This is not just advice that can help you to enjoy your college years, but will also help you when applying for internships, scholarships, jobs, etc. The following phrases get repeated so frequently, that they can desensitize students such as myself to the importance and meaning behind them.

1. Get involved

This is the piece of advice that gets told the most, but is yet the most overlooked. Joining clubs is an opportunity for you to get hands-on experience on tasks you will perform in the real world. If you want to become an accountant, join the finance club. If you want to be a journalist, join the student newspaper. Joining clubs unrelated to what you'd like to do in the future can also be just as beneficial, however having direct practice with tasks such as using certain software programs can be vital to being able to perform in that specific internship. When applying to internships as an undergrad, the only type of experience you are really able to put in your resume are clubs or groups you have been a part of. While you might be smart, hard-working, and good at what you do, it is hard to explain or prove that to someone through daily activities you do in your dorm or at home.

2. Get Involved EARLY

As an incoming freshman, adjusting can be very difficult, which usually leads to the idea of getting involved to be pushed aside. This however, is the worst possible thing you can do. As a freshman, you are always told "You have so much time," which instills an idea in everyone's head that getting involved can wait. You should consider getting involved on campus as an urgency (Or at least that is what I wish I was told). Semesters where classes are the only part of your schedule are semesters of lost time. Joining clubs and involving yourself by going to seminars and events not only helps you build your resume, but also helps you figure out what exactly you want to do. You may join a club and discover your passion for studying something completely different from what you had originally planned. This is why starting early is important, because you can realize that passion earlier, and involve yourself in the clubs or organizations that will help prepare you for your future occupation.

3. Go to office hours

Office hours are often most attended the week before a test. This defeats the purpose of office hours because there are tons of people who are also there to get a question answered in preparation for the upcoming test. It's important to treat office hours the same as an attendance-based class, and go to as many as possible. What you talk about doesn't even need to be about class; it can be about how your weekend went or something that you have been struggling with outside of class. Office hours are for building a relationship with your professor and absorbing as much of their expertise as possible before the semester ends. When you are applying to internships during college, these built relationships can be one of the most important resources in your application process, because your professors will understand your capabilities and are willing to go the extra step to help with connections, recommendations and so on.

4. Get out of your comfort zone

When going to class, events, or club meetings you must not only attend the meetings, but also engage yourself while attending them. Don't be afraid to raise your hand in a large lecture hall, and don't be afraid to give your input on something you don't agree with. When going to an event with a guest speaker, go up to the speaker and introduce yourself. You never know where you may see them again and how important that connection has the potential to be in the future. It is hard to think about how simply introducing yourself to a stranger could be of great fortune a few years down the road, because of that human instinct to prioritize actions that will benefit us in current time, or in short term. You should not only introduce yourself to strangers you think will help you in the future professionally, but also to other people on your floor or in class. College can get tough and stressful at times, and having someone to talk to and relate to will help with staying happy and healthy.

5. Don't let rejection discourage you

One bad test score does not mean your life is over. Yes, it may be frustrating when you do poorly on a test that you studied hard for, but fretting over it doesn't do anything positive for the situation. Life outside of college is all about using failures as a motivation to improve. This can be when applying for a position, getting declined from a school program, or even proposing a new idea for a project. Just because your idea gets shot down, does not mean you should quit and never propose new ideas. Everyone has different styles and taste; rejection does not translate to meaning the idea was bad, it just means it was not best fit for that particular situation. Rejection can be emotionally draining and cause you to take a step backward if you let it take a toll on you. The people ahead in life are the ones who used rejection as an incentive to work even harder in achieving their goals. Have faith in yourself in knowing that your failure's do not define you.