Everyone tells you about the parties, the easy classes, the homesickness, the best years of your life. Here's a list of things they don't tell you.
1. Professors are real people.
I know in the movies college professors don't seem like to the type of people you could just approach. So the first time you have a question about anything, you send a very formal email making sure you have no grammatical errors to which your professor gives you a one word response. Then you realize they're not so scary after all. Believe it or not, they were once little college freshmen too. Trust me, in most cases, you can talk to your professor if you're having a problem in their class. Chances are, it's not the first time they've heard it.
2. Don't take that 8am.
You'll think you can pull it off because you had to wake up at seven every day for high school. But you have more freedom now. Your mom isn't there to make sure you actually get up on time. It's ultimately your decision whether you go to class or not. And when you stayed up until 3am playing "Cards Against Humanity" with your friends, you won't want to get up and walk all the way across campus and participate in class. Don't take any morning classes unless you are absolutely positive you'll get up for them every day.
3. Dining hall food sucks.
It doesn't matter what college you go to, chances are your dining hall food is not the best. If you go to a relatively small school that doesn't have many restaurants around, I suggest stocking up on food to eat for meals in your dorm.
4. Make different friend groups.
I know making new friends in new place is scary, but try to make as many friends as you can. Also try to get involved with different friend groups because if you have a falling out with one group, you always have someone else to go to. Also, the more friends, the merrier.
5. Get involved.
When you went to the organization fair and didn't find any a capella groups to join, you thought. "I'll just wait until next year." DON'T DO THAT. You should definitely join a group or club. Not only does this increase your friends, but it also gives you something to do a couple times a week, which is extremely important if you live on campus because you will have lots of down time in your dorm.
6. Your friends might not be the same age as you.
This isn't like high school where being friends with a senior makes you popular. In most cases, you won't even know how old someone is unless you ask them. It's perfectly normal to be friends people who are different ages in college. (Not to mention, it will increase your friend diversity!)
7. There's still drama.
I had this weird expectation that there be very little drama once I got to college. Boy, was I wrong. It's especially bad if you live in the dorms because everybody is always in everyone else's business. Just stay cautious and try to avoid it as much as possible.
8. Sometimes, it gets really hard.
You will miss home, you will have a tough time in some of your classes, you will get in fights with your friends. Some days you'll feel like you just can't do it anymore. But you can. I promise you can. College is a constant cycle of making it to the weekend. If you can do that, you're golden.
9. It's the best time of my life...so far.
There are people who say high school are the best years of your life. Those people are liars. There are people who say college are the best years of your life. Maybe, I'm not done yet. College really can be a great experience.
So spend time with all your different friends, never take a home-cooked meal for granted, and live it up because, cliché as it is, college is what you make of it.
