General advice for college freshmen?

CaseyBat · #1 08-03-2013, 12:45 PM

I'll be attending a large state school. I'm moving in soon and I am very nervous! Does anyone have advice regarding academics, social life, time management, or anything else?

HQWest · #2 08-03-2013, 02:18 PM

My best advice -
You will be moving from high school where you had every moment of every day planned and mom and/or dad to help if you slipped up. You will have more freedom and more responsibility.

Treat class like a 40 hour a week job. Go to class religiously. Study in between class an you will have time on weekends and evenings for fun.
Limit lunch (and hanging out at lunch) to one hour.
For every one hour of lecture class - you need to study for three, even if it is just recopying your notes.
If you didnt have to work very hard in high school take a short course or read a book on how to take notes (biggest shortfall I see in freshmen right now)
Dont go home every weekend - thats some of the best time for meeting people and getting involved on campus. (Make an excuse that you want to go to all the football games.)

Finally - talk to your professors. They dont bite. You might need ti ask them for help if you get sick or behind or for a rec letter later
(Plus it doesnt hurt if they have a good image of you and your sisters)

If I left anything out - pm me

Leximarie · #3 08-03-2013, 03:38 PM

Don't buy your books until after the first day of class - PLEASE! You probably won't need them. And order them online from a site like Chegg, NOT your college bookstore!

DeltaBetaBaby · #4 08-03-2013, 03:41 PM

Find a way to study abroad.

HQWest · #5 08-03-2013, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leximarie

Don't buy your books until after the first day of class - PLEASE! You probably won't need them. And order them online from a site like Chegg, NOT your college bookstore!

For Math or Science Classes or your major you WILL need them and you ought to have them. If you are going to order books online - you need to order them ahead of time so you aren't behind already the first week of class.

Check to be sure if they are using online homework. If they are using an online homework system, it costs more to buy online and a used book than to buy a used book. BUT some books are online now and you can get the e-book and online homework for half the price of a new book and the online homework.

misscherrypie · #6 08-03-2013, 03:46 PM

To save your back, try seeing if some of your books are available as ebooks. They can often be cheaper than the printed ones.

Missouri Ivy · #7 08-03-2013, 03:53 PM

This may be something you've already heard or thought of, but make sure to have all the things you have in your medicine cabinet at home. Pain relievers, bandages, pepto bismol, cough drops/cough syrup, and a thermometer. That first time you get sick living on your own is a real wake up call. At least having some supplies handy can make you more comfortable. Also, a box or two of jello isn't bad to keep on hand. The cafeteria is the last place you feel like being if you get stomach flu.

OrangeBlueGirl · #8 08-03-2013, 04:26 PM

As a college sophomore now looking back on freshmen year this is my advice (I also attend a very large school!):

Meeting people in the first month: try to meet and be more social than usual your first month at school. People are extremely open to meeting others and talking to strangers. After half way through the 1st semester, people are going to 'group' off. It doesn't mean they won't talk to anyone else; it just means they aren't as open to making new friends right off the bat with you.
Classes/studying: Go to class. I'm paying well over $15,000 as an in-state student JUST for tuition. If you're taking 18 credit hours and each class is 3 credit hours, that is paying $2500 per class. Don't get cocky about your first round of midterms. I thought I knew how to study in high school but boy was I wrong. If you do poorly on your first round of midterms, figure out why and adjust. Try to block off time in your schedule for studying. Not like socializing with your friends studying but actual focused studying. You'll get a lot more done in a shorter amount of time and have MORE free time than if you socialized while studied.
Books: If you want to save money on your textbooks and hate ebooks like me, find out what books you need before classes start. If they aren't listed in your student account, email your professors and ask. Search by the IBN number on google (abebooks.com is a good place!) to find a used/cheaper textbook. Even if you end up not needing the textbook, I guarantee you will pay less than if you had bought it from your campus bookstore. You can easily resell it for more money (spending money!) if you find a facebook group that has a lot of students in it.

KSUViolet06 · #9 08-03-2013, 05:51 PM

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amIblue? · #10 08-03-2013, 08:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leximarie

Don't buy your books until after the first day of class - PLEASE! You probably won't need them. And order them online from a site like Chegg, NOT your college bookstore!

As someone who graduated with a degree in English, I can wholeheartedly say that I needed my textbooks. To the OP, I'd take this piece of advice with a grain of salt. If you can rent your books or find other more economical ways of getting them (getting them online or from the library), then more power to you. However, I would never suggest to anyone that he or she not have the materials that the professors recommend students to have.

I'm trying to remember a course in my prerequisite work that I took for which they were not necessary, and I just can't.

DubaiSis · #11 08-03-2013, 08:29 PM

If your book list is long for a particular class, I'd wait. I had plenty of classes where the prof had you purchase a whole book so that you could read 1 chapter. Photocopying @ $.10/page times 50 pages is $5.00, not $50 or $100. And you can also check a lot of those books out from the library. So I'd go to class and find out how much reading you actually have to do before you make the purchase. If it's a math or science class, yeah, duh, buy the book, but there are a lot of ways to get reading done that doesn't require buying a whole hard copy book. And Shakespeare, for instance, is Shakespeare, regardless of what form it comes in. And you don't, regardless how awesome, need a Shakespeare anthology. In 10 years when you want to re-read the Tempest, you can buy it then. But while in college, there's a lot of ways to get by without the investment.

My advice is join study groups. It will help you make friends outside your immediate circle (dorm floor and/or new sorority) AND give you a lot of insight into the classwork. I didn't do this until my junior year or so, but actually needed it as a freshman.

Sciencewoman · #12 08-03-2013, 08:45 PM

This is free advice, right from a professor. It makes me sound grumpy, but these are the things I drilled into my daughter before she went to college last year:

1. Get the books. Have them ready. Make a good first impression. Professors don't want to hear a whiney "they're taking too long to get here...I can't do the first assignment!" or worse "I ordered a cheap copy on line and it's the wrong edition!" I've heard these, and I don't have sympathy. Buy used at the college bookstore, and have them ready. E-books are good, too, but they haven't hit the textbook market as widely. Selling real textbooks is too lucrative.

2. Go to class. All the time. We can tell when you're skipping and when you're legitimately absent. What I really find troubling is when people give me a vague "death in the family" or "serious illness in the family" or "other sensitive medical issue" excuse with no details. No professor is going to be rude and ask you to prove this. Naughty students know this, and they think they've gotten away with it. No...they've just raised suspicions. When it's real, students readily share the details up front in the first contact.

3. Defying all odds, printers have a strange habit of malfunctioning right when a paper is due! E-mail a copy as proof, if this really happens to you. Or, use the computer lab printer. If you don't, I'm suspicious that it's not done.

4. Talk to your parents. Be honest. Talk to your professors. If you need help, let them know. Don't wait. Lots of freshmen have trouble adjusting, and it can come at any time. For some people, it's right away. For others, it happens later. College counseling centers are busy places. Get tutoring help if you need it.

5. Set strict limits on how much time you can spend on your phone, Facebook, etc. These are time vacuums. Don't ever text in class. We can tell. Don't be off-task on your lap top. We can tell. If you're going to use a lap top in class, sit in a spot where classmates can see your lap top (the texters and surfers sit in the back row, and along the walls).

Do:
Smile. Be engaged in class. Sit where you can easily make eye contact with the professor. Manage your time. Plan ahead with your work load. Put business before pleasure. If you join a sorority, make friends with a nice older sister who can give you some guidance and advice. Go to bed at a reasonable hour and take care of yourself.

DubaiSis · #13 08-03-2013, 08:51 PM

Admittedly, the scenarios where I waited to buy the books was not my freshman classes. As a freshman, do as Sciencewoman says and buy the books. Later on you can figure out when teachers are oblivious to what books cost and react accordingly.

And yes, GO TO CLASS. I was able to survive while skipping a lot as a freshman, but getting by is no way to go through college and I spent the rest of college trying to get my GPA out of the tank. And on that note, unless you absolutely positively have to, don't schedule classes early. For me, a good first class was 10:30. For others it might have been 9:30 or even 8:30, but be realistic about when you're really going to be able to get up, have breakfast and be at class on time, and as a freshman, I'd err later.

amIblue? · #14 08-03-2013, 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DubaiSis

And Shakespeare, for instance, is Shakespeare, regardless of what form it comes in. And you don't, regardless how awesome, need a Shakespeare anthology.

Yes, but when you're given page and line number for a specific reference to analyze in class, if you don't have the same edition, you may have missed the point the professor made regarding that reference by the time you find the text in your editions, and those points and interpretations are the stuff they expect you to be able to discuss in your exam.

LouisaMay · #15 08-03-2013, 09:04 PM

Don't be too hard on yourself! Everyone has hard days or weeks or even a rough first semester. Do not decide to transfer based on a hard transition. There are many real reasons to change schools, but never make that decision in the midst of one of the biggest transitions of your life. Give everything time.

I really want to echo what others have said regarding your professors. I've been teaching in higher ed. for 12 years. Talk to your professors. If you are struggling with something or unclear about instructions, ask. If you really mess up and are feeling desperate, DO NOT DISAPPEAR!!! Go to your instructor and ask for support. I've had to fail way too many students who produced high quality work but completely bailed on the course because they got scared.

Don't plagiarize! No matter how close the deadline is or how freaked out you might be about the criteria, asking for help is 100 times better than cheating.