Adventures in the City

    Now that you have read about the mistakes I’ve made and what I have learned from them you should be in for some smooth sailing. The best thing about higher education is all the choices and paths you can take. Yours may be nothing like mine but in the end we will all find ourselves in the same place; walking across the stage with a diploma in our hands.

    Until that day you will have to live close to or at Worcester State University. Unless you study abroad... but that is a path that I did not venture down and am unable to advise you about. The only advice I could give would be if you can do it and you want to do it then GO, because you may not have the chance to stay in another country for such a long period of time ever again. For those of us who aren’t planning on studying abroad we have to find adventures in of the city and state we live in. If you live on campus or even commute the cafeteria can get a bit boring. I highly recommend going down the street to Elsa’s Bushel and Peck. Just take a left out of campus and it’s a straight shot. After the first set of lights it’s on the left after the gas station. They have delicious sandwiches on special every day generally for under six dollars and the portions are very generous.

    As a citizen of Worcester for my entire life I can recommend some pretty neat places to go that you may overlook as a student who is new to the city. If you like sushi the only place to go is Baba Sushi on Park Ave. It’s expensive but completely worth it. The best bagels in the city are at Bagel Time on Park Ave. The best hummus and imported foods are at Bahnan’s International Market and the best olives are at Hyder’s Market both located on Pleasant Street. Tweeds has the best cheap food and burgers in the city.

    Worcester’s best bars aren’t on all Water or Green St. Nick’s on Millbury Street has some great live music and hilarious bar tenders with a patio for smokers. Vincents has the most interesting decor in the city included a stuffed baboon head on mounted on the wall along with an assortment of other taxidermy and pictures of people and places in Worcester from the early twentieth century. If you like metal and punk rock Ralph’s is the place to be. They have amazing local and at times international bands come and perform for a small cover. If you don’t want to pay the cover you can still drink downstairs and order one of their delicious handmade burgers. On tuesdays they have poetry slams with some very talented artists and anyone is free to take their turn at the mic.

    All in all Worcester is a great city. It just takes some exploring and research to find the most interesting places to go. Don’t waste your money going to some chain restaurant that exists in every state. Seek out the local businesses, the food is of higher quality and the service is much better too. Maybe you’ll make friends with the owners and they will give you some free stuff! So get out there and ask Worcesterites about their favorite restaurants and places to hang. They would be happy to let you know. Don’t let anyone fool you, Worcester is a wonderful city with a rich culture and history.

Stop. Hammer Time... Management

    It is easy to get behind on your schoolwork. Especially when you have a job as well. In my case I began to slack on my school work but was in a comfortable position to catch up. I had a job with regular predictable hours. When my kitchen manager began to slip up I began to look for another job. The kitchen was never fully staffed and people were receiving cold or sloppy looking food. I thought this was going to be a long and grueling process. To my surprise I was hired at another restaurant within a few months of looking. Now on top of being behind on my schoolwork I have to learn an entirely new menu. Factor in the stress of adjusting to a new environment, new people, and new etiquette. I have a lot on my plate (no pun intended). It goes to show that you never know what will happen in the near future. It is best to stay current with your work incase you have an opportunity presented to you that requires a good deal of your time. You do not want to be in the position of having to choose between grades and something else.

    In order to stay current and avoid falling behind, you can use a number of techniques. Having a calendar or planner to keep track of due dates is a must. The due dates don’t always have to be set by the professor either. Sometimes a professor will give you many assignments at once and tell you they all need to be done by the end of the semester. In this case you need to set due dates for yourself to avoid trying to finish them all at once in a hurry. Leaving a group of assignments to the last minute is a surefire way to receive low grades. Rewarding yourself for completing assignments is also a must. I will plan some relaxation time after completing a large assignment. If I don’t complete the assignment then I cannot watch my favorite television show, play video games, or go out with my friends. Assignments must always come before fun or you will be less inclined to start them.

    There is no better feeling than going out with friends knowing that you are current with all your work. OK maybe that is going a bit far but, it is much more enjoyable. If you want to feel even more relaxed and at ease you can even finish papers early. Just assign yourself a new earlier due date and treat it as a real deadline. Many classes won’t even have a final exam so if you finish all your papers early then you have more winter break or summer to enjoy. It is easier said than done but like exercising it may hurt to begin with but you feel so much better later on. In conclusion there is no reason to procrastinate ever. You won’t enjoy what you are doing as much knowing you should be doing your work. The more you procrastinate the easier it gets to do until you have a real problem on your hands. Take the easy road and do everything on time!

Fear and Overloading In Las Vegas

    I began my first semester at Worcester State with a reduced course load. I felt that since I was new to the university and working twenty hours a week I should play it safe. Four courses was much easier to handle for me and allowed me to have a completely relaxed transition into the new environment. When deciding the amount of courses to take during a semester you must think about the long-term as well. Are you going to mind staying an extra semester? If not you will have to spend extra money to take a course(s) during winter or summer break. Another option would be to take six or possibly seven courses to catch up. Will you be able to handle that course load a year from now? Looking back, at the time I certainly could have taken a fifth class. Now I will have to take six classes for my last semester to graduate on time. Unfortunately, I now work two jobs in order to pay for expenses I previously didn't have when I began at WSU. I am unwilling to stay an extra semester and I do not have the money to take a class over winter break. My last semester at WSU I will have to take six classes while working thirty to forty hours a week. Luckily there are plenty of staff willing to help and options available to make it an enjoyable and successful semester.

    I have completed the majority of my requirements and have to take only two required classes for my final semester. This allows me to take two classes pass/fail so I can concentrate on getting high grades in my requirements and my other two most interesting classes. It is important to make an early appointment with your advisor in order to be able to register for classes before too many fill up. Successful students often research professors and classes beforehand by asking their peers who have taken the class previously. The website ratemyprofessor.com can also be used to research how students felt about certain classes. It is important to take this information with a grain of salt as it is from anonymous sources. It is best to get this type of information first hand from a person you trust. The best classes in terms of workload, substance, and enjoyment fill up first. If you procrastinate registration you will often be stuck with the less desirable classes. It is important to begin a semester knowing that the classes you are taking are enjoyable and that you had as much of a choice in taking them as possible.

Just because a class has a requirement does not mean you absolutely cannot take it. For example you may have acquired a skill or knowledge basel outside of school and it would be redundant to take an introductory class on it. I wanted to take documentary filmmaking with a professor that I enjoyed but there was a required video editing class I had not taken. I explained to him that I was comfortable enough with the material in the required class to take his class; he wrote a note for me and I was allowed to register. Don’t be afraid to talk to your professors! They have office hours for a reason and appreciate it when students are invested enough in their education to speak with them outside of class. It is imperative that you are absolutely sure you do not need to take the requirement. Even if you are positive, there is no guarantee a professor will let you take the class but, it doesn’t hurt to try. The alternative is missing out on something you may really enjoy and do well in. Rules can be broken and there is no need to waste six months taking a class on something you are already familiar with.

When the semester begins some students are tempted to miss the first class to stretch their vacation just a little longer. They rationalize this for a number of reasons that are not important. This first class is important because you can get a feel for the professor, workload, and subject matter. Classes change and maybe some of the information you researched about a class was not correct. Missing the first class will put you at a severe disadvantage if you decide later you want to drop it and take a different class. There is only a short window to do this and every day counts. It is also a good idea to talk to the professor of a desirable class that filled up before you could register to ask if you can be notified if someone drops their class. Some professors may even write a note that allows you to register for the class even if it is full.

The Long and Winding Road... to WSU

I have attended three institutions of higher education as an undergraduate. I first attended The University of Massachusetts Amherst as a Computer Science and Landscape Architecture major, then Quinsiggamond Community College for general studies, and finally Worcester State University for Communications. I have enjoyed them all and consider myself lucky to have been able to attend three different schools instead of spending my entire undergraduate career at one, only to wonder what the experience at a different school would entail.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst was my first choice. It had a reputation for both academics and fun. It was also the most affordable school that got me away from home. Most people were extremely happy to get accepted to UMass. This excludes the academics who used it as their safety school while they shot for big name private schools and possibly an ivy league or two

I found through my own personal experience that it was easy to skip class because no one would know. In a class of two hundred people it is near impossible to show your interest or receive any feedback from the professor. I was talked at, not spoken to. I received numbers not help. We discussed nothing and people who raised their hands to ask questions were chastised with moans and groans. There were so many students that the faculty was overwhelmed and impersonal. I called an office while I was changing my major and I was transferred four times before someone would help me. My advice is to really think about your learning style before attending a large school. If you can handle having little feedback and being completely responsible for your own studies then Umass has wonderful programs and state of the art equipment. If you do better with small classrooms and more face to face interaction with your professors then a smaller school will be better for you.

At my alma mater, Doherty Memorial High School, QCC is known as "Doherty II".  This nick-name has to do with of the large amount of Doherty students you will run into at QCC. The class sizes are the same size as high school and the workload caters to students who work full time and/or have families of their own. The class sizes are sometimes even smaller than high school. The only real cons of attending are the negative connotations some students perpetuate. The pros are the lowest tuition in the state at a little above four-thousand dollars for an entire year. The college works closely with other colleges in the area to make sure the vast majority of credits will transfer if and when a student decides attend one of the more than ten colleges and universities in the area. I had a great experience at QCC and would recommend it to any open minded person.

Finally I arrived at Worcester State University, the school that I lived less than three miles away from growing up. I never pictured myself attending because the main reason I wanted to go to college after high school was to get out of my parents house and experience someplace new. Now that I am here, four years later, I want to go to college to learn and prove myself. Lucky for me, WSU is a great place to learn. I have enjoyed all my Professors in the Communications department and have the ability to get to know them. This was not an opportunity afforded to me at Umass Amherst. I am able to work part time and go to school full time. At Umass Amherst it was extremely difficult to find a job because there were so many young people in such a small area.

I find it difficult to find cons about Worcester State University. All the cons would come from a negative perception learned from other individuals. If you have the talent and drive you can get all that you want out of your education at WSU. It makes it that much easier when you can have face to face interactions with the faculty. I'm surprised at how everything turned out but, certainly would not wish to change anything. I am happy to graduate from WSU.