At McMaster University, hot takes and hot tips help ease newcomers into university life | Canada Voices

Carter Engel, a tall, fifth-year student in coveralls, approaches newly arrived first-year students at McMaster University holding a handwritten sign that says: “Give me your hot take.”

He’s one of hundreds of senior student volunteers roaming the school’s Hamilton campus during Welcome Week, the annual tradition that sees thousands of new students enter university for the first time. Similar rituals are taking place at schools across the country as tens of thousands of new students take their first, tentative steps.

The hottest take Mr. Engel has garnered so far is that breakfast foods are best enjoyed at dinner – not exactly a scorcher, but that’s not really the point. The aim of the sign is to break the ice and spark conversations to help the newcomers navigate the jump from high school to the big world of university, he said.

The first years tend to have similar doubts and questions: How do you succeed as a student? How do you make new friends? How does this all work? It’s up to the senior students, wearing coveralls to stand out, to put them at ease and help them find their path.

Mr. Engel said his best piece of advice is that university is an opportunity to explore, and it will seem daunting and uncomfortable at times, but that’s okay.

“If there was ever a time to be uncomfortable, it’s right now. Opportunities are just a conversation away, so keep an open mind,” he said.

Tobi Faneye, 17, a first-year student from Brampton, Ont., is part of a crowd gathered for a cookout organized by the school’s Black Student Success Centre. A light rain is falling as music pours forth from speakers and Frisbees fly over the lush campus lawn. Ms. Faneye laughs as a game of musical chairs comes to a dramatic conclusion that leaves both finalists sprawled on the ground.

“This is fun,” she said. “Being away from home, making new friends, going out to shops. Not having anywhere to be, for now.”

Ms. Faneye is living in residence on campus and has been there for a few days already. She said she’s excited for all the new experiences that are about to come her way.

Devon Van Der Valk and his friend John Meany are heading for the games room of a McMaster residence.

Mr. Van Der Valk, a first-year student from Toronto, is in health sciences. He jokes that, like everyone else in their first year at McMaster, he wants to be a doctor. (The undergraduate health sciences program gets thousands more applicants than it can accept.) His parents met at McMaster, but he hadn’t been here before arriving a few days ago. Mr. Meany, originally from Jamaica, is here to study business.

A cheer goes up from a group playing cards as the two make their way past the Ping-Pong and foosball tables. They settle into worn chairs and join a game of Uno. The students talk about all the events they could be going to and where they’ve found the best meals. One person asks if others are going to a science event where they get to make petri dish keychains.

Railyn Webber describes how, when she arrived at residence earlier last week, the senior students surrounded her and her family with applause. Then they immediately swept up her bags and moved all her stuff down to the basement room that is her new home.

“It was really nice,” Ms. Webber said. The room is much bigger than she expected, and, despite being in the basement, it has a window that looks out on a wooded path.

“We were expecting a dungeon once we were assigned to the basement, but this is great,” she said.

Her roommate, Chloe Parsons, has decorated her side of the room with plastic vines and colourful prints. They have a shared cache of first-year food classics piled in one part of the room: Kraft Dinner, instant noodles and goldfish crackers.

The two are thrilled to be just down the hall from the games room, where everyone hangs out. So far, they’ve done activities such as goat yoga (like regular yoga, but sometimes the instructor puts a small goat on your back, they explain), an event called puppies and paint, and a little petting zoo, all right on campus.

Ms. Parsons’s wall calendar has a small frowny face drawn on the approaching first day of classes.

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A touch of academic anxiety is common among the first-year students, said Tara Esbati, a fourth-year psychology student dressed in maroon coveralls.

A lot of students ask her for academic success tips, she said. What she tells them is “go to class.”

“As the year goes on, they’ll tell themselves that it’s okay to miss class and then catch up by watching the recorded version or just going over the notes. But that’s how you fall behind,” Ms. Esbati said.

Across campus, roughly 80 first-year students file into a lecture hall for a session on academic success. A panel of professors and a teaching assistant have been assembled to offer some advice and perhaps calm some nerves.

The students want to know what study habits and mindset they should adopt, and how much time to spend on schoolwork every day. The panelists encourage them to get sleep, and to avoid all-nighters.

Anthony Chibba, who teaches chemistry, says he recommends paying attention to time management. Every student will have to figure out for themselves how best to learn, but the more tutorials they attend, the higher their grade is likely to be.

“Your goal when studying for a test is to figure out not what you know, but what you don’t know. Then learn it,” he said.