Hello fresh faces, and welcome to Waterloo! I’m Jacob Terry, and I was Editor-in-Chief from the spring term from May to August. I am about to go on an eight-month co-op term, so I likely won’t see any of you for a while, but before I do I would like to leave a few words from someone who went through your shoes only two years ago, and introduce you to The Iron Warrior.
The Iron Warrior is a student publication run entirely by engineering undergraduate students like you. We publish five issues a term and put them in over thirty locations around the engineering buildings on campus and in a few food locations in the plaza near UW Place. While this issue primarily focuses on Orientation Week, you can usually find news about campus events and features about science, technology, engineering, and relevant entertainment articles. We’re online at iwarrior.uwaterloo.ca, @TheIronWarrior, and facebook.com/TheIronWarrior, so you can visit our website to see our older issues and follow us on Facebook and Twitter to see what we’re up to. More importantly, check us out if being a part of The Iron Warrior interests you.
You’re not interested in joining The Iron Warrior, you say? My mind is literally unable to comprehend such an unlikely thought, but there are many other ways for you to get involved past your studies. Attending EngSoc events, joining student teams, and participating in other student groups once in a while are great ways to get involved on campus.
While getting involved is good for others and good for you, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t attend lectures, participate in tutorials, do your labs and study for exams. If you fail to do those, there won’t be any events for you to get involved in or clubs to join, so be sure to keep on top of your studies! Managing that balance is one of the biggest challenges of university (something that I still have trouble maintaining at times). Try to get a good groove down in 1A, when most of the stuff you’re learning is still primarily review, or else 1B will kick your butt (speaking from experience). While the courses don’t get easier in second-year, you’ll likely have a better handle on studying by then if you’ve done things right and will be able to keep up in your courses.
In the process of studying better (or for a lot of you I’m sure, learning to study), I would highly advise against spending every waking second in your room studying. Sitting alone in your desolate residence room isn’t the most ideal way to retain information when the person down the hall is yelling to their friends and your roommate taking two courses is getting achievements in Call of Duty or in bed.
While everyone has their own way of working, I find a healthy blend of solitary and social studying is a great way to remember things and keep you from going crazy in isolation. Work with friends who have a similar study method, whether that’s the group of you studying in silence or chatting excitedly about your homework. In the event that you get frustrated or need some alone time, the Davis Centre and Dana Porter libraries are great locations for getting in some good quiet study time. On those evenings or weekends when you find the course load quite light and you’ve got all your studying done, it doesn’t hurt to get away from campus, or your home, and enjoy some well-deserved social life.
Don’t restrict yourself to your study partners either. There are tons of friendly, relatable people in engineering and across campus who you’ll likely get along with, as you’ll see in Orientation Week and in residence. Most people are just like you, starting a new adventure in an uncertain place looking for friends who will accompany them on this five-year journey. So don’t be afraid to introduce yourself to people, especially in your first term! Branching out in your first term will set some good roots (pun intended) for the rest of your time at Waterloo.
As a parting note, spend time making sure you find good housing after you leave residence. You won’t regret finding a good house, but you sure will regret finding a bad one!
Enjoy your five years here, they’ll both fly by and go by slowly, but you’re bound to enjoy it!
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