The Ultimate Guide to University Success - What Every First-Year Student Need to Know

The idea of making that transition from high school to university or college is daunting at best - so much so, that I myself put it off until I was 21. This would have been back in the mid 2000’s of course and the world was a different place then. We had barely transitioned from MySpace to Facebook in terms of social media, Google was just emerging as a reliable search engine and we had to do actual, physical research - like in a library, with dusty books that had that old, musty smell to them. Of course schools had access to search engines like good old JStor and Research Gate - but you had to spend hours trying to perfect your search prompt in order for the database to produce the research you were looking for. There have been many times where I have told these stories to my high school students and they have stared at me in utter disbelief - certainly questioning whether or not I was exaggerating to prove some kind of point. Those of us who went to school at that time know that there is in fact, zero exaggeration to any of the above.

Although there is a plethora of information available to us online about just about everything one can think of, it’s generalized. This is why I purposefully incorporated important preparatory points of discussion in my University Prep Course: Mastering Essay Writing. We’ve all heard about self-care and mindfulness, but what actually are those two things and what are their connections to a successful, smooth transition into university/college life? It’s pretty simple - if your mind is a mess and you’re not taking care of yourself, how are you possibly going to be able to focus on your classes and be the best learner you can? … well, you can’t. It’s impossible. Mastering Essay Writing was created to help you do exactly that - Master Essay Writing - but you can’t master writing an essay if you can’t calm your mind long enough to engage in the process. My personal bias aside - this is why I truly believe that this course is so important for anyone who is about to embark into their post-secondary journey. Taking this course with me will absolutely help you find a healthy balance between school and life. 

I wish that there was as much scholarly research available to me when I was in my university journey about the importance of mindfulness and self care, as there is now. Had I know then, what I know now, I certainly would have had a much more manageable school/work/life balance.   There is a direct connection between achievement and mindfulness that has been researched and proven by numerous scholars. Thankfully, in this day and age you can simply use Google Scholar to find hundreds of articles that support this - it’s a real thing. I really recommend taking time to rifle through some of the peer reviewed research that has been conducted about the utter importance of mindfulness and self-care and it’s connection to academic achievement. It will probably change the way you view the entire concept - and then hopefully, I’ll see you in one of my classes!