The one thing you learned after your first semester of college?

Student Lounge College Life
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<p>I saw an earlier post in this thread recommending Rate My Professors to learn which ones to avoid.</p>

<p>You have got to be kidding. </p>

<p>By all means, learn what you can about professors ahead of time. Talk to people, and use evaluations sources that are actually based on reasonably sized samples. </p>

<p>But Rate My Professors is a known joke, and nothing but an unmonitored ad-space where, once in a while, you see a rating, but only from people holding a grudge. It is worthless. Find data you can use.</p>

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<p>Intelligence and your smartness comes less into play. Before in HS you could get away with just intelligence, in college, intelligence isn’t worth much. It is a good 90% hard work and putting the necessary time in. </p>

<p>For all those students who are cocky with their IB diplomas and AP’s thinking your first year will be a breeze since you’ve either learned it all in HS or know it all, you are wrong and YOU WILL FAIL! </p>

<p>I learned this from experience. I was once a cocky HS graduate with an IB diploma that I earned from mostly intelligence and smartness (no real time put in, wasn’t one of those “I do homework till 3 am everynight” people). I went through freshman year and it was a disaster even though the work wasn’t much harder.</p>

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<p>If you go to a top school, hard work does not always pay off. Some people get the material and others don’t. It’s important to know your goals and how to best structure your time. </p>

<p>And yes, start thinking post-college ASAP…most students bum around after graduation in order to “find themselves” and it’s a waste of time.</p>

<p>This a bit of a departure from most epiphanies in that it is depressing.</p>

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<p>Find the right friends. Don’t stick around with a group of people you met the first week, just for the sake of having friends.</p>

<p>Early classes are bad.</p>

<p>Stupid people get into college. Really. Stupid. People.</p>

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<p>Rate My Professors isn’t that bad to me. If a large majority of raters are writing the same thing, there’s probably some truth to it. K00fers is better though. You can’t beat hard data.</p>

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<p>Find a professor you can go to for anything - recommendation letters, etc. Always keep in touch with them.</p>

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<p>I learned that this definitely isn’t High School. There are still horrible people in college, but this is at the professional level. Instructors are a whole lot more serious than teachers.</p>

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<p>People are cut-throat and you really need to look out for no 1 or you’ll regret it.</p>

<p>* Like everybody but trust no one. *</p>

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<p>Schedule classes starting at 8:00 AM. The earlier it is, the more time you have later in the day.</p>

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<p>Avoid classes that go past 4pm. I had a classes like that for 4/5 days a week last semester, and it was so exhausting.</p>