What I wish I knew before coming to VŠE

Written by Sophia

Congratulations!

If you are reading this, you have probably already been admitted to a programme at FIS. Although, if you are still waiting for your results, then I wish you good luck and I hope to see you on the hallways of VŠE in September!

I too have been in your shoes, almost 2 years ago from the time of writing this post. I still remember how eager I was to know if I’d have gotten in. I thought this feeling would disappear once I already got to the lecture halls, but it somehow just kept growing, even after I was admitted.

I didn’t know what to expect. Whether everyone would already be a coding genius, or have a natural inclination towards statistics (that I really didn’t have). Whether I would make any friends, whether I would be able to keep up with the workload… Honestly, I was overwhelmed with the idea of university before it even started!

Looking back, I should’ve told myself to enjoy my summer and not worry so much. And that is exactly what I will try to convince you of in this post!

Firstly, let me just start by saying, that university is hard. And whether you get accepted to VŠE or a different university, the difficulty will still be there, and there’s no point in trying to escape it. Instead, I advise you to try a new approach – accept that this difficulty is temporary, and instead focus on the feeling that will come with overcoming it. When after hours of coding you realise you just wrote 200 lines of code when you didn’t even know what print() is when you came here, or when you aced a midterm that 6 weeks ago was completely new knowledge to you. These are all feelings that come in ugly packaging, but hide a treasure inside – a sense of accomplishment. That is something I can guarantee: with a bit of effort, anyone can achieve this. Let’s get into the how.

If you are a tiny bit OCD like me, then you might have already started to plan a “perfect” schedule for how you plan to manage everything – the 6 am waking up, going for a run, grabbing coffee with a friend before lectures, studying till 7pm in the library etc… and I’m not here to tell you that it doesn’t work that way, I just want to let you in on the big secret that everyone eventually realises after a few weeks of being at uni: your schedule will eventually change. And if to you that already sounds like a nightmare, then I want to ask you to let go of the imagination, that every day will look the same, and that you will be able to stick to the “perfect” schedule each time. Because plans change, energy fluctuates and your reaction to these situations is what makes or breaks your day.

So my advice number 1to you is to stay adaptable. Plan ahead of time if that’s what you like to do, but being okay with an alternative, and still making it work towards your needs, will set you up for long-run success.

Secondly, don’t stress about being behind before you have even started. The courses at our university are set up in a way that ease you into the material without overloading you at once. If you want a little peace of mind, then I advise you to look through your course’s study plan, and look at the individual courses and their requirements. You can read about them online, or watch a few introductory videos on the topics. But I promise you, even people who don’t do any of that will find, that the first courses in the first semesters are all about getting to know the topic. With a bit of effort each week to keep on track with the material, all the content will be manageable, even if you don’t feel like a master of it initially. And that’s the whole point! You shouldn’t feel like you know the topic in the first semester. That’s why you’re here – to learn!

Lastly, I want to ask you for a favour. It might sound a little cheesy, but it’s the most important concept that you need to remember in university. I want to ask you to stay curious. Stay curious for the ideas that interest you, for the achievements that seem unreachable now, and for the chances that will come along your way at VŠE, for however long your stay will be. I can assure you, there will be several of each.

As a closing, I want to leave a great quote with you;

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” —Maimonides