Starting UNIVERSITY IN September is pretty scary. The thought of starting classes and reaching a whole new level of education is a big step. I'm constantly going to be surrounded by intelligent people, it makes me wonder if ill ever be good enough. Will I struggle to pass my first year courses or will I succeed?

I wanted to know how about your first year experiences; was it easy or was it hard? In addition, if any of you guys are is SOCSCI it would be great if you give some advice relating courses!

First Year Courses:

SOC WORK 1A06
SOCIOL 1A06
SOC SCI 1SS3
SOC SCI 1EL0
SOC PSY 1Z03
MMEDIA 1A03
CMST 1A03
THTR&FLM 1T03
ANTHROP 1AB3

*I'm planning to get a BSW and then get my Master's*

To be honest, my first year experience was actually pretty hard. My highschool didn't exactly do a great job preparing me for university and I ended up struggling in my first year. I didn't fail any of my courses but I got a lot of low marks in my courses, lower than what I usually get in highschool. I was accepted to Humanities I in my first year and for some people it's easy but it was hard for me. Although despite my struggle, I manage to get into a second year program. Along the way, I got some help from my fellow peers and profs in my first year and made some new friends as well.

Good luck to you this coming school year!

*I would comment on some of the courses you listed there but I never took any of them...*

First year is the hardest for programs like Soc Sci and Humanities. Very quickly you will find that essays that were considered A-worthy in high school will be barely C-worthy, but that's okay, because this is how you will learn. Take advantage of TAs who say that they are willing to review your essay or even just your introduction/thesis for you before final submission.
Buy a planner/agenda because those will be life-savers for you. Approximately 1-2 weeks before an assignment is due, make a note in your planner that you need to start working on it (you probably won't, but at least you won't leave it to the last day). Make sure you do your readings (I can't stress that enough). The reason for most failures of classes in this faculty is due to slacking off and thinking "I'll just do the readings tomorrow". The readings pile up very fast, and if you don't do the readings, lectures probably won't make much sense, and if the lectures don't make sense, you'll stop going, and before you know it, three months have passed, and you find yourself in the library with 3 Redbulls by your side and tears coming down your face, because now you have 100+ pages of textbook readings to catch up on or 5 novels to read (if you decide to take any English courses).
Overall, you'll most likely enjoy your first year, it's a great experience, and it's definitely better than High School, but you'll also find that it goes by too quickly, so enjoy it while it lasts.

Good luck!

Hey Navdeep! Thanks for joining MacInsiders, first of all

Being anxious about first-year is totally normal. It's a new experience, and there's a level of 'unknown' to it as you don't know what to expect. But don't worry... we're here to help as best we can to make the transition over to University a great one!

MacInsiders actually has a whole series you can check out below (see link) under our Articles section of experiences from first-year students. These are real, un-edited experiences written by real students. So you can see what to expect on your first day and your first year at Mac.

Read them here: http://www.macinsiders.com/forumdisp...217.html?f=217

Hope that helps! And any questions you have, feel free to post in our First Year Questions forum anytime

--Chad Fullerton
Founder, MacInsiders

Cannot stress enough the idea of keeping up with readings. Have taken Anth 1AB3 and without the readings, it would be hard to follow the lecture or write the exams.

Definitely start assignments early because a prof knows when you do it the night before.

Take effective breaks from work - get outside, meet up with friends, go to a movie. Something that is a complete departure from campus.

Here are MacInsiders review threads on most of the courses you listed, Navdeep. You can gain some insights into what to expect in each course:

SOC WORK 1A06
http://www.macinsiders.com/showthrea...tr=S& t=23124

SOCIOL 1A06
http://www.macinsiders.com/showthrea...tr=S& t=18781

SOC SCI 1SS3
http://www.macinsiders.com/showthrea...tr=S& t=71415

MMEDIA 1A03
http://www.macinsiders.com/showthrea...tr=M& t=18504

CMST 1A03
http://www.macinsiders.com/showthrea...tr=C& t=18297

THTR&FLM 1T03
http://www.macinsiders.com/showthrea...tr=T& t=43784


As a MMEDIA/CMST alumni, great choices on those two! I hope you enjoy them. The first year courses are more general, but 2nd year MMEDIA/CMST courses are a lot of fun. Definitely take them if you're interested in multimedia/digital creative work

The most stressful part of my first year was the first week. I hadn't spent time on campus yet so I didn't know where my classes were. I remember calling my mom crying because I was going to be late for class and I couldn't find the building anywhere. Take your schedule and a map and go around campus during welcome week. Figure out where every one of your classes are and then you won't be panicking running into your first lecture late.

How stressful the rest of the year is for you depends a lot on your study habits - I've found as a TA that I can estimate someone's final grade in a course based on the first two weeks of lab/tutorials. Go to lecture, participate in labs/tutorials, put some effort into your assignments (we can almost always tell if you did it the night before), and for the love of god don't cram.