What Are The Challenges Of Entering College Life Essay

Adapting to United States’ College Life

Everyone has their experience of entering a discourse community, such as attending high school, entering the company and joining organizations. Being a newcomer, we have to work hard so as to get accepted. In ENGL 1301, I have to write a composition on how I successfully joined a discourse community. Therefore, I am going to demonstrate my process of transiting to UTA and prove that I have successfully joined the UTA community in academic and social aspects. There were three problems I have faced when the school started: balancing study and entertainment (academic), different learning method from high school (academic) and overcoming loneliness (social). Transition to college life was not easy, I have changed my time management (ethos), learning method (logos) and attitude (pathos) to

join this community.

To begin with, I changed my time management in order to balance between study and entertainment. During high school, I had a poor time management. I attended school for seven hours and tutorial classes after school every day. After that, I had to do tons of homework such as book report, essay and assignment. Although it was late after finishing all my work, I surfed the Internet instead of going to sleep. I always thought that I still have much time left, so I procrastinated all the time. I slept only five hours a day, so I fell asleep in class. As I was not concentrated in class, I missed many important points from the teacher. I had to use more time to study after school so as to catch up. After having the poor experience, I understand the importance of having a good time management, so I tried to plan my work in the college. During college, I have much more free time. I have classes four to five hours a day and the rest is my free time, hence, it is important to have a good time management. I have to make sure that I do not use up my time in surfing the Internet. My goal of attending

college is to study well, so I put most of the time in study. After class, I would take a nap so that I have energy to study. From Monday to Thursday, I would preview all the materials for the classes on the next day. Friday after class is my time for entertainment. From Saturday to Sunday, I would do all the homework and study the quizzes and exam in the coming week. Although I put most of my time in study, I still need to social. Because my friends and I have a different class schedule, it is hard for us to meet. We usually have lunch together on Wednesday and Friday. That one hour is the only time that we can meet each other. During the weekend, I go out for lunch with my uncle and aunt. Having the above schedule, I know what my study time and entertainment time is. I am able to balance my time which helped me to join the UTA community and success academically.
Apart from time management, I changed my learning method in order to adapt to my college life. When I was in high school, I did not preview textbook and made notes because teachers had already made notes for me. At the first week of classes, I could not figure out what the professor was talking about. For example, I am taking microeconomics in my first semester, but I have never learned economics before. At the first lesson, the professor kept on repeating the word, ‘opportunity cost’, but I did not know what that is! It is obvious that if I do not make notes and prepare for class, I would fail in this course. Therefore, I have to work very hard to study and prepare for classes. Before the class, I preview the chapter that the professor is going to cover. When I see any vocabulary that I do not know, I would look up in the dictionary. When I was in high school, I barely looked up in the dictionary because I thought it was a waste of my time to check all the words. Now, I try to check all the words I do not know as it would affect my understanding of the passage. After reading the chapter, I have an idea of what the professor is going to say. During class, I sit close to the professor so that I can hear his words clearly and jot down all the points and examples. After class, I make notes. Making notes is one of the effective ways to ensure that I really understand the concept.
Firstly, I abstract every paragraph and break them down into key points. This step is time-consuming but very effective. I have to understand the whole paragraph so as to find out all the important points and use my own words to write them down. For example, there is a concept, ‘Scarcity and Choice’, in the economy. The textbook has a few paragraphs to explain what it means. After reading the paragraphs, I found that there was only one main point: because of the limited resources of society, society has to forgo the opportunity of getting the next best thing so as to obtain more of one thing. This is what we called ‘opportunity cost’. It wastes time to read the entire paragraphs every time, so abstracting paragraphs and finding key points are helpful for studying.
Secondly, I separate the notebook into two parts. I write down all the key terms on the left and key points on the right. I found that this way is effective for me to memorize them. Before the quiz, I would look at the key terms and try to recall the definition. I also love using various color to write notes so it would not be dull. By using the above methods, I got a full mark on my first economics quiz! These helped me to join UTA community academically.
Not just having the academic troubles, I also have social problem in my transition to UTA. I felt lonely during the first two weeks in UTA. I changed my attitude and made friends to overcome it. I had never noticed that I would be overwhelmed by loneliness before going to the United States. Because UTA is close to my uncle and aunt’s home, so I can always visit them. What I expected was language problem. Indeed, I am not native in English so language problem did happen when I arrived. After arriving to the Unites States, I stayed at my aunt’s home until the dorm move-in. When people asked me if I missed my family, my answer was ‘no’. I could stay connected to my family and friends through Facebook, Whatsapp, Skype, etc., so I did not really miss my family. However, I started feeling lonely after moving into my dorm. I did not feel lonely before because I lived with my aunt. Now, I have to live by myself. Being a new student, I did not have friends. I went to class and had lunch alone. In the past, I always do those things with my friends. I missed my family, food, environment and everything I was familiar with in my home country. I was depressed. I felt lonely, especially in the crowd, I felt like I was dumb as I could not express what I really want. Everyone was with their friends, I was isolated. I cried every night and wanted to go back home. When I told my mum about the situation, she said, “Studying abroad is not a honeymoon. When you face an obstacle, do not escape. You cannot stay with family and friends for your entire life. This is the time for you to learn to be independent. Do not always think about going back home. Try to adapt to your college life.” After talking to mum, I stopped thinking about returning home and found ways to adapt. I have brought a book called “The Greatest Success Classics in the World”. There is a chapter about the nature and destiny of solitude. The author used the life of Albert Einstein as an example. Albert Einstein had said, “I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.” After reading the book, I felt much better. Although Albert Einstein is one of the greatest scientists in the world, he is solitary. There was no need to be afraid of loneliness. I tried to enjoy being alone. Also, I tried to make friends. After the classes started, I made new friends, Jessica. I met her in Math lab class. We formed a group and did assignment together. She is a Vietnamese American. Maybe because we are Asian and have a similar cultural background, we had a lot of things to talk about. We love eating Korean barbeque and k-pop. She had introduced her Chinese friend to me. We always hang out during weekend. I have also made a friend who is from Hong Kong, Victoria! It was difficult to find Hong Kong people in UTA. I found her on the School Apps. When I met her, I shared all my feelings with her. She is a junior and have experience in transiting to college life. Without language barrier, I could express what I want and I felt comfortable with her. This process was painful, but I get used to being alone after a period of time. I was not depressed anymore. I adapted the UTA community socially.
I know some people may doubt that I can deal with loneliness simply by making friends and changing my attitude. You may expect me attending a lot of activities, joining many organizations and consulting advisor so as to get accepted. However, my problem was mainly because I thought too much, therefore, changing attitude was the most effective way to solve it. In our life, there are many things unavoidable. For instance, you do not want to go school or work but you cannot escape. What you can do is to change your attitude. Studying abroad by myself, loneliness is unavoidable. Although I have relatives and friends, I cannot stay with them all the time. Joining different activities and meeting people can alleviate my loneliness, but the main point is my attitude. I try to be optimistic and enjoy being alone, then everything will be fine. If I am pessimistic, not matter how many events I attended, I will still be overwhelmed.
Admittedly, I cannot say I totally get adjusted to UTA as the school has just started for a month. Sometimes, I still miss my family. However, compare with the time when the school start and now, I feel much better and not feeling depressed anymore. I feel comfortable in UTA. I have a clear goal which is study well. I know how to achieve it by having a good time management and learning method. Changing time management, learning method and attitude really helped me to join this community successfully in both academic and social aspects.