Pitt professors give academic advice for first-year students

Adjusting to college life can prove challenging for first-year students as they navigate moving away from home, making new friends and figuring out college classes. To help with the adjustment, political science professor Andrew Lotz recommended that students attend office hours. 

“Office hours are the best time to connect with a faculty member,” Lotz said. “We are obliged as faculty to put in certain hours per week to be available for students exactly for this. Students think, ‘I don’t want to bother the faculty.’ However, we love students coming. The reason that we have office hours in the first place is that we want students to be successful.”

One of the best habits Lotz suggested students get into is attending office hours early in the semester. 

“I always encourage students that the best habit is having an early semester office hours meeting with one of your professors,” Lotz said. “You will know where it is, what the times are and they will know who you are.”

For students who are nervous about first attending office hours, Lotz recommends that students ask a question, like what their professor’s research is on and how it relates to the class. 

“Their research always connects to their class in some way. Another good question can be, ‘What area do you want to get into?’” Lotz said. “Another question could be, ‘Can you tell me another class that’s like yours?’ That’s especially a good one if you’re a little bit deeper into the semester.”

Outside of office hours, accounting professor Ryan Teeter said students should listen to the professor’s communication policy on the first day. 

“Freshmen come in and sometimes feel a little bit overwhelmed by the class, especially in the large lecture classrooms,” Teeter said. “In most cases, the professors are really accessible and they are willing to help. So typically, on the first day of class, the professors are going to communicate their communication policy.”

Teeter said the communication policy can often be found on the class syllabus, which contains other information like tests and homework assignments, along with class structure and participation policies. 

“It’s kind of a general overview of the class for students who really want to take advantage of that relationship with their professors,” Teeter said. “The syllabus answers most questions, but if you do have any questions as a freshman, it’s important to not feel like you can’t approach your professor. They’re here to help you, not just in the lecture hall. They’re there to help clarify questions and make sure you understand what’s going on.”

Communications professor Kelly O’Donnell said she encourages students to talk to her and attend office hours. However, unlike some classes, O’Donnell said her classes are structured with a focus on assignments rather than tests and often emphasize participation. 

“If they’re not talking, if they’re not engaging with the material, they’re gonna start to wander off and think about other things,” O’Donnell said. “You really need to participate and pay attention to what other people are saying to be successful, especially in public speaking.”

Similarly, physics professor Dave Nero said he discourages students from being distracted in class by having conversations with neighbors or watching videos on laptops in class. 

“In a large lecture hall, I think the biggest challenge is that there’s a lot of people, and it’s sort of a matter of being polite because you have a lot of neighbors,” Nero said. “So you want to avoid things like having conversations with your neighbors or watching videos on your laptop. Especially if you’re sitting in the front of the room, because then you’re distracting everyone behind you.”

Additionally, Nero said he encourages students to sit in the front or talk to him about problems they may be having with their seat. 

“People sort of gravitate towards a certain part of the room, and they’ll tend to stay there the whole semester,” Nero said. “I always think it’s a shame when students sit in the very back, and then partway through the semester, they’re like, ‘I’m having trouble seeing the screen.’”

For students who are worried about showing up late, Nero said he recommends sitting near the door. 

“I think a lot of freshmen students are worried about the time to transition from one class to another and really worried about showing up late. Professors know that sometimes you have to walk all the way across campus and will sometimes show up late,” Nero said. “All we want is for them to not be disruptive when they walk in.”

While in class, Nero said students should always take notes, even in classes that have Powerpoints prepared. 

“A lot of people have heard the idea of visual learning or auditory learning, but it’s actually a myth that a person is only one of these modes,” Nero said. “When you’re taking notes, you’re transferring information from a slide and from the professor’s mouth and reformatting it by putting it on a page.”

Although students often take notes on their laptop, Lotz said he recommends students take notes on paper. 

“My strongest piece of advice is for students to take notes by hand, or learn not to type every word if you’re doing typewritten notes, because if you’re just data recording everything said, you’re not actually engaging and will drift off,” Lotz said. “It’s better to write by hand or with a stylus or something like that, because then you have to understand what they’re saying.”

Outside of class, while studying for tests, Lotz said one of the best things students can do is to practice explaining. 

“Don’t just memorize things like amendments of the Constitution or key features,” Lotz said. “You have to be able to explain it to another person. Why does it matter? Why did we name it this way? You’ll be ready to field any type of question about it, and not just spiel back information.”

For students who may be struggling with their study habits, Lotz said he recommends the Study Lab, which can provide services like academic coaching and peer tutoring. 

“The Study Lab is fantastic, but the Dietrich Study Lab is great. They have these academic coaches who can sit down with you for a 30-minute meeting and figure out what’s going on and how to help you,” Lotz said. 

Another resource students can utilize is the Student Success Hub, where students can help collaborate with each other with on-demand academic coaches and spaces to organize group work. By collaborating with others while studying, Teeter said you can then use your classmates to form study groups and bounce ideas off each other. 

“It’s really easy to be mono-focus, like this is your university experience, when really it’s everyone’s university experience,” Teeter said. “Cementing those ideas, and if you’re gonna get focused on things like notes and exams, when you have this whole resource, this whole community that we can tap into, to really help you.”

For students who are struggling with circumstances outside the classroom, Lotz said he suggests the University Counseling Center. 

“This is a stressful time for students. There’s a lot of change going on, a lot of interactions, friendships are going every which way,” Lotz said. “Having a spot to go talk about the stress, I think it’s critical to supporting your health.”