<p>I got this off the uci lj site and thought it was pretty sound advice for incoming freshman like myself…</p>
<p>Dorm Life
*If you’re building a Loft… build the loft before you try to move your stuff in. It makes it easier when moving long pieces of lumber around in a tiny room.</p>
<p><em>If you can, get a nice desk chair. When you’re sitting at your computer doing homework, you’ll definitly want something better than the wooden piece of </em>* most schools give you.</p>
<p>*Make sure that you double check your networking settings when you plug into the network so you’re not sharing anything you don’t want others to see… and make sure your printer isn’t shared… you don’t want someone to find it and print 300 pages of goatse in the middle of the night.</p>
<p>*If you live anywhere where its at least 80 in the day at anytime of the year… get a fan. Well, if your dorm isn’t air conditioned. The fan will give you hope to sleep at night when your room is stuffy as hell.</p>
<p>*Make sure you bring some snack food, you’ll want it when you can’t get to a cafeteria or you’re hungry when one isn’t open. Also, make sure you hide it from your roommate if you don’t trust them. There’s nothing worse than finding your last box of ramen noodles gone when you’re starving.</p>
<p><em>If you know your roommate from highschool… bring some possible blackmail material… maybe photos of him/her doing stupid *</em>**. You never know when it might come in handy</p>
<p>*Study and do homework inbetween classes during the day. That way, at night you will be free to do whatever you want with the people in the hall. No one likes the guy who can never do anything because they’re studying.</p>
<p>*Very Important Always leave your door open. Its the best way to meet new people living around you. Don’t be the hermit down the hall who only comes out of their room to eat and go to the bathroom.</p>
<p>Shower/Bathroom/Laundry
*All the dorms i’ve seen use 1 ply toilet paper… so if you have a really sensitive ass… bring your own toilet paper.</p>
<p>*You should ALWAYS wear sandals or flipflops when in the shower… expecially guys… cause you know what peopel do in there when they can’t do it anywhere else</p>
<p>*don’t forget your room key when you go to the shower. There’s nothing worse than standing outside of your dorm room in nothing but a towel because your roommate left and locked the door behind him.</p>
<p>*That brings me to my next point… I liked actually bringing my clothes to the shower with me… that way I could change in there and not have to walk around the dorms in a towel… expecially in winter.</p>
<p><em>When you do laundry… do it during the day when its not busy… and if it is busy, don’t leave your </em>* in the dryer all day. people will just take it out and leave it in a pile somehwere. Be nice and make sure you get down there when your stuff is done.</p>
<p>*Don’t wash strong colors with white… unless you want pink or orange socks.</p>
<p>*it also helps to have some kind of carrying case/basket kind of thing to carry all of your toiletries in. makes for easy transporting</p>
<p>College Life
*You probably know this… but try to join some clubs related to your major, or any type of intramural sports team. Even if you just go outside and throw the frisbee with some friends… usually others walking by will come up and join you.</p>
<p>*Try not to skip too many classes… I know it sounds stupid, but it actually is worth going to most classes. Even if you know the material… its good to go just to get used to going to class. Cause once you start skipping… it just goes down hill and you start skipping more and more classes. Your parents pay for you to go to class… so don’t cheap them out.</p>
<p>*Sit next to members of the opposite sex during class. This is often a good way to get to know them. Its also a great way to get them to “study” with you before an exam.</p>
<p>*Busses… Some people swear by them… but I dont. I would rather walk everywhere. Its great excersize and you don’t have to worry about waiting to get a seat.</p>
<p>*Be Prepared. Always carry an umbrella with you. Just throw it in your backpack or something. There’s nothing worse than getting out of a Power Hour class and seeing that its downpouring.</p>
<p>*Don’t be afraid to ask questions to the professor. Thats what they’re there for, don’t be afraid of them.</p>
<p>*If you live close to home… don’t go home every weekend. Stay at school and get some independence. Besides, there’s usually something cool to do on the weekends, even if that means just chilling with some of the people in your hall.</p>
<p>Additional Stuff (stuff from other OTers)
*Buy books early so you can get used copies. Or even better, buy them online for much cheaper if you can. Book swaps are a good idea but its a risky thing, as they happen rather late. And keep the reciept… cause if you drop the class or you end up not needing the book back, you usually have like 30 days to return it for a full refund</p>
<p>*This goes along with the going to class thing, but remember that you’re there to learn. Take classes that are interesting to you and college will be a great experience.</p>
<p>*Being social is good too. The door thing as mentioned above is VERY good and so is joining a club of any sort.</p>
<p>*When you study, study with friends. Preferably friends who are smarter than you are in that subject. It is hard to motivate yourself to do 2 hours of optional homework a day. But if you have friends to do it with, it’ll be easier. And with doing the homework, you will do well in the class. I met good people my second semester and even though I was taking harder classes, my GPA went up more than a point.</p>
<p>*Do not. I mean DO NOT fall behind in class. Especially technical classes. If you start falling behind, it begins a downward spiral of doom.</p>
<p>*Keep exercising. You will get fat.</p>
<p>*Oh, try and meet whole bunch of different types of people. You never know when somebody you think will probably be a ■■■■■■ will surprise you and be really Give everyone a chance, and you will be much more successful socially</p>
<p>*Don’t try a long distance relationship with a girl from highschool. more likely than not it will fail. Start fresh and free</p>
<p>*Don’t dorm with a highschool friend. They know too much about you and have preconcieved notions about you that may make it wierd.</p>
<li><p>Go out on the weekends. Even if you are under 21. You can just go to the movies or a coffee shop. The more you go out and be social the better college is. It lets you meet so many different types of people. Soon enough you will find “your friends” and that will lead to long term relationships. Go to parties, go to sporting events. Don’t be afriad to ask people if they want to hang out. Everyone in college is in the same boat, everyone wants friends.</p></li>
<li><p>**** frats. <----- Statement coming from a fraternity member. Not worth it. If you’re a real person not a frat wanna be you’ll be more in demand and more popular than any of those idiots. People see through the whole frat thing. Besides the only people who actually go to frat parties are freshman and the guys grilfriends.</p></li>
<li><p>Study. Go to class, then go home and do your work, then go out and have fun. College is so muc more fulfilling when you are getting good grades and having fun. having fun and knowing that you are failing isn’t fun.</p></li>
<li><p>BE YOURSELF. there are so many people in college that you don’t have to be a certain way or do a certain thing. there are always going to be people like you who have the same interests.</p></li>
</ol>
<ul>
<li>don’t be the guy who tries too hard to make friends or look cool. Those are always the ones who end up with no friends and get made fun of left and right. Just be who you are, but be social. Just don’t overdo it</li>
</ul>
<p>*Also, do go to at least a few football/basketball/whatever games. you have to. they’re great fun.</p>
<p>*make sure you make friends with people in different groups, so when one group is doing something you don’t like or find boring on a friday night, you have like 15 more #'s in your phone that you can call.</p>
<p>*Make friends with people who you wouldn’t have been friends with in high school.</p>
<p>*If you make good eye contact/ smiles with a girl more than 2x, just talk to her, better than regretting as you try to fall asleep alone on a friday night wondering “what if?”</p>
<p>*keep in contact with your high school buds, but not too much.</p>
<p>*always have ramen in your room.</p>