The eNotes Blog How To Be Successful at a LargeUniversity

How To Be Successful at a LargeUniversity Success: The accomplishment of an aim or purpose (Merriam-Webster).   Success is what every person should strive to reach every day.   It is the backbone and motivator for all of our wants and needs.   Achieving success in college requires hard work and a little bit of knowledge about how to beat the system.   The university system differs from high school in a plethora of ways.   You dont have the same classes every day, there are up to 500 students in your classes, there is no mandatory attendance, and your grade can be based on your performance on one or two tests.   If you just graduated from high school and are about to begin college, or are already in college and have a newfound resolve for success, read on to discover how to be successful at a large university. 1. Define your success.   What are you looking to get out of college?   Is this just the next step in your educational journey?   Do you plan on using it as a stepping stone to a particular job or graduate program?   Do you just want to have fun?   Knowing what you want to get out of college before you begin is important.   Perhaps you want to make a difference on campus and run for a position on student government.   If you want a strong sense of fulfillment, giving back to the community and volunteering can get you there.   I was recruited at UCLA to play baseball, so my goal was to be as successful as I could in the classroom and on the field. 2. Plan.   Where are you going after college?   This can have a tremendous impact on your collegiate educational journey.   If you plan on attending some form of post-undergraduate education, you will need to get top marks in order to be accepted into a quality program.   If you have a specific job or career path in mind, apply to a major that will help get you there.   If you arent sure what you want to do, sample a wide variety of electives and general education classes.   Communications and English degrees are highly valuable degrees that appeal to employers because they accentuate your written and verbal skills.   I had no idea what I wanted to do after college, so after my freshman year I applied as a communication studies major because of the fascinating classes and competitiveness of the program. 3. Do your research.   Think of the phrase, work smart, not hard.   Although you will probably have to do both.   Find classes that interest you.   Read the course descriptions from your schools registrar.   Talk to other students and use websites such as ratemyprofessors.com to discover what your potential professors are like.   If a high GPA is more important to you, sign up for the easy classes.   I always tried to find manageable classes that had stimulating enough subject material to keep me wanting more. 4. Show up.   No, attendance is not mandatory at large universities.   You will have huge classes in a giant auditorium and the professor and TAs will never know if you dont show up.   But if you care about getting something out of your education and earning a good grade, then spending the couple hours per week in that class is the best way to learn.   It gets you outside and in contact with your friends as well.   Dont rely on Powerpoints or Podcasts from home.   Youre likely to procrastinate on reviewing them, and they arent as affective.   Its also important to know the classes that you  must  show up for, and recognize those that you can skip every once in a while when necessary. 5. Make a good first impression.   Be aware of the power of first impressions, and realize that your first interaction with a professor or TA can be impactful in the lasting conclusions they draw about you.   Although professors try to grade tests and assignments objectively, there is no doubt that at least sometimes they give preferential treatment to students they like.   Could you really blame them if they were stricter on a student who was constantly late, didnt participate, and didnt pay attention?   So dress nicely, sit in the front of class, participate during discussion, know what youre talking about, and perhaps even visit their office hours to talk about the class and their research.   People like to talk about themselves. 6. Focus.   Dont go to lecture just to go to lecture.   If youre going to sleep, talk to friends on Facebook, or play internet games, just stay at home.   You wont get anything out of class, and you wont do as well at playing Bloons Tower Defense (my favorite game to play in class) or whatever youre doing.   When class is over, go home and review your notes for ten minutes.   The material will be fresh on your mind, and looking it over again will solidify your understanding of important concepts.   I always viewed this as time spent studying for midterms and finals way in advance.   If you spent ten minutes reviewing your notes twice a week for ten weeks, you have already studied over three hours for your final, and probably only need to study two or three more hours to be adequately prepared.   This step is the key to academic achievement. 7.   Get the easy credit.   Know the grading rubric for each of your classes.   If attendance is 10% of your grade, you better show up and get all of that 10%.   If easy homework assignments make up any portion of your grade, be organized enough to turn in every one.   Lose points on the hard stuffmidterms, finals, and papers. 8. Utilize your TAs for the hard stuff.  Ã‚  A  Teaching Assistants primary concern is the academic research he or she is pursuing as a Masters or Ph.D. student.   However, most of them are   open to help their students outside of discussion sections, as long as you are respectful of their time.   For ALL assigned essays, check your topic and thesis with the TA!   This guarantees that you will at least get a B- on the assignment.   As long as you are writing about something that is important, on topic, or interesting and you have an argument that is important, on topic, or interesting then your paper will be at least decent no matter what you write for your supporting details and commentary.   This requires intense periods of deep thinking, but ensures a good start. 9. Build relationships.   If you are worried about academic anonymity, make an effort to expose yourself to your professors.   Go to office hours, participate in class, and offer to volunteer in assisting with their research.   Professors at research universities were hired for one reason: to conduct experiments under the name of that institution.   Any help you give your professors is likely to be reciprocated, whether in the form of a good grade in that class or as a valuable reference down the road. 10. Be comfortable outside of class.   College can be stressful.   Its easy to get tied up in all of your homework and independence.   A healthy social life and saving some time to unwind with friends takes the load off and helps you acclamate to your new environment.   Working out and staying physically fit can increase your self-confidence and enhance your mood to keep you happy 🙂

The Invisible Hand of The Market

The Invisible Hand of The Market Invisible hand is the term first introduced by Adam Smith and it refers to the balancing force that creates mutually beneficial exchange for everyone. The invisible hand is a term attributed to the 18th-century economist Adam Smith and appears in his landmark 1776 book, The Wealth of Nations. The term developed from Smith’s study of another classical economist, Richard Cantillon, and was used metaphorically by Smith to describe the â€Å"natural forces† that drive free markets, a kind of product the human nature of people interacting in the market. The term only appears twice in Smith’s book (he had used it in an earlier work in 1759, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, but in a philosophical rather than economic context), but has grown to be cited, and often misinterpreted, as one of Smith’s most important concepts. What is the Invisible Hand? In a free, unregulated market, competition for scarce resources encourages market participants to act to maximize their self-interest. â€Å"Maximizing self-interest† is a typical economic textbook term that is often not clearly explained, probably because it sounds a little more dignified than â€Å"seeking to purchase resources at the lowest or most efficient costs, and seeking to sell goods, services, or assets for the highest obtainable profit.† Even though no one is acting for the benefit of anyone else, the self-interests balance each other, creating a mutually beneficial exchange for everyone. This â€Å"balancing force† is what Adam Smith metaphorically called the â€Å"invisible hand†. WHAT IS FIAT MONEY? In simple terms, if consumers and producers are both free to look out for the own interests, an equilibrium will be created. Consumers generate demand for goods, and producers respond by developing efficient production and distribution methods to meet the demand at the lowest possible cost; prices are regulated by competition, which is in turn created by the consumer demand. Society benefits as a whole, because as prices decrease due to competitive pressure and greater efficiency, volume increases; this obliges producers to pay more for labor to keep up with demand, which increases costs and prices, which are canceled out by the higher purchasing power of the now better-paid worker/consumers. Everyone gets what they want in increasing amounts, and no one has to worry about anything other than their own needs and desires. Misinterpretation and Controversy The idea of the â€Å"invisible hand† is popular with Objectivists and adherents of the Ayn Rand philosophy of â€Å"every man for himself†, but interestingly, the term in modern usage is applied to a section of Smith’s Wealth of Nations where it does not even appear. The idea that self-interested competition leads to larger social benefits appears early in the book, in Book I, Chapter 7, but the actual phrase â€Å"invisible hand† does not appear until Book IV, Chapter 4 in the following passage: â€Å"By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.† The idea that Smith expresses – that individual ambition has greater benefits – is a common theme throughout The Wealth of Nations, but the way Smith uses the metaphor of the â€Å"invisible hand† specifically refers to domestic versus foreign industry. Because the metaphor is consistent with Smith’s philosophical theme, it has been used to underpin the entire philosophy of neoclassical economics; George Stigler, a key leader of the Chicago School of Economics and close friend of Milton Friedman, once famously greeted a symposium on Smith’s work by saying, â€Å"I bring you greetings from Chicago, where Adam Smith is alive and well.† Much of the confusion about what Smith actually said and intended in his own work and the apparent source of the neoclassical application of the metaphor is the 1948 book Economics by Paul Samuelson, in which he quotes Smith’s â€Å"invisible hand† passage in a way that combines a bit of Smithâ€⠄¢s explanation of self-interest among market participants with the original quotation, thus linking the metaphor – perhaps inaccurately, perhaps not – to Smith’s entire economic philosophy. Despite Dr. Stigler’s amusing greeting, Adam Smith is not, in fact, alive and well to add further insight to the argument over what he really meant, so the safest interpretation is an analysis of what he actually wrote. The market participant prefers domestic industry to foreign industry, and we can infer reasons why this might be so; costs of production and transportation are lower, the goods produced are more suitable to the local market because of more available and complete information, and as a consequence of all that, prices for the goods that are produced are lower. Because the domestic industries are preferred for those reasons alone, the domestic society benefits through the need for labor to produce goods and raw materials – a positive, unintended consequence of the market participants’ pure self-interest. Thus social benefit is created as if guided by an â€Å"invisible hand†. Criticism of the â€Å"Invisible Hand† The strongest argument against the validity of the metaphor, and its consequential idea that markets should be allowed to regulate themselves, comes from the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, who wrote in his book The Roaring Nineties that, â€Å"the reason that the invisible hand often seems invisible is that it is often not there.† Free markets have certain limitations, according to Stiglitz, one of the most important being their inability to manage â€Å"externalities†. Stiglitz holds that the idea of unintended benefits being allowed to happen without some sort of accounting is irrational; if a person’s actions create a benefit for someone else for which he is not compensated, or if a person benefits from another’s actions without cost to himself, that person will adjust his activities accordingly – either reduce his activity to prevent â€Å"giving something away for free,† or reduce his activity to avoid paying for more tha n he needs, since he is receiving some of it at no cost. MONEY MAKES THE WORLD GO AROUND Stiglitz argues that any time there is imperfect information and some degree of risk uncertainty in markets – which is always – these â€Å"externalities†, which we can understand as â€Å"forces other than the supposed invisible hand and conceptual equilibrium of an efficient market†, are always present and make the market less efficient because market participants â€Å"hold back† a little. That is why, he says, that some of the most important developments in modern civilization, such as the telegraph, genetic advances in food production, and the internet, did not develop in markets but were supported by governments. In other words, some degree, hopefully, a balanced degree, of government intervention in markets is necessary, first to â€Å"take up the slack† in progress towards efficiency that is not happening in markets, and second to reduce risk uncertainty in ways such as enforcing contracts and protecting property rights.

Reflection paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 7

Reflection paper - Essay Example They have also dug tunnels beneath the private property of individuals. This is with an aim of preventing Israel from attacking them, or destroying their weapons. This is because by using settlements where people live, Hamas is able to use them as human shields. Under International Law, it is a crime and illegal for soldiers to attack and kill unarmed civilians. Due to this tactic initiated by Hamas, the death toll of civilians in Gaza was so high, that Barnard and Rudoren identify as 650 people. This is by the time that this article was written. Barnard and Rudoren (2014) explain that under international law, Hamas has a legal obligation of minimizing its military operations near areas where civilians are living. Furthermore, they believe that Hamas is committing a war crime, through their action of firing rockets indiscriminately. Barnard and Rudoren (2014) also maintain that Israel has an obligation of identifying specific military targets in Gaza, and ensuring that civilians are not threatened by their military actions. The tactics of using civilians as human shield by Hamas, and storing weapons in civilian neighborhoods, is an example of urban warfare. Under international law, urban warfare is not illegal, but the law requires that the parties to the conflict must ensure that civilians are protected from harm. Barnard and Rudoren recognize that Israel is a more powerful army, as compared to Hamas, and hence to level the field, Hamas had to protect its weapons by hiding them in civilian areas, and engaging Israel in thos e areas (Barnard and Rudoren, 2014). However, after Barnard and Rudoren (2014) quoting thee extensive use of human shields by Hamas, they point out that there is no evidence that Hamas forced civilians to stay in such areas. Through this assertion, Barnard and Rudoren (2014) were trying to denote that Hamas was not committing an international war crime. To judge on whether this

America's Post-Civil War Growing Pains Research Paper - 2

America's Post-Civil War Growing Pains - Research Paper Example irm understanding of the ways in which reconstruction affected the United States much necessarily break down into highly specialized examinations of key groups and individual changes as any broad judgments make the risk of glossing over the ways in which minor details worked together to create major differentials. As a function of this, this brief analysis will seek to answer the following 5 key questions with relation to reconstruction: identification and discussion of two major historical turning points during the Reconstruction period, the impact of these two major historical turning points on society, economy, culture, and politics, discussion of two ways the Reconstruction period may have been different had Lincoln lived, discussion of how industrialization and urbanization affected the life of the average working American, and two examples of how the federal and/or state courts and legislatures handed down decisions or passed laws during the period that served to discriminate a gainst non-white citizens and immigrants (Nilsson 2012). With reference to the first question, the two major historical turning points during the period under the Reconstruction can definitively be those of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad and the dawn of the industrial period ushered in by the Gilded Age (Bentrix 2007). Both of these factors helped to represent newfound opportunities for a host of disenfranchised and downtrodden individuals who had seen the hope of a better life all but implode as a result of the Civil War. With respect to the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, this enabled poorer families from back East to risk it all and move West in hopes of building a better life. In this way, the availability of the frontier was again able to absorb much of the historical difficulties that the American people had experienced. Secondly, the dawn of the industrial age helped to give a host of out of work farmers and others individuals well paying jobs

Julius Caesar Essay Example for Free

Julius Caesar Essay

Celsius :: essays research papers

Hot and Cold Winter is coming to the northern hemisphere, and with it, talk of central heating, gloves and scarves, snowfall, and record low temperatures. Monitoring temperatures is part of our everyday life — whether we're talking about the weather, our bodies, central heating, or cooking. In the United States, we typically measure temperature in degrees Fahrenheit. But in other countries, such as England, you'll get the weather forecast in degrees Celsius. Recipes will advise you to bake a pie at 205Â ºC and not 400Â ºF. In fact, the Celsius scale is the most commonly used temperature scale in the world. This week, we have special cause to wonder about the history of this scale, because November 27 is the 300th anniversary of the birthday of the man who invented it. Anders Celsius was born in Sweden in 1701. His parents didn't know that their son's work would one day make their family name an everyday word used by millions of people around the world. Meet Professor Celsius The world Anders lived in was very different than the world we know. Much of the knowledge that we now take for granted — such as the motion of Earth with respect to the Sun and planets — was only beginning to be understood then. In Europe, radical and brilliant scientists, such as Galileo and Sir Isaac Newton, had been developing new and revolutionary ways of understanding the workings of the world and the universe. The era was known as "the Enlightenment," and it was a good time for someone of Anders's ability to be working in the field of science. Anders's talent came from his family of academics: one of his grandfathers was a mathematician and the other an astronomer, and his father, Nils, was a professor of astronomy. As a child, Anders showed a natural flair for mathematics, but he developed a keen interest in astronomy and became a professor at the age of 29. So, how did a clever astronomer come to develop a temperature scale? The answer lies with the weather. When making observations of the night sky, Anders monitored the weather conditions, including the temperature. At the time there were a lot of different kinds of thermometers with different scales — by the time Anders started working on the problem of temperature measurement, around 35 different scales existed. (Compare this number with today, when three main scales are in use — Celsius, Fahrenheit, and Kelvin.

Unit 3 Health and Safety Describe How Key Legislation in Relation to Health, Safety and Security Influence Health and Social Care Delivery.

Unit 3 health and safety Describe how key legislation in relation to health, safety and security influence health and social care delivery. Health and social care settings are covered by specific legislation and laws from the government to enable the care setting is operating the optimum way. Acts like the Health and safety at work act (1974) this act applies to all workplaces and it pull all the laws together so that all organisations were covered by the same legislation. However there are other regulations that apply to specific areas of work. These are The food safety act 1990 This act ensures that all food complies with the food safety act and its definition which includes drinks and chewing gum. There are four major offences in this act. – Making food dangerous to health deliberately or accidentally (adding things to food) – Selling food that does not complies with the food safety requirement being unfit for human consumption. – Selling food that is not of t he nature or quality required by the consumer. – Falsely describing, labelling or advertising food and food products. †¢ safety (general food hygiene) regulations 1995 This act ensures all food is handled correctly, the area where food is prepared must be clean, hands must be washed, hair should be covered, separate work areas should be used to prevent cross contamination of cooked and raw food. Following this regulation is especially important in health and social care settings as service users may be vulnerable. †¢ Reporting of injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences regulations (RIDDOR)1995 The RIDDOR regulation applies to all places of work, but not to all work incidents need to be reported. Incidents that need to be reported are ones that happened because of the work the people were doing. To be serious enough to be reported under RIDDOR an accident would have to result in an employee: -dying -injuries resulting in 3 days or more off from work – suffering from major injuries like fractured bones (these exclude fractures to the fingers, thumbs or toes), amputation of limbs and dislocation. †¢ Control of substances hazardous to health regulation (COSHH) 2002. This legislation was introduced in 2002 and covers the use and storage of chemicals. All health and social care services have to ensure that their working environment is safe and can not harm the service users or care professionals. An example of this would be at a nursery cleaning products like bleach being left in the reach of children. †¢ Manual handling operations regulations 1992 This act promotes safer moving and handling and appropriate use of equipment for example using lifts to help service users in an out of the bath instead of trying to live a service user by hand. This is an important act in health and social care because it prevents injuries to service users or care employees †¢ Data protection act 1998 This act protects individual’s rights to their personal data being stored. This act covers the processing, gathering, storing and sharing of an individual’s data. This is important in health and social care settings as service users information is used daily. When sharing an individual’s personal data consent to the sharing of their data is needed. Management of health and safety at work regulations 1999 This regulation requires employers to carry out regular risk assessments, look at changes and then re-asses the risks as necessary. This is important in health and social care settings as care organisations have a duty to minimise to their service users. Unit 3 health and safety Describe how policies and procedures promote health, safety and security in a health and social care workplace. Whilst on work experience at Jubilee children centre I was informed on a number of different policies and procedures. I was shown where the first aid box was and shown a book that I would have to write in if I injured myself this comes under (RIDDOR). The nursery officer told me that all the staff where qualified first aiders. Names of staff and children were registered in the morning as a safety precaution and also as a fire procedure. This is to ensure that all people present in the nursery can be accounted for in the event of a fire. A safety gate to the nursery had to be closed at all times and