COLA 1500

This is easily the best COLA you could take. I ended up in it because the ones I initially wanted were full, and I am so lucky that I did. Throughout the semester Prof Maxwell really only tasks you with two things- write a journal about your day every night, and be honest with yourself when you do it. Classes consisted of reading anonymous journals and having a very free discussion after, where you guys can discuss everything scary about being a first year. This class was so rewarding and helped me through a lot of the really hard adjustments of first semester. Not to mention, Prof. Maxwell is just about the nicest guy you'll ever meet, genuinely cares about you (not just for this semester, pretty much for forever), and has some pretty cool life stories.

This is easily the best COLA you could take. I ended up in it because the ones I initially wanted were full, and I am so lucky that I did. Throughout the semester Prof Maxwell really only tasks you with two things- write a journal about your day every night, and be honest with yourself when you do it. Classes consisted of reading anonymous journals and having a very free discussion after, where you guys can discuss everything scary about being a first year. This class was so rewarding and helped me through a lot of the really hard adjustments of first semester. Not to mention, Prof. Maxwell is just about the nicest guy you'll ever meet, genuinely cares about you (not just for this semester, pretty much for forever), and has some pretty cool life stories.

This class was very cool and interesting. You learn things that you can apply to real life and hopefully take with you through life. The journals (although somewhat tedious at times) are quite helpful in the end because it is nice to have an outlet to express your thoughts and feelings. It's also cool to have a record of your first semester at UVA because it goes really fast. Make an effort to get to know Professor Maxwell and your peers because everyone is interesting and has more stuff going on than meets the eye.

TAKE THIS COLA!! Cliff is a great professor and you will get close with all 18 people in the class! Reading the journals that everybody else wrote in class really did help make me feel less alone in my first-year struggles - this class shows you that a lot of the problems you're facing in regards to college are not issues that you have to go through by yourself and a lot more people than you think can relate to you. Actually keeping up with a daily journal can be a struggle and Cliff really expects you to stay on top of it, but it's worth it in the end to be able to look back and see the change in yourself. My class ended up becoming good friends with one another and we have a GroupMe and Snapchat group that we still keep up with :) This class is worth your time - come take it!

Cliff is a great prof, and he really cares about the well being of his students. You will have to write a daily 1-page friendship journal throughout the semester, but don't let it deter you because this class is very rewarding, emotionally and friendship-wise!

This class literally changed my life. Professor Maxwell is amazing and definitely my favorite professor at UVA - I'm so happy to have him as my advisor. The class had no reading and no papers - you don't even have to buy any books. The only assignment was a daily one-page journal (yes, even weekends and breaks), which sounds a lot harder than it was. We were supposed to write anything about friendship, but we had the freedom to write about really anything. During class, we had 15 minutes or so at the beginning just to chat with our classmates. Professor Maxwell printed out our journals but kept them anonymous, so for the rest of class, we read each others' journals aloud and discussed them. It was really comforting to know that other students were feeling the exact same anxiety/nervousness/disillusionment with the first few weeks of college. I became really good friends with the people in my class, and we even had a catered Chipotle dinner that the previous year's class organized. I loved this class!!!