Practical and helpful tips for college first-years

Good advice!

This may be common sense, but I'd add to it

*Avoid the bookstore. I wasted a lot of money on new books, a few I only opened once or twice. So see if your college/uni has a used book group.
*Ask upper years or check to see if there are prof reviews online. Sometimes you're stuck with a bad prof because you have no options, but sometimes you can avoid them.
*Don't sweat the small stuff. I worried too much about online assignments that individually were like 2%...

 

Avoid Dependency:

There is a saying that if you want to spot the freshman during the first week, it is not the people who are sitting or walking by themselves. It is the people who are never alone. We all develop this fear of being seen alone in grade school that carries over into adulthood and now is the time to unlearn it.

If you meet people who you see yourself being close friends with, then absolutely spend some time with them. But don't cling to people simply because you don't want to wait in between classes, sit in the library, or eat lunch by yourself. Grab a nice pair of headphones. Bare through any anxiety that you might experience in the beginning and relax. You will become a much more emotionally independent and secure person. There will actually be people who time and coordinate every hour that they spend on campus so that they are never by themselves and you don't want to get mixed up with that.

Ace The First Exam:

Everyone talks about the stress of finals when the average of scores on the final exam is more likely to be the highest. It doesn't matter if it is not worth a lot of points. The first exam sets the tone for the entire semester. You could do poorly on the first exam and still come out with a good grade, but that will mean doing damage control from that point on and additional stress as a result. Make the semester a breeze. Ace the first exam so you don't spend the rest of the course knowing that you can only lose a few more points and still get a good grade.

Hold Professors Accountable:

You need to pay attention to every comment, criticism, and point deduction that you receive. Partly, in order to know what to do differently in the future, but equally in order to ensure that they are consistent and fair. Keep all returned assignments through the semester to check for these things. If you offer a draft assignment to a professor and they green light it, but the final draft is covered in criticism then you need to visit their office hours and have a discussion with them. You will deal with inconsistent professors quite a few times in higher education and you need to ensure that you are not being given a grade that doesn't make sense because you are too afraid to confront them. Be respectful and flash a few smiles, but be direct about why your point deductions don't add up.

Learn to Nod:

This is especially a message for people suffering with social anxiety. Speaking up during discussions is easily the best way to make good impressions on professors, but another good way to make a good impression without saying a word is using body language during lectures. Giving lectures can be like talking to a brick wall, but if there are students who are showing that they are paying attention by maintain eye contact and nodding than it makes the process far less awkward. Even if you are not paying attention, watch out for the instructors eyes and make sure that you are reassuring them whenever they land on you. It is the most effortless thing that you can do to get them to remember you.

I could go on all day, but I will stop there for now.

 

What about Jasper's advice to Charles in Brideshead Revisited (by Evelyn Waugh):

"You want either a First or a Fourth. There is no value in anything in between. Time spent on a good second is time thrown away ... Clothes. Dress as you do in a country house. Never wear a tweed coat and flannel trousers - always a suit. And go to a London tailor; you get better cut and longer credit ... Clubs. Join the Carlton now and the Grid at the beginning of your second year. If you want to run for the Union - and it's not a bad thing to do - make your reputation outside first, at the Canning or the Chatham, and begin by speaking on the paper .. keep clear of Boar's Hill ... Don't treat dons like schoolmasters; treat them as you would the vicar at home ... Beware of Anglo-Catholics - they're all sodomites with unpleasant accents."

By the way, I was an Anglo-Catholic as an undergrad. Funny, that.

 

There were a lot of things I did wrong freshman year of college, so it would have been nice if I had been able to read a thread like this before starting. Either way, here are some tips that I can give based on my mistakes:

Try to make new friends. Don't just stick with your crowd from high school. Since there were 14 people attending my university from my high school, I stuck mainly with them. My freshman year roommate was my best friend (no problem with that), but I essentially refused to socialize with people who weren't in that circle, even though we were studying very different things and many of us eventually branched off. I wish I had started getting to know other people earlier than I had. Don't be afraid to meet new people in your dorm building and attend small social gatherings here and there--I found these very helpful sophomore year and wished I had attended more earlier.

Try to meet people in your major. During freshman year I stuck with people in completely different fields of study and essentially didn't even speak to anyone in my own classes. But it is very wise to get to know people studying in your field as they may be of great help in classwork and figuring out what it is you will be doing after college.

Get to know professors early on. I didn't really start attending any office hours with regularity my sophomore year and once again, I wish I had began to do this earlier. Now I am on friendly speaking terms with several of my professors and it has been excellent and rewarding; they have been a great help up to this point and I know that they will be helpful when it comes to graduate school and finding a job afterward.

I was overwhelmed by the change and the new environment (it didn't matter that I was going to school 20 minutes away from where I grew up--the sense of great change is the same) and this led me to be withdrawn, clingy, and isolated during freshman year. This was not the way to go about it. It's important to branch out early and not let the shock and homesickness get to you.

 

Biggest one I can give from my experience: if you're overwhelmed/depressed, get help as soon as possible and don't put it off.

 

1. I agree with the ratemyprofessor advice. It has been around for a long time, even when I was in college. Be aware that some of the professors listed will NOT still be at the campus, especially if you go to a small school.

2. Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT solely rely on your guidance counselor/academic advisor for the game plan for your degree. You are responsible for knowing how the process works. Read the course catalog and also read your requirements for what you think will be your major. Know what requirements are needed for entry to the department of your major.

3. Many of my friends switched majors while at school. There is no shame in that. Do not think about what your parents want for you. It is your life, and this is the time you start making decisions for your future. Ask questions.

4. Take advantage of the professors' office hours. This is especially true if you go to a small college. Again, there is no shame in this. Would you rather fall further behind and drop a class or give up your pride and get caught up? Don't be afraid to sit with them in the cafeteria. Professors usually won't mind if they are decent, and the good ones will like the mental stimulation outside of class.

5. Form study groups or go to the supplemental instruction meetings. In many cases, there are supplemental instruction groups that meet, especially for freshman classes. Reach out to some people in the class for study sessions, but I would advise that you never rely on them for group projects.

6. Take a few extra communication classes as an elective(s). This may seem pointless if you have an unrelated degree, but it will help in group project situations(and guaranteed that you will have some) while in college and throughout life.

7. Try to purchase your books from juniors and seniors if you can. Usually, they will want to unload them ASAP and are poor. Embrace the underlining and highlighting as a general rule. Do check the editions. Some people say an edition doesn't matter because a few graphs and sentences may be changed. But what if you are called on to read those very sentences in class? This is a reality for small college students.

8. I am going to disagree with Gen in that the first exam does not define your semester. It can be like culture shock in seeing the rigor of your first college/uni exam. I am not saying to be lazy at the start, but there are a lot of distractions early. You are not going to be able to anticipate how a teacher words their questions until you see the first test. Many will not tell you the format and keep it very close to the vest. I also know for some of the residential students (even though I was a commuter), it is easy to get home sick. You are trying to balance having fun with studying. Which brings me to my next point....

9. Take everything in moderation and know the school's code of conduct. Some schools are very tough on underage drinking in the U.S. and Canada especially. Even if you can drink, I'd recommend trying to stay sober for the first semester. I realize it is tempting when you first have freedom and also can be in social clubs, frats, and sororities. But you are better served going to some athletic events and also working on studying for tests, doing assignments, and your papers BEFORE the last week of each semester. It is very important as you get later in your college career not be solely focused on your major. Get out on the weekend or even a day or two during the week with your friends. Just don't do it for the entire day(just my opinion).

10. Embrace your library, its databases, and the people who work there. Yes, I know some librarians are a drag, but they know what sources you can get for a paper. Try to find a student who is doing work-study. I always found them to care more and usually they are upper classmen and knowledgeable. Databases are huge for papers. Don't be afraid to search. Learn to know which ones are good for each subjects. Books are great too, but the news articles and academic works can be much more specific to the topic of your paper.

11. Do not rely on a career counselor for your internship or future job out of college. If they can help, great. If not, hit the internet job boards.

12. Don't be an a-hole. This is self explanatory.

 

On that note, check their math (or that of the grader).

I once got two tests back from two professors with mathematical errors on them. For both tests the professors calculated my score to be 10 points lower than what it really should've been, which was 10% and ~8% of the grades of the exams. Those two professors had a combined 3 doctorate degrees between them (2 PhD's and 1 JD). One of them is the chair of the classics department and the honors program.

Also, I'm not sure if this is possible at other universities, because the one I attended as an undergrad is unusual, but on two different occasions with different philosophy professors, I convinced them to increase my grade for a subjective exam/paper after the fact.

I second ratemyprofessor.com. Not every instructor will be listed, but it's a great help. More often than not, the professor makes more of a difference than the course does when it comes to how much you learn, how easy/hard the course is, and how interesting the class lectures are, what kind of grade you'll get. In grad school, I had to take a class that I had little interest in and had little relevance in terms of helping me get a good job, so I used ratemyprofessor.com to find an easy A professor. I ended up taking a guy who publicly announced that his grading policy is that if you finish all 10 assignments, you'll get at least an A-, the top half of the class will get an A, and if you piss him off you'll get a B+. I felt guilty for taking his class.