College of Agricultural Sciences Admitted Student Q & A

Hello everyone I see people coming on in so welcome my name is Susan Brown. I am the recruitment coordinator for the College of Agricultural Sciences here at CSU I have my information up on the screen so you can take a second to write it down if you like. Just for future reference, this cell phone number is text friendly so you can feel free to send me a text if you have a quick question. My email is always open for any other questions but since we have only about.

30 minutes until 5:00 PM Mountain Standard Time today I want to go ahead and get started, so if you have questions for our students already, feel free to pop them into the chat and we'll make sure they get answered. Otherwise, I'm going to invite my students that are joining us today. You go ahead and turn on. Their cameras will get them introduced and then we can start in some questions for y'all.

Cool.

Oh

I haven't.

Awesome Jamie and Catherine and I can see Bellas on so will give just a moment for Bella to camera on perfect, awesome well welcome you 3 thank you for joining the answer. Some questions today to get the kind of get our brains going on on some questions. Would you be able to go down the line so I see Jamie Catherine Ann then Bella in my my order on my screen.

If you wouldn't mind telling us a little bit more about who you are, where you're from, what you study at CSU, and anything else that you really think is important for our admitted students to know as they ask you questions about what it's like to be a student in the College of Agricultural Sciences. So Jamie, go ahead.

Can you hear me now?

You muted.

Sweet I everyone, I'm Jamie. I'm from Northern California. I transferred to CSU last spring after spending 5 semesters in Community College. Getting my associates. But now I'm here at CSU and majoring in AG business with a minor in AG literacy. I'll be graduating in December, so then after that I'll actually be like joining the real world, which I'm super excited for. And yeah, I think it's awesome that you guys are all here and all admitted and ready to go to CSU.

OK, well I'm Catholic. Can you hear me?

OK good sorry. Well I'm Catherine, I am a lamp in the landscape architecture program with a minor in water sustainability. So and I come from Montana small Little town enroll Montana so yeah and I'm super excited to be here today.

Can anyone hear me now? OK, good I'm Bella. I am a second year here at CSU, majoring in animal science with a minor in AG business and I'm also on the Privett track, so really exciting stuff. I'm from California and we're really excited that everyone could join us today and we can answer all your questions.

Awesome, thanks y'all for introducing yourselves so you know if any of those.

You know majors, or you know what it's like to be an out of state student, what it's like living in Colorado. If any of those kind of things pop into your brain, go ahead and put him into the chat. We do have one question so far. Kiera asks how many students graduate in December? I don't have exact numbers on that, but it happens when students either add a minor or bring in some extra credits from some dual enrollment courses that they had in high school.

So I guess kind of an extended question I have for you all from that question is how has it been? You know, creating your academic plan with your with your advisor and you know, are you on a four year track or you are not on a four year track? And what does that mean? Like for you all?

I will first on this one, then again I guess. So I transferred to your last spring, which is why I'm kind of graduating in that kind of weird December time. And that's mostly because I graduated from high school and then spent five semesters at junior college. Just took me that extra semester to kind of achieve what I wanted to say. Sorry Susan was the rest of those are also the question for that one.

Yeah, how has it been for you? Um, you know, navigating the class planning process and all that kind of stuff with your advisor.

Right, so yeah, so as soon as I got here I met with my academic advisor and we just kind of set out that educational plan. I'm only here for four semesters, so it's kind of nice to be able to see those classes that I would be taking like pretty soon within the next year or so, basically. And yeah, as long as you just get in touch with your academic advisor, it's really easy to be able to see like what classes you'll be taking. I'm sure you'll all used ours plenty, which is basically like the list.

Like your options for classes, but it's definitely like pretty simple to be able to plan out and see what classes will be taken at CSU.

Yeah, I definitely agree with Jamie there. Getting to know your academic advisor is like really important and it really helps a lot. 'cause like if you have a question like they're so easy to talk to and.

Yeah, I feel as though navigating and I didn't exactly my personal journey. I didn't exactly look at every single class, 'cause I'll admit I got a little overwhelmed because.

I didn't know what to do when I went to college 'cause I just was like.

What you know in high school it was all like, well, you take this and this and this and this when you get to college you're like, well I want to major in like for me landscape architecture. What does that mean? Well, my academic advisor really walked me through like hey, this is what you're going to take. These are the main core classes. And then like these are these classes over here and they usually like 10 or 20 different like elective classes you can take. Then they're like, well choose those choose three of these classes to plug into these core classes.

And then there you go and then usually they walk you straight through your class load for the next four years, and it's pretty straightforward. So don't don't panic about that.

Yeah, I definitely agree with everything that's being said about academic advisors. I think they are the key to your success here at CSU and staying on track and making sure you get to where you need to go. I personally love my academic advisor. She's like my best friend. We talk about everything, even if it's not school related and me personally I have my rest of my CSU.

Like 2 years planned out with her already, so that's.

Nice and a little overwhelming. 'cause Privett has a lot of pre Recs. Alot of pre Recs so.

Yeah, definitely a little overwhelming, but it's nice to know that I'll like graduate on time and I get to where I need to go, and she's definitely helped me with that.

Yeah, thank you all for sharing your experiences and we have a question from Sam. Can we meet up with an advisor before coming to campus in the fall and you will meet your advisor during orientation, which happens over the summer, so you'll have an opportunity to get to know them a little bit and they'll help you kind of set your first semester in motion so that you don't have to worry about you know registering for classes without that guidance and then from there I'm sure Jamie and Catherine Bella could could back me up on this, but you.

Meet with them as much as you need at least once a year, if not more. I know that for me when I was in school, I met with one every semester because I just wanted to make sure that I had everything right and that I wasn't missing anything, so that's that's kind of how it works. There's really no need to to meet with one before orientation. Also, apologies, my dog is whining because there's another dog outside, and he's very interested, but.

There's really no need to meet with an advisor before orientation just because you know orientation is really when that schedule sets in and you'll be able to kind of take action on the items that advisors can help you out with, if that makes sense.

There we have a question from Alexis. What was the hardest part about adjusting to college from being out of state?

A great question Alexis, whoever is first cancer?

Yeah, I'll jump on this one even though I feel like the three of us being out of State will probably give somewhat similar answers probably, but for me I've just always been a big homebody my entire life, and so I really wanted to break that with coming to CSU. And I would say the hardest part for me is definitely just like being away from my friends and family and pretty much everything I've ever known being from California. But there's definitely so many cool experiences and so many cool people at CSU that.

It's really easy to like. Focus on that and still have a really fun time while you're here.

Yeah, I definitely. I kind of have a little bit of the same all admit I come from a really like small rural community like I think we had like 2500 people in the whole town. So coming to Fort Collins, though it's not like a huge major Metropolitan area, it was definitely a little bit culture shock there. 'cause it was like Oh my gosh, I've never lived so close to a Walmart or target, so that was a little bit that was like a good adjustment, more of like.

Something that is a little hard as I like Jamie, I'm a little bit of a homebody too. So I was kind of like Oh my gosh, I'm like.

Like 12 hours away from my hometown. Like if something happens, I have to figure it out, but there's enough like CSU. Like if you ask someone like ask your neighbor or ask someone in like your English class or something like that and say hey you know my car broke down or hey I don't have a car and I need to get to like a doctors appointment or something like that like.

I would say tenant like 9 out of 10 times like they'll be like Oh yeah, I can like when do I pick you up?

There won't be like, oh, I don't know if I can do that. It will be when when do you need to be there?

Yeah, I'm definitely also a very family oriented person and like my whole life revolves around them making sure they're all OK. So that was a huge adjustment being so far away from them. But once you get involved and you start finding your little communities here that you want to be a part of, it feels like a second family. Basically an it all ends up working out and you find your place an it's like a second home so it's not as bad once you make that adjustment.

Yeah, thank you all for sharing a man I love like what Catherine was saying is so true. People in Colorado matter. If you're from Colorado, maybe you know this if you're not, maybe you haven't experienced it yet. But especially at CSU it's this. Rams take care of Rams mentality, which sounds really cheesy until you're here and you experience it. And yeah, your bike tire is blown out and you're in the middle of campus and someone helps you find like a bike pump. Or, you know, things like that happen and it's surprising. But it's just kind of what the culture is on campus here, and it's really awesome.

Uh, we have another question from Alexis. What's your favorite part being a part of the College of Agricultural Science?

I can jump on that one.

I think the my favorite part about being in the College of Egg again coming from a small community that was focused in agriculture.

This feels like that second home an I feel like the College of Egg is especially like very like friendly and kind of like a big family. Like whether I'm I'm in. I'm like there's the College of Egg and then I'm underneath the umbrella in HLA which is horticulture and landscape architecture and like it doesn't matter if you're a horticulture student or you're an animal science student like sometime you're going to have a class with one of them and start talking to them and.

You just feel like you're connected because you're part of like the umbrella of the College of AG like. I just feel like that like they come to the table is really like that's really strong in the College of egg meaning like everyone comes to this like.

Like central ground and so like sits down and has a conversation about like anything in the College of Egg. Whether you know anything about like.

Like if I don't know much about cows, but I could talk to any person in like equines or not, equine science, excuse me. Animal science about cows and they wouldn't be like. Why don't you know anything about cows like you know?

That's I guess that's the best part about being in the College of AG is. It's really that family like you feel like you're in a fam.

Just to add to that, it's also amazing to be surrounded by people that have the same passions that you have. Also, 'cause once you know where you want to go and what you want to do, you'll find people that also want to do that same thing. And then you have those bonds and you all go through this journey together. I know that sounds kind of cheesy, but when you have people that are doing the same thing as you, it makes it a little easier to know that other people are experiencing similar feelings and thoughts and stuff like that. So that's awesome about.

Pretty much any college, but especially in the College of AG.

Yeah, and then just to add that I feel that the College of AG just gives you some really cool opportunities that you wouldn't get in other colleges. Of course I'm in this one class. It's from in literature, AG, literacy minor and we go out to the Ardex Center, which is basically just this off campus facility that still apart of CSU where they have machinery and livestock and pretty much everything related to AG. And in that class we get to handle livestock and drive tractors in the first week we cured hams. You just get these.

Really awesome experiences in the College of AG. It's just really fun, honestly.

Yeah, thank you all for sharing it and so there aren't any other questions right now from our students watching. So if you have more questions, feel free to submit them, but that kind of sparked one for me. For you all, and that's what is your favorite experiential learning component of a class. So like this one that you are talking about, Jamie and you get to do all this cool hands-on on activities. What are some of the best hands on activities you had in your classes so far?

I can jump on this one, so for me I'm on the meat judging team here at CSU within the College of AG. And so we start out by taking our intro class where we learn how to evaluate all these animals and stuff like that. And then throughout the next year we get to travel together and we go to Nebraska and Pennsylvania and Texas and all these fun places to apply what we learned in contests and stuff. So that is definitely been one of the coolest experiences an classes I have.

Ever taken an? It's just an amazing opportunity, so if you guys are interested in that, please try it. Just take the class even if you don't think you want to do it, just try it.

It's amazing. Same with any judging team here as well. So that would be mine.

Yeah, I'll just circle back to the one that I was mentioning before. Just all these stuff that you get to do it. So cool and I feel like it's pretty common in each of the each of the majors in the College of Agricultural Sciences to get to have these sorts of experiences. And it's just. It's definitely fun. And it definitely like personifies the hands-on learning part of the College of AG, which is awesome.

Yes.

Awesome, we have another question book. Sorry, go ahead Katherine.

OK, I guess my favorite like.

Like learning moment or learning experience was in landscape architecture. We got to go out onto like a physical like site or like area that we were going to design an. It was just kind of. It felt really natural just to be there and like you felt like this is exactly what you do as a landscape architect. So I felt that that learning experience of like going to a physical site that's actually real instead of like.

Oh, here's a worksheet like this is a random place like. I think that's probably been my favorite like learning experiences, 'cause you're applying exactly like what Jamie and Bella said is, you're applying exactly what you're learning in the classroom to a real world like example.

Yeah, thank you and sorry for cutting you off at the beginning there. I just got so excited that we have another question that I jumped right to it. We have a question from Sam. I know it's generally not this idea to have a car the first year, but they're going to be a part of the Equine science program and was wondering if it's a good idea to have a car in that instance.

So I also just have a general question for you all from this as well, which is how is transportation around Fort Collins in terms of walking, biking, public transportation. But Bella, knowing that you're animal science and you have probably the most interaction with animal and equine Sciences and getting to those spaces, what is your experience with having a car versus not?

So I was actually a double majoring animal and equine science in my first semester, and then I just decided with the Privett track that was not for me and I did not need to take a fifth year to finish that. So I ended up just sticking with animal science, but I did have a car my first year here and it made it a lot easier, especially to get out to the equine center when you're taking 102.

I mean, you can take the bus, but I know those are a little unreliable sometimes and.

Yeah, your professor will not wait for you to start laughing. You might miss some important stuff, so I found having a car was very useful in both majors.

I personally do not have a car here, but I have definitely found that a lot of places like grocery stores and all that stuff are within like a solid like bike ride length away and that art class that I mentioned earlier is also off campus Ann. I think it kind of falls in with the Rams helping out Ramsingh again where I other people drive me to that class and I'm definitely super grateful for that. And if you decide to not bring your car here, there will definitely still be ways for you to get to class.

Most definitely, um, I I had a car my first year. I still have a car. It makes it. It makes it easier on in like some respects. Like Bella said about like getting to class. But then like Jamie said, you can always carpool. Ann, I didn't have a car for a little while 'cause I had some car issues and I was amazed at like the public transportation here like.

It's a really easy to do, but maybe I don't know. I don't know about getting out to equine science. I know it's a little little bit of a giant. If you were to walk, but there is a bus system so I don't know you're gonna have to weigh that one.

Yeah, I would just echo that an you know what Bella said is that there is a bus that goes out there. You know you play with the public transportation timelines. Fort Collins is pretty good about about being on time, but I have been, you know 10 or 20 minutes behind because of a bus before. So it's a good thing. The way, it's just one of the things about public transportation. And like everyone said as well that Rams take care of Rams getting those rides is something that definitely can happen.

Um next question from Alexis. And no worries Alexis on the questions. That's why we're here. So we're really happy that you're asking a bunch, but what has been the hardest adjustment that you've had for being at CSU during the code 19 pandemic?

I can definitely jump on to this one, so I transferred here last spring so I had about 8 weeks before Covid started and everything went pretty downhill and I would say the hardest part for me is just kind of knowing that I am missing out on a lot of opportunities like that's just kind of inevitable. I at least so we've been told that for the fall will be a lot more in person, and since I graduate in December, I'm just really cross my fingers that I can go to a football game and that I can get a somewhat normal graduation.

But yeah, there's definitely a lot that we're kind of missing out on right now, with covid going on, but I think the college still definitely does its best to make sure that we're all still here and enjoying our time in college.

Yeah I would. I would echo that same thing um. The hardest part for me was just like.

Just wearing masks 'cause I like. I kind of get a little claustrophobic, so that's the only thing that I have. Kind of an issue with. Sometimes with the masks is sometimes they're a little bit hot. You know that, but I mean.

I think as a whole it's hasn't been too bad of an adjustment.

Yeah, I would say it hasn't been too bad of an adjustment and I the University has been doing a really great job of like keeping everyone safe and testing and all of that so.

Yeah.

For me it probably have to be finding the motivation to sit down and actually watch your lectures. I know that sounds really bad, but that's been my struggle. I can sit through a two hour.

Yeah, thank you all for sharing and super real write an that I hopefully as Jamie said, we're looking towards having more in person experiences in the fall. That's the plan. As long as everything continues to be on the up and up in Larimer County will be hopefully on the right track to do that. So 'cause I agree, I would love to get back to a football game with some of our College of AG events like the Welcome Picnic in the Fall and Agday Barbecue which are just some really great events I remember who said it before but come to the table and to just be I think.

Catherine be able to like come to the table share meal, learn from each other and talk to some people that you might not normally talk to, and those are kind of my my favorite events and I really missed those in the last year for sure.

Awesome, another question from Kiara is covalent.

Co validating IB credits easy. So transferring in with AP credits maybe some concurrent enrollment credits. Did you all have any experiences with that? I can after you share your experiences with either having a PIV or transfer credits, I can share just a little bit more information on the admission side of how that happens.

Yeah I can start on this one, so I came in with some AP credits from high school, but unfortunately none of them transferred over because they were all the wrong classes and didn't do what csus classes kind of wanted you to learn in them. So I had to retake a lot of 'em, which is why.

It's been a little stressful for the last couple semesters. I'm going to be here trying to get everything done with Privett Prereqs, but I know a lot of people have also had a lot of success with transferring AP credits. That just wasn't my journey on that.

I can jump in next. I didn't have any AP credits or any of that because my high school didn't. I already knew that the colleges in Montana didn't transfer to Colorado so I didn't take those classes, so I would only transfer credits I've had is I had to take a math class and I wanted to take a math class in person for CSU. So I went to Front Range which is just down Shield Street in Fort Collins.

And they between CSU and Front Range they like switch back and forth with credits really easily. So that's my only experience. But for high school I didn't have any.

I also did not have any sort of IB or AP credits.

Awesome, so to speak to that a little bit what Bella was saying with you know things transferring and things like that. Wouldn't when you're thinking about, you know a lot of these egg classes that are really science based and you know if you're in this, you probably took and you're probably interested in AP or IB biology chemistry, right? Which are also some of. Typically the harder AP tests to get a really good score on, right? And in less you have. I believe it's a four or five. It's really hard to test out of some of our intro classes in those Sciences.

Because we want to make sure that everyone going into the upper level classes like organic chemistry, biochemistry, some of those Privett Rex as fellow was saying, you know, once you're in those, those higher level classes we want to make sure that you're prepared on the level that CSU needs you to be prepared to take those classes so it's not that we don't trust that you you know aren't awesome at chemistry or biology. It's just that we want to make sure that everybody going through those courses has the same level.

Of a baseline of those those interests what I do see a lot with our College of egg students is that things like AP language, AP literature, the equivalent of that for IB, those can usually count for some of your all University core credits, which everyone has to take as well.

So that's kind of a baseline guide if you want to see what the actual admissions kind of transfer credits look like for a PM IB. If you just type in AP credits CSU, it should pop up on the registrar's page and they are the ones who deal with making sure that those transfer over. And as always, if there's something that you think should transfer transfer over, but it doesn't when you're registering for orientation and you're like I shouldn't have to take whatever intro.

Like your intro in English class or whatever you think that you don't have to take. You can always call and just make sure that those are being represented correctly at the University level because we want to make sure that we honor the hard work that you've put into those those classes in those credits.

Awesome.

I actually have something to add to that if that's OK.

Yeah.

OK so I went to junior college before I came to CSU, of course, and in junior college I think I took two anthropology classes and on my door is like my academic list. They were saying that I needed to take another one in. My academic advisor was like, well, you already took these two like you. Kind of don't really need to take another one when it's going to be the same exact kind, of course. So I actually filled out this form and just basically explaining that like you want me to take this class with that, I pretty much already taken in Community College and they accepted it and I actually didn't have to do that. And so if you think that you have a strong case.

Or not needing to take a class that you have already taken. I would definitely recommend talking to your academic advisor and maybe even filling out that form.

Yeah, definitely. We're all about accommodating and making sure that you know if you've already done something you don't have to do it again for us, so you know there are some different options for working around those apib credits. It's not always a hard and fast rule, as well as some of those you know. If you take a class at a Community College over the summer, something like that, you can definitely make sure that those are being represented on your transcript.

Seeing as we have about a minute left and I don't have any other questions left in the queue, I have one final question for the three of you.

It's a little bit different than questions I normally ask, but if you have one piece of advice for incoming students who are admitted, and they're either trying to make the decision to come to CSU or not, or they are admitted in there already coming here. So maybe, yeah, a little bit of advice for someone who's trying to make that decision or advice for someone who definitely is coming to CSU next year, what would it be?

I know that's really proud.

I can jump on this one, so for those of you that maybe I'm just interested in coming to CSU, but you're not yet committed, I would just say that if you really like SCSU, then you should definitely come here. But if there's another school that your hearts kind of set in, you should definitely go there. Also. I mean, I think college is just about kind of like finding that second home where you think you're going to be really successful, and if that CSU. And that's great. And if that's a different school, then that's also super great. And for those of you, that kind of already are committed in coming to CSU. I think my biggest piece of advice would just be to get involved because.

They're going to make a lot of friends that you're going to be able to build up your resume. It's it's definitely really important, even if you're kinda, you just want to be like a number in the system. I can definitely understand that, but it's definitely, really helpful and really awesome to just get involved in stuff they're actually interested in.

I can go some lines for more of like the already admitted students and it's kind of piggybacking off of Jamie's response, but I would have to say just try everything, even if you're not sure about doing something. Go to meeting, feel it out, see how it is and you never know you might absolutely love it and find a second family in that group that you're trying to be apart of. So just try everything, even if you're unsure of it.

Yes, I for those that aren't admitted, I would just say like.

Just like what Jamie said, you know, kind of like where your options like.

Like

look at what's also around. Wear whatever other college. What's around CSU like CSU has a lot of like outdoorsy stuff. If you're not like an outdoorsy person and you're more of an urban person, you know, like CSU kind of has the best of both worlds, but like more urban is like down the road in Denver, but like at like CSU we have more like outdoorsy stuff or like just even like more family kind of feel to me like that's me personally but.

For so, like for people that are kind of on the fence about CSU or another college, I would just say like just kind of weigh your options. Kind of like maybe get in touch with a student one on one like I don't know if Susan if you like set those up. I'm pretty sure you do OK good then yeah, like if you're kind of on the fence about it like.

Like let's say you want to be in landscape architecture like set up a one on one with like me, or if you're interested and like.

But equine science, or like animal science, go to like Jamie or Bella. Like you know or like? Yeah, just set up a one on one with a student. And just like ask him those hard questions or just feel it out. You know, like what's their experience even more like like in a big group. It's kind of hard to ask all those questions, but one on one is what I would say for people that are kind of on the fence about it. For those that are incoming, I'm going to like.

Piggyback off of both Jimmy and Bella. Like just do everything. Experience everything while you can. If there's one thing that I think everyone across the board across the United States in the world has learned from Kovid is that you just need to go out and experience life like the things that before covid. You're kind of like I. I don't really want to do better. You know it's a bright sunshiny day, but I have all this homework that I need to do. Pick the homework. I think now with Covid everyones learned like no.

There's not always going to be a sunshiny day, so let's go enjoy it today. So just just go out and try everything. So that's all I got.

Yeah, thank you all that such great advice and I I I just want to echo what Jamie said at first too is you know if if you find your heart home somewhere else like follow it 'cause we've all found homes at CSU and I think that's so important and I truly believe everyone of you can have a home at CSU and find your place. But just really follow. Follow what you're feeling and like, Catherine said. Set up a set up a one on one. You can schedule those through emailing me if you just want to talk with us.

With the current student in your area of interest, um. And yeah, thank you so much for joining us today. An asking some really great questions and letting us share some of our experiences with you. If you have any other questions or you want to get connected. Like I said, feel free to reach out through that email. Or if you have a quick question, feel free to send me a text. I'm here for you in this college search process. I know it's weird because of Covid, so if there's anything I can do to help make.

That experience and that choice easier for you. Please let me know how I can help. I would love to do whatever possible to help you all make these decisions that are never easy but are definitely made a little bit more difficult in the time we're in. So thanks again for joining. Thanks Jamie and Catherine Bella for sharing a little bit about your experiences in your lives as students.

And yeah, thank you. Have a great rest of your Monday night and I'll see the three of you on Wednesday. But bye everyone.