1. Your roommate(s) will mostly not become your best friend(s): Trust me. Don’t go in with too high of expectations. You will be disappointed.
2. Walking up Berkeley hills in flip flops should be considered an Olympic sport: Invest in a pair of comfy sneakers! On Berkeley time, I had barely managed to get to Etcheverry from Durant and Telegraph. Hopefully you will get a decent seat and be able to blot off your endless streaming of sweat.
3. Professors actually want you to succeed and would like to get to know you. When I went into my professor’s office hours to arrange my final exam she confirmed just that. I will never forget the moment when she asked, “You know I want you to succeed, right?” My final exam was going to be graded by one of the most renowned professors in the department… Of course I was panicking! Behind the intimidating exterior, remember that professors are people too. They can come off brusque, rude, or even mean, but get to know them! They are facing tons of stress just like you are, but most of them genuinely want you to do well.
4. Don’t trust everything you hear and read: Don’t let anyone deter you from exploring what interests you. Other people’s interests may not align with yours. If you want to do something, do it. If you want to take a challenging class because you are intrigued by the material, do it. I would take the reviews on Rate My Professors with a grain of salt. I’ve met quite a few of professors with atrocious reviews, who turned out to be some of the most caring, intelligent, and kind people I have ever met.
5. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to figure out your whole life in college. I’ve met plenty of students who graduated and were stressed out about their future plans. Who wouldn’t be? They are in a good place now and some are still searching for their “thing.” Don’t feel that you have to have your entire life planned out in these few years. We are all on different trajectories!
6. Everything is so expensive. Every 2-3 weeks, I spend about $10 on laundry. The laundry rooms can be absolutely filthy and your clothes probably won’t even be fully dry. Eating healthy or even eating at all is difficult. Cooking=time and time=money. Eating out can be both unhealthy and costly. Meal plans are expensive and Crossroads has disappointed me so many times.
7. Friends will come and go: You will encounter so many different people, but it’s hard to say who will stay and who will leave. I came to college with my best friend and while I still consider him a friend, we don’t nearly talk as much as we did in high school or in our first year of college. Guess what? That’s okay! I finally came to terms with not being able to be friends with everyone. By branching out, I found friends that I plan on keeping in touch with for a very long time. Who says that you have to limit your circle? I became good friends with my friend’s GSI who is over 40!
8. College will be so much different than high school: Surprisingly, there will still be tons of people who don’t really care about their academics in college. At the back of a 400-person lecture hall, I saw countless students on their laptops doing everything except taking notes and paying attention in lecture. There were people looking through their Facebook feeds, watching videos on Netflix and Youtube, buying concert tickets on Ticketmaster, and ordering silverware on Amazon. Unlike high school, I noticed more people on their laptops than on their phones.
9. Go out and do something you’re scared to do: I feared going to any events without the company of a friend, but it’s very important to branch out. You will meet new friends, be able to explore your interests, and build your self-confidence.
10. Learn to let go. For the first time in your life, you may get your first final semester grade that is lower than an A, but there’s a lesson in that. Did you do your best? If not, why not? Were you genuinely interested in the material? What can I do next semester? I remember that I took an “easy A” course that I ended up getting a B in. I fell asleep in the few lectures I went to. I didn’t read the textbook, I didn’t speak in discussion, and I didn’t even cram as much as I did in high school. I was really not interested in the material. While everyone said that the professor was great, I found him to be quite montone. I strongly encourage you to take classes that truly interest you instead of “GPA booster” courses.
In the future, I plan on giving more personal experiences about the points above. Please comment below or send us an email if you have a question about how to succeed at UC Berkeley, want to join Her Campus, or want to give us suggestions for future posts!
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