College is nearly over, and I honestly don't know where the time has gone. I remember leaving for school, thinking four years was such a long time (and thinking I'd feel so much older and have it all figured out by now- yeah, right). If I could do it all over, I would in a heartbeat. Of course, I can't. But my little brother is just about to leave for his freshman year, and this is the advice I've been giving him.
-Make the most of it. You only have one Freshman year; and party shenanigans are much more socially acceptable when you're new to it all than when you're in your mid-20s and living back at home with your parents. There's an old college saying, and it goes something like this, "Enjoy partying now, because after college it's called alcoholism."
-Everyone got nerves. I was so nervous when I left for college. I was the first one out of all my friends, and I was going to school the farthest away from home. Since I was always the child crying their homesick self through sleep-away camp, I worried college would be a disaster. And yes, the beginning was a bit uncomfortable and scary. More than that, it was exciting. After the first party- where everyone lets loose and has a good time- you realize you've made a million new friends who are all in the same awkward position you're in. It just gets easier from there.
-It'll be unbelievable. Putting together hundreds of kids and taking away adult supervision for the first time is such a wild thing; the things that happened to me Freshman year (or, at least, what I remember of it) have become some of my best memories, and definitely the stories I tell more than any others. Designating Wednesdays as party days for me and my friends when the weekends weren't enough, or attending college football games in pouring rain. I had way more energy then than I do now, and taking a full course-load of Freshman prereqs gave me lots of time to meet tons of new people, go to lots of new places, and try lots of new (legal) things.
-Ratemyprofessor.com always. No schedule should ever be set in stone without first consulting "Rate my Professor." A collection of reviews and ratings of professors by students, the website is a perfect guide to choosing teachers you'll be compatible with. I learned this one the hard way: I signed up for a prerequisite class that was taught by several different teachers, my friends took it with other professors and spent the semester watching movies, and I took it with Fidel Castro and cried myself to sleep at night. Could have been easily avoided- and my grade could have been boosted quite a bit- if I did a little research first.
-You will pull all-nighters. I love my sleep, so sitting at my desk watching the sunrise while working on a paper due in only a few hours was quite the traumatizing experience for me. But in college, when friends are a door down the hall and can always grab you away for a quick outing, life is unpredictable. And this means that even the most diligent of students (in fact, usually only the most diligent of students) will find themselves "burning the midnight oil." This will undoubtedly happen during finals, when my university keeps the library open 24/7 and students nap in between book shelves. I remember getting stressed out about putting in these long hours, but unlike high school you're only attending actual class for a couple hours a week. So this means that after you get your work done, and hand it in, whether it's 8 in the morning or 8 at night, you can go home and get all the sleep you want. So don't panic. Just locate a nearby Starbucks.
Nina M.
University of Miami '10
-Make the most of it. You only have one Freshman year; and party shenanigans are much more socially acceptable when you're new to it all than when you're in your mid-20s and living back at home with your parents. There's an old college saying, and it goes something like this, "Enjoy partying now, because after college it's called alcoholism."
-Everyone got nerves. I was so nervous when I left for college. I was the first one out of all my friends, and I was going to school the farthest away from home. Since I was always the child crying their homesick self through sleep-away camp, I worried college would be a disaster. And yes, the beginning was a bit uncomfortable and scary. More than that, it was exciting. After the first party- where everyone lets loose and has a good time- you realize you've made a million new friends who are all in the same awkward position you're in. It just gets easier from there.
-It'll be unbelievable. Putting together hundreds of kids and taking away adult supervision for the first time is such a wild thing; the things that happened to me Freshman year (or, at least, what I remember of it) have become some of my best memories, and definitely the stories I tell more than any others. Designating Wednesdays as party days for me and my friends when the weekends weren't enough, or attending college football games in pouring rain. I had way more energy then than I do now, and taking a full course-load of Freshman prereqs gave me lots of time to meet tons of new people, go to lots of new places, and try lots of new (legal) things.
-Ratemyprofessor.com always. No schedule should ever be set in stone without first consulting "Rate my Professor." A collection of reviews and ratings of professors by students, the website is a perfect guide to choosing teachers you'll be compatible with. I learned this one the hard way: I signed up for a prerequisite class that was taught by several different teachers, my friends took it with other professors and spent the semester watching movies, and I took it with Fidel Castro and cried myself to sleep at night. Could have been easily avoided- and my grade could have been boosted quite a bit- if I did a little research first.
-You will pull all-nighters. I love my sleep, so sitting at my desk watching the sunrise while working on a paper due in only a few hours was quite the traumatizing experience for me. But in college, when friends are a door down the hall and can always grab you away for a quick outing, life is unpredictable. And this means that even the most diligent of students (in fact, usually only the most diligent of students) will find themselves "burning the midnight oil." This will undoubtedly happen during finals, when my university keeps the library open 24/7 and students nap in between book shelves. I remember getting stressed out about putting in these long hours, but unlike high school you're only attending actual class for a couple hours a week. So this means that after you get your work done, and hand it in, whether it's 8 in the morning or 8 at night, you can go home and get all the sleep you want. So don't panic. Just locate a nearby Starbucks.
Nina M.
University of Miami '10
University of Copenhagen '09Print Journalism,
International Studies & Spanish
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