College is the next big movement in your life after high school. It's scary, exciting, and altogether terrifying. People love to give you advice about college before you go, but you always get told the bad things. Anyone going to college soon will hear numerous horror stories, but these aren't always the truth.
Dorm life is terrible.
You will hear over and over again how living in a dorm is the worst thing ever. You will hear stories of bugs, spiders, cockroaches, the works. Everyone will tell you their I-had-the-worst-roommate-ever story. You will be warned that your roommate may be the worst person you ever meet in your life. Ignore it. Most of the time roommates are fantastic, and even if they aren't, you have the ability to change rooms to live with someone you do like. Yes, there may be bugs, but my entire freshman year I have never seen one in my room and I don't know anyone that has. Living on campus is honestly an amazing opportunity to meet new people and get used to campus life.
The freshman 15.
Obviously, everyone has heard the running joke that as soon as you leave for college you gain 15 pounds. This isn't really all that true. If you chose to eat all day and never get out of bed, maybe. But honestly there is too much to do and get involved in to gain that much weight. Two words: Intramural sports. Even if you never touch a gym all four (or seven?) years of college that doesn't mean you have to be or are a couch potato. Intramural sports are the greatest college inventions ever. Also, if you're anything like me, you'll be running late to class so often that you'll burn all your calories while literally running (or speed walking) to class.
Everyone in college is an alcoholic.
OK, now this one can be true depending on the people you hang out with. However, if you aren't into drinking, then don't. There are plenty of people and organizations on campus that don't encourage it in the slightest. You can be friends with people that go out and drink without drinking yourself. It's not as bad as people make it sound. Every college has people who drink, and every college has people that don't drink.
You will never get extra credit ever again.
This is a more complicated one because it depends on the professor. What I have found is professors in college are more likely to give points back on a test if more than 50 percent of the class missed the question, at least for the first couple of years in school. Many of my teachers have curved tests. If you make an honest effort, professors will see that and put more effort into helping you learn it. Nine times out of 10 they don't want to fail you. Now, I say this with a disclaimer. Some professors are the worst people you ever met and they want you to do poorly because they think it's funny. But that's why websites are created to warn you about professors or inform you about the good ones.
Overall, the first year of college is really just a learning experience. You will meet people and teachers you don't like. You may gain some weight and you may even go to more parties than you ever planned. But you get out of college what you put into it. Try and get along with as many people as you can, research your teachers before you sign up for their classes, workout or play sports, do the things that make you happy. College can easily be the greatest years of your life and it's really not as bad as some people say.
