20 Tips for first-year students: #9- Find a Quiet Place to Study at Mount Allison University

In the 9^th video in our 20-part tip series, fourth-year honours psychology student and Orientation Chair Aleka Maclellan discusses where she goes to find a quiet place to study. 

Personally, I have always favoured the 2nd floor of the library because it’s generally quiet and it’s where people go when they really need to get work done, so the atmosphere is fairly serious, especially around exam time. There’s also, as Aleka mentions, empty classrooms (especially Avard Dixon) that can be used by students after class. 

For non-music students, if you want to get away from everything and really get down to work, there’s the music library in the Music Conservatory. It’s always quiet there and it’s a spot almost nobody outside of the music program knows exists. Some other people are able to be productive at Bridge Street Café, but for me it’s too loud and busy, but could work with casual group work or meetings. If you are doing group work, there are lounges in each residence that are really good for this purpose. Wherever you choose to study, try to stay focused on your work, and not on Facebook.

Geoff Campbell
Communications Assistant
Mount Allison University

20 Tips for first-year students: #8- Transition to Life at Mount Allison University

In this video, fourth-year psychology and English student James Barth and fourth-year biochemistry student Erin Stewart give their take on adjusting to university life at Mount Allison.

I think an important point to make is that it is completely normal to feel a bit out of place and nervous at first — everyone feels that way. Mount Allison is an extremely welcoming community and there is no reason to worry that you won’t find where you fit in. Sometimes it takes a while for you to find your niche, but in the meantime just try to relax and enjoy the ride. Everybody will be in the same situation as you, so don’t be afraid to introduce yourself to new people. It is completely socially acceptable to find a group of strangers, both first-year and upper year students, and introduce yourself. Oh...and once again, remember to pack rain boots.


Geoff Campbell
Communications Assistant
Mount Allison University

20 Tips for first-year students: #7- Adjust from Abroad to Mount Allison University

In the 7th video tip in our 20-part series, third-year religious studies student Oudai (OD) AlTabbaa from Damascus, Syria  gives his advice on how new international students can adjust to life in Canada and at Mount Allison University. 

Speaking as a student who spent his youth growing up mostly in suburban Chicago, I didn’t experience culture shock or have trouble adjusting to Canadian life, but that’s not the same for everyone. I know that the International Centre offers all kinds of help with common issues like off-campus work permit applications, post-graduation work permits, filing taxes, health insurance, and a range of other services. 

Mount Allison also offers a mentorship program to incoming international students to be paired with an upper-year student to help them adjust to Canadian culture and Mount Allison in particular. Before you arrive there is also a 45-page handbook for international students with important information for international students. and there is even a service available for someone to meet you at the airport when you arrive.


Geoff Campbell
Communications Assistant
Mount Allison University

Vizualize.Me, the future of the résumé?

Last Monday I had a 10-minute Skype chat with Eugene Woo, the founder of start-up tech company Vizualize.Me, a service/app/website that turns your LinkedIn data and turns it into a beautiful infographic.

Vizualize.Me won first prize in Toronto Startup Weekend and has been featured on various tech blogs including Mashable.

I was able to talk to Eugene because I had heard about the service, signed up and invited many friends who signed up and are waiting for the public release. I contacted the company about using the private beta and Eugene responded personally to me with the invite code and then asked me to answer a quick survey and if I had time to discuss any feedback I had.

I agreed to a brief chat and a few days later we talked about what I could eventually see myself using the site for and what additions to the interface and design would be useful.  I know they're working on upgrading a lot of the functionality but it's looking pretty good right now. I'm really looking forward to the upgrades and using it to give people a simplified and colorized version of my information on LinkedIn.

Here's the my LinkedIn Profile the data is pulled from and the resultant Vizualize.Me infographic. LinkedIn is a great service for professional networking, recommendations, and knowledge sharing but it doesn't allow for much color or very much customization for people to stand out in a crowd.


I think that with the death of the paper résumé and the rise of LinkedIn, infographic-style résumés will eventually (5-8 years) become the norm first for creative professionals and then most others as companies look for the next big thing. What do you think?

For more context, here's him discussing the new project.



What do you think?

Feedback on videos for first-year students

As we are rolling out the 20 video tips we'd like to know what you think of them. In order to find out what kind of videos you find most useful, Mount Allison is soliciting feedback on the videos on our Facebook Page. If you have a moment please let us know what your favourite video is so far and any feedback you have on our poll. If you haven't seen all of the videos so far they're all available at YouTube.com/MountAllison. Thank you in advance for your valued feedback.

Geoff Campbell
Communications Assistant

20 Tips for first-year students: #6- Adapt to Academics at Mount Allison University

In this 6th out of 20 video tips for incoming Mount Allison University students, fourth-year environmental studies student Avery Wheeler returns to discuss the academic transition from high school to university.   

As I wrote on my blog back in September of my first year, “The main difference between high school and university is that there is nobody there to hold your hand or spoon feed you. You can come to class or not, you can read the book, or not...the only person it will affect is you.” 

In high school you probably had your parents and teachers reminding you to stay on top of things. In university classes, there’s no hand-holding. Professors at Mount Allison are very supportive and accessible, but you have to put in the work yourself. What you make of this great opportunity is entirely up to you.

Geoff Campbell
Communications Assistant
Mount Allison University