Seeing that a lot of college acceptances are happening for the Class of 2022, I thought it would be nice to create a thread asking those who are already in college what they wish they knew/took advantage of as freshmen.
I’m a current freshman at UC Berkeley. Looking back, I wish I knew…
- Get involved on campus! At a school as big as Cal, it's nice to have smaller cohorts. It makes a big school feel a lot smaller, and you can meet a lot of cool people that way.
- You won't meet your best friend during orientation, but that's okay.
- Not being besties with your roommates is normal.
- Discussion sections are a great way to make friends.
- Go to Office Hours. Professors want to help, but they won't go out of their way to do that. Use the opportunity to talk to that really cool econ teacher about their work for xyz organization or use office hours to get help on your physics problem set.
- Eating alone in the dining hall is scary at first, but it's nice to be alone every once in a while. There's hardly any alone time in college so getting the time to reflect on yourself is nice. Nobody is judging you for eating alone.
- College is a lot harder than high school.
- You don't get "busy work" in college, which is nice, until your grade is determined by two midterms and a final project.
- The first couple of weeks can be overwhelming. Use your school's health services; a lot of the times counseling is free and it's nice to have somebody to talk to.
- Introduce yourself to your floor mates. Floor friends are fun!
Those are my main tips and advice looking back on this past year. If you have any questions about UC Berkeley, feel free to message me 