Freshman Advice

Freshman year is tough.  You don't understand where you fit in the scheme of things, especially academically, socially, and emotionally.  Academics is often sacrificed for social activities, and you never know when to reach a balance.  So my advice:

• Do your best academically. Some people are 4.0 driven, which can be good.  But not everyone can get a 4.0....it's very difficult.  Do your assignments, ask for help, and do your best on the tests.  At the end of the 1st or 2nd quarter, you'll find where you rank and whether or not to up-the-ante...you'll probably have to, but that's okay :-)
• Still have fun, especially if it's Friday night. Don't be afraid to get soaked in the rain. Or get lost in a city. Or microwaving CDs...actually I don't condone this. All I can say is, it wasn't my idea.
• Socialize. This is NOT limited to your peers on your dorm floor.  Find clubs where you can meet upperclassmen (and valuable advice). Get a mentor.  Maybe find some graduate school friends? Finally, make small talk with your professors; they are people too! You might find that these actions will pay off early on. 
• Look forward. Similar to my "Maintaining Foresight" post, be sure that you start building your resume early on.  Create a resume...even if it has High School stuff on it.  Attend to career fairs*. Talk to employers. Hand out your resume. See where your degree will take you.  It's better to find out these things very early on than getting 6 weeks to graduation and realizing you will be staring into a microscope all day (and you abhor it).

*Be prepared to be shot down because you are a "freshman."  It's okay. It happens to the best of us.  These recruiters don't realize that these same "freshmen" will be speaking to them in like...two years? And they don't forget things, haha. 

Network, Network, Network!

One advantage to being a female in engineering....everyone knows who you are.  They simply pick you out of the crowd.

Now that you have this information, you have two options:

1. Get to know everyone
2. Shy away, and be known as that-weird-girl-who-doesn't-talk-to-anyone.

I'm not trying to scare anyone away! However, networking has its advantages (and disadvantages, but we're not going to talk about them here.). 

The cool thing about being social is that you have a ton of engineering friends.  I bring this up for a couple reasons: two days ago, I had a younger engineering friend that needed help with some class....(I have little shame in doing this) but I emailed my friend (who is extremely smart and could definitely help my younger friend) and asked if they could help.  And they did. 

I know a large number of my friends (people in my class) are willing to help other people.  A couple things happen though:

• the more-senior students don't socialize with less-senior students
• the less-senior students are afraid to ask
• the less-senior students don't socialize more-senior students

So there! It breaks the connection, and all student miss out. So three lessons:

1. Have no shame in asking for help (unless you're being annoying....but chances say you haven't asked yet)
2. Join Clubs! Get involved in a mentoring program. Eg. Society of Women Engineers (SWE) has a great program to create those connections between more-senior and less-senior students.  It doesn't cost any money to network!
3. Really get to know your peers. They will start to respect you, and you will respect them.  Help them when they need help.  But make them feel good (and smart) by referring them to other people.

Hope this was helpful!