“Beelitz lecture hall” By Ole Begemann (Some Rights Reserved)
Tips and Tricks
As promised, here is the list of tips, tricks, and college hacks that will help ensure you great success in your college career. Not all of them will apply to everybody, but there are definitely a few gems here for everyone. Enjoy!
- Go to all orientations. The fact is, you can never know too much about your school, and any knowledge you do have can only be useful.
- Be friends with your roommate. Being/Having a good roommate is the difference between your apartment/dorm being amazing, or very, very terrible.
- Sit up front. I have probably already listed this elsewhere on Zen College Life, but it’s important enough to say again. The most successful students tend to sit up front. Associate with them and you will do better.
- Meet with Professors. If they know you, recognize your face, and have met with you frequently, they are much more willing to help you out in any way (including that extra point to get the A)
- Know your academic advisor. Their entire job is to help you. Take advantage of that.
- Get involved in campus life. You don’t have to wait until your career to start doing great things. Get started now!
- Take advantage of as many campus resources as possible. If they have computer labs, print from them. If there is a gym, use it, shower there, and go to class. Math/Writing/Science labs are all staffed with people to help you. So use them.
- Don’t feel pressured to choose a major/career right away. I thought I wanted to be a computer programmer when I started. Then a doctor (switched majors). Then a Physician Assistant (switched course plans). Now I think I’ll do a MBA/MHA graduate program. College isn’t just about careers, it’s about learning, growing, and becoming greater than you were when you started.
- Make connections with students in every class. The time will come when you need one of them, and it’s always better to already know one.
- Expand your horizons. Don’t just learn for a job, learn to be wiser. Expand your horizons. Open up to new experiences.
- Go abroad. (I still haven’t done this one…) Get out of town, or even out of the country if you can afford it. See the world, know people from the other side. Embrace a love for all of humanity by connecting with them.
- Buy a suit. It’s always important to be able to look professional when necessary.
- Volunteer/Intern. You think you want to be a doctor. Trust me, you might not after volunteering for one. And if you do, it will only help encourage you.
- Get financial aid. Even if your parents are millionaires, there is still free money out there. Don’t you want it?
- Never buy new books. This one is a no brainer. Half.com and Amazon.com will save you hundreds.
- Don’t use credit cards. Just trust me, they are the devil.
- Use your meal plan. You paid for it. To eat elsewhere is like paying twice for one meal.
- Join clubs and organizations. They are the perfect place to network with others with similar interests or career choices.
- Eat healthy. The future you will thank you for not being fat…
- Exercise. It’s not just for your body, it makes for a faster brain as well.
- Make travel plans in advance. Remember, other students leave for spring break, summer, winter, thanksgiving as well. Plan in advance.
- Take advantage of your student id. This thing is a goldmine at some places. Discounted movie tickets, free deals at some places. Show it everywhere you go, you’re bound to get some great savings.
- Read outside of your major. College isn’t just about a career. It is a preparation for life. Read about anything and everything you can get your hands on. It’s only going to help. (go ahead and skip the tabloids and Hollywood gossip…)
- Take advantage of online courses. Some things you just don’t want to sit through. Histories and governments are great classes, but I had the opportunity to take them online, and I’m glad I did. I received the same knowledge, and didn’t have to hear some old guy talk for hours.
- Have some fun. Party, meet new people, even date if you can squeeze it in. College is the time to really experience a part of life that you may not have been exposed to in high school. (Don’t drink and drive)
- Homesick is natural. Distract yourself, make friends, and keep in touch with family, but be prepared to still be affected by it.
- Be prepared to still be overwhelmed. It’s not like high school. It’s not like adult hood. It’s a monster all to itself. Be prepared.
Good luck classmates, let’s make this a great year!
Back to Part 3: Creating A successful Environment
Tags: college life, college preparation
so true. if only i had read this when i first left for college…
Nice advise: “Never buy new books”.
Some books are useful only when new, for example, from computer sciences.
So, my version: “Buy new books wisely”.
Personally I never bought books until after the first day of class. I ran into problems where they would list books for a class, I’d buy them, then we’d never use them… waste of money.
And I agree, DON’T choose a major up front, get all your Gen Eds out of the way as fast as you can. Unless you’re 100% sure you know what you want to do, I would highly recommend staying away from a major for at least your first year. I switched majors 4 times and I also switched schools 3 times, so in order for me to graduate in 4 years I had to work my ass off to make up for lost credits that wouldn’t transfer between majors/schools. I also saved a lot of money by taking most of my Gen Eds at a community college and transfering them in to the university.
Oh yeah, and don’t room with friends your freshman year. It might be fun at first, but it’ll suck in the end. Meet new people or you won’t enjoy your stay there.
I’ve been lurking here for a while, but when I saw the photo you were using here I had to de-lurk and laugh because I almost used that photo in a presentation I gave today. Great tips – to that i would add “get a campus job”. It’s nice to have some spending money. Also – you might want to credit the photographer whose photo you’re using: http://flickr.com/photos/ole/2694692511/
Thanks for the advice – we freshmen aprecciate it more than you know
Great list! Makes me wish I had read it before college.
Carloss last blog post at [site] was..New Semester, Used Books
Completely agree with this advice. The one piece of advise that I wish I had payed attention to is the one about talking to your professors. I found myself wishing I had when I started looking for undergraduate research opportunities in the Spring. It doesn’t matter whether your the smartest person in the class if the professor doesn’t know your name.
Never buy new Books!!!!!!
Don’t do it ever. The only money I got for books was a $50 B&Noble Gift Voucher and I ended up using that all on reading outside my major. I signed up to the city library as well as the college libraries and ended up spending exactly $0 on books the whole year and still managed to do better than others who had spent hundreds of dollars buying all the books on the reading list brand new and rarely touching them. I’d would have thought that the general mindset was ‘man, I’ve spent all this money on these books I’ve GOT to read them’ but no…
In fact I use this rule for all books in general, not just college ones. Unless its a book you’ve eagerly been anticipating just wait a while and before you know it the book will be on Amazon or something like that for a third of the price