For me, the biggest shock was the difference in your schedule. In high school, you have a set schedule every day. Class from maybe 8am to 3 pm, then practice, maybe a meeting or two, dinner, bed (whatever your schedule may be). In college, you’re not going to have the same classes everyday, and sometimes, you may only have a class every other week. It really is up to you to know your class schedule, know your breaks between classes (so you can be productive and not lose an hour of work time here and there), eat lunch, schedule meetings, etc. This isn’t something that’s hard to do, it’s just very different from high school, and takes some time to get used to. -Amber

Google Calendar is a LIFESAVER. Make sure to put all of your classes, meetings, and study time into there. You can color code everything, set reminders, and can access it on your phone, laptop, and anywhere else that has internet.

Personally, time management is the most difficult part of college. Be sure to prioritize your studies, but also remember to give yourself a break every once in a while! -Kara

My sophomore year was the hardest for me, specifically the first semester, just because the newness of college had mostly worn off and I was in many hard classes at one time. I ended up making some positive changes after that semester and things have gone much better since!

• I don’t know if it’s a secret, but my biggest tip would be to put effort into doing your homework and making sure you understand it.  That way when it’s time for the test, you can just review everything and you’re not scrambling to learn everything for the first time! -Stacy
• GET TO KNOW YOUR PROFESSORS! It's crazy to think that some people don’t realize this, but attending a professor's office hours can seriously make a huge difference in your grade in that class. -Peter

SpaceX, NASA, and a lot of other employers actively pursue S&T students! Of my friends who were able to work at those places, they all got the opportunity from design team experience or research.

• I get 7-8 hours of sleep every night, which is the recommended amount of hours you need to be well-rested. Remember, your health comes first! -Kara
• I also sleep 7-8 hours, with some naps thrown in too. At a certain point, staying up later to study or do homework is counter-intuitive, so definitely prioritize your sleep. -Peter

I always recommend going to their page on the S&T website and finding the coaches email. When I joined my athletics team, we were encouraged to reach out to the coach via email to get more information about the team, when tryouts were, etc. 

Some scholarships automatically consider you and you do not have to take further actions, and other scholarships require you to put in the effort to complete their applications. Check out https://scholarships.mst.edu for scholarship opportunities! Be sure to set up your profile before you start applying for scholarships. -Kara

Connections and networking.  Despite only making up about 23% of the student population, Greek-affiliated students land over 40% of the coops and internships.  And, depending on the house you select, costs could be lower as well.

Reach out to the individual houses:  involvement.mst.edu/fraternityandsororitylife/greekfraternities/

A vast majority of the Greek Houses are really close to campus! I allow for the same amount of walking time as I did when I lived in Thomas Jefferson (TJ). According to my close friends, the ones that are further away from campus have people traveling to and from campus via car or bike at almost all times of the day, and they never had to worry about walking to class (especially in bad weather).

You can find more about our bands and orchestras here: https://alp.mst.edu/music/  -Stacy

It depends on what you are interested in! There are so many different ways to get involved on campus and meet new people. The first Friday of each semester there is an event called Minerama where you can check out all of the different clubs! You can find more about getting involved here: https://involvement.mst.edu/.

You can be involved in more than one design team! Design teams ask that you do all that you can do, but not to overload yourself with whatever you decide to do. Most of the people I’ve talked to generally find that they enjoy one design team more than another, and end up focusing on their favorite one. But it’s always good to try out more than one option to find which one will become your home!

Apparently no one on our team has played intramural pickleball or bowling.  But you can email studrec@mst.edu or call (573) 341-4226 to get information about intramurals.

There are tennis courts located just next to The Centre (2453, 1200 Holloway St, Rolla, MO 65401). While these aren’t university owned, the public is allowed to play on them for free (unless Rolla High School reserved the courts for their tennis practice/matches).

• IMOS! They have half price pizza on Monday.
• Domino’s, they usually have good deals and are delicious! -Abbie
• Definitely Papa Murphy’s $5 faves. They’re so good for so cheap. -Peter

Also note that you can use your points to order Papa John’s and even have it delivered. Take into account however that you can’t tip with points so be sure to throw in a cash tip if you order delivery

60 credits. But there is a list of other ways to move off campus. You can find more information about the requirements to move off campus here.

Make sure to check out the link for the full details but a quick summary is: you are required to live on campus for your first two years (4 semesters) but you can apply to be excused from this rule and allowed to move off campus after your first year if you: have completed a total of 32 credit hours by the end of your first year AND have a 3.5 or higher GPA AND are actively involved in a student organization.  -Stacy

The community, it is always easy to find your home here, whether that be in greek life, through an RSO, or people living on your floor in your residential hall. -Abbie

I was able to get involved with undergraduate research as a freshman. I emailed someone who was working on an area that really interested me, sent them my resume, and then I got to be on the research team! As part of this team, I was elected to an administrative board of a world-renowned professional society. I was paid to travel the world and represent this society! This includes Italy, New Zealand, and Croatia.

Details for the Honors Program can be found here: https://academicsupport.mst.edu/honors/. Essentially what it boils down to is your first year you will attend various evening sessions to inform you about campus resources and opportunities, then your second through fourth year you will have to take four honors classes (which consists with meeting with the professor at the start of the semester to decide on an additional project to do for honors credit, so for speech class it could be an extra speech, another common one for a lot of classes is a research paper in a relevant topic; note that this project will contribute to your grade in the class), and then in addition during your fourth year you will have to do 3 credit hours of undergraduate research and complete an honors thesis. Not many people make it all the way through the honors program so it is a great way to distinguish yourself.

No! There are always places on campus looking for student workers! It’s good to ask at the place you are wanting to work if there are any student positions that you could apply to.  -Abbie

My favorite building on campus has to be the library. It has different locations depending on how you want to study. For example, if you want to study in a quiet room to yourself, you can reserve a room on the top floor, which is also a quiet floor. If you want to study in a group, floors one and two have plenty of tables and rooms available. Also if you are a coffee person, there is a Starbucks conveniently located in the library! The best spot for relaxing for me would probably be the Havener center. They have a lot of food and snack options, along with a rec room with a pool table and ping pong. There are also lots of comfy chairs! - Sarah

In my opinion, the best thing to do for fun is to hang out with friends...and there’s a good chance you met those friends through a club or organization, so it’s important to get involved!  There’s lots of good hiking near Rolla if you’re outdoorsy, there’s free movie nights put on by SUB, there’s Fugitive Beach nearby to go swimming in the summer, and your residence hall or Greek house will have common areas that you can go to study with friends or just hang out together.  -Stacy

I would say that really depends on the person, but for reference, the GPA requirement to retain merit based scholarships used to be 3.25 and was recently changed to 3.0.  However, don’t let that scare you.  If you apply yourself and ask for help when you need it (and take advantage of resources like LEAD, the Student Success Center, and professor’s office hours), you can achieve whatever GPA you set your mind to. -Stacy 

You should always double check the course equivalency database on the website to make sure your courses transfer in, but once you have done that, you should have your other university/school have your transcripts sent over to S&T’s registrar's office

To every hour in class I spend an hour and a half out of class typically. Depending on the difficulty of the class more of my time gets dedicated to it. Also homework takes a while to do and I consider that studying! -Morgan 

I think the most difficult part of being a student at S&T is the work/life balance. As students, it’s very easy to get caught up in your classes because they have such a large impact on your future. You want to do well, and you want to succeed, especially when you’re passionate about what you’re studying. This sometimes makes it hard to rationalize joining that one “fun” club or going out with friends. However, because S&T is such a small community, everyone realizes the predicament that you face as a student, which makes it a lot easier. Lifts a little bit of the weight off. -Amber

• It’s hard to say what’s a gen ed and what’s not, but I would probably say that the hardest for me was economics because it’s a new topic that I’d never taken a course in before. -Stacy
• For me, my hardest was probably calc if your considering those as gen ed for engineers. If you wouldn’t consider calc then I’d say definitely physics! Everyone’s different in what they struggle in though -Morgan

• Depends. I thought Calc I was pretty tough. Although, I never studied as much as I should have. Calc II was really challenging but cool because problems felt like undoing a giant puzzle. Calc III was easy to visualize because it’s in 3-dimensions (hence Calc THREE).
• I actually thought that Calc III was the hardest, which goes to show that it really does depend on the person.  But just like any class, if you apply yourself and ask for help when you need it, you will be just fine. -Stacy

My favorite class that I’ve taken so far was probably my Human Factors class.  It was really interesting to learn the science behind everyday things that annoy us because they’re poorly designed (for example, doors that are push when they look like a pull).  That’s just me, though!  There’s something at S&T for everyone, you just have to find what you’re passionate about! -Stacy

I came in as an Engineering Management major and I still am an Engineering Management major!  However, a lot of people do change their major after coming to campus.  I would say to get involved when you come to campus and ask a lot of questions.  Through that process, it should become pretty clear what the right field of study is for you. -Stacy

Most of my education classes have been in the 15-25ish range. Lots of personalized attention, if you need it, and you get to know the other students well!

You can find more information about graduate degrees in computer science here: https://cs.mst.edu/programs/graduate/ -Stacy

I changed my major and at first I was so unsure of how that would affect my college career. My best advice is to talk to everyone you can and get different points of view. Talk to your advisor about your interests and they can help you see if you are on the right path. Also talk to your friends and see what kinds of majors they are in and what their paths are like. Find the path that you see yourself being happy on, and then take the appropriate steps. If you do decide to change your major, your advisor can help you through that process. -Abbie

Your advisor can help you out with Joe’SS if you have any questions!  Or you can always ask a friend!  Almost any upperclassmen will know how to help you.  - Stacy