As a follow-up to my previous post on Advice to First-Year B. IT – IMD Students, it is worth noting that the points in that article are equally applicable to second, third, and fourth-year students as well as the first-years. That being said, though, there were some additional points which seemed to apply more to the upper-years, and I was toying at that time with making a second article. Well, here it is.

As per last time, I will solicit contributions from the B. IT community at large via various social networks and good ol’ fashioned email, and those contributions will be indicated clearly in this article. I’ll add them as I get them.

Contributors:
- Chris Joslin, a B. IT – IMD Professor
- Marie Deslauriers, a third-year B. IT – IMD student

First, here is a recap of some of the more important points from the last article which are still very applicable to second-year students (for full text, see the previous article):

Start your assignments/reports/etc. ASAP!

Effort really matters!

Make friends with the professors

Study and plan well for your exams!

Make good use of the computer labs at Carleton.

Prepare adequately for the workload.

Talk to the upper-year students!

Stay physically active during the school year.

Now on to the new points:

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I was thinking about this program which I’m in the other day (Bachelor of Information Technology with a major in Interactive Multimedia and Design– B. IT – IMD for short), and I was remembering the first year I was in it. Now, I had already taken a year of university before joining this program, in a similarly-difficult program (Computer Science), and so I was better prepared than most of my peers, but I still had a rather challenging first year. So I was thinking… why not write up a list of things–advice, if you will– which I wish I had known in my first year of this program, and which could possibly be passed on to the first-years who are coming in? So here is my list (will be ongoing as I get feedback from other people in this program).

Other contributors to this are denoted by different colours in the text:
- Jesse, a 3rd-year IMD student
- Jamie, a former IMD student
- Chris Joslin, a current IMD professor
- Ali, a 3rd-year IMD student
- Lindsay, a 3rd-year IMD student
- Brittany, a 3rd-year IMD student

Update: There is now a list for second-years– Advice to Second-Year B. IT – IMD Students!
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1. Don’t confuse university with high school.

Assignments and exams are suddenly worth A LOT more of your grade than they ever were, and a good deal of classes give you marks for attendance and participation, so show up and take part. Skipping class and slacking are not in your best interest, and will quickly be noticed by both professors and your peers.

2. Show up to all classes!

This includes lectures, labs, discussion groups, and workshops. In B. IT, things move at a very fast pace, and I can think of at least two first year classes for which it is ESSENTIAL you attend, otherwise you will fall behind extremely quickly. I’m thinking specifically of IMD1000 (Intro to IMD) and IMD1004 (Software Tools) (this one had a lot of in-class assignments which needed to be handed in at the end of every class for marks, so if you missed one, it was often really difficult to catch up). Also, BIT1002 (Physics), had mandatory labs– if you didn’t come to the labs, you failed the class! You may be tempted in first year to party hard and enjoy the increased freedom which university affords you. This is fine, but do it after your classes are done for the day! (And after your assignments are done, but that’s another story…)
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