Beginning at UVU is a unique experience for each individual. Some might be nervous freshmen coming to a place where they don’t know anyone, and others might be transfer students coming from different schools. Whatever the situation, once the diplomas have been earned and the caps and gowns have been put away, the graduates move forward with their lives.
From this point, students might take various paths such as continuing their education or pursuing their careers with post-grad ferocity. Graduates might find themselves reminiscing their college days and looking back on how they might have dones things a little differently.
“College isn’t at all like what movies and TV shows portray,” said Brooke Autrey, a UVU alumna. “I wished I had known that not everyone has the same college experience and that’s okay. I wasn’t involved in any extracurricular activities or clubs because I was working full-time while taking a full-time course load. It really bummed me out for a while, but as I progressed through college, I found out that that was the case for most other students.”
Students like Autrey said that they wished that they had taken better advantage of financial options and other resources that UVU provided.
Alumni Jacob Johnson said, “It’s not shameful to get help. I really wish I’d known about the wellness services…They help keep your mind organized, prioritize your life, talk through hard things and the financial counseling is great for figuring out how much student loans are really needed.”
Johnson also said he learned about the value of academic advisors, and recommended that future students meet with them once per semester.
“I had a few kids in my program accidentally set themselves up for a final semester that they couldn’t do. Some of the classes had prerequisites of other classes they still had in their final semester. Your academic advisor knows how your program works and can show you all the tips and tricks to graduating on time and not having really rough semesters.”
Another alumna, Chelsy Terry, commented on how she learned that UVU professors go the extra mile and care about students as individuals.
“When I began at UVU, I was very nervous about everything…After a few years, I realized that I didn’t need to be so anxious,” Terry said. “Most of the professors were incredibly easy going and only wanted to make sure that their students succeeded. I went into college thinking that it would be much like high school, where the teachers were only there for a paycheck and not to focus on the new generation. That was not so as I went through UVU.”
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