By Joseph Quesnel
Andrea Thompson is like any typical first-year university student.
Sitting on a multi-coloured blanket on her bed in her Carleton University residence, she waits for her e-mail and chats with friends who are visiting her in her room.
The brown-haired 19-year-old from Caledonia, Ont., smiles and jokes about her friend they call “the token hippie” taking a nap on her roommate’s bed and talks to Stephen, who they call “grandpa.” A poster of pop singer John Mayer hangs on the wall and a textbook called Women in Sub-Saharan Africa graces her shelf.
One thing that is unique about Thompson is that she is part of Ontario’s first double cohort class.
With Grade 12 and OAC students from across Ontario competing for many of the same spots at Ontario’s universities, students like Thompson were led to believe that the universities would have problems absorbing the number of students. This, in turn, would create problems for students applying to university.
What these students found instead were the usual problems of dealing with a new learning environment and the challenges of living on their own, such as dealing with laundry, their diet and things like public transportation and the library.
“I find that it was a lot less intimidating than I was led to believe,” says Thompson.
She quickly came to believe the stress over the double cohort was overblown. Many say that most of the stress over the double cohort came before they were admitted.
“It did seem like a big deal,” says Stephen De La Franier, an engineering student.
“They said at the university presentations that they wouldn’t have room for everybody. They just said that if you had a solid A or B average that you might get in, just not in the program you necessarily want.”
This pressure to get better grades, however, was not the only fear. Many expected that universities would not be able to handle the extra students.
“With all the talk, you expect enormous class sizes and three kids per room like they said. You expect cafeteria line-ups to be long. This is what I expected from the press,” says journalism student Alana Range, 19, gesturing with her hands.
None of their fears really materialized.
“It was like the year 1999 when you’re waiting for something horrible to happen in 2000,” says Range.
“You’re waiting for something horrible, but it just goes away. I haven’t seen the impact that they built up,” she says.
Once they got here, these students found the shift in academic pressure more stressful, but not because of the double cohort.
“It’s definitely a change because you live independently,” says Range.
“You suddenly don’t have people caring about you and that’s a bit of a shocker. In high school you had parents, you had guidance counsellors and your teacher and they’re all on your back because you have to get into university,” she says, her voice rising.
As if getting higher grades because of the double cohort wasn’t hard enough, some students were greeted with a steep learning curve in first year.
“Some of the courses you cover in a semester at high school in five months, you have to learn in 12 weeks here. It was just a lot of material thrown at you. It was hard,” says Stephen “grandpa” De La Franier.
Although the independence does bring fear to some younger students, some find it refreshing.
“I love university so far. I really enjoy all the classes. It’s different than high school. It’s all things that I really enjoy,” says political science student Tim Carre, 18, of Paris, Ont. Carre, “the token hippie,” says that living among so many other students with different interests has allowed him to discover himself.
While many say they find school manageable, living on campus can be quite an adjustment. Basic chores like laundry and cooking can be quite a new experience for younger students.
“We made up this award called the stupidest laundry award,” says Diana Hart, 18, of
Oakville.
“My own friend Ryan washed his clothes and he didn’t realize that what he was throwing his wet clothes into was another washer, so he washed them again.
“He screwed up and did this twice again and ended up paying seven dollars for one load of laundry.”
Some of the students found dealing with food choices a greater challenge than worrying about long cafeteria lineups predicted as a result of the double cohort.
“I found it hard because I’m vegan,” says Carre.
Eating at the cafeteria, he says, was difficult because there were only a few things he found he could eat during the day.
“Lots of nights I have to go down there and eat what I ate the night before and or I’ve had for the entire week,” Carre says.
By Christmas he had learned how to make pastas and other dishes.
This allowed Carre to make other meals when there aren’t any vegan options for him in the cafeteria.
Figuring out how to deal with exams and learning how to cook were not the only problems for the double cohort class, however.
Public transportation, says Thompson, was more of a challenge than larger class sizes.
Like so many first-year students coming from small towns or smaller cities, she had to adjust.
“We end up calling OC Transpo like six times a day trying to find our way around the city,” she says. “We’re always lost.”
Missing the bus, however, was a small problem compared to dealing with the library. Finding material for research and learning new technology, like microfiche, was a challenge for some students.
“I’m convinced that figuring out that library is a mountain. It was my Everest,” says Thompson.