dphillips

1. Make Wesleyan yours: Find or create your spaces at Wesleyan, whether by joining an a cappella group or by loving your Physics lab. We have over two hundred student groups that you can sign up for. There are also jobs on campus.
2. Build relationships: Seek out your instructors during office hours. This can be intimidating, but it is how you build a relationship and come to understand the course material better. Get to know your faculty advisor, work supervisor, your class dean, etc., as it’s important for you to know people; it’s also very important for them to know you!
3. Learn from your classmates and try new things: Your peers have had a vast array of experiences, so make sure you’re supporting one another and growing together. Upperclassmen will be an invaluable resource as you transition to Wes. Also, make sure you try new things! Explore a new language, study abroad in a different part of the world, select a course with a topic that is completely new to you.
4. Don’t be afraid to ask for help: Wesleyan has an abundance of resources, whether the Writing Workshop, Academic Peer Advisors or Peer Tutors, as well as your Faculty Advisor, instructors and teaching assistants. Asking for help is hard, because it means being vulnerable, but it is essential to your success. First-year students sometimes see asking for help as a sign of weakness, but it is not. Asking for help is really a sign that you can make savvy use of your resources that will enable you to thrive.
5. Wesleyan has its own culture with its own language: I have built a list of acronyms that might be helpful to you.
6. Use your time wisely: You will suddenly have lots of unstructured time. Given the COVID situation and the need to practice social distancing, it will be challenging to to find ways to manage your time. High school is extremely structured, down to the minute, which is not the case in college. Now it’s up to you to be mindful of how you’re using your time, whether studying for a test, writing a paper, doing homework, getting to class, etc. Most students use a planner, whether electronic or paper. For example, once you have all of your courses set, you should look over all of your syllabi and then plan out all of the assignments across the semester, as you’ll know when your intense weeks will be. If those weeks include papers as well as tests, try to get those papers done earlier so that you can focus on just the tests during that week.
7. Make sure that you’re having fun! Find ways to connect with friends.  It’s hard to be social when practicing social distancing, but with a little bit of imagination and determination it can be done. Practice mindfulness.
8. Take care of yourself. Sleeping and eating well, avoiding as much stress as possible, all of these are important aspects of self-care. WesWell offers self-care education, programs and workshops, as does CAPS. We have at Wesleyan the Rule of 7, a guideline that recommends that you can pursue four courses and three activities, but really no more than that.
9. Don’t let a disappointing grade derail you. If you don’t do as well on something as you had hoped, go see your instructor and discuss where you went wrong in order to improve your performance on the next assignment. A disappointing grade does not mean that you aren’t capable or that the Admissions Office made a mistake (they do not make mistakes!). Make sure that you’re reaching out for help in this moment rather than pulling back, as this has happened to countless students before. Check out the Wesleyan Resilience Project for stories of students who have gained from their moments of challenge.
10. Your dean is here to help: Dean Phillips is available to you via email or zoom this summer and once the semester is underway.  You can schedule a drop-in appointment with him through his Google Calendar, or you can an email him at dphillips@wesleyan.edu to schedule a meeting if drop-in hours don’t fit your schedule.

By Makaela Kingsley, director of the Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship

When I started college in the fall of 1994, we had the Freshman Fifteen and an all-you-can-eat dining plan (RIP Mocon). Now, there’s the Rule of Seven, cafeterias are thoughtfully called all-you-care-to-eat, and it’s our schedules and resumes that have become overweight.

Author’s note: I’m about to overuse a food metaphor, so you might want to grab a snack.

At Wesleyan, faculty talk to their advisees about “The Rule of Seven.” This time management strategy says college students should have no more than seven commitments at once. That includes classes, sports, leadership roles, volunteer commitments, work study jobs, relationships, hobbies, and anything else that regularly demands a student’s time and attention.

In this age of frenetic resume-building and schedule-cramming, keeping the number to seven is not easy. During the first two weeks at Wesleyan alone, new students attend an academic fair to learn about 1,000 courses offered in 46 departments and an activities fair that boasts 317 groups scrambling to collect email addresses and claim spots in the precious seven. And, all that’s for a campus of fewer than 3,000 students.

So let’s just admit it, most students don’t limit their list to seven. It’s like eating in a cafeteria: there are so many yummy classes (From Tea to Connecticut Rolls: Defining Japanese Culture Through Food!), extra-curricular activities (Food Not Bombs!), and things to do (Pancakes with PSafe!). And really, college is a time for trying new things. It makes sense to diversify before specializing. Seven just doesn’t sound like a big enough number, especially at the intellectual, cultural, activist, and social buffet that is Wesleyan. And therefore, while most students know about the Rule of Seven, few actually adhere to it.

The problem with this slippery slope of overextendedness is that it often leaves students stressed, distracted, and unsatisfied. They engage in too many things to truly benefit from any. They have so many things on their tray that they end up wasting food and getting indigestion!

And worse, they miss out on the learning that happens with a deep dive into a single topic, role, or project. Sure, there are glimpses of this during rigorous courses, varsity sport seasons, and executive roles in student groups, but even those deep dives have end dates, final exams, and long summer breaks.

An exception may be the senior thesis model. By senior year, many students have had their fill of the cafeteria, and they’ve discovered the subjects and roles that sit squarely at the intersection of their talent and passion. By working on a single project for at least one year and simultaneously limiting outside distractions, thesis writers have a deep intellectual and practical experiences. I believe that we can learn from this model and replicate it with other capstone experiences.

So, to students who are trying to find breadth, depth, and balance and become T-shaped Changemakers while still adhering to the Rule of Seven, I have the following advice:

• In the first year of college, go for breadth not depth. When you find you have more than seven, practice the art of prioritizing. Commit yourself to each class, extra-curricular, job, sport, or key relationship for a period of time, but know that it’s okay to drop the things that are not a fit. Reflect regularly: What do I like about this experience, and what do I dislike? Am I fulfilling my responsibilities, and if not, why? Will I stick with this or give it up to make room for other experiences? Be proactive. Make changes in real-time, not months after you recognize an imbalance.
• In the second and third year of college, start to specialize. You can make larger commitments that count as two of your seven. Four or more may relate to each other. Continue reflecting, but don’t be so quick to abandon commitments that don’t feel great. Learn to muscle through the hard parts. Chances are you’ll come out on the other side smarter, stronger, and better prepared for what comes next.
• By senior year, consider shifting to a Rule of Less Than Seven (thank you, Ben Stiller). Take a deep dive into a project or field. Remain open to trying new things and building new relationships (last call before the Wesleyan buffet closes!), but devise mechanisms to prevent that openness from becoming too distracting. Say no to opportunities. Hit seemingly insurmountable roadblocks, and push through them. Get closer to finding purpose.

Time-management is not just about sleep schedules and to-do lists, it’s about making tough choices, reflecting and adjusting, and knowing when to stop snacking and settle down for a square meal.

Bon appétit!

Makaela Kingsley is director of the Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. You can read her thoughts on Entrepreneurship, Networking, and Personal Branding on this blog.