So coming to college can be really intimidating
whether it's your first semester ever coming back as a transfer or starting from scratch all over again
especially if you don't know what you want to study,  but at Mount Holyoke that's okay
Our major requirements are very flexible and not as intense as traditional four-year colleges
Students are allowed to take several classes their first two semesters here
So they can kind of dip their feet in the water and get a taste of different classes
So something else that I can talk to you about is your registration times and how to prepare to register for your classes
So when you're registering for your first time on campus
you will get a designated registration time on MyMountHolyoke
If it's your first semester you're coming in as a first year
It will be at midnight at some point right before your first semester, or if it's not your first time registering for classes
It will be at some point during the semester, a very random time throughout the day
The earlier the time the better chance you have of getting into classes, but you still have a really good chance of getting into most classes
Before your pre-registration time you can pre-select certain classes at my Mount Holyoke
and I can show you guys that on the computer
that way when it is your registration time, you already have them selected
and you can just click register and boom you're in the class
Classes can feel really overwhelming and so
when you're not sure what your classes are looking like or your schedule is looking like
I personally use Google Calendar and a lot of people on campus use Google Calendar because we're Google run campus
and so what I'll do is I'll put in the time slots on my Google Calendar
and I'll show you guys on the computer how to do that
I'll add in the slots for each class on Google Calendar
So I make sure that no classes are overlapping and I have time to walk from class to class
And to have meals in between or kind of just sit down and have a breather in between classes
We're just gonna talk to you guys a little bit about timelines
picking majors and resources that we think can help you when you're trying to decide this stuff
so the first thing I'm gonna say, since I am a Bio major
I think for STEM majors it's really nice and really important to try to get ahead of yourself and so I think my first tip to you guys
is to be on the lookout for classes that cover a lot of requirements and are worth more credits
So for example, I think you should all, if you're a prospective Bio major or STEM major, do the BioChem 160
It's 8 credits and it only has one lab and I think it's a really nice intro
to getting used to the higher academia of Bio and Chem
and I think it's a really great resource to get ahead in the game
Also, even if you're not Bio, it's a nice requirement for other majors as well
Not just for STEM either but I know there are some language intensive courses that also
Are worth 8 and 6 credits and I think that's another way to get ahead of the game
Or if you're undecided, no worries. You can go to department teas
which professors and current students who are majoring in or thinking of majoring in
all go and meet together and talk about what classes will be offered the following semester and things like that
It's good to like get out of your comfort zone with the prerequisites or the general requirements that the college offers
So if you're still undecided you can figure out like what you like and what you don't like
One of the most important things to keep in mind is that professors are people
And so they are not actually that intimidating and scary once you start interacting with them
One thing to keep in mind when you're thinking about the fact that your teachers are people and they have lives outside of school
is when you interact with them, make sure that you go with a level-headed temperament
and that you're being polite when you interact with them because
if you go in really frustrated about a project or about a paper
then they're going to sense that and they're going to be on the defensive starting with the conversation
and then it's not going to be a productive conversation. So just be friendly and it'll go well.
An important thing to keep in mind is that at a place like Mount Holyoke,
going to office hours does not mean that
you're not good enough to keep up in the class
in fact, there are many professors who see students who come to office hours
as being the more committed and invested students
Some professors have different expectations about what their relationships with students look like
so you'll have some professors who like to joke around and you can call them by their first names
so you just want to go into the first couple weeks of class having a baseline of formality and politeness
and then you can change the way you interact with the professor based on how they are
and you can build different relationships with them that way
And that's another good thing about office hours is if you do go into office hours
then you can learn a lot more about your professor and get to know them on a more personal level
Which makes asking them for help a lot easier
