"I know I want to go to university but I have no idea where to start?" Does this sound familiar? This is the story of Elizabeth, a grade 12 student in Grande Prairie, Alberta who is thinking about going to the University of Alberta to be an student. She is an honours student in her high school and has a lot of different options. It was suggested that she talk to an in the . They directed her to the , which had information about the different programs she could take at university. Thinking about the subjects that she enjoyed the most in high school, Elizabeth decided to look at different that she might be interested in. The Calendar then mentioned that in some Faculties she would need to major in a certain subject that is taught within a . After looking at the options she decided to talk to some other advisors at the U of A to help her. They suggested that she come to the U of A Preview Days in October to learn more about the university.
Elizabeth's mom and dad decided they would all go to the Preview Days. They drove to Edmonton and stayed at a hotel downtown. In the morning they got onto the and came to campus. At the University they found themselves in mall, which was connected to the buildings that the Preview Day sessions were being held in. Elizabeth went to a session by the of Arts, and another by the of History and Classics. They reinforced her interest in these areas of study, and at the sessions she also got to meet a few . She was a little confused though because the Dean introduced them as members, not professors, but she found out later that they are mean the same thing (and that professors are also sometimes called and ). Elizabeth and her family went to for lunch and then in the afternoon went to to look at some of the services available to students that the had on display. She also decided to drop by an event held by the featuring some interesting research being done on campus by and students, as well as a few . That made Elizabeth think that she might want to continue on to do graduate studies someday though that decision was several years away. After the trip she decided for sure that she wanted to go the U of A.
When Elizabeth got home she applied to the U of A through . At the same time she looked at the to see if there was any place that she would like to live on campus. She got accepted a little while later and soon enough the day came to start university.
On the first day of orientation Elizabeth went to to meet her group. She was surprised to meet a few and in her group. They took her to get her and gave her a tour of campus. On the tour they went to the Faculty of Arts office and met a few people, who called themselves . Her orientation leader also mentioned that if they liked soccer, football, or field hockey, there were some events down at that they might be interested in. After orientation Elizabeth went to her first class, Biology 107. The professor introduced the students to the and for the course. One of the TAs was a doctoral students that Elizabeth heard speak at the Preview Days, which made her more relaxed because he seemed really nice and very knowledgeable about the subject. The professor also spent some time talking about academic offenses and the . In her second class, Economics 101, Elizabeth discovered that her professor was actually a who seemed very good and was also working for the government full-time. She was very excited. Her university career was underway!
|
Glossary
put your mouse over a term to get a definition.
|
Academic