From balancing your intense class schedule, to finding the right major, to playing gigs and prioritizing fun, most students say at the end of their college career, “Something would have been different had I known that” or, “If I’d only known this, that would have been easier.” When referring to the decisions we make through out our college years, it is a little helpful to know a few tips before diving into the college experience. Some graduates may have missed out on the unique opportunity to change some of what they wanted to, over their time at college.
Luckily, most of us still have plenty of time ahead in our education career. Here are some ways that you can enhance your college experience.
1. Don’t buy your textbooks before the semester starts!
Every first-semester student makes the mistake of buying all of their textbooks before the first day of classes. We’ve all been there. You can save hundreds of dollars by just waiting until the teacher gives you explicit instructions on what to buy. You could end up running out of all your spending money in the very first week if you go and buy everything in advance.
2. Life experience is more important than that 4.0 GPA.
Join clubs that interest you, get involved in extra circular activities, have a work study that has to do with your desired career choice. Those four years of working on campus and getting life experience is well worth your time compared to trying to get an A+ on every assignment. While in high school getting the best scores was required, being at a university is slightly different. “D’s get degrees” as they say. However, that is not to say you can start getting D’s and F’s in all your courses, but getting a C here or there isn’t going to hurt your future either. College is about finding your career path. Take the time to do so.
3. Don’t feel like college is when you need to pull your life together.
You have your whole life to pull your “self” together. Just because you are now either 18 or maybe even 20 years old, doesn’t mean you have to become a responsible adult. If you are with friends and you want to have a few drinks, then have those few drinks. Make a few mistakes. Life is about making mistakes and learning form them. Don’t hold back! Have the time of your life because come graduation day, that is no longer socially acceptable.
4. Budget! Budget! Budget!
Most of us spent the entire summer saving every dollar and every dime we could so that we have plenty of money to buy whatever it is that we need. Remember that as fast as you earned that money, you will spend it even faster. Do not make the mistake and spend it all in the first week. Maybe even put some of that money in a savings account. At some point in your first or second semester, you might need that money to pay for a class you withdrew from or even failed.
You don’t need to spend your money all at once. You don’t want to be that student who has to stay in on a Friday night while your friends go out and have fun, simply because you can’t afford a subway pass. NEVER and I repeat, NEVER get a credit card as a college student. A credit card is not a substation for being broke.
5. Never say you’re going to wake up early to do homework!
Let's be honest, you say you are going to wake up to finish an assignment but in reality, you really won’t. Take five minutes before you go to bed to check and make sure you are prepared for the following day. Staying up an extra hour is well worth the risk of you rushing and being late the next day.
6. Don’t skip a class. It’s contagious.
You skip one, then you will feel less guilty about skipping another. Every class in college has attendance as a grade and every absence adds up. Also, you are at a school where you will enjoy 90% of your classes so why miss doing something you love? Especially if that class is only scheduled to meet once every week. Most of those classes cover a lot of information so if you miss one, then it’s as if you are missing a few.
7. Be smart about your class schedule!
Every college requires you to take a few of those courses that are just not that interesting. So, browse around. There are plenty of cool classes you can take. History of Rock Music is a class that actually counts as one of your required courses. The History of Drugs and Narcotics is also another interesting find that I found in the course selection book. Just because we have to take those dreaded history or science classes, doesn’t mean you can’t have fun with it. Take the time to actually make use of them to find ones that you love. Don’t be passive about your schedule.
8. You are creating your life from scratch.
College is that rare opportunity in life where you can completely start over. I encourage everyone to keep an open mind, whether it comes in the form of meeting, choosing a class you never thought you’d like, to even attending one of the RA programs that happen in the housing lounges. Those are great opportunities to meet different types of people. High school friends will fade and you’ll move on to do other things.
Don’t stay trapped in your dorm room Skyping your life-long high school friend. As nice as it is to stay in touch with people from home, it diminishes you from going out and making new friends. A lot of the people you meet at college, you will end up encountering in the real world. You can’t encounter them if you don’t try to meet them. You are spending a quarter of a million dollars to make new friends.
9. Have Fun!
That is the most important thing! Enjoy these times! Don’t just dip your feet in the water, just dive right into it. You only have four years and they go very fast. The real world is a scary place. Considering a lot of students want to be performers, the real world outside of college is a lot more harsh and its a lot harder if you don’t have a network of people by your side.
