I read, and even wrote a few articles about what I've learned in college and to be honest they are stereotypical and vague. You hear "you shouldn't enroll in Friday classes" or "don't get drunk with your shoes on," but what is it that you really learn? I don't mean learn from only educational classes, but about life by experiencing it firsthand. Although I could tell you how you should absolutely never miss a tailgate, C's get degrees or that downtown before 10 o'clock is about as fun as a biology lecture, I'm going to fill you in on what I really learned the last three years, being an independent student in college.

Choose a job close to your house.

You will be extremely grateful for this the day that your car breaks down and you need money to fix it, but no transportation to get to work. If you don't live close to your work and do need transportation...

Find friends that are there for you, even outside of drunken nights downtown

I'm not saying your friends should be your own personal taxi service, but they should be there for you when you're in need. No one likes a friend that is only friends with you when it's convenient for them. If your car isn't fixable and you need to get a new one you realize...

Credit actually matters

You might want to consider getting a credit card or putting bills in your name to develop a credit score that can help you get a car loan. Once you have a car loan or bills in your name, it'll hit you that...

Bills suck

Paying bills is a dreadful burden to have especially if your parents can't help you. If your parents can, and do help you, please do me a favor, be grateful and THANK THEM. They are basically taking the burden of your bills as well as their own. If your parents can't help you with money though, they could help you with a lot of other things. So, what should you do?

Call your parents

A lot of the situations we encounter in college our parents have been through. We should absorb as much of their advice as we can while we still have the luxury of calling them. Our parents can teach us a lot of important things such as balancing a check book, but if we can't learn those things from them...

Take a class that might actually benefit you

I know we're in college and just want to take classes where attendance isn't mandatory and we can pass without actually being awake, but what good does that do? If we need to earn the credits we should take classes that actually benefit us for the future. For example, personal finance. You could learn about managing your money responsibly and economically. Although college is basically a four year plan for the future, my last suggestion...

Live in the moment

I know I just spent my entire article preaching about being an adult, but we still have time to be kids. So take advantage of opportunities to excel, but don't think too far into the future. We will have our entire future to be adults.

Take these tips into consideration. College is an awesome place to have fun and drink every night of the week, but it's also where you grow up and realize that all of that is not always top priority.