We asked students what first year is really like. One student said if she could do it all over again, she would ‘slow down and savour everything more.’Photo illustration by The Globe and Mail; Source images: Helena Zhu and Jessica Qian
The pursuit of higher education represents many new changes in a younger person’s life: the promise of a vibrant campus life, intellectual challenge and personal growth. Most students between 17 and 20 enrolled in a university or college today are also navigating major pressures: financial stress, mental-health concerns and evolving experiences with artificial intelligence and virtual classrooms.
For parents, much has changed since the time they went to university. So, The Globe asked students themselves: What is it really like to be a modern university student?
Jessica Qian: “I spent a lot of time alone.”
Jessica Qian’s first year of university included a 17+ Frosh Fest Tour party.Jessica Qian/Supplied
After accepting her offer at the University of British Columbia, Jessica Qian chose to live at home in Delta, B.C., and commute to campus. The main reason was her three-and-a-half-year-old pooch, Charlotte, who comforted her after studying all day for a bachelor’s degree in animal biology.
What first year is really like:
It’s interesting. I went to a religious all-girls school, and going to university is a game-changer. My high school had a lot of restrictions, but in university you’re introduced to so many expressions of people, my eyes have opened up to people of different genders, identities and cultures.
The biggest change in university:
Independence. In high school, there are a lot of groups – you often find a group of friends and you pretty much stick with them. I spent a lot of time alone on campus in first year, figuring out where my classes were, what I was going to do on my break and trying to co-ordinate a time to meet with the friends I had made. Many times, you end up eating lunch alone on campus while studying, especially as a commuter, since you don’t have a dorm room to go back to.
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I met two friends through an Instagram page which features people who are starting in the same year as you at UBC: an international student from Dubai and a girl who wants to go to veterinary school, like me. We often meet up to go to the mall, try new bubble tea spots or just hang out.
Advice I wish my parents had given me:
My parents didn’t prepare me enough for how hard it would be to make friends, and the importance of it. I don’t blame them for not knowing, but I wish I could have received some advice on how to help navigate maintaining friendships, or had been pushed to join more clubs and meet more people.
Helena Zhu: “I wish I gave myself time to enjoy it.”
Helena Zhu threw herself into joining clubs in her first year at Queen’s University.Helena Zhu/Supplied
Studying health sciences at Queen’s University in Kingston, Helena Zhu has grand ambitions to go to medical school and become an anesthesiologist.
What living on campus was really like:
I was very lucky to get a comfortable bedroom in residence and only have to share a bathroom with one person. Our common room on the fourth floor was a place to hang out, study and meet people. I was really homesick at the beginning. Mental-health struggles are really common in university. Everyone that I know is struggling, because the transition in the first year is really tough. Meeting people through my residence gave me a strong support system, since most of us are going through the same challenges.
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Advice my parents got right:
My dad taught me to always have a goal and a plan to get there. It gave me direction. It taught me to take control of my education, and advocate for myself when I approach a teaching assistant to explain why I got a certain grade, or to give me extra help when I don’t understand a concept.
Advice my parents got wrong:
They told me to join a lot of clubs and extracurriculars. In my first year, I was part of five or six. One of them was called Swimming With a Mission, which pairs you with kids with disabilities from the community to teach them how to swim. The number of clubs was just too much. If I could go back and restart my first year, I would slow down and savour everything more. Rather than jumping into everything and being scared of missing out, I wish I gave myself time to enjoy it.
Dominic Lora: “Maybe my experience would have been different if I lived on campus.”
Dominic Lora took two gap years before heading to Concordia.Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
Instead of accepting offers to Dalhousie, Guelph and Concordia University after high school, Dominic Lora decided to take two gap years. With money saved from working at a summer camp, helping his father (an electrician) and servicing pools, he and his best friend, Ollie, moved to Kenya for four months. He recently completed first year at Montreal’s Concordia University.
What taking a gap year taught me about university:
In Kenya, we worked at an orphanage, coached a basketball team, went to music festivals and travelled the coast. Working at the orphanage put things into perspective for me. And when staying at hostels, we met many people our age from the United Kingdom, where taking a “gappy” is a big part of the culture, so it reinforced that what we were doing was all right.
It felt weird, especially coming back home to Toronto, to be on a different timeline than all the people I had grown up with. It added a negative outlook on the experience, even though it was exciting to be going to school.
Advice my parents got right:
I was happy my parents prepared me for having to live in my own place, pay my rent, wash my dishes, take out the garbage, learn to be a good roommate and balance school with my life. They taught me to understand how valuable the experience is, whether it’s going good or bad, and that it won’t be easy to balance professor expectations.
What first year is really like:
Since I entered university later, it felt wrong to live on campus with people two years younger than me, so me and my friend Ollie found an apartment in Montreal and commuted to school using city bikes.
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I had this vision that university would be a place where I’d be out all the time and make friends and form a community, but it wasn’t like that. There’s a lot of pressure on students and I always felt like I had to uphold an image. I was scared to go to the bar or to go to parties alone. I felt more uncomfortable in Montreal than I did in Kenya.
I remember feeling so happy to go home during the winter break and at the end of the school year. There were a lot of times that I felt like not going to class or moving back home, or not going to play basketball with the people I met on campus, but I pushed myself to do those things, and I’m happy I still did them in my worst moments.
Maybe my experience would have been different if I lived on campus.
These interviews have been edited and condensed.
