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Chapter 1: Do Your Homework

Happy summer! For all those about to head into Grade 12 in the fall, you’ve got a couple things to start thinking about, like getting through your final year of grade school, and getting good grades so that you can be accepted to university.

Oh, and you should also figure out what you’re going to do with your life. Sound familiar? When I was in Grade 12, I was constantly pestered by teachers, family members and other adults about my post-secondary plans, and man, did it feel good to have an answer.

As unnerving as it is, your last year of high school will be full of big decisions that you’ll have to make. Thinking about university or college is more than slightly intimidating, but it’s best to take that anxiety and put it to good use.

For this first installment of Campus Chronicles, I wanted to share a few things that I’ve learned so far on my journey towards university. They’ve helped me get to where I am now: excited, terrified, and looking forward to tackling life after high school.

Have you ever left a project to the last minute? Trying to put everything together quickly doesn’t always end up the way you want it, and the same goes for deciding what post-secondary road you are going to take. It’s a long process, so start now!!

1. Do your research
Every post-secondary school will have a website, or at least some pamphlets, full of information about their respective programs, courses, and school. It’s worth taking the time to look through the sites, because there is a lot about every school that you won’t know. For example, I was perusing the Carleton website in June and found out that, in addition to my journalism major, I can choose to minor in music and study what I am passionate about. That’s certainly going to come in handy in a couple of years when I apply for an internship at SPIN Magazine. At the end of the day, the more you know about the schools you possibly want to attend, the easier it’s going to be to make a decision.

2. Go to the fair
Not the one with the Ferris wheel, though. Most cities will hold multiple university fairs where representatives from post-secondary schools across the province, country, or globe, will be on hand to answer any questions that you may have about the school. University recruiters want you to choose their school, so they are going to go out of their way to help you and essentially “sell” the school to you. These recruiters possess a wealth of information that will ease the decision-making process.

3. Think about the big picture
It’s important to have a balance between your high school work and the rest of your life. However, that doesn’t mean that Johnny’s party should trump studying for a final exam. When it comes to being accepted into a university or college, grades matter. The last thing you want to have happen is to find a post-secondary program that you want to enter following high school, and then get rejected from the program because you didn’t put enough effort into your grades. Even though most of us will never use a unit circle or a sinusoidal graph in everyday life, the math mark you receive from knowing those things could very well play a large role in what post-secondary options are open to you.

But no pressure, alright? Even though your teachers may terrify you into thinking that getting into university is next to impossible, that’s not usually the case. It’s within the realm of possibility for anyone who wants it to happen.

The next couple months will see yours truly preparing to truck herself 3000 km East of home to get a real taste of what post-secondary life is like. I hope that you’ll follow me vicariously into the fray through Campus Chronicles as I discover that university really isn’t all that scary.

(On second thought, maybe I’ll wait ‘til I get there before saying that.)