College Tips
Make sure to attend all of your orientations your freshman year. The orientations divulge a large amount of knowledge about the college and its procedures that you will find more than helpful as you get acclimated to college life. You will also sign-up for classes and roommates during orientation meetings.

Be sure to meet and greet your roommate, if you do not already know them. You are going to live with this person for at least a few months so make an effort to get to know them. Get to know their personality and even set-up some general guidelines regarding living together that will help respect your individual boundaries. These guidelines can include using the phone/paying the bill, noise, study time, having visitors, etc.

Be organized when it comes to your classes. Know when all of your classes are and where they are. Some classes might be across campus from each other and only a few minutes apart. Buy some sort of organizer to keep track of all of your assignments and exams.

Don't schedule too many classes your freshman year. Your first year is a period of adjustment and feeling overloaded with academic pressure can be disastrous. You need to allow your time to adjust to your new settings and living on your own. Burying yourself in too much work can hinder this process. College is about classes but it's also about the growing socially as well. Balance your classes with college clubs and activities.

Be ready to meet a variety of personalities and cultures. Colleges are most often a melting pot of young people that come from various backgrounds and have differing ideals. Learn to be tolerant and even accepting of other people's views even if they do not match your own. You will learn a great deal about life that can't be taught in any classroom by interacting with the wide array of people at your school.

Don't be afraid to talk to your professors. Most problems can be resolved by talking to them. If you feel you are falling behind, speak with them about ways that you can catch up to the material. Most understand that the adjustment to a college workload can be harder for some, so take a minute and discuss any issues with them.

Locate a great place to study on campus. If our dorm room is too distracting with TV, video games, roommate, or friends dropping by, then you may wish to find a new place to study. The library is always a good spot. Some schools have special study hall areas set-up for just this purpose. Be sure to study every day. Trying to cram at test time is a lot harder than you might think.

Learn to manage your money. You may already have experience in this area or you may be doing it for the first time. Be wary of credit cards, as companies love to throw lines of credit at new college students. Being frivolous with credit cards can lead to many problems down the road. Create a budget and stick to it. When you get comfortable get a part time job, on-campus if you can, for extra spending money. Don't buy new text books. Buying used books will save you a lot of money. Get a meal plan. It's usually cheaper and a lot healthier than eating pizza and fast food.

Be safe. College can offer many temptations such as drinking, drugs, sex, etc. Don't ever feel pressured into doing something you don't want to just because other people are doing it. If you find yourself in such a situation, excuse yourself and go back to your dorm room.

Your college experience will be what you make of it. You will only get out of it what you put into it. Get involved in campus activities. Go to sports events; join a club; run for student government. Find something that suits your personality. This is a great tool in feeling like you belong and can cure any homesickness. You will make friends and form an attachment to the university. Appreciate your college experience.

When you first arrive on campus, check out the "Greek" scene. You may find that fraternities and sororities are a good way to meet new people and make connections you might not otherwise have made. Or, you may find that it is a complete waste of your time. You owe it to yourself at least to check it out and discover this for yourself, instead of going with any preconceived notion you may have after having watched Animal House.

Beware the "freshman fifteen!" Now that you are on your own, you are making more choices for yourself, including most of your meal choices. It is very easy to gorge yourself on the fast-food readily available on-campus (or across the street from campus), and pizza is available at virtually all hours. Without realizing it, you could soon find yourself gaining fifteen or twenty pounds (or more!) during your first year! Watch what you eat, and make sure you get plenty of exercise!

Be sure to know who your adviser is and meet with them on a regular basis. You will want to make sure that you know exactly where you are in terms of credit hours earned, required courses taken, and how close you are to graduating. This will be especially important once you are beyond your freshman and sophomore years.

It is always a good idea to get involved on campus and to find groups that you want to join. You will make friends, have a good time, and depending on the group or activity, it could look very good on your resume once you have graduated!

Have your student id with you at all times! Not only is it your id but it can also be your key for getting into locked buildings, your meal card, a bank card, a library card and much more all rolled into one. You can also sometimes use the card elsewhere in the city your college is located to get discounts on meals, movies, stores and more.

Read the syllabus as soon as you can. This vital piece of paper will tell you when assignments are due and when tests are going to be given. The professors will not always remind you when things are going to happen because they already gave you a heads up with the syllabus at the beginning of the semester.

If you are still looking at colleges, do what you can to visit them. This will allow you to get a feel for what it is like there. Make sure you do this while school is in session. You might be able to sit in or a class in the major you are interested in to see what its like.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Getting a tutor so that you can make it through a class that is essential for you to graduate is a good idea. Contact your schools student services help desk. They can point you in the right direction to find a tutor.

Already in the “working world”, but want to go back to school to gain a second degree? You can look into taking night classes at a local collage, or you can look into perusing the degree through an online program. Online programs allow you to take classes through the internet at a collage that is in another city.

If you decide to pursue a second degree through an online institution, first make sure that they are either themselves thoroughly accredited or that they are affiliated to an accredited college or university that will be conferring the diploma.

If you are presented with new material in a class and you don’t understand it, do everything possible to learn it. Talk to the professor, or get a fellow class mate to help you out. You don’t want to find yourself in a class where everything after the lesson you don’t understand is built upon that one lesson.

During midterms and finals remember to eat and sleep properly (falling asleep in the middle of the test is not good). Also, stay calm. If you have paid attention in class and have absorbed the material then there is no need to panic or cram for the tests. If you have attended the classes, and turned in all the assignments, then all you should need is to look over your notes to refresh your memory the night before.

Want a good way to know if you are falling behind in the class? Ask yourself this; if I was presented a test on all the material covered thus far would I be able to pass it? If the answer is no, you need to get some kind of help to catch yourself up to the rest of the class.

When applying for colleges, apply for more than one! Make sure you decide on the primary school you want to go to and a backup just in case you aren't accepted.

Make sure you get your books ahead of time before classes start. There are several online bookstores that can often get you used books for cheaper than your school bookstore.

Getting up for an 8am class is often the toughest thing to do. Make sure you are a morning person and can wake up early enough to get to class before you sign up for it.

Remember that despite the freedoms that college may allow you, there are responsibilities along with those freedoms. You may have heard stories about students skipping entire semesters of classes and managing to ace their exams anyway. This probably is not true. Also, remember that some professors do indeed require attendance and participation as part of their classes!