The first half-semester of the 2018 school year is now over, which means that iMU is also coming to an end for the current freshmen.

Each freshman’s experience with the course has been unique depending on their Laker Leader and their iMU instructor.

So, too, will their opinions on iMU be unique.

Most freshmen who I have talked to have a lot of gripes with iMU, and some even outright have disliked iMU.

I personally think that iMU was a good thing for the class of 2022 to experience.

If we never took iMU, we would be more lost than we already are when it comes to activities on campus, resources and locations for us to use.

I will not say that the course is perfect, but I will say that most freshmen are being too hard on it.

A majority of the gripes that I have heard about the course boil down to people just wanting that class time as free time, or that the course was not structured well enough.

I certainly agree with some of these complaints. There were definitely days that I contemplated not going to class because I did not feel like hearing about some topic I could easily read about from the $5 “Need-to-Know” packet.

Some freshmen even saw a problem with needing to spend $5 on this course.

But even taking that into account, freshmen should not be so overly negative just because they wanted some free time or did not like their instructor.

The information and tools that were given to us may seem trivial now, but could really benefit us later in our college career.

It was because of that information that I, ultimately, found the course very useful.

With the “scavenger hunt,” which included needing to find offices across the school, I was actually able to ask questions and even make a few connections to faculty that may be useful later in my college career.

If nothing else, just knowing where these offices are could help.

I also learned how to schedule for Advising Day, and what students should do in preparation for it.

Even the same freshmen who say that they disliked the course will agree that this is something they would not have been able to do themselves.

All freshmen should know who to go to and what to do if they are in need of academic support, something that everyone may need some time in their college career.

Without iMU, they may not have any clue, which could hurt their academic progression in the future.

Sure, interactivity is something that is hard to get right, and you can never cater to everyone’s needs, but iMU does its best between each course.

I will agree with most freshmen that there should be more structure from one iMU section to another.

Either way, iMU is a freshman’s best friend, and while some freshmen will say that it was useless today to the day of their graduation, the aspects and themes of the course will always be with them.

The tools that were given to us may not see much immediate use, but we know what to do and where to go whenever we are lost.

Without iMU, who knows what most freshmen would be doing when they need help?