The College of New Jersey Top Questions

I wish I had known how important it would be to join clubs from the get-go. While the classroom is enriching, the College's clubs further the knowledge of those who join them in an engaging manner, while spreading awareness. A good friend of mine started a club, Project Stay Gold, that looks to promote awareness of the evils of human trafficking in an attempt to prevent it from spreading more than it already has. Other clubs, such as the Eurasia-Middle East Society, which I am a part of, teaches members about the nuances of Middle Eastern cultures.

I wish I had known how difficult the coursework really would be; I knew collegiate level work would be more difficult than high school coursework, but I could never have guessed how much time and effort you really need to effect in order to gain knowledge and do well in your courses, especially for the physical science majors. I also wish I had known how friendly everyone would be and how it's actually pretty easy to make friends, across all majors.

I felt very prepared for this school. As per usual, it was an adjustment living away at a school surrounded by people you've never met before and studying for classes about material you haven't been exposed to before, but everyone at the college (professors, upperclassmen, etc.,) made it a comfortable place to be.

Before coming to The College of New Jersey, I wish I knew being part of organizations as a freshman is very common. I did't really take initiative to be more involved from the beginning and it was harder to be involved my second year since my classes were difficult. I also wish I knew that the college was not going to provide more academic scholarships in the latter years.

I wish I did more research on my major department.

I wish I had known that although many activities are available on campus that there were not many places to go to off campus within walking distance.

I wish I had known that I would face discrimination . I believed that going to college I would be surrounded by knowledge and maturity. I wish I would have prepared myself better in order to understand that everyones college experience is not the same.

Before I came to college, I thought I knew how to study and manage my time. However, when I came here, I realized what I was doing before was did not at all prepare me for a secondary education. Studying 20 minutes the night before an test just doesn't cut it in college. In fact, I start studying at least a week before all my exams, and sometimes that is not even enough time. Thankfully, I was able to adjust my study skills throughout my freshman year.

I wish I had known more about the academic excessiveness and snobby student population.

I wish I had known what kinds of activities I wanted to participate in (clubs to join, etc.) - I spent my freshman year kind of flip-flopping between things that kind of spiked my interest but weren't things I could really get devoted to. I also had a habit of signing up for clubs my friends were doing instead of things I really wanted to do. Since then, I've now found my niche group and am very happy.

To tell the truth, there is no way to be completely prepared for college, whether academically or socially. I kind of wish I had known that getting used to college was going to process that was going to be aided by college staff and the ambassadors, instead of a headfirst dive into a new environment. It would have cut my pre- move-in nervousness in half at least. TCNJ does a great job bring together its student body and really takes care of everybody.

Although all the students I have encountered are extremely accepting of diversity and a diverse environment, the environment of the school is not very diverse. I grew up in an extremely diverse environment so this is quite a change for me and I miss the diversity. I do wish had known this before I arrived at the school, but it would not have changed where I decided to go.

I wish that I would have known more about the majors and more about the school in general.

I would have liked to know that a lot of students go home for the weekends.

I wish I had known about the oppurtunities to help out the surronding community. I feel as though I missed out on numerous chances to make a diffrence in the socio-economically challenged bordering neighborhoods. Although I was able to help the community in many ways including cleaning the campus and local parks, as well as, working with habitat for humanity. There is much much more that is needed to be done.

I wish I had known that the social life was different than you would expect. It's not like the colleges you see in the movies, and while there is a social life, it is very different.

How everyone loves to go home on the weekends.

That there are not a lot of sections of courses available in the deaf ed part of my major.

They lie to you

I pretty much knew everything that was important.

Tuesdays are party nights at the college, don't schedule classes on wednesday morning if you can avoid it.

I wish that before I came to TCNJ that i knew a little bit more about the surrounding area. I now feel comfortable with locations of everything, but it took me some time to adjust.

How to get one class count for multiple liberal learning requirements.