As a new college student, your responsibilities begin to stack up and making sure you’re living a balanced life becomes increasingly difficult. Being academically successful is important, but doesn’t pain a full picture of wellness on campus. Here are some tips we have to help you stay healthy.
Stay up to date with your immunizations
Getting your immunizations is an important party of staying healthy at UMD. On campus you’ll be in contact with thousands of other students every day and while you’re abroad you may come in contact with disease that aren’t part of the standard battery of immunizations in the United States. Getting immunized against diseases like meningitis can be a life-saver.
UMD requires that students be vaccinated against certain diseases. Each student must complete and submit an immunization record to the University Health Center (UHC). The immunization record documents each vaccination you have received and when it was given. The immunization record can be found here. Immunization records were due on the date of your orientation, but you must submit your immunization record to the UHC before the first day of classes to avoid paying a late fee.
If you require immunizations for your immunization record, or if you are traveling internationally and aren’t sure what immunizations you might need, you can visit the UHC’s immunization and travel clinics.
Immunization Clinic:
Immunizations are not free but can be charged to your student account
- For appointments, visit MyUHC or call (301) 314-8184.
- For questions, call (301) 314-8114 or email UHC-imm@umd.edu
Travel Clinic:
The UHC International Travel Clinic sees many faculty, staff and students who are traveling around the world, either as part of their research and study programs, or just backpacking for enjoyment. Ideally students visit the travel clinic 4-6 weeks before their travel date but students can make an appointment as soon as they know their destination. The Travel Clinic can offer suggestions for immunizations, up-to-date information about political situations, advice for how to manage food and water, and more. The cost to you will depend on what services and immunizations are rendered.
Or, visit the UHC page directly here.
Live a balanced life
For many students, college is the first time you are in total control over your own schedule. You’ve chosen your classes, you make your own social calendar, and its your responsibility to make and keep your own appointments. As Honors Students, its easy to see how you might prioritize academics above other areas of your life. However, making sure you take breaks, spend time with friends, and have other, fulfilling activities in your life is an important step in taking care of your mental health.
Symptoms of depression are common in the first year of college for many freshmen, but doing your best to spend time with friends, build a social network of support, and taking time to decrease stress are all ways to fend of feeling down (Brandy, Penckofer, Solari-Twadell, & Belsor-Friedrich, 2015).
If you find that you are exhibiting symptoms of anxiety or depression, you might also consider scheduling yourself an appointment with the Counseling Center.
Get enough sleep
With looming deadlines and upcoming exams, the urge to pull and all-nighter can be strong. However, sleep plays an important role in mood, memory, and health that may make you second guess your decision to stay up all night.
In general, getting enough sleep is an important predictor of health in a variety of areas. Getting just the right amount of sleep (not too much or too little) on a regular basis is associated with performing well academically (Taylor et al., 2013), fewer symptoms of poor mental health including depresion, anxiety, and stress (Kenney, Lac, LaBrie, Hummer, & Pham, 2013), and fewer bouts of insomnia (Gellis, Park, Stotsky, & Taylor, 2014). Getting too much or too little sleep, or having a highly variable bedtime, can negatively impact your health in a number of ways.
Moreover, pulling that all-nighter might not even help you pass that exam. People who are sleep deprived greatly overestimate their ability to perform on a variety of tasks, particularly memory related tasks. In objective measurements of performance, people who are sleep deprived perform much more poorly on memory related task than do their well-rested counterparts, though both groups rate themselves as equally able to complete such tasks. Furthermore, when you deprive yourself of sleep you are increasing your risk of memory loss, impaired moral judgment, ADHD symptoms, heart disease, tremors, delayed reaction time, impaired immune system, and type 2 diabetes.
In fact, one study likened sleep deprivation to the mind of a person with an elevated Blood Alcohol Content. While going without sleep for just a short while only partially impaired subjects’ ability to perform well on simple tasks testing things like reaction time, eye-tracking, memory, and vigilance, subjects who had gone fore more than 17 hours without sleeping performed more poorly subjects who were well-rested but legally drunk (with BAC levels above .05) (Williamson & Feyer, 2000). If you wouldn’t take that midterm drunk, why would you take it not having slept?
Keep up with your physical health
It’s always a good idea to see a physician regularly, and the University Health Center (UHC) has you covered. Want to establish the UHC as your primary care provider? Set up an appointment with a provider at the UHC by visiting http://www.myuhc.umd.edu and clicking “make an appointment.” You’ll be able to select the reason you’re making an appointment and be provided with a list of providers and times at which they’re available. Feel more comfortable making an appointment by phone? Have your UID ready and call 301-314-8184. The UHC is also able to provide most laboratory and radiology services. Find more information at http://www.health.umd.edu.
Keeping up with your physical health also has to do with your diet. As students you have access to free Nutrition Coaching services as well as a paid Registered Dietitian Consultation ($20/visit). Nutrition Coaching Services gives students of the University of Maryland the opportunity to work with a nutrition coach (a trained senior dietetics intern, supervised by the campus Registered Dietitian) one-on-one to develop an individualized plan for meeting their dietary goals. Here, you’ll develop individual nutrition plans focus on behavior change, as well as dietary habits that fit into your lifestyle and which will support your nutrition goals. Visit their website to learn more: http://www.health.umd.edu/nutritionservices
For physical activity, you might check out University Recreation and Wellness (RecWell). RecWell is designed to encourage wellness across the 8 dimensions of wellness for students. This includes resources like our Eppley Recreation Center with its indoor track, indoor lap pool, and free weights, but also includes the Adventure Progam. Check out their website for more information about how you might stay active on campus: http://www.recwell.umd.edu
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