So, to recap the first portion of surviving college, stay healthy, appropriately manage your time, get sleep, enjoy your college days, make friends, and treat yourself. Your physical and mental health is first because without it nothing else matters. The rest are important mostly because college is a huge change for most people, so now I will continue on.
What is one of the most lasting problems for college students? Money. We've been conditioned to know how expensive college is, and that we will have loans for the rest of our lives. Those both came true. Money management, like time management, needs to be taken care of. Tuition and text books come first. You can't get through college without those, but you can be thrifty when it comes to those books. Look around, and spend time searching for a good book deal. For all the other little things you need to spend on, keep track of it. Keep your receipts and make a budget. If your budget says you can't go on a Sheetz run or to Panera, then you can't.
Limiting is key. There may be eleven clubs that sound like fun, and they all want you to join, but there is a such thing as too much. You should also avoid joining too many sports teams. They require a lot of time and effort. Its also okay to drop a class or two if it becomes too much. Only take on what you can handle.
Along with time management, you need to organize your life. With time management, you organize your assignments and other tasks. To organize the rest of your life, you should keep your room together and your materials. You don't want to end up in class with the wrong notebooks. Keeping your room tidy seems to be quite unpopular in college. I've seen some nasty rooms, and those people did not have their lives together. Having a cleaned up room only makes life easier.
Living at a college is living in a community. You'll have roommates, teammates, professors, and other faculty that you are around on a daily basis. You can't drive them away, in fact you need to be very respectful to those in our community. People will be much less willing to help you out in the future if you take them for granted.
Your dorm room is yours. Make it yours. Make it reflect your personality. Of course, this should not disrespect your roommate, if you have one, because they have the same right as you. Your room can feel much more comfortable, and like home if you decorate it right. Your college experience can be the time of your life if you don't get bogged down in the books and lectures.
