Best Practices

6 Tips and Tricks for New College Students

New college student

The toughest thing about starting college is knowing how to make wise choices – critical decision that lead to success. These 6 tips and tricks can help to set you up for a strong first-year experience.

  1. Go to class. There is a reason this is number one. College is an amazing experience, but you can’t stay if you fail your courses. Missing class is one of the worst things you can do. Remember: your ultimate goal is to graduate and get the career you always dreamed of. How are you going to do that if you can’t even make it to class regularly?
  2. Participate in events early on — especially during Orientation. Let’s be honest: not all events aimed at first-year students are super exciting. Tours of the library and silly-sounding mixers may not be your thing. But they connect you to the campus, help you meet people and network, and prepare you for academic success. So roll your eyes if you must, but go.
  3. Take risks. Do things that are outside of your comfort zone. Never participated in a club? Never tried a kind of food that’s available in the cafeteria? Never introduced yourself to a complete stranger? Step outside of your comfort zone and take some risks. You’re going to college to learn new stuff, right?
  4. Learn how to say “no.” This may be one of the most challenging skills to learn when you’re first in school. But saying “yes” to everything that sounds fun, interesting, and exciting will lead you to trouble. Your academics will suffer, your time management will be horrible, and you’ll burn yourself out.
  5. Ask for help before it’s too late. Algonquin is a very welcoming and nurturing place; no one there wants to see you do poorly. If you’re struggling in a class, ask your professor for help or book an appointment with your Student Success Specialist. If you’re having a hard time adjusting, talk to someone in Counseling Services. Fixing a smaller problem is almost always easier than fixing a big one. We are all “Here 2 Help” but you need to self-advocate!
  6. Stay on top of your finances and financial aid. It can be easy to forget that appointment with the Financial Aid Office or that deadline by which you had to submit a simple form. If you let your finances slip, however, you can quickly find yourself in a lot of trouble. Make sure you stick to your budget throughout the semester and be aware of the status of your financial aid.
Here 2 help sign
Remember be proactive, self-advocate and most importantly have fun. Welcome to the School of Business!
What are your tips and tricks for new college students? Do you have any stories about when you were a new student? Please share your thoughts.

 

10 things to avoid when building your LinkedIn profile!

LinkedIn image

It’s natural to feel unsure about a professional social media network like LinkedIn. It’s a place where people in all industries can go to build relationships with their colleagues and demonstrate their experience and expertise. It’s also a place where businesses and organizations can show off their work to prospective clients, customers, and even future employees.

The absolute last thing you want to do is to look like you don’t know what you are doing!

Here are some things to avoid when building your professional profile:

  1. Not understanding the difference between a LinkedIn Company Page and a LinkedIn Profile. There are two ways for you to demonstrate your expertise on LinkedIn. With a Company Page, you’ll be communicating as your business. This is similar to a Facebook Business Page, where prospective clients can learn more about your business. However, it is much more focused on informing your audience rather than building a community like you would on Facebook.
    With your LinkedIn Profile, you’ll be communicating as an individual rather than a business. Here you’ll connect with clients, colleagues, and other members of your professional network.
    Mixing this up is a guaranteed way to look foolish when starting out.
  2. Not having a profile photo. This might seem like a no-brainer, but not having a photo can have a big impact on the overall appearance of your profile. Even worse is using an unprofessional profile photo! Quirky photos that might fly on Facebook are not a good choice on LinkedIn. Keep your headshot professional.
  3. Not completing your entire profile. Having an incomplete profile not only looks lazy, but it also doesn’t portray all of the amazing credentials and experience you have. Show them off!
  4. Not including a personalized message. With every invitation you send to connect, you should always include a personal message. This is the place to add that little something extra. A personalized note goes a long way because it makes your invitation feel genuine.
  5. Not posting appropriate content. LinkedIn is a professional social networking site. The type of content you’d post on Facebook, might not be appropriate on LinkedIn. Keep content professional and relevant.
  6. Not proofreading your posts. An extra comma here and a misspelled word there may not seem like a big deal, but it does make you look less professional. Keep posts as grammatically sound as possible.
  7. Not being selective about the connections you accept. The people you choose to connect with are a representation of who you are. Don’t accept just anyone. Make sure you know who they are and their credentials.
  8. Sending too many requests = poor LinkedIn etiquette. Don’t bombard people with request after request. It gets annoying. You also want to be choosey about the people you request to connect with.
  9. Embellishing your responsibilities and accomplishments. Plain and simple, it’s just better not to embellish. Plus, I’m sure you have plenty of experience to show off. Tell people about it all!
  10. Not sharing rich media (i.e. links, videos, infographics, slideshare etc.) Take advantage! It’s an engaging, fun way to attract people to your profile!

Remember that professional networking sites, such as LinkedIn, have become a valuable place to find new employees, employers or clients, reconnect and strengthen relationships with friends and former colleagues, and get career-related advice.

What do you think about our list? Did we miss anything? Share your thoughts!

Blog Best Practices

Importance of blogs

Blogs are a great way for prospective students to get insight into the college and its culture and programs, and beneficial for current students to stay informed and engaged with their program. In addition to pushing information, blogs allows for a two-way conversation with students through the feedback/comment function and can greatly improve your SEO efforts by increasing new content and writing posts that target top keyword searches.

Tips for a successful blog

  • Have a team of bloggers to help divide the responsibility and to represent different voices, years or programs
  • Organize posts by key topics/categories
  • Promote individual blog posts through other social media such as Twitter and Facebook
  • Use multimedia to engage your audience and add variety to your posts
  • Encourage interaction and commenting through a call to action at the end of every post and be sure to respond to any comments made
  • Create an editorial calendar in advance to schedule your different bloggers, blog topics, frequency, and keep you on track school and college goals/strategy
  • Maintain a consistent blogging schedule to encourage repeat visits (1-2 a week is sufficient) and avoid burnout
  • Leverage linking to other parts of your/college site and your social media, and encourage conversions for prospective students (take a tour, get more info, apply now, etc.)

Blog topics

Use your blog to:

  • showcase/highlight individual student portfolios/work
  • introduce professors and their programs, backgrounds and interests
  • highlight different program experiences
  • share and discuss best practices/thought leadership/innovation within a certain area or program
  • highlight alumni success stories and have grads share advice on how to be successful
  • communicate news and events
  • raise awareness of student support services at key times of the year (peer tutoring around midterms, career counseling towards year end, etc.)