With the month of August upon us, the infamous Back To School season has begun. Kids are getting ready to go back to school and most high school graduates are getting ready to head off to college for the first time. For kids heading off to college, being away from home for the first time and tackling college-level classes full-time can be both exciting and nerve-wracking. It can also be hard for new students to adjust to college life and the college-level workload. It was as much of a challenge for me as it was for anyone. Now, I'd like to take some time to give incoming freshmen some tips (in no particular order) on how one can survive their first year of college, particularly their first semester based on my own experience. This is by no means a perfect list and each person's experiences will be different, but I hope that you can apply some of these tips to help you adjust and enjoy this important milestone in your life.
1: Make friends on your dorm floor
Since you're going to be a freshman, it's pretty much inevitable that you will end up in a dorm with a whole bunch of people you don't know. These people could be from all over the country or all over the world depending on what school you're going to. I will be the first to tell you that dorm living is one of those experiences that will never be easily replicated again any other time in your life. You will be living in close proximity with people who have the potential to become some of your closest friends. Your advisers and orientation leaders will always tell you to make friends with people in your major and network with others, but a lot of learning takes place outside of the classroom and labs. When you need a break from the papers you have to write and the tests you have to study for, it's nice to have friends nearby on your floor that you can go to for some fun and relief from the freshman grind. The people on your floor, if it's a good floor, might be the people that you hang out with the most. If you make some friends that are close to you, it'll make the time you spend outside of class more bearable and fun.
2: Don't get carried away partying
One of the biggest draws of going off to college away from the parents is that you can go to parties. I'm not about to say you shouldn't party. Everyone wants to have a good time and enjoy their free time. What I am going to say is that you need to keep your partying under control, especially in your first semester. Nobody wants to be that guy that failed all their classes because they were too busy partying and getting drunk to go to class. There is a balance you can maintain between class, homework and fun. When you do find that balance, you'll find that you can do all three things and still keep your grades up. Everyone wants to have fun in college, but the fun stops when your grades suffer. Remember, you're at college to work and make the enormous debt you'll have worth it when you get a good job.
3: If you're going to drink, go somewhere else
When you live in a dorm, you might be on a floor where there are harsh penalties for having alcohol and drugs. Even most general floors have strict penalties for such things. One of the rules that my RA set was that if you were going to drink, you need to go somewhere else to do it. This is a rule that can apply to every dorm floor. Drinking is one of those things that is a mainstay of college life, and while you can avoid it, it's still there even though you're underage. You don't want to get caught with drugs or alcohol in your room and risk getting thrown out of your housing and further disciplined depending on your school's policies. I'm not going to start preaching about how you shouldn't drink because I know it's going to happen, but you need to be smart about it so you can avoid getting in trouble and have a place to sober up in.
4: Don't feel pressured to join clubs or sports
Clubs and sports are great ways to enjoy your hobbies and make friends that have similar interests to yours. However, regardless of what your orientation leaders, admissions officers or advisers say, don't every get the feeling that you HAVE to join clubs or sports in order to have fun in college. If you want to, by all means do it! If you don't want to, there are other ways to have fun. If you manage to make friends on your floor, in your major or elsewhere, then you can have plenty of fun with those friends without ever setting foot at a club meeting or sports practice. I'm not saying you shouldn't join clubs or sports, but I am saying that you shouldn't feel obligated to do some out of some fear of being isolated and deemed anti-social. I made friends on my floor and managed to have all the fun I could ever ask for without worrying about clubs or sports. As long as you make the effort to make friends, you can decide for yourself if going out for clubs or sports or other organizations is right for you.
5: Leave your cocky senior pride at the door
We all know that feeling. When you're a senior in high school, you feel like you're on top of the world, especially if you're on a sports team. Everyone looks up to you and respects you because of your senior status. However, that status at the top of the totem pole quickly goes away once you're in college. You have gone from the top of the pile all the way back to the bottom. That can be a hard reality to accept, but you have to if you want to make good first impressions to your older peers. If you humble yourself and accept that there are now people with more seniority and higher status, then you will gain respect from others by showing that you're not annoying and cocky. If you are cocky and arrogant, then people will grow tired of you and not want to be around you anymore. This can go for people on your floor, people in your major, clubmates and teammates. When you show that you are a friendly, humble person who can accept that they are back to being freshmen, you take your first steps toward enjoying your freshman year experience
Hopefully you've gotten some value out of these tips, some of which helped me to survive freshman year and enjoy myself while doing it. If you can remember why you're in college in the first place and make an effort to make friends, you will find that you will adjust to college life and enjoy your time there. After you adjust and get into the groove of college living, you'll be ready to tackle any challenge that comes your way no matter what year of college you're in. Enjoy college life and work hard toward your degree and career goals!
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