When I got into the University of Florida, I had to go through some processes, such as completing a Preview, which was some general knowledge about college and its traditions, faculty, staff, and resources; and how to register for my first classes in UF. As a student, regardless of your major, you have some course and credit requirements to fulfill. To make it easier for students, UF makes a critical tracking summary, which is a roadmap of courses that, if students want, they can follow exactly as it is written and, by their graduation, they will have completed all the course requirements. However, they don’t show requirements regarding internship or summer credit. For that, students have a degree audit with every information about these two factors and also courses.
While registering, I had a change in my perspective. First, I thought that most students would follow critical tracking. However, I realized that this didn’t happen. Most students would do what they thought it was of their preference or make a schedule with advisors to make a plan for their whole period at UF. In my first semester, since it was beginning, it was easy to identify courses to begin with. But then, I realized that every semester, I would need to do the same process. Therefore, I decided to make a 4-year-plan.
To do that, I scheduled a meeting with an advisor. To schedule a meeting, you go to your school’s advisor department and make an appointment. There are two of them. One that is about 5-10 minutes long, for when students are in the period of drop/add courses, and one that is about 30 minutes, which is the one recommended for making a plan for the whole graduation period. There I was able to make it simple my whole process of courses and other requirements. Therefore, UF has many resources for students and they are always ready to help.
