For freshman especially, the transition from high school to college can be extremely intimidating. They say with freedom comes with responsibility, and it’s your responsibility to figure out the lay of the land. Here’s a few tips we all wish we knew before we’d arrived to college our freshman year:
1. You don’t have to raise your hand to go to the bathroom!
That’s right, the days of hall passes, signing agenda books, and having to raise your hand in the middle of a class discussion to ask to go to the bathroom are over. It may feel weird, but I promise it’s as simple as getting up whenever you need to and walking right out of the room. No questions asked! The best part about this rule? No more asking if you can go to the bathroom only to be told, “I don’t know, can you?!”
2. There aren’t assigned seats, but there are.
It’s extremely rare a college professor is ever going to assign seats like a teacher would in high school, but there are some things to keep in mind about this freedom of selection. Use the first week of class as your time to pick your seat. Maybe the first day you wanted to be ambitious and sit in the front, but decided you’re definitely a last row kind of person. If you want to make this change, do so within the first week. Once a couple classes pass, everyone basically has their own seat picked out and they stay there. Trust me, if you decide to choose a random seat every class, people will get salty.
3. The laundry wars are real
We all tell ourselves that we’ll stay on top of doing our laundry, and somehow find ourselves a month into school with a massive pile of dirty clothes and about two t-shirts left to wear in our closet. If you need to get your laundry done asap, but all the washers and dryers are taken, you can imagine the frustration. Try and get your laundry done on days that aren’t Sunday, earlier in the morning, or later at night to avoid people. More importantly, please, PLEASE, set a timer on your phone to come pick up your laundry or switch it to the dryer. Usually by mid year only half of the machines work anyway, making it even harder to find one. If you don’t arrive right on time to pick up your stuff, expect someone else to take it out and dump it on the floor for you.
4. Be smart about using elevators
The concept of elevators in school is new for a lot of us, and thus takes some getting used to. If you plan to make it to class on time, always carve out an extra 5 to 10 minutes for the delays elevators cause. Especially within the first few weeks of school, waiting for an elevator can take an eternity. To avoid this, try and get to buildings before the rush between classes begins. A few minutes can make a huge difference, like not being late to your class. And for the sake of us all, don’t be that guy that takes the elevator to the second floor.
5. It’s not weird to eat alone
Picturing yourself eating alone at a booth or table in the dining hall may seem like the most tragic idea in the world, but come the second week of school, you’ll probably find yourself doing it. I’m not saying you should eat every meal of the day on your own, but it’s hard to always find someone for 3 meals a day that doesn’t have a schedule conflict. Not to mention, sometimes you’ve only got 30 minutes between classes and you don’t really have time to chat, just to chew. If you still feel uncomfortable about it, bring a book, laptop, or some schoolwork to look busy.