New Student Priority Tasks

As you prepare to join the Purdue community, we ask that you focus on the following priority tasks to help ensure a smooth transition from high school to higher education.

 

Know your people. Upon joining the Purdue community, your first task is to establish relationships that will support your overall well-being and success in meeting your personal, academic, and professional goals. Our faculty and staff are dedicated to your success. Your immediate engagement in building your personal network allows us to guide and support you as you navigate a complex university environment.

 

Know your resources. You have chosen a top research institution for its academic rigor, research excellence, and vast resources to position yourself for future graduate and work opportunities. College of Science programs require: three (3) times the effort of high school curriculums, ever-evolving critical thinking and problem-solving skills, active learning processes, and the ability to manage time, competing priorities, and the motivation to complete the work. For this reason, Purdue provides exemplary academic, wellness, and mental health resources to ensure you have the needed support to grow your academic identity and succeed in a demanding educational environment. Seek out resources early to create an academic success plan to yield your desired results.

 

Shift Your Academic Paradigm

Most often, College of Science students have achieved high academic success on their own merit due to their intellectual capacity, curiosity, analytical and problem-solving skills, and academic maturity. The level of rigor and independent learning environment in high school often does not require the assistance of others or the use of academic support services. By contrast, success in the College of Science requires new students to shift to collaborative learning processes, which include their faculty, teaching assistants, advisors, other students, and academic support resources such as the Center for Academic Success and college and university help rooms. The College of Science encourages our students to shift from an independent learning style to one that is collaborative and includes a community of individuals who want to invest in their success. 

 

Invest in Self-management

Want to succeed at Purdue? Learn to manage yourself and effective use of your time will follow. Like high school, academic success requires dedicated effort and commitment to a schedule and task completion. Unlike high school, students must build their course schedules (ave. 15-18 credit hours/week) and determine how they will schedule lecture and laboratory preparation, assignment completion, exam preparation, and other academic and non-academic responsibilities. For this reason, the College of Science encourages our students to create a minimum 45-hour-a-week schedule before the start of each semester. This schedule often includes 15 hours of class attendance and 2 hours of study per credit hour. Once created, students follow their schedule with minimal modifications to ensure continuous engagement in their academic work, especially when other interests and non-academic responsibilities could disrupt their educational goals.

 

Befriend Failure

Purdue is hard and the College of Science is hard squared. But here's the thing: You are joining the Fall 2024 class because we are confident in your ability to meet the rigor of your program and succeed beyond it. We believe in your ability to do good science and contribute your perspective and intelligence to our research efforts. The question then, is what does good science and success at Purdue require? They require the ability to befriend failure and grasp its value. To understand that getting the research right on the first attempt or completing every test or course with an A is not the only or best measure of success. It's discovering that every effort creates new information, every failure is a step forward, and that a mindset that over and again ignites hope for future success can drive continuous engagement in hard stuff. Befriending failure is a catalyst for the success you plan for yourself and your future.