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Real Life College Advice

Real Life College Advice

There's a lot of posts about college/university advice out there. But I'm going to talk about this from a personal perspective of what's happened to and what's happened to people around me.

Major
You don't have to know what you're major is when you start college or university. However, you do need to know if you're going into a STEM field. If you know you want to go into engineering, you need to know what kind of engineering by the end of your first semester. STEM majors are highly specialized almost right off the bat. Your first semester, you are already taking classes that apply to your major. There's not much of these, just get your general education requirements out of the way thing. I'm a health sciences major. I haven't had to actually pick many general education requirement classes. They're chosen for me. Social sciences? I had to take psychology for my major. That's a social science. My U.S. Diversity course? Picked for me as my required Culture & Health Care class. A lot of STEM majors are like that. We don't really get to pick our "electives". They're chosen for us. That's why you NEED to know your major right off the bat. You also can't just change your major in the STEM field to another in the STEM field easily. They require different classes and changing your major, you might be starting out from scratch all over again.

Class Times
You see tons of people post about how you shouldn't take 8am classes. Personally, I can't take late classes due to having ADHD and my medicine wearing off by 4 or 5 pm. Besides, I'm more productive in the morning than in the evening when all my favorite shows are on. When scheduling classes, you have to do what's best for you. If you're a morning person or more productive in the morning, register for that 8am class.

Freshman Year
I've seen so many freshman struggle. More so this year, when it's my second year, than I noticed last year. Last year, I had a friend who hardcore struggled with classes. It's an adjustment from high school. I've noticed this year, a lot of freshman have the same problem my friend did last year. They're not expecting the changes. You have more freedom in college. You don't have teachers breathing down your neck about doing assignments. You have to keep up in college. You can't let yourself get behind. Most likely professors aren't going to remind you to do your assignments. You're expected to know that stuff. Also, exams are different. In high school, we had tests that only covered a chapter at time. In college, each of my exams cover multiple chapters, and it also just so happens that I have exams in different classes within days of each other. Exams in college require more studying than high school exams. Professors expect you to know some of the information they didn't cover in class that are in the textbook. Don't let yourself be that freshman that struggles hardcore because you procrastinate and do your work in a timely fashion.

Sleep
Get enough sleep. Not everyone has a mom like mine who told my siblings and I from the time we started 6th/7th grade that we get to make our own bedtime, and if we're tired in the morning it's our own fault. Your mom won't be around to tell you when to go to bed. Get enough sleep. You know how much sleep you need to feel rested, or you'll find out how much sleep you need. Also, don't be the asshole roommate who stays up late into the night with the lights or some kind of sound on. I had a roommate like that last year, wouldn't listen my requests to not to do so, my R.A. didn't care, and so I just didn't sleep for most of my freshman year.

Roommates
Don't be an asshole. My freshman roommate was horrible. I didn't sleep because. She didn't clean. She also had people over. Used an extreme amount of toilet paper and expected me to buy it (like seriously she would go through an entire roll in  2 days, it would take me 2 weeks to go through an entire roll myself). She was extremely loud all the time. It got to the point where I sat in a friend's room when she didn't have class. Sometimes she would give me the key to her room or leave it unlocked when she would work the front desk in the dorms for me to go in there and sit. Also, get to know your roommate somewhat. At least know their major and remember it. My freshman roommate could never remember that I'm not an engineering major. She would always ask me questions about engineering classes, forgetting that I'm a health sciences major (two very different majors).

Learn to Cook
Nothing is more annoying than someone who can't cook and tries to cook. It's also annoying when the floor or building has to evacuate because you didn't put water in your Kraft Mac & cheese cup (it happened multiple times my freshman year). Even this year (it's my 2nd year of college), the people across the hall from me set the fire alarms off twice in the first 3 days of school. Learn to cook.

Learn to do Laundry
I find it really pathetic if you're 18 years old and you don't know how to do laundry. It's not complicated. Put your clothes in the washer, put detergent in, and press start. Also a hack, you don't have to sort your clothes if you wash them in cold water. I only separate my clothes when I get something new and I was in with other like colors or by itself so if any dye comes off it, it doesn't ruin the rest of my clothes. You really only have to do that first time or two. But seriously, my 4 year old brother understands the basic mechanics of laundry. He knows what you have to do, he just doesn't know what setting to put the washer on, or how to measure out detergent, and he can't reach unless you help him. But he helps with laundry all the time. If a 4 year old knows how laundry works, you should too by the time you're starting college. Also, do your laundry often. Don't be the asshole kid who brings their laundry home when they visit home.

Learn How You Study/Work
I don't do well in groups. I don't find them helpful. I study better alone. You need to figure out how best you study. I can sit with friends while doing work, but we can't work together. It doesn't work for me. I also don't do well at the desk in my dorm that the university provided. I don't get much work done there. I do better sitting on my bed. Maybe that's because that was the option I had in high school. In high school, I sat at the kitchen table (which we never ate at), the couch, or my bed to do homework. The only way I can sit at a desk to do work if it's not a desk and actually a table. I need a lot of room to sit my stuff out. It might take some trial and error, but figure out what works for you.

Library
If you're going to do work in the library, look up their hours. My university's library is only open to registered students after 8pm and closes at 10 or 11pm. Also, go up to the higher floors if you want quiet. Most people don't go up there because of the trek up there. But you don't have to go the library to work. A lot of buildings have study lounges or just lounges. If you go up on higher floors there too, there won't be many people.