First-Year Experience 

1. Decide: "Are You In"?  Really.

2. Commit to your education.

3. Commit to success.

4. Know the name of your professor.

5. Be prepared for the FIRST class - have your book!

6. Attend EVERY class.

7. Email the professor if you will be absent.

8. Take notes. Re-write your notes.

9. Review your notes every day.

10. Keep a "toolkit" or resources book. (A notebook separated by subject-study skills, college resources, suggested readings, how to cite your resources.)

11. Learn how to use the computer to write papers. (Apart from credit classes, many public libraries have free workshops.)

12. Never, never write in IM texting format. (e.g., UR, emoticons)

13. Take advantage of the resources offered by the college. (see 'MxCC Resources' tab)

14. Never just stop attending class - talk to someone!

15. Set up an email account for college communication and make the address professional-sounding.

16. Plan every day. Schedule study time, free time, family time, and work time.

17. Be thoughtful and diligent when completing assignments.

18. Be prepared to sacrifice.

19. Be prepared to be successful!

20. Commit to yourself and your education.

(no particular order)

1. Your MxCC Catalog (rules, policies, degree requirements, overview of courses)

2. Online: my.commnet.edu (transcripts, college info)

3. Your Academic Advisor (know who that is)

4. Free Tutoring Services - Learning Ctr (Chapman Hall), http://www.etutoring.org (online), Meriden Center

5. Students with Disabilities Service (Founders Hall)

6. Financial Aid Office (Founders Hall)

7. Business Office (Founders Hall)

8. Bookstore (Founders Hall)

9. Career Counseling Center (Founders Hall)

10. Library (Chapman Hall)

11. Instructors and Staff!

12. Other Students!

Compiled by Deborah Kleckowski, Adjunct Instructor, MxCC

A wiki has been created so that you can share your success tips with each other as well as future first-year classmates.  To access the wiki, click here.

BTW - What's a wiki? Wiki is Hawaiian for "quickly" and refers to a program that allows users to interactively share and create content. You can visit any of these sites to freely create your own wiki: wikisite.com, pbworks.com, wetpaint.com, wikispaces.com and/or view CommonCraft's YouTube below Wikis in Plain English for more info.

Wikipedia is an example of a wiki. Most instructors won't accept Wikipedia as source for your research assignments; however, wikis are great to share info and ideas with others such as this.