I remember how daunting attending SFU, and just university in general, seemed to me back when I was just starting out as a freshman. Over the years, there have definitely been some things I’ve learned about that would’ve helped me with my own adjustment process, had I known of them prior to my first year. So, here they are!

1.     Transiting to Burnaby Campus during Winter

Okay, now I’ve grown up in the Vancouver area, and I’ve never known about how bad transiting to the Burnaby campus can really be during winter. Like seriously, if there’s 5-10 cm of snow, you’re better off staying home (unless you can get a ride). There’s no worse feeling than transiting for an hour or more, just to realize you can’t get up the mountain because the buses can’t go up anymore.

If I knew about this before my first year, I would’ve tried to have some plan around it. Instead, I accepted my fate each time I had to go out and try to complete the journey. My advice to you all is to really try and find a carpool situation. Otherwise, this may just be one of the things you have to suck up and endure during your time at SFU. After all, are you really an SFU student if you haven’t slept up on campus because the buses weren’t running anymore?

2.     SFU Snap

Honestly, if you attended the frosh events at SFU, chances are this blog is a waste of time for you. I’m sure these points that I’m bringing up would be covered by some sort of SFU representative… person… thing. But I didn’t go! So, because of that, I didn’t know about certain useful apps like SFU Snap.

SFU Snap is essentially a Swiss army knife in an app. If you sign in with your SFU ID, you’ll get a course schedule, and the app will notify you when you have assignments due. It even has a map of all three SFU campuses with a search feature built into it to help you find your class! I mean sheesh that alone would’ve helped me a lot in my first year…

3.     It’s a marathon, not a race

This probably applies to every post-secondary education out there, but really take your time. I remember trying to apply to as many courses as I could and had the original plan of trying to finish as fast as I possibly could. If you do that (especially at SFU), you’re going to get burnt out quite fast and you’re not going to have a good time.

Fact-check me, but I’m pretty sure the average time for university students to graduate nowadays is closer to five years. We’ve all got lots going on, there’s a lot going on in the world, and we’re all just trying to find our way in it all. So just take your time and keep patient, you’ll finish one day.

4.     The health and counselling services

University can be really, really draining. It can be tiring, frustrating, upsetting, etc. You may notice that at times, you’ll find yourself lost and quite unwilling to do even the simplest of school tasks. So, what should you do when you’re feeling out of place? Go see the health and counselling services!

I remember when I took a psychology course in my first year, my professor said that mental health is very similar to physical health. There are times when we just feel sicker than before, and we need to work on ourselves to bring us back to normal. So, when that happens (it happens to even the best of us), go find a professional to talk to! As someone who has used SFU’s counselling services for more than one semester, they are fantastic and extremely helpful for almost any situation. Break the stigma and go have a chat!