Speaker: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast by the hosts and guests may or may not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Miami University.

Speaker: Freshman year I came in undecided.

Speaker: I'm finance, entrepreneurship, anthropology.

Speaker: I'm a senior architecture student.

Speaker: I'm involved in the blockchain club here.

Speaker: I'm very passionate about studying abroad.

Speaker: Classes are going great.

Speaker: And then obviously very involved with my sorority.

Speaker: I'm thriving.

Meredith Aliff 

Hi, I'm Meredith Aliff, and this is major insight. This is the podcast where we talk college life with amazing students about how to find your place and purpose on campus. We've all seen them, movies and TV shows about college, or we've already heard the stories from families and friends who have already been there, and there's a reason for that. There's a reason College has been the setting for some of the most memorable characters, scenes and stories for generations. But where do all the stories and myths end, and where do the realities of daily life begin? Well today on major insight, we're going to find out, because on this special episode, we're talking all about college stereotypes. Some you may have heard. Others, maybe not so much, but either way, we're going to get to the bottom of everything you ever thought you knew about college life today.

Meredith Aliff 

Okay, you ready? I think I am

Meredith Aliff 

Alrighty. My first question for you is, who are you?

Antoinette 

Okay, so my name is Antoinette Tucker. I'm currently a junior public health major with a minor in nutrition, and I'm from Columbus, Ohio.

Meredith Aliff 

Very nice, very nice. Okay, did you have any preconceived stereotypes about college before you got here, and have they held up since you've been here? Or have they been debunked?

Antoinette 

That's a great question. I always heard that, like, academics are going to be crazy hard, just because, like, I took AP and CCP classes and like, just like, I just thought the workload was going to be insane. And just like, the things I used to hear about people in college like before coming to college, especially like the people that like came to college before me, they were always like, "man, like, I'm just pulling so many all nighters, and I'm just studying till 3am" and they just never have time for themselves. And I got to college, and I was like, Oh, I always have free time. I always am able to be involved on campus. I'm involved in some student orgs now, I feel like I'm able to be like an active student, just, I don't know, being around campus and going outside and doing things for fun, like, I still talk to people and they're like, "all I do is study," and I'm like, I don't know how you live.

Meredith Aliff 

Yeah, I think that that kind of speaks, though, to your time management skills. Because obviously when you come in, it can be tough to start out and try to balance the things going on outside of class and things going on inside and work and anything else that you're involved in, but that's one of the beautiful things about college, is you get to start figuring out how to manage your time. But I think that speaks a lot to your ability to manage your time well, as well. Because I do think there are people that come into college and they never really had to study for a test in high school, and it was easy, and it all seemed to be a little bit common sense, and then you come to college, and it's actually tough. So learning how to study, learning how to, you know, I'm gonna commit an hour to this, and then I have... I gotta move on for the rest of my day, because I have other things that I need to get done, you know? So I definitely agree. I got really scared about what the workload was gonna look like in college, and it's not bad if you manage your time right. And also don't beat yourself up. Totally, just wear yourself out with studying. It's not it's not beneficial to you to to pull a ton of all nighters. Your sleep is so important before an exam. So why would you be up till five o'clock in the morning studying, you know

Nyah 

Yeah. So my name is Nyah. I currently have the honor of serving Miami as our student body president, and I have also been an intramural curler here, which I think is super fun.

Meredith Aliff 

Super cool. I love that. So, was there anything you came in and you were like, oh gosh, like, there's this stereotype, or the stereotype, and you know, kind of how has that held up in your four years here?

Nyah 

Oh gosh, I remember being in high school and my teacher saying, college professors are not going to put up with you turning in late work, they're not going to put up with any nonsense, any craziness. And what I've learned while in college is there are people here who want to help you, professors and faculty, staff, administrators. They want to support you. They want to see you accomplish your dreams. For most of them, that's why they're here. And so I have learned that it is okay to ask for help, and that professors aren't going to shun you and turn you away. They want to lean in and actually see how they can help you succeed and support you in any way that they can. And also have real conversations. There is the reality that you can't just slack off on all your work and not turn any of it in. However, if you need an extension. Make sure you ask.

Meredith Aliff 

It's communication

Nyah 

Right! If something happens: if you lose a family member, communicate that to your professors. And I've learned that you need to communicate in advance, however, professors are not out to get you. And I think that that is one preconceived notion that I had before coming into college.

Meredith Aliff 

Totally. I 100% agree. And I think I came from a pretty small school in a small town in a small state, and got told very similar things. These, these professors, like, you've got it easy with us - all this stuff. I saw the complete opposite. I think it was such a shift from like, authoritarian, to like, these professors want to work with you and collaborate with you, and like, really, actually want you to succeed. And they don't want to be in charge of you. They want to, almost like, be standing beside you and like, helping you with this. They just want to see you succeed. And they're gonna appreciate the students that come to them and communicate with them and talk to them. So I always had to remind myself I'm like, Meredith, you're not being annoying by, like, messaging them all the time, like it's okay, like, if you have a question, ask them, they're gonna appreciate it. So yeah, that's some really great advice, and definitely a stereotype that I have as well.

Meredith Aliff 

Let's do it.

Meredith Aliff 

Let's do it. My name is Maya Melman.

Meredith Aliff 

So obviously there are stereotypes about college. You hear it no matter where you go.

Maya Mehlman 

Yeah, for sure. So a little bit of a humble brag here. All throughout high school, I was an AP student, and I was working really hard, straight A's, really kept that high GPA. And then when I was applying to schools, not even Miami specifically, but when I was applying for schools, it was actually my parents that were like, don't apply for any like Honors College. Like, we want you to go to college, have fun, and not put as much pressure on yourself to live up to like these standards that you have for yourself. So when I was applying for college, I didn't apply for any honors programs, and I thought, you know, it was just gonna be all fun and games. And then you come to college, and you know, there's a good amount of fun, of course, but there's a lot of time management and obviously school, obviously work, but it's really that time management and learning how to balance out your social life with your school life, with your extracurriculars, and also that, like discovering what you want to do with your free time, too. And you know that learning of you don't have to say yes to everything, because we all go through that - the saying yes to everything, and then we have no time for ourselves. So I am a senior now in my second semester, and I'm still learning how to not say yes to everything all the time.

Addison 

My name is Addison Leonhardt. I'm a junior sports Communications and Journalism major.

Meredith Aliff 

As somebody involved in Greek life on campus. Do you have any stereotypes about that that you've kind of been able to debunk a little bit.

Addison 

I would say, you know, like, I think Greek life and fraternity life is very glorified in, like, movies and stuff like that. And I think that, like, people have this, like, preconceived notion of fraternities that they just want to cause trouble and, like, make loud noise and, like, damage a bunch of stuff. And in reality, like, we just, like, want to hang out with our friends and that kind of stuff, and have an ability to do that. And then, you know, a lot of us do things in the community, get involved in a lot of other things, and help each other out that way. So I think that that is way more about, like, what fraternity is about. And a lot of people get the misconceptions, and it's a lot of causing trouble. And, you know.

Meredith Aliff 

Yeah, absolutely. And I think obviously having leadership opportunities in a fraternity or in Greek life in general, like those kinds of things look good in your professional life afterwards. It's not a negative thing to be in a fraternity at all.

Addison 

Yeah I think it also ... it teaches you a lot about how to handle, like, real world experiences. Because you're handling organization ... like, if you're in leadership, you're handling organizations with a lot of people, and you're responsible for that. You're representing them. And you learn a lot about, you know, what life is like and like, how you're gonna like, have to do difficult things that you don't want to, have to do all that kind of stuff in order to, you know, help yourself and help other people just like advance in life. So I think that you know that can prepare you really well for for the future.

Cambria Beane 

I am Cambria bean. I am absolutely obsessed with psychology and neuroscience. Those are my majors. One of my preconceived notions about coming to college was in terms of having a social life or what you do for fun, that there were sort of limited options of what that looked like. And I knew coming in that Greek life wasn't really for me as much as it seemed fun to have all those friends, I just knew I'm pretty introverted, and so I thought that's kind of a lot of social activities for me. Which you just have to be honest with yourself and know your limits. And I've been pleasantly surprised that there are so many different opportunities, especially if you get involved in clubs, and a lot of them, at least in my experience, will have different weekend activities that you can do. I know some do retreats. I know there's a hiking club that goes on different hikes, or rock climbing. I joined a ministry organization here my freshman year, and they do a lot of movie nights on Saturdays, where anybody is welcome to come, or cookouts, or we do breakfast for dinner. And so those are just some sort of specific examples in my experience, but I found that if you make an effort to join clubs and do activities that you're interested in, you'll find people who also have similar interests as you. That's a great way to make friends, and then that has really lent itself to a lot of different activities and things to help feel like I have a social life outside of my classes.

Meredith Aliff 

Absolutely. And that kind of also goes back to what we said earlier about if there's a hobby that you have, go seek out something for it, because there's going to be something that you can do for it, and they'll have events, and they'll have things that you can do outside of the stereotypical night in college.

Samantha 

Hi. My name is Sam Mumper. My majors are kinesiology and nutrition. I'm in an acapella group. I'm the president of a pre health fret, and yeah. So I think the biggest one that I had coming into college was that the dining hall food is not great, and I had heard that from, like, so many people who are in college. So I get here and I'm nervous, and then I'm walking around, and there's so many different options. I'm like, that's not true. This is awesome. So I think that's the only one that I could really think was like, like, really big coming in. So, did you have one?

Meredith Aliff 

Yeah. I was just thinking about, you know, especially as a fourth year, you know, second semester senior here, when I was deciding between colleges I had ... my top two were a really small one and then a bigger one. And I ended up choosing the bigger one. But I was really nervous coming in that I was just going to be a number, I wasn't going to know anybody, and that no matter how hard I tried, there's no way that I could make 17,000 people seem small or seem like I knew a majority of the people here on campus, right? That 100% has proven to not be the case. I feel like I literally can't go anywhere without running into people that I know, for better or for worse sometimes. But yeah, I definitely have come to feel like I know a ton of people on this campus, like the professors have not made me feel just like a number as well, like, you feel very heard and like you're your own person, and they care about your success. And then obviously the relationships you make, they just keep accumulating. So you end your four years definitely feeling like you can't get away from people that you know sometimes.

Samantha 

That's very true. That is interesting. I never thought of it that way, just because I feel like it's very much you have this ... like, there's a stigma around like, you just find your group of friends and that's who you have all four years. But like, then they introduce you to their friends, and it just keeps building. So, I always say you either know someone or you have a mutual friend.

Orin Edwards 

So my name is Orin Edwards, and I play football. Well, I guess more so just relative to me -- saying that student athletes can't do a rigorous major. I think that's the first stereotype that's clearly just been debunked.

Meredith Aliff 

Yeah, absolutely.

Orin Edwards 

Yeah. Because, I mean, even when I was being recruited here, I said, Well, how many people do ... How many biology majors are there on the team? And immediately the response I got was, "oh, zero. There's there's none," or "there was actually one guy, one, a couple. Years back. But, you know, I don't know, he was crazy for doing that," or ... and that's what they all like to say. He was "crazy," this word crazy, but I don't know what that essentially meant, because, am I crazy? Because I want to do this?

Meredith Aliff 

Right. Like, I mean, I think I'm doing pretty well.

Orin Edwards 

Right! I thought I was doing fine, but I guess you're calling me crazy now? You know? So that was what I got. Um, that was the stereotype, or the response I got initially - student athletes can't have this rigorous major. But now I debunked it. I have a friend. His name is Cam Kirk. He took the MCAT. He's doing well. A biology major as well. He plays football. And then also, last year, we had a person who graduated named Henry Beckett. He's at Cincinnati med school right now. So I think just kind of showing other young athletes that you can do school and you can do football. Just be disciplined. That's only thing it takes is discipline and consistency. And more so, just showing up every day. It's funny because one of my friends, he graduated from Michigan State with a finance degree, and now he has his master's here, he's getting another Master's. And I was like, you know, how'd you do that? And he played a lot at Michigan State. So I'm like, how did you balance playing a lot, being on the field, and a finance degree? And he just said, "I showed up every day." And that simple of an answer hit me so hard, because he said, "I don't know. I just showed up to class every single day. And four years later, now I have a degree," and he didn't do anything that was ordinary. He just put his head down and worked.

Meredith Aliff 

Right. Yeah, just don't do it halfway. I mean, you know, I think there's days when I get up and I'm like, the last thing I want to do is go to three classes, back to back to back right now. It sounds like the worst thing I could ever do with my day. I just want to lay in bed and get a couple more hours, you know, but to just be disciplined enough with yourself -- not even to do the most and be the star of the class and answer all the questions -- but to be there, take it in, really know that you are understanding and doing everything that is required of you to succeed. That's all you can do, especially when you're busy.

Orin Edwards 

Exaclty

Meredith Aliff 

You know you just have to don't do it halfway. You're already showing up. You may as well put in the appropriate amount of effort.

Orin Edwards 

Exaclty.

Meredith Aliff 

We hope you've enjoyed this special episode all about myth busting college stereotypes, and we hope you learned a little more about the realities of campus life along the way. Many more episodes of major insight are always available wherever podcasts are found.