(Anna Dorsey | Illustration Editor)

If you knew me during my first year, you probably would’ve heard me claim that I was majoring in just about every program WashU offers at a different point in time. I did this for a couple of reasons. The first is that I loved so many of the classes I took in my first year that I could’ve seen myself taking more classes in every single department. More crucially, I quickly felt like I needed to have a plan, because even though I’d just arrived on campus, it seemed like everyone around me knew what they were going to do after graduation. All the people I met wanted to go to medical school, law school, or business school, or had some other extremely impressive, high-paying career in mind. For me, saying I was undecided was the equivalent of confessing that I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, which in turn, would’ve made me feel out of place in an environment where so many people had such a clear trajectory. I find it a little ridiculous that it was easier for me to come up with a temporary plan that changed every two weeks than admit this.

You belong at this school regardless of how planned out your life is.

While the main reason I love going to WashU is that I’m surrounded by so many intelligent, motivated, and kind students at all times, one of the downsides of a space like this, especially as an incoming first-year, is that you can quickly get lost in trying to be impressive. Here’s the thing: no matter what goals other people have, or what they accomplished in highschool that you find remarkable and intimidating, you all ended up in the same place and, therefore, have access to the exact same classes, research opportunities, and academic support like the Peer-Led Team Learning program (PLTL). If you’re in the College of Arts & Sciences, regardless of whether you applied as a Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) major or a Biochemistry major, you can change the major you are pursuing or even transfer schools. It’s important to mention that there is less flexibility to explore classes if you’re a student in Olin Business School, McKelvey School of Engineering, or Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts because those schools have stricter requirements. But if you applied as a WGSS major and want to try the pre-med route, you will have the same access to advisors as every other person, and you’ll take the exact same classes. Everyone starts on the same, undecided page.

Nothing is stopping you from trying new things, and your first year is the perfect time to explore different possible interests! Of course, part of college is narrowing down what you’re interested in to one or two majors, but you can still do this by taking a bunch of different classes to get your IQ requirements if you’re an Arts & Sciences student. The IQ Curriculum forces you to take classes in different subjects to graduate, including ones in Social Sciences, Language and Cultural Diversity, Natural Science and Mathematics, and Social Contrasts, to name a few. You’ll learn a lot more about IQ requirements from your academic advisor, but all you really need to know now is that even if you have no idea what you’re doing, you might as well take classes in a variety of subjects while you’re undecided because you’ll have to take them later anyway to graduate. You’re on the perfect track! Here are some of my general tips on experimenting academically without losing your mind and feeling no sense of direction. 

Don’t take over 15 credits.

While I’m sure you’re plenty smart enough to take 18 credits and do well if that was all you did, your first fall is not only about academics! Doing well is important, but fall is also about finding your people and finding activities outside of academics that you enjoy. If I didn’t have the time to write for Student Life, play ultimate frisbee, and still have the time to make plans with friends, I wouldn’t enjoy being a student as much as I do. School cannot, and should not, be the only thing you spend your time doing. Limiting yourself to 15 or 16 credits is a way to create the space in your schedule to make meaningful connections and reduce your chance of burning out in your first semester.

Don’t take a bunch of classes in one “area.”

My first year, I had fully convinced myself that I wanted to be an Economics major, and took two Economics classes at the same time. Those two classes ended up being my least favorite courses I’ve ever taken at WashU (which says less about the classes and more about me as a person). If there are two classes in a department you’re genuinely interested in taking, go for it, but if you’re trying to knock out requirements for your intended major without exposing yourself to other options, you might end up regretting your decisions. You have so much time to get your major requirements completed; for right now, just focus on what you’d like to learn about. 

Talk to people who’ve taken a class before, and look at course evals.

You can learn A LOT about what to expect from a class by looking at course evals and talking to other students who have taken the same course in the past. Your experience in a class can be drastically different from professor to professor, so it’s well worth your time to investigate what you’re getting yourself into when signing up for certain classes. Rate My Professor can be a helpful tool, but it’s important to take some of what’s on there with a grain of salt. I thought my College Writing professor was nothing short of incredible, despite her having mostly negative reviews. It’s important to remember that a lot of the people who leave reviews only feel compelled to do so if they have something critical to say about a professor or really hated the class, but the website can be a warning to stay away from a class if you’re seeing consistently bad comments on there.

Don’t take a bunch of insanely difficult courses.

If you’re STEM-focused and not a Biomedical Engineering major, there’s no reason to take Chemistry, Physics, and Calculus at the same time. It will only make it harder for you to do well in each course. Be sure you have a balance of classes that you think will challenge you and classes that you think you have a strong chance of doing well in, especially if you’re concerned about grades. 

Don’t pigeon-hole yourself.

You are smart and a hard worker, which is why you got into this school. You would likely succeed in any of the classes at WashU if you put your mind to it and plan well. While it’s important to know what you’re getting yourself into with every class you take, don’t think that you lack the capacity to take challenging classes because everything you’ve done up to this point has proven otherwise. You don’t have to be an “English person” or a “math person” to take challenging courses in either subject. Take classes that sound interesting to you, and the grades will take care of themselves.