1. Calendar. As soon as your Professor hands you your syllabus write down the date that every paper is due and the day of every exam. You are in college and you are an adult. They are not going to remind you, so write it down and get studying early.
2. Have a water bottle. You are probably not going all the way back up to the hill between classes and you don’t want to have to buy a bottled water at Lucy’s or Johnny’s and can’t take that glass with you from Rathbone. Be eco-friendly and get a water bottle.
3. Good walking shoes. This might sound so lame because all I have ever worn are cute, yet unsupportive gladiator sandals. While we go to school on a mountain and my feet actually hurt from years of flat sandals. Buy some cute Nikes to help trek up the hill.
4. Get shoes you can trash. When it comes to going out frat houses have gross floors. People are dancing and having a good time and are bound to spill their drink on you. Many people resort to wearing their shower shoes out. If you want to be brave and wear heels that is your choice, but think about it. Besides your feet killing you from this steep incline, your cute black suede booties are going to get some even cuter grain stains.
5. Find your designated laundry time. I do laundry once a week, the same time every week. Pick a time (usually better during the week) where you have time between classes where laundry isn’t busy and do two to three loads. Remember you still have to wash your sheets and towels, besides your clothes. Don’t wait till you don’t have any clean clothes left to do laundry, get in a good habit and pick your designated time.
6. Have an umbrella. Lehigh doesn’t give much warning when it decides to pour. Bring an umbrella, better safe than sorry.
7. Read the syllabus. Every professor responds to questions with this answer “read the syllabus”. If you have specific questions go to office hours, but don’t ask them when those are because you are going to get the same answer as before.
8. Check your Lehigh email. You need to check it for both class and clubs. My 10:45 class gets sent emails at 6:45am the same day expecting us to read the article and be prepared to discuss. Clubs also send info out on amazing opportunities like trips to the United Nations and other cool stuff.
9. When you are at the library, put your phone away. I am completely guilty of this offense, but you will get no done work done if you are texting people the entire time. If you want to keep it out, but it on silent. I don’t want to hear a “ding” every second that I am trying to study, it is just library etiquette.
10. Learn to skim your reading. My classes are small discussion based classes where we typically have about 80 pages of reading a night. Our professor told us to “lock up our highlighters”. Read material for general context more than every precise detail. If I had every page in detail, I wouldn’t have time to even get to do the reading for my other classes. Work fast and work diligently. After all, you are smart you got into Lehigh : )