HD01
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑
The OpenLab is an open-source, digital platform designed to support teaching and learning at City Tech (New York City College of Technology), and to promote student and faculty engagement in the intellectual and social life of the college community.
I was worried about the transition into college at first. However, when I heard about the different organizations and extracurricular activities City Tech offers I was very satisfied and interested. I have participated in student government association, student life, and development, and nypirg. Those organization has helped me to be a leader and bettering my skills. I have learned to be more involved on campus. I was very shy but when I went to the event I gained courage. When I showed up or seen I felt more courageous. Attending events can sometimes cause some fear and anxiety but when I stepped out of my comfort zone and showing up anyway helped me to become more comfortable. I feel very prepared now to be a college student mentally.
I do agree, attending events can be very nerve-wrecking because you don’t know what’s to be expected. But the more you push your self out there, the easier it becomes
I actually wasn’t trying to prepare for college. My main point was just to take the education and bases that I will need in a future job I didn’t think about what I will need to enroll in, because I was sure that I could do everything that college ask to enroll me, even though I had a conversation with my parent about which college is better to go to, and my grandmother told me that City Tech is better in a way of technology study. That’s why I chose City tech and now I’m I don’t think I made a mistake so far everything suits me and fits my standards.
Thats great that you find that City Tech matches what you expected.
I remember after graduating from High school in summer 2022, as September was getting closer I felt more nervous and felt like I wasn’t ready to be a college student. In the beginning of August, one month before my college life was supposed to start, I found out that I had to take a course for 14 weeks before taking actual college classes. In September I started my CLIP course and that course helped me a lot to prepare for college. My professor used to give me a lot of tips on how to make my college journey easier, she used to tell me where I should go and who should I ask when I face different problems. Right now as I am going through my first semester in college, I am using a lot of advices that she gave and learning more from my new professors and friends. College is hard, but it is getting easier as I am getting used to it and I believe second semester will be easier when I will learn managing my time and learn how to apply new tips and advices.
College is far from simple. It’s a big learning curve that everyone has to experience. That’s great that the advice you’re receiving is effective.
After graduating from high school in 2022, as September was getting closer I felt more and more nervous and felt like I wasn’t ready to be a college student. In the beginning of August, when it was a month left to start my first semester in college, I found out that I have to take 14 weeks of a CLIP course before taking my actual college classes. In September I started taking the CLIP course and it was that course what helped me a lot to prepare for college. My professor used to tell me what to expect from college and give me advices and tips to make my college journey easier. She told me where to go and who to ask when I face different problems.
Now as I am going through my first semester in College I am using the advices and tips that she gave me and prepared me for college. College is hard, but it is getting easier as I am getting used to it. I get a lot of good information each day from my professors, students and friends and it prepares me to be and do better.
way before graduating high school, the process of choosing a college and a major was already stressful. Which made me referred my admission for this spring and took the fall semester doing something more fulfilling in a way and had time to really think and organize my thoughts for what I wanted. So I’m still learning and trying to get used to college I would say, having other things beside school leave me no time to really invest into the experience but with time I hope I get to do that.
Once you understand college more, you may be able to allocate more time wisely into other things you would want to do. But good luck with your major in Business!
A life in a year as said it’s a lot but it came in a twinkle on an eye. As I graduated from high school in Ghana in the year 2021, I was nothing but existed to go to Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in West Africa Ghana. But low and behold, God knew best. My parents surprised me on Christmas eve telling me our Immigration status has me guaranteed and our tickets wee ready. Woowoo words couldn’t express how happy I felt for the first time leaving my home country. In Africa, we see people here to be more privileged because of the various opportunities in here. There are lots of resources in here that are not accessible in Africa and hence I felt very fortunate to build my life in America. And hence, I’ve been well prepared and overwhelmed to start university in the States. This whole new life experience encourages me to do more the moment I start schooling here. I can boldly say I’m well prepared enough to start all classes and be submissive and participate in all programs I can to explore my new world.
That is a really nice present to receive on Christmas eve! I hope the opportunities in America allows you to surpass your potential (as well as I wish this to the other students).
After graduating high school, I was worried I was not ready for college, so I decided to start classes in the second semester instead. I felt that to prepare myself to start this new point in my life. I needed to know what I wanted to do in college. I still think I am not fully prepared, but as the days go on and I attend classes, I am starting to see that I am overthinking it (like I tend to do). The months I took to myself prepared me by giving me the time to learn how to do things myself as a young adult.
You aren’t expected to know it all. It’s impossible to do such. You can never be prepared to experience college for the first time. But as long as you are open to learning, you’ll do great!