September 9, 2022

Creating your UW academic adventure

Undergraduate Academic Affairs

Welcome to the University of Washington! This story is your own choose-your-own-adventure story, and begins right here with you. You are a first-year student in your first quarter. As you read, you will face challenges that ask you to decide which way to go. What will your pathway be? As you jump from storyline to storyline, you will learn about the resources available to you through UAA’s Academic Support Programs. Just as in life, you can’t go backward in this story, but you will get opportunities to redirect along the way. Have fun, and see you at the finish line: commencement!

Editor’s note: This story is not meant to be read straight through. Read a section, make your choice and see what part of your academic adventure unfolds next.

1

It’s your first quarter at the UW! You feel very motivated and excited by the possibilities of a big university and living on your own for the first time.

As you prepare for classes, you reflect on how you want to make a difference in people’s lives and help others. You aren’t entirely sure what this may look like, but you are leaning pretty heavily toward a major in a STEM field. You talk it out with your family and they support this idea, saying, “Not only would you be able to help others, but you will have many post-graduate opportunities in a medical field.”

You signed up for a series of introductory classes at summer Advising & Orientation, including a chemistry class. In the first week of class, you overhear a student saying, “I heard this is a weed-out class,” but you feel pretty confident in your academic ability based on your grades in high school.

Continue to #2

2

The quarter is underway, and after just a few weeks you find yourself overwhelmed with the workload in your chemistry class. Looking around you say, “Why does everyone else seem to be managing this better than me?” Your new friends are going to parties and get-togethers while you are stuck at your desk for hours trying to understand the textbook. You realize you never really learned how to study in high school, and have no idea if you are doing it effectively.

You decide you need to either increase your study hours and commit to study nights at Odegaard Library or talk to your TA about your challenges.

#3 Decide to do more solo studying at Odegaard

#4 Decide to check in with a TA

3 Decide to solo study at Odegaard

Having dedicated more time to studying at night in Odegaard library, you begin to get caught up on all your readings before each class. Although the evenings there come with fewer distractions, the late nights start to wear on you, leaving you feeling isolated and sleep-deprived. You make plans with new friends only to cancel, telling them, “I can’t hang out because I need to study. I’m so anxious about answering questions in class correctly.”

Your focus has improved as you move through the quarter. You review your lecture notes, the readings from the textbook, and do all the practice exercises. Since you are studying alone, though, you question if you are answering the questions correctly. The back of the textbook has some of the answers but not the ones you are most stuck on.

As midterms approach, you find yourself falling behind again. The late study nights leave you sleeping through your alarm clock and running late to classes. You are exhausted and bail on your quiz section to take a nap. At this point in the quarter you find yourself asking, “Do I need to go talk to my chemistry TA, or should I just keep doing what I’m doing and hope for the best?”

#4 Decide to go check in with a TA

#5 Head to the midterm

4 Decide to check in with a TA

You schedule a meeting with your TA and share how much time you are studying. The TA reassures you that it’s enough time and gives you a piece of advice, “It is important to find study strategies that work best for you to understand the material.” You know the TA cares about your success and talking with them was helpful, but when you leave you realize you aren’t exactly sure how to find the strategies that work best for you, especially when you never had this type of workload in high school. You feel a little lost and stuck, so you head to the library for a few more late nights of midterm prep.

#5 Time to head to the midterm

5 It’s time for the midterm

The first midterm of the quarter is here, and with all the extra nights you spent studying, you feel like it went pretty well! The professor mentioned it would be graded on a curve, so you think you will get at least a B. When the test scores come back you find out you did not even pass! Looking at your score you think, “I don’t even know how this could happen! I studied so much, and missed out on all the fall events. I’m nervous about asking for help, but with this score, it’s clear I am going to need it.”

You remember seeing a post for CLUE tutoring on your Instagram feed and think they might be able to help you with your chem homework. You also remember an Academic Success Coaching flyer in the HUB and think they might be able to help with study skills and time management. You feel anxious about either option but eventually decide to reach out.

#6 Go to CLUE tutoring

#7 Go to the academic success coach

6 Decide to go to CLUE tutoring

You have been feeling a little intimidated connecting with others, and your nervousness has kept you from going to CLUE tutoring yet. You realize you really do need the help as you say, “What’s the worst thing that could happen?” while eying the time on your phone. It’s 7 p.m., so the CLUE tutoring drop-in sessions just started. You grab your chemistry homework and head over. You sit in the chemistry tutoring section and hear other students talk about tips they have used to better understand concepts. It’s reaffirming to hear that others struggle with the same material, and you feel like you’ve warmed up to working with other students. The CLUE tutor reviews additional problems with you, helping you identify what step you were missing. You write down the steps to solve the problems, and are so happy to have that for later reference!

You feel like you have gotten help with some of the concepts you were struggling with in class, so now you need to choose if you want to keep studying these concepts for finals, or meet with an academic success coach and dive deeper into your study skills.

#10 Apply what you learned at CLUE and head to finals week

#8 Stopover with an academic success coach before finals week

7 Meet with the academic success coach

“What’s the worst thing that could happen?” you ask yourself as you schedule a session to meet with an academic success coach. When you arrive and settle in, they ask how the quarter is going, and at first you say, “It’s going okay.” They continue to ask you questions and mention that they had a challenging time their first quarter at the UW. You decide to tell them how you are actually doing: “I’ve worked so hard and it’s as though I don’t see any of it reflected in my grades. I am homesick and sad to have missed out on new adventures with friends. I’m just always studying and barely making it!”

The coach listens and says, “It’s completely understandable that you are feeling homesick with all this time spent studying alone. I know when I studied alone and tried to teach myself all of the material my first quarter of college, I was totally exhausted and realized I needed to try new study strategies that would work for me.” You feel relieved that someone understands you, and even more relieved when they share these active studying techniques with you. The coach suggests you start working with others to avoid isolation and collaborate through practice problems. “You can actively study with others by working together through practice problems and having discussions on the material,” they suggest.

Before you leave, they go over what your academic needs and learning styles are so they can coordinate the right resources for you. You end up walking out with a list of CHEM student organizations for group course content discussions, CLUE tutoring to work through problems with and strategies for tackling practice problems. You think, “I am so happy that I gave this a shot! You think about whether you should also get some 1:1 tutoring at CLUE or join a study group as you head to finals week.

#9 Decide to go to CLUE tutoring

#10 Head to finals week

8 Dive into study skills with an academic success coach

After going to CLUE tutoring, you are less intimidated in connecting with others. Now that you have gotten support with some of the class concepts, you want to address potential study strategies.

You head in to meet with an academic success coach and they ask how the quarter is going. You say, “It’s going okay,” but they continue to ask you questions and mention that they had a challenging time their first quarter at the UW. You decide to tell them how you are actually doing, “I’ve worked so hard and it’s as though I don’t see any of it reflected in my grades. I am homesick and sad to have missed out on new adventures with friends. I’m just always studying and barely making it!”

The coach listens and says, “It’s completely understandable that you are feeling homesick with all this time spent studying alone. I know when I studied alone and tried to teach myself all of the material my first quarter of college, I was totally exhausted and realized I needed to try new study strategies.” You feel relieved that someone understands you, and even more relieved when they share these active studying techniques with you. The coach suggests you start working with others to avoid isolation and collaborate through practice problems. “You can actively study with others by working together through practice problems and having discussions on the material,” they suggest.

Before you leave, they give you some great resources. A list of CHEM student organizations for group course content discussions and strategies for tackling practice problems. As you walk out you tell yourself, “I think I have a better handle on study strategies I want to try. I’m going to reach out to these groups today and commit to studying with new friends instead of by myself!” You are very happy you decided to schedule an appointment, and head out for boba to celebrate.

#10 Time for finals!

9 Decide to go to CLUE tutoring

You decide to head over to CLUE after your coaching session, grabbing your chem books and unanswered problems. The CLUE tutor reviews the problems with you and is able to identify what step you were missing. “I could tell right away, because that is the step I always forgot and most students struggle with,” they share. It’s reaffirming to hear that others struggle with the same material, and it feels good to be working with another student. After you complete a few problems, they have you write down the steps you took to solve it. You are grateful to take that with you for later reference. You feel like you have gotten help with some of the concepts you were struggling most with in class. Between the coach and CLUE, you feel ready now for finals.

#10 Head to finals week

10 It’s finals week!

As the week begins, you find yourself thinking “I’m definitely more prepared now than I was for midterms. I’ve reviewed the concepts from the CLUE tutor and I’ve been using the active studying techniques from the academic success coach. I’m ready for this week!”

When final scores arrive, despite your hard work, you discover you are ending the class with a grade lower than what you were expecting. As you reflect on the experience of this first quarter, you wonder if you should sign up to retake the course. The idea alone has you feeling burned out and unmotivated. You ask yourself, “Do I really belong in STEM? I thought I would be motivated by studying something I could use to help people in a career. What am I doing wrong?”

#11 Reinvigorate your path to STEM

#12 Continue as you have been

#13 Decide to switch majors

11 Reinvigorate your path to STEM

Thinking back to the conversation you had with the academic success coach, you remember them asking, “What’s your motivation?” When the year began, your goal was just to pass your classes. “What is my motivation?” you wonder. You pull up a goal-setting worksheet from the coaching website and spend the rest of the evening filling it out. Identifying specific short-term goals for each week, you put them all together toward one major long-term goal.

Keeping on track over the coming weeks helps you regain the motivation you felt before school started and you start to feel less burned out. With your free time you do self-care activities including more calls to your family. On a recent call you share, “I’ve really been questioning myself and if I belong in STEM.” Your family reminds you of how much of an impact and a difference you can make in your community! You feel inspired again and that is the fuel you need for the next quarter. Keeping your mind on the big picture, you eventually make it through the hardest times. You find yourself enjoying your studies and succeeding. You become a regular at CLUE and also continue meeting with an academic success coach. You feel invigorated and continue on through the school year — excited for class, happy to share time with new friends and look forward to what the future holds.

This is the end of this story, but yours is just getting started …

12 Continue as you have been

This quarter passes, then the next, and you keep grinding in your CHEM classes. You are so burned out you don’t even have the motivation to complete your work or reach out for more help. Thinking back to the conversation you had with the academic success coach, you remember them asking, “What’s your motivation?” When the year began, your goal was just to pass your classes. “What is my motivation?” you wonder. “I really felt like this was an optimal path for helping people and ensuring a great career post-college, but I think there might be another pathway for me to do that,” you tell yourself. You schedule a meeting with your academic adviser, and share your recent self-discovery. “I don’t feel connected to this side of the STEM world anymore. I’ve been thinking about a move toward psychology as a potential field to help people.” Your adviser helps you develop a plan to switch potential majors. You feel invigorated by your new self-discovery and continue on through the school year becoming a regular at CLUE and regularly meeting with an academic success coach. You are excited for class, happy to share time with new friends, and look forward to what the future holds for you.

This is the end of this story, but yours is just getting started …

13 Decide to switch majors

You’ve struggled all year with the question: “Is STEM really for me?” Thinking back to the conversation you had with the academic success coach, you remember them asking, “What’s your motivation?” When the year began, your goal was just to pass your classes. “What is my motivation?” you wonder. “I really felt like this was an optimal path for helping people and ensuring a great career post-college, but I think there might be another pathway for me to do that,” you tell yourself. You keep coming back to psychology as an option where you could redirect yourself and still be helpful to people in your community. You meet with your adviser for support and together you put plans in place to switch potential majors. You feel invigorated by your new self-discovery and continue on through the school year becoming a regular at CLUE and regularly meeting with an academic success coach. You are excited about class, happy to share time with new friends, and look forward to what the future holds for you.

This is the end of this story, but yours is just getting started …

This story came together through collaboration. Thank you to these generous and creative colleagues for your work and dedication to this endeavor: Alli Botelho, Danielle Marie Holland, Gracie Pakosz, Ian Teodoro, Jenelle Birnbaum, Kirsten Atik and Mina Zavary. Photo illustrations by Ian Teodoro.