College Life

Question: What is college dorm life like?

Dorm life at college can be exhilarating, and it can be exasperating. Most of the time, though, it’s somewhere in between.

Ah, memories of my freshman year in the dorms: all-night bull sessions about everything from childhood fears to our ideal jobs, sleeping on the floor of a friend’s room because my roommate deposited his supper on our room’s floor after some hard partying, getting to know people with whom, even today (three decades later), I correspond, and the dances, football games, spring days, and . . .

You get the picture. Dorms are sort of a benign boot camp for young, idealistic freshmen. Every year, all across America, millions of strangers are asked to share their lives and living habits for nine months during a year of stress and adventure. ‘Almost sounds like a recruiting ad for the Navy, doesn’t it?

The truth about dorm life is that it’s mostly what you make of it. Sure, you can get stuck with a roommate whom you not only dislike but who is also the biggest slob (or neat freak) you’ll ever see. Colleges and universities have ways to fix problems between terminally incompatible roomies. They usually reassign the parties involved, but only after the situation has been judged to be beyond repair.

Dorm life is about patience, compromise, and giving. When both parties (or sometimes three or four in the same room complex) have these qualities, life can be a whole lot less stressful.
Dorm rooms are a combination of library, recreation room, bedroom, and haven from the storms of the first year of college. They’re truly an all-purpose room.

So, get ready to live in the dorms. You may be able to live off campus next year, or the year after that. Even though you may think that’s the way to go, don’t waste the big chance to experience life in the dorm lane.

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Question: What do TAs do at a college?

TAs are Teaching Assistants. They are usually graduate students who are working as assistants to faculty to supplement their graduate expenses. Sometimes advanced undergraduates become TAs when their work in a particular area is outstanding and they have gained the confidence of senior faculty.

Sometimes the very mention of TAs can have a negative connotation when it comes to teaching. That’s because at a number of large universities, especially in introductory courses, TAs tend to carry a significant amount of the teaching load. Even if they are not involved directly with the instruction of the class, they can be a large part of lab activities and counseling for the students in the class.

The reason for the negative perception has nothing to do with the quality of the TA’s teaching. In fact, some TAs can be genuinely exciting and motivational. The problem comes from students and parents who feel that for the high price of tuition, faculty should be doing the teaching, not a graduate student who is also a teaching assistant.

In large introductory courses, the teaching assistant can also handle the administration of exams and grading. The fact of the matter is, a lot of new freshman may never know that they are being taught by a graduate student. The way to tell is to get a listing of courses and then check to see who will be doing the teaching. If the name of the instructor or professor is not on that course’s departmental faculty listing, you may want to do some research. If you find out that you’re dealing with a TA, you might be able to pick the course up later when it will be taught by a member of the faculty.

There is nothing wrong with Teaching Assistants. They perform a positive and productive function. If I had a choice, though, I’d prefer to be taught by full-time faculty.

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Question: Do I have to know what my major will be before I go to college this fall?

Believe it or not, most college freshmen really don’t know what they want their major to be. Even if they have a particular major in mind, statistics show that today’s freshman will change academic direction three to five times in a four-year program. In most college programs, a major doesn’t have to be declared until the end of the sophomore year. Some programs can even wait until the beginning of the junior year.

Students who want to follow specialized technical programs, however, are better advised to commit earlier than the sophomore year. The reason for this is curriculum requirements. Take a program in electrical engineering, for example. At many universities, the school of engineering requires that an engineering major take more courses than the garden-variety liberal arts major. Because of this, the engineering majors have to follow a pre-described sequence of courses that has little or no slack.

You may have seen the phrase “five-year graduation rate.” What that implies is that a surprising number of college students today take five years to graduate from a four-year program. The extra year can come from two main sources. First, if a student makes a major change in the junior year, for example, there may be a need to go longer to pick up the new major’s required courses.

Another problem is the unavailability of required courses when the students need them. This happens sometimes when faculty go on sabbatical or enrollment numbers do not prove to be profitable to teach a course. This problem has become so acute that some major universities are offering a “four-year graduation guarantee.” If you can’t get all your courses in four years, the remainder will be paid for by the university.

Don’t be concerned. You’ll gravitate to your major of choice in plenty of time.

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