I can’t believe that I’ve survived most of my freshman year of college! As my first year is starting to wind down, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how different high school and college really are. When I think about the differences, I think about what advice I wish I’d been given before coming to college.
1. High school was a piece of cake.
Yes the days feel like they last forever and you can never avoid seeing that one person you can’t stand in the hallway, but trust me, high school is so easy. You can get away with not studying for a test and still get a B or an A. You can manage to do the bare minimum and do just fine. Which brings me to my next point…
2. College is HARD.
I was an honors student in high school, pulling all As with the odd B thrown in the mix. I never really had to try to do well. I was that kid everybody hated because I could look over the notes right before a test and get an A. College was like a brick to the face. Dazed and confused, I looked at my first big assignment and the grade staring back at me: 69 percent. My professor told me that an assistant had graded it for him, and that he would take another look at it, since he had gotten to know me and knew I wouldn’t knowingly turn in work that bad. I got so lucky there…
3. Make an effort to meet your professors.
Yes, it can be awkward at first. I made it a priority to make appointments with every professor I’ve had this year, early on in the semester, just to make my face a bit more familiar. Come time for final grades, that conversation you had in their office just might convince them to give you the nudge you needed to make an A. I took a seven-credit hour class (very important, and very strong pull on my GPA) my first semester at UD, and at the end of the semester I added up all my points and saw that I had earned a B+. I was satisfied with that grade, proud I had done so well, since the class was really difficult. A few weeks later, when I checked to see my final grade, it had mysteriously turned into an A-.
4. Professors want to help you.
Professors really do notice when you make an extra effort to get help. Most of my professors gave out their personal email addresses. They have office hours, and you can make specific appointments to meet with them if office hours don’t fit into your schedule. Professors have office hours and appointments specifically to help their students, so take advantage of them! I’m currently working on a semester-long research paper, and I’ve met with my professor multiple times about it. He lets me know if he thinks I’ve gotten a bit off topic, or if he thinks a certain viewpoint would strengthen the paper.
5. GO TO REVIEW SESSIONS.
At least once. Just go. You may find out that you don’t really need it and that’s perfectly fine. But if you’re struggling, even just a little bit, going to review sessions is a great resource. It’s literally time the TAs have set aside to answer questions and help. More often than not, you’ll find out that other people in your class were confused about the same things as you.
6. The people are amazing.
I’ve met the most cultured, well-traveled, intelligent people in my relatively brief time at college. A perk of going to a smaller school like UD is that most professors learn students’ names pretty quickly. I’ve passed professors on campus who call out to me by name with a smile and a wave. A few months in, you’ll have new best friends for life (but that doesn’t mean your high school friends are replaced). Going into freshman year, you don’t want to live with your best friend from home, so you can get to know new people. Heading into sophomore year, however, if you don’t get to live with your best friend, you’ll just die.
7. You will get homesick.
I figured this was just a cliché that everybody said to try to scare me before I left. Unfortunately, it’s very true. I was always close with my family, so it was a huge adjustment. The most independent people I knew in high school tweeted all the time about how much they missed home and their family. It’s hard, adjusting to a different lifestyle after 18 years of relative consistency.
8. It’s okay if you don’t love it at first.
It took me a month to be happy here. I was scared I’d picked the wrong school, since I wasn’t enjoying it and everybody else seemed to be. I got lost in/overwhelmed by orientation activities and learning the names of all these new people I was meeting and adjusting to a whole new way of life. Once I got into my routine of classes and schoolwork, it got so much easier. Give it time; you’ll get there.
9. Please call your family.
They miss you. You were a constant annoyance for so long, and now they’re entirely without you. Cut them some slack. They just want to hear from you and ask you a million questions about your classes and professors and friends and activities. If you got a new type of coffee today, they want to know about it.
10. It’s going to be so tempting to skip class.
Don’t do it. Just don’t. At UD, tuition covers 18 credit hours per semester. Each 3 credit hour class costs roughly $3,412. I did the math for one of my Monday/Wednesday/Friday courses, and each class costs just over $85. That extra hour of sleep is so not worth $85.
11. It’s pretty amazing.
When your friends ask you to go out with them or go study or grab dinner, the default answer is no longer let me ask my mom/dad. It’s yes or no, depending on whether you want to go. You are in charge of you. Yes, that means you need to make yourself go to bed at reasonable times, and get up and go to class, and do your homework, but the tradeoff is so beyond worth it.
