I’m not a pro at being a Hamline student by any means after my two years of studying here, but as a Junior I feel like there’s some tips I’ve picked up along the way. Here are a couple from a semi-pro student who’s just pretending to adult.
1. Don’t work on homework for each subject you have for more than an hour a day. I don’t know about the rest of humanity, but I can’t focus on reading one text book for more than an hour, and if I try then it takes me twice as long than if I just stopped for that day and did it later.
2. Check your emails. It honestly stresses me out when first-years say they never check their school email. Professors share things on there. Class cancellations, homework, tests, it can all be found on email. Check. Your. Email. It’s a good habit to get into.
3. Don’t wear your lanyard around your neck. Just don’t. It marks you as a newbie. Just stick the lanyard in your back pocket like everyone else.
4. Set a timer on your phone for when your laundry will be done so you can take it out. If it’s in there for too long, it’s fair game to be taken out and placed on top of the dirty washer/dryer machines.
5. Join at least one org on campus. Whether it’s to help build your resume or to just hang out, it can be a great way to meet new people and to get you out of doing homework for at least an hour of your life. If an org is becoming a chore though, don’t feel bad about leaving. Those in the organization won’t hold it against you if you are looking after your own health and time and can’t regularly make meetings or need to stop coming. This goes for anything in life. People understand if you need to take time off for yourself.
6. Try new foods at the C-Store. Repetition when it comes to food can become boring. The C-Store offers some great frozen and refrigerated foods. Sometimes at the beginning and the middle of each semester the C-Store randomly adds one or two new things. They suddenly appear like ghosts in the night and can be fun surprises to spend your DB on. Eating the same thing all the time can also lead to lack of nutrition and cause you to become sick easier.
7. Don’t wait to spend all your DB at the end of the year. If there is a Starbucks mug that you want, buy it. Don’t wait until the end of the year when you still have 300 DB and you and the rest of the school is trying to drain their DB. If there is something cool you see and you know during the last month that you have a lot of DB, buy everything you want then. Get ahead of the rest of the crowd.
8. Don’t be afraid to go to the tutors. They are helpful and knowledgeable. They’ve usually taken the class you are struggling with, with the teacher you’re taking it with, and know what to expect from upcoming tests. The writing and communication center is also a great resource.
9. Find friends with good movie tastes.
10. Eat some vegetables and fruits at least every other day. Protein is also good for you.
11. 8 a.m. classes will slowly kill you. If you take one, make sure it’s in a subject you are comfortable with.
12. Treat yourself to a night off campus at least once a month. Go to the movies. Walk to Culvers. Go to the park and eat a sandwich there. Honestly, I don’t follow this one enough, but going to different places off campus feels nice, even if it’s just to wander around Target to buy absolutely nothing.
13. Look at what classes you want for the next semester before you go to your advisor meetings to gain your code. Sign up for classes as soon as you can. Write out all the codes for each class in a word document so you can quickly copy and paste them into Piperline. Plan ahead.
14. Hamline has events for a reason. They’re fun and usually have free food.
15. If you don’t understand an assignment or lesson, talk with your professor. They want to help and won’t penalize you for admitting you have no clue what’s going on. Needing help isn’t a weakness.
16. Hamline students living on campus get Xfinity for free. A whole new world of procrastination waits for you there.
17. Reading ahead and doing homework ahead of time during the week means you won’t have to do anything during the weekend. Weekends are meant for sleep, not working yourself to death with homework that you put off during the week.
18. The Hamline Church across the street from Sorin has free food sometimes. Even if you aren’t religious, feel free to go to those type of events. They are open for the public and have very good food.
19. Don’t forget to sleep. Nothing good happens after 1 a.m.
20. Don’t stress. Grades don’t define you. You have a lot of time. It might seem like everyone is ahead of you in life, but honestly, they feel just as unprepared for life as you do. No one knows what they’re doing in life.
These lessons have taken me two years to realize even though most of them are simple. College is a weird middle time in life, when you feel like you’re playing at being an adult. Don’t worry though, college is about learning even if it’s learning about how to navigate the little things in life.