Adjusting to university life through Waterloo Ready

Navigating the Online Learning Environment with Help from Upper-year Students

Hi! My name is Sisi and I am a first-year Accounting and Financial Management (AFM) student at the School of Accounting and Finance (SAF). Whether you are a prospective student or a member of the University of Waterloo community, you have most likely experienced learning in an online environment during the pandemic. It almost seems like learning online has become the “new normal”. Yet I was still extremely nervous before starting online classes at UWaterloo. How will I adjust to the workload? More importantly, how on earth will I find new friends online?

I was introduced to Waterloo Ready in July 2021 before the start of the term, which helped answer some of these questions. Waterloo Ready is designed to ensure a smooth transition from high school to university for incoming students. What I loved about Waterloo Ready were the weekly virtual meetings held by my assigned peer mentors, who were upper-year students in SAF. During the meetings, I also got to meet other incoming students in my program, and we were able to chat and ask questions to our peer mentors about absolutely anything. Being able to connect with other AFM students over the summer helped calm some of my nerves, and it assured me that I would be able to meet amazing people even while learning in an online setting. Get involved and connect with mentors. You won’t regret it!