<p>If you could offer only one piece of advice to a new freshman about college-most specifically about freshman year, what would it be?</p>
<p>Grades matter more than you think and cramming the night before is not going to substitute for weeks of work like it did in high school.</p>
<p>If I could offer a second piece of advice: For the first time in your life, you are really free to do stupid things without much likelihood of getting caught - right away. One young man I know got a girl pregnant. She didn't believe in abortion, either. Now he's got to pay child-support for the next 18 years and he's a father for life. Remember it really isn't hard to goof your life up. Don't.</p>
<p>Nail your target GPA your freshman year. Center the decisions you make around this goal. </p>
<p>Use EC's and new activities as the focus of your college/young adult freedom, not substances.</p>
<p>Dad's five rules for college:</p>
<p>1) Don't flunk out</p>
<p>2) Don't get arrested</p>
<p>3) Don't get pregnant</p>
<p>4) Don't get HIV/AIDS</p>
<p>5) Never get in a car with a driver who has been drinking.</p>
<p>Go to class, every day, every class. If you read the threads through out you find that that is probably the single biggest indicator of success. You also then learn to manage the rest of the things going on around you so that you can - go to class.</p>
<p>Take risks, take a course in something that is something you couldn't possibly have taken in high school. The obscure little specialty of a professor will often teach you more about the subject than the big survey course. The best course I took as an undergrad was called "Chinese landscape painting of the Sung Dynasty." I was not an art history major by the way.</p>
<p>BTW I totally disagree that your freshman year GPA will define you forever. I had nothing but B's my first term freshman year, but graduated magna cum laude and got a *summa *on my senior thesis. Not that I recommend cramming either - especially if you take a language course - it can't be done.</p>
<p>This echoes a previous comment: never miss class, sit in the front row (especially if it's a large lecture hall), and PAY ATTENTION.</p>
<p>Also, freshman need to get into an EC group that has lots of sophs, jrs, & srs in it.</p>
<p>I agree with standrews and singersmom07...going to every single class is the very best advice.
I would also say to take a manageable course load during the first term. So many freshman are overwhelmed by their freedom and the increased academic expectations...pick classes you are excited about and take them seriously.</p>
<p>Make good friends. Branch out. Make a point of getting to know people you might not have hung out with in high school. Join a club or activity that's new to you. Form study groups. It's an election year: work for a political candidate. Discover the joy of talking, arguing, and laughing late into the night about something controversial, or something outrageously silly. This side of the college experience--including the good friends--will stay with you forever.</p>
<p>Take advantage of the chance to reinvent yourself. You are coming in with a clean slate...change your name/nickname if you always wanted to, explore new things, be the person you want to be, not the one everyone thought you were.</p>
<p>Learn to be an advocate for yourself. Don't be afraid to speak up and ask for help if you need it. No one will be holding your hand when you go to college or checking to see if you understand something or if you need help. The resources are available, so make good use of what your college offers.</p>
<p>Take care of your body. </p>
<p>Get enough sleep. Don't live entirely on junk food. Don't skip a lot of meals just because it's a long walk to the dining hall. Don't drink huge quantities of alcohol or take illegal drugs. Don't ride with drunk drivers. Dress for the weather. If you get sick, go to the college clinic and do what the doctor there tells you to do.</p>
<p>Your parents used to help ensure that you did these sorts of things at home. Now, it's your responsibility.</p>
<p>Make good judgements. Remember: If it doesn't feel right, it's probably not right.</p>
<p>From S1 (who just finished first year): Make sure you (seek out and) surround yourself with people you want to be with. S1 had roommates that weren't a great fit, but he sought out and found a great group of guys with whom he'll live next year. That happened 2nd semester, and really made the rest of the year great for him.</p>
<p>As practical advice:</p>
<p>a) Get in the habit of going to the library after dinner to study each night. More good intentions have been waylaid in the dorms. </p>
<p>b) Find out all of the support resources offered by our school (RAs, psych couseling, Deans, writing mentors, study groups, etc.) Know what they are and don't be afraid to use them as appropriate.</p>
<p>c) If you are a girl, know that heavy drinking puts you at serious risk of date rape. Don't put yourself in that situation. If you are a guy, understand the legal implications of an intoxicated girl being unable to give legal consent. Think about what being charged with rape would mean to your life. Don't put yourself in that situation.</p>
<p>Haven't read any of these replies, but here's what I would say after just finishing my first year:</p>
<p>Independence is AWESOME. The freedom is so much fun, but requires a lot of responsibility. You will do a lot of growing up your freshman year and will learn a lot about yourself. Be prepared for a new type of independence--college can get pretty lonely, and probably for the first time in your life you will have to rely on yourself primarily to cheer up and figure it out. You can do it, but just know that college isn't always a walk in the park. It can be really taxing! You'll learn so much more outside of classes than inside them, so make sure you put effort into forming solid friendships.</p>
<p>Building on that, remember that there's so much more to your education than what classes you take. If you want to skip class to watch America's Next Top Model reruns with your roommate all day, do it every once in awhile. (However, know that going to every class is your best bet for succeeding in classes and that the primary reason for going to college is to get an education which, for the most part, involves classes) Sick of studying and want to play frisbee on the quad? Be my guest (I actually just got in from doing that). Stay up late talking to your new friends. Experiment with dining halls. Have a good time and most importantly, be yourself. You have a really unique opportunity to completely start over--you're not your high school self any more--so take advantage of it and live really genuinely.</p>
<p>Just my $0.02. Enjoy!</p>
<p>First: Take care of your body. Live moderately. Use common sense. Budget your time. Get enough sleep, because extreme and/or chronic fatigue will wreck your health and your grades. </p>
<p>Very important: Dispose of as many required “core” courses and intended major prerequisite courses as possible, so that you can steadily advance through your chosen academic program without having to waste time on such courses as an upperclassman. Bear in mind, however, that many freshman year core and prerequisite courses are often considered “weeder” courses, and are graded on a wicked curve. So, don’t dismiss introductory courses as “easy,” and then make the mistake of cutting class, rushing through labs and research papers, and cramming for tests. If you do so, you’ll receive low grades, which will negatively impact your GPA for the next three years, endanger your merit scholarships, and might even "weed" you out of your intended major.</p>
<p>Also important: If you are attending college away from home, expect to become homesick for a time. Homesickness is a normal, natural reaction to living in a new and strange environment. Every individual experiences homesickness uniquely. Homesickness is distracting while it lasts, but it rarely lasts longer than a month. If you anticipate and prepare for homesickness, then you will recognize it when it hits you, and you will be ready and able to deal with it.</p>
<p>Finally: Don’t allow your “friends” to waste your time. Construct a study schedule, and stick to it. Have an open door policy for socializing, but a closed door policy for studying, and insist that your friends leave you alone while you are studying. If your friends do not respect your need to study, then these people are not really your friends; they are merely your time-wasters. Have alternative places to study if your dorm room/suite starts to resemble Grand Central Station.</p>
<p>As a college language prof, let me underline the importance of going to class every day and paying attention. There are many reasons for this:</p>
<p>1) think of it as an hour of studying for that class that you won't have to do later
2) most good teachers let the class know during class what is important, what to study, what is going to be on the test/final. If you aren't there, you won't know. Listen and take notes. Participate if that is expected.
3) show an interest in the class, even if it's a required class outside your major. Be awake and have the necessary materials with you. Dress for class (ie. no pajamas, wear shoes); don't look like you just rolled out of bed and didn't comb your hair/shower/brush your teeth. Be on time. Mute your cell phone. Remember the professor (even if it is a grad student) has spent years devoting his/her time to learning the subject that they are teaching and enjoy it.<br>
4) if you ask questions, make sure they are pertinent and show you've been paying attention (ie. not about information covered on the syllabus, something that has just been discussed/explained). A teacher's pet peeve is usually the question, "What do I have to do to get an A/B/C, etc.?"<br>
5) establish a relationship with the teacher early in the semester by doing the above. Don't wait until the last week when you are frantically worrying about a grade. That way, if you need extra help/extra time/or to be given the benefit of the doubt, you are more likely to get it. Make sure the teacher can put a face with the name on the roster. Teachers take a dim view of a student who shows up the last week or two of class wanting to know how to improve their grade two letter grades because they blew off the rest of the semester.
6) go over material/notes from a class that same day to cement them in your mind. It will be much more effective that waiting until the hour before the next class, particularly over the weekend.</p>
<p>Most teachers are there because they a) love their subject matter and/or b) love to teach and genuinely want to help students. Of course, there are exceptions, but by and large this is the case. Respect the teacher and his or her knowledge. The vast majority of teachers are not out to get students, and if you show interest and effort, they will go out of their way to help you. Sometimes such a student in one of those huge required lecture courses will make the teacher's not just day but year. Nothing is more discouraging to a teacher than looking out over a sea of dozing/bored/otherwise occupied faces.</p>
<p>Remember the goal of taking a course is to learn the material and respond in the way the teacher asks the student to. There are many different styles and methods. If you are asked to do something that you don't particularly enjoy (I hated group work, some people don't like to do personal journals, etc.), join in with good grace. It will not help you to complain or insult the method used by the teacher. That said, if you truly have difficulty completing a particular task, talk to the teacher. Maybe they might be willing to come up with an alternative assignment. </p>
<p>I am continually amazed by the number of students with "attitude"--who think they know how the course should be taught, who only express concern for their grade but are unwilling to complete the assignments/course requirements which are clearly expressed on the syllabus, who want extra credit during the last week of class, who denigrate the subject matter, etc.</p>
<p>One bit of advice to those who attend large universities. As you go through your school career, think about those teachers whom you might like to ask to write you a letter of recommendation as you prepare for grad school or the work world. If you are primarily in large classes and maybe have a particular prof only once during an early semester, he or she may not remember you well enough to write a letter later on. If you establish a relationship with that prof and keep in touch periodically, you will still have a connection with your recommender. My S didn't think of this, and when he was ready to graduate a number of the profs he had in his major a few semesters earlier didn't really remember him well enough to write a letter.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your advice. It has been particularly wonderful to get "pointers" from so many different points of view: professors, grads, current students and parents!</p>
<p>What I wish my son would do:</p>
<p>Eat right, sleep right, exercise, go to class--every class, pay attention, do homework, plan ahead--budget time--stop procrastinating, ask for help if needed.</p>
<p>AND cold turkey off the computer games.</p>