By now I hope you all know that the UW is an extraordinary university, rich with remarkable opportunities for its students. But in case you hadn’t noticed, it’s also kind of big.

Need proof? Sit up in the balcony of Kane 130 in David Domke’s com class. There may be more folks there than in your hometown. Alas, because of its size and vast academic scope, a passive student can drift through Montlake for years, failing to take full — or hardly any — advantage of the academic and social treasures the UW has to offer. Sadly, some students miss the experience altogether, opting to sleepwalk through their four years here with a typical high-school mentality, perhaps summed up something like this: “My grades are all I care about because my high GPA will get me the job or career to which I aspire.”

Although little could be further from the truth, these drifters choose to enroll only in the purported easiest classes on campus (can you name them?) even if they have no interest whatsoever in those classes.

They choose not to stretch themselves intellectually — even the slightest bit — by showing up in any of the fascinating but challenging classes we offer, always fearing that they just might get a lousy grade and harm their precious GPA. Their core belief: “I only need to amass my 180 credits to become college educated.”

But do 12 disconnected quarters, marked by roughly 50 less-than-memorable classes, constitute a rich and meaningful education?

I agreed to write this brief professor’s-eye view of the UW’s vast possibilities to stop this grades-are-the-only-thing madness — so I’m speaking now directly to the first-year students and chronic UW drifters out there. After hanging out on campus for 27 years, I have a handful of suggestions to share with you that in my humble opinion may substantially enrich your UW experience.

Never — and I mean never — take a class without knowing who the professor is and what your fellow students say about professor. We have some absolutely stellar professors on the campus and we have some who are absolutely dreadful. If you hate your professors and your classes it’s your fault.

Pick all of your classes based on the professor — when you can — and not on the time the class is offered and how far you have to walk in the rain. Buy an umbrella, get an alarm clock and check ratemyprofessors.com, but always take the great professors.

Meet every single one of your professors personally — not through e-mail — every quarter.

You may not realize this, but you need us. Want to study abroad? You need a recommendation from one of your professors. Want to do an internship for credit? You need a professor to sponsor you. Want to go to med school, law school, get an MBA? You need three letters of recommendation from your professors. Start now, start today, building relationships with your professors. Go to their office hours, and come prepared with thoughts and questions about their subject areas — they’ve got big egos and love to talk about their fields.

Don’t be intimidated by the trappings of their scholarship. (By the way, see all those books in their offices? They haven’t read all of them. They got many of them free from publishers.) Your professors are regular people with regular lives — they play sports, they go to movies, they watch Grey’s Anatomy; you can talk to them without fearing that you’ll sound dumb.

Do things related to your courses that are not assigned in the syllabus. You may think I’m insane to suggest this, but I think you should go to your professors when something in class sparks your interest and ask to borrow readings that have not been assigned for the course.

Your professors will think you’re a student superstar, they’ll remember your name, and you’ll get a better grade. Go to seminars in your courses’ departments — they’re open to everybody — and listen to what the majors, grad students and professors are thinking about.

You may not understand some of what’s being discussed, but you’ll feel damn good about being part of such a scholarly community. Besides, there’s usually free food — muffins at least, sometimes pizza; always a good thing — and you’ll have something impressive to discuss with your professors when you do visit their office hours. They will be thrilled and amazed that their undergraduate students are attending these scholarly sessions. Again, you’ll be a superstar.

Create something on campus that is your own unique legacy. Leave your mark. Over the years, I have worked with the students who founded RainyDawg radio, the Dream Project, the Relay for Life and the Multi-Greek Stepshow, to name a few. These enterprises have changed the face of the UW and are now part of the fabric of our campus culture. How about leaving something like this behind? All you have to do is want it.

I can go on and on about such things, but I’m out of space. Just remember that you should all be about the business of making extraordinary college memories for yourselves. But, this is, after all, a big university, so no one will do it for you.

You’ll have to do it yourself, and some of us faculty types will be happy to help … if you ask us.

Stanley Chernicoff

Principal lecturer,

Earth and Space Sciences