First days at the Institute:
The first few days at your U.S. vocational institute can be a truly exciting time. There will be many new students at the institute like you, all dealing with feelings of anticipation mixed with a certain amount of worry regarding how the first few months of study will go. During those first days, you may find yourself very busy getting organized and settling in. Your priorities may include letting your family at home know that you have arrived safely, becoming familiar with the institute, meeting new people, deciding on your academic program, and completing all administrative requirements so that your registration and enrollment are in order.
New student orientation programs offer a perfect opportunity to accomplish all of these tasks, to attend campus social events planned especially for new students, and to help ease the transition to a new place. Despite the excitement, it is not at all unusual for students to feel a certain degree of loneliness, homesickness, or anxiety during their first year.
U.S. vocational institutes and universities offer many sources of help and counsel, but the responsibility for seeking assistance lies with you, the student. In other words, if you need help, it is up to you to seek it out among the many resources the educational institution offers.
The Academic Year:
For most colleges and universities, the academic year begins in late August or early September and ends in May or June. The "semester" system divides the academic year into two equal terms of approximately 16 weeks each. For schools on a "quarter" system, the academic year is divided into three equal terms of approximately 11 weeks each. Usually, there is also a fourth summer quarter.
The "trimester" system has equal terms of approximately 16 weeks each, including a summer term. Most students take the summer off, and international students are generally not required to study during the summer. Some students, however, choose to go to summer school and earn credits, which may help them complete their degree work more quickly than is normally required.
Honor Code:
Most vocational institutes, colleges and universities in the United States have established honor codes or statements of rules students are expected to follow in their academic work. These rules relate primarily to academic honesty and originality as they are defined by U.S. educational institutions. Many international students have discovered that U.S. academic rules are much different from the ones they followed at home. U.S. educational institutions take these rules very seriously, and ignorance ofles at a U.S. institute, college or university. The school honor code, or the school code of conduct, is distributed to new students.
Even if a particular academic practice is accepted in your country or is part of your culture, it will not be an acceptable explanation for violating the rules at the very beginning of the semester and is frequently a topic for discussion during new student orientation. If you have any questions about what to do regarding any of these issues, talk to your instructor, your academic adviser, or the international student adviser. There is a U.S. idiom that applies here: "It is better to be safe than sorry."
Cheating:
Cheating is considered to be a failure of honesty in U.S. vocational institutes. It means getting unauthorized help on an assignment, quiz, or examination. You must not receive from anyone, nor give to anyone, any information, answers, or help during an examination or any kind of test. You must not take notes or books to the examination if this is forbidden, and you must not refer to any books or notes while you are taking the test unless you are instructed otherwise. Sometimes students who speak a foreign language during an examination are perceived by others to be cheating, even though they may simply be asking a fellow student in their native language for a piece of paper or an eraser. You should be aware of this and try to avoid suspicion.
Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is another kind of cheating. It is the failure to do your own original work in written assignments. Instead, you use someone else's words or ideas as though they were your own, without crediting the source. Plagiarism is considered literary and intellectual theft and is vigorously condemned in academic work. When quoting words or ideas from books, magazines, websites, recordings, films, or other sources of information, always make sure you give appropriate credit to the author in your text. Many U.S. institutes have specific guidelines to follow when quoting an author and some of them publish guides for papers. Make sure you are aware of the university policies on quoting words and ideas to avoid being accused of plagiarism.
Study Skills:
It is common for students to think that they already know how to be a successful student, that if they do the readings and study hard, they'll get good grades. But different teaching methods - in some cases a different language, different academic backgrounds, and a different campus culture - can reshape your ability to be successful.
Most colleges and universities will offer a variety of free, short-term classes that will help you be a successful student. Topics may include utilizing your school's library resources to write a research paper, navigating the Internet for academic purposes, developing good study skills, and practicing effective time management.
If English is not your first language, your grades may be improved by a visit to the university writing center, by taking an ESL course, or by joining an informal English conversation group. There are also excellent study-skills websites on the Internet.