<p>I ended up (luckily) learning a lot of this on the fly during orientation and it ended up working out very well for me.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Don’t feel like you need to take hard classes. If you’re going into chemistry take the hardest chemistry. If you’re going into math take the hardest math. etc. No need to take 8.011, 18.022, and 5.112 (hopefully I got the numbers right, it’s been a long time) together. This helped me immensely while many of my friends ended up struggling in classes that at the end of it gave them depth in a subject that had little bearing on what they would do during college AND provided only a slight advantage at best.</p></li>
<li><p>Get your Hass-D’s and other Hass classes done as quickly as possible. Getting them done will allow for one to take cool electives in later years to go along with your harder classes.</p></li>
<li><p>Do the p-sets. Study for tests. Go to classes. And then when you’re solid on those drink/party/hang out/play video games as much as possible your freshman year. Honestly, it doesn’t get easier. I never regretted any of the supremely dumb stuff I did my freshman year. Don’t be too worried about stuff and miss out on having fun while you still like life a bit.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Those are my three golden rules.</p>