<p>I'm a senior in high school and I'll be starting college in the fall. Obviously it's still relatively early, but I figure the more prepared I am the better. </p>
<p>Anyway, what are some things you wish you had known before you started college? From skills to helpful advice... basically, anything you can think of that would have been helpful to know as a college freshman. Thank you!</p>
<ol>
<li><p>How to pay attention in class (I learned this sophomore year but it CAN be learned)</p></li>
<li><p>Happiness/mental health comes first, if you don’t have enough friends or don’t get enough sleep you won’t be happy enough to get your work done efficiently</p></li>
<li><p>Programs that block the Internet</p></li>
<li><p>Don’t hang out with people that will draw you away from college life (like people who live an hour away from campus, or people who insist on spending every free moment with you)</p></li>
<li><p>Don’t hang out with people you don’t actually like</p></li>
<li><p>How to form study groups with people (start by doing them a favor, such as giving them the lecture notes for a class they missed, or teaching them how to do something on their problem set)</p></li>
<li><p>Make as many friends as possible your first year because it gets harder after that</p></li>
<li><p>Keep your room organized and figure out a plan for getting healthy meals without spending too much time on cooking. Don’t eat out every day, you will gain weight and spend a lot of money. Also make sure you have enough clothes for all weather, it really improves your quality of life. In general try to be organized and have the basic lifeskills down because it will really help</p></li>
<li><p>Have a roommate, it’s a lot less lonely to come back to your room at night and see that someone else is there. This depends on your style though, and to a large extent it depends on how easy you are to get along with (if you’re easy to get along with, you’ll find that most of your roommates are good roommates, and if not, you’ll find that most of them are bad roommates)</p></li>
<li><p>Take all your notes in the same notebook, and for every class, try to squeeze all the lecture material onto the front and back side of one page. This cuts down on how much you have to carry around with you.</p></li>
<li><p>Back up your files on Dropbox (saved my butt when my computer broke)</p></li>
<li><p>If you’re in math or physics, LaTeX your sets</p></li>
<li><p>(Depending on where you live) make sure your apartment has a heater and an air conditioner</p></li>
<li><p>Printer</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Almost forgot</p>
<ol>
<li><p>How to sleep with earplugs on</p></li>
<li><p>If you have enough money, don’t sleep on your dorm room bed, buy your own awesome mattress and use the dorm room bed as a couch. Good sleep is worth it.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>^holy crap </p>
<p>good advice</p>
<p>Focus on getting “good enough” grades Freshman/Sophomore year, while still being able to party hard. Junior year you will absolutely have NO time, and depending on what your plans are for after graduation, the social aspect will have to take a backseat.</p>
<p>I gunned for that 4.0 right out of the gate. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I didn’t get the 4.0 but got close enough, but I definitely feel like I missed out on a lot of great party weekends where I simply had to study. I was able to get more out of the academic aspect, and scored nice internships early on, but those are two years I could’ve balanced better in regards to partying/chicks/etc. </p>
<p>And now that I’m almost done with Junior year, I really don’t have time to party at ALL, with a bunch of career/grad school stuff on my plate on top of extremely hard major classes. </p>
<p>So yea, definitely try to strike a balance between good grades and maintaining a great social life Freshman/Soph. year. You’ll most likely be taking Gen-Eds, which are easy enough to coast by on.</p>
<p>invest in an external hard drive if you need a ton of storage and keep up with the lecture materials.</p>
<ol>
<li>Make sure to apply early for a job depending on where your college is. My college is in a small college town so I made the mistake of not applying sooner. </li>
<li>Do not expect college to be that different from High School depending on where you go. If you are going to a state institution like Eastern Washington University you are more likely to run across low life’s that mooch off other peoples work and try to cheat off you. If you have the grades try going to a private institution with a scholarship and make sure to be centered around a city. ( I was unlucky enough to not get into a private school like Whitworth even though I had a 3.7 cumulative GPA) </li>
<li>Be careful who you choose to make friends with some people get into college and tend to not belong. 4. do not spend too much time fooling around or watching pretty little liars. 
</li>
<li>Plan out your meals if your school has a market try to go there for healthier options and go to the campus gym to relieve stress.</li>
<li>Go to a freshmen dorm and if you do not want a roommate try applying for a single. IF you want a roommate that is fine do not trust room sync and if there are problems be prepared in-case you have a room change. </li>
<li>Invest in a safe to lock valuables.</li>
</ol>
<p>
</p>
<p>Parent here. I don’t agree with this statement. From my daughter’s experience, she made more friends her sophomore year compared to her freshman year.</p>
<p>Get enough sleep, try to make healthy food choices, and get regular exercise.</p>
<p>Take advantage of internships as early in college as possible. They will be invaluable when you’re looking for a job when you graduate.</p>
<p>Don’t take all the advice you hear on these boards (for example, “If you go to a state university, you will more likely run across low lifes.”)</p>
<p>Pinning to my profile!</p>
<p>I got some!:
<p>Just my addition to the advice already given.
<p>My major…</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Bring your laptop to humanities class. You probably type faster than you write. If you type fast enough you can even take dictation, which helps a lot if you want to use lecture notes to write papers.</p></li>
<li><p>Don’t study in your dorm, you’ll probably get distracted</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><p>DO STUFF YOU ARE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH. </p></li>
<li><p>Try to engage with activities and ideas that will inform your sense of right and wrong. Like, if you’re really secular, join a bible study. If you have a deep faith in one of the monotheistic religions (won’t stereotype stuff I dont’ know about), make friends with an LGBTQ* person.</p></li>
<li><p>If you’re not playing a sport, join a club. Don’t make your life all about the academics.</p></li>
<li><p>Or all about the parties. Seriously, join a club. (or a sport. sports are fun.)</p></li>
<li><p>If you’re shy, force yourself to talk to/hang out with people EARLY ON. Because after the first 2 weeks, groups will have already formed, and it will be increasingly harder for you to break into a mold.</p></li>
<li><p>Make friends with the upperclassmen. You get a lot of free stuff when they leave for study abroad/forever.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Academically:
Take a class that will have challenging, academic readings (philosophy - but gurus can attempt critical theory). If you can get through a Foucault essay without having to re-read seven times, you will be able to do all your other classes’ reading while balancing on one foot, buttering a toast, and watching 30 Rock.</p>
<p>Still a freshman, but . .</p>
<p>1) The importance of study skills. Whatever might have worked for you in high school, you need to be on top of everything in many challenging college classes. Do the readings before, start studying for exams early, etc . . .
2) “Be social”. If you’re ever deciding whether or not to do something, do it. You never have to do it again, but you have to try it once, and you might find out you like it! (I believe this is also a strategy to get little kids to eat vegetables).
3) Make study groups. They help a lot, both as a way to learn, and as a support system when you feel like you just can’t do well.
4) Don’t be afraid. Sometimes, you just have to do it, not worry about how scary it might be or the possible repercussions. It’ll get better if you just take the plunge.
5) Avoid drama. You’re living with everybody. You eat, sleep, socialize, study, and go to classes/events with your friends and classmates. Since you can’t necessarily “escape” the drama, try your best to minimize it, not cause it, or stay out of it.
6) You’re an adult now. You can act like one.</p>