College is stressful whether you have been here four years or are just beginning. The feeling of stress becomes overwhelming within a matter of days. The Advising Resource Center is here for every student letting you know there are many different things you as a student can do to be a successful. Many tips may seem cliche or overused, but they are key to surviving college whether we as students like it or not.
The Advising Resource Center, known as ARC, has three full time advisors, Kevin Kettner, Drew Espeseth and Jessie Bauer. Jessie Bauer and Andrea Weber (ARC Coordinator) sat down to give some advice on how to be a successful student at North Dakota State.
ARC works with all students, but mostly receive undecided and undeclared students. Students want to know what they should major in, what careers go with what majors, and what type of curriculum they will be given. They also help with general questions students have that are important, but cannot reach their advisor in time.
The struggles that ARC tends to see in students is that they are too scared to reach out. This is understandable; college is difficult in the sense that everything is not laid out right in front of you like high school was. You are on your own when it comes to managing your time and asking for help when needed. When talking about how to deal with being overwhelmed Jessie Bauer says it feels worse “the more you stay to yourself.” Everyone is learning, you are allowed to reach out for help.
Students have so many resources at their fingertips, yet sometimes it can be forgotten with the rush of college, such as ACE Tutoring. Andrea Weber stresses that “it’s not students that are failing that are using ACE Tutoring, it’s the students who want to go from a C to a B or B to an A.” Tutoring is seen as failure, yet most people who go to tutoring want a better grade, so do not be afraid to ask for help.
Another important tip is to become adapted to checking email multiple times a day. Get used to checking your email — it is used not only in the college world, but the work world as well. Along with this you have to learn how to filter out business, student and fun emails.
I know it sounds repetitive, but the most important thing is time management. This is why they stress it in University 189 and why at ACE they have specific workshops to be able to transition and adapt smoothly into the “college world.”
A new resource is the Student Success Collaborative (SSC). Now that it is new, current students tend to look over it not paying attention to the service, but it is very helpful. You can schedule appointments with your adviser, read the notes your adviser made on your visit, look at tutoring and schedule appointments with center for writers.
One thing students forget is to check Campus Connection a couple of times during the semester, not just when you need to sign up for classes. You may not know you have a hold on your account. A hold on your account could prevent you from registering for classes and prolong the process, leading to a higher chance of being waitlisted.
Everyone is stressed and at the moment we have people who understand at the Advising Resource Center, so do not be scared to ask for help because in the future we no longer have those to guide us. They are a good starting point in this game of college. A reminder for students that Jessie Bauer stresses is that “we’re all here — to help students transition easily — so they can graduate.”