Life can get overwhelming when adjusting to college. Living on your own for the first time, having to budget in new ways, and taking harder classes may seem like a lot to take on all at once, especially when you factor in new friends and all of the experiences that go along with college. There’s usually a lot to do in a short amount of time, especially at the beginning of a semester and while all of these options are exciting, they make it easy to make mistakes that can ruin an entire week, or even the whole semester. Sometimes blowing off homework for friends or splurging on fast food can be harmless (and fun), but it’s important to know when you can afford to be spontaneous and when you should stick to being responsible. So, to help you do that, here are some tips for managing responsibilities in college!
1. Lists are your friends. There is no easier way to keep up with the things you have to do than to put them all in a list. There are a lot of different ways to do this, like keeping notes in your phone, updating a planner, or being old-fashioned and using a pen and paper. Any way you do it, keeping lists of things you need to get and things you need to do make it really easy to ensure you don’t fall behind in your budget or schoolwork. Take whatever list you use with you to class and add assignments to it as they’re given. Additionally, go through your syllabi and write down all of your essays and tests (with their due dates) so that you can keep up with them instead of being surprised when they eventually come around.
2. Get a head start whenever you can. It’s a good idea to do homework and essays early, especially at the beginning of the semester when you’re not completely sure how long assignments for a class will take. It doesn’t have to be an extreme head start, but if you just try to have assignments done the day before they’re due, you can save yourself a lot of stress and make sure that you won’t be up all night trying to finish before class. If you finish something early, you can use the extra day to review your work, or blow it off and do something fun. It’s hard to avoid procrastination, but just knowing that you aren’t in a rush to finish can make your work a lot better. Stress never helps the quality of an assignment, even if it does make you work faster.
3. Make sure you have money for the things you need. Unless you’re lucky enough to have your parents buy all of your groceries and supplies for you, you’re probably going to have to buy some things for yourself pretty regularly. If money isn’t an issue for you, this isn’t a big deal, but if you only have a set amount to use in a month or a week, you have to be able to prioritize your expenses. The easiest way to do this is to make sure that money goes where you need it as soon as possible. Go necessity shopping as soon as you get paid or your parents put money in your account. Buy just what you need, and whatever’s left over is money you can spend on things you want. If you can’t use the money on what you need immediately for whatever reason, put the amount of money you need for necessities away. Stick it in an envelope somewhere safe, put it in your savings account, or just tuck it into a different section of your wallet, but make sure that it’s set apart so you don’t accidentally spend it.
4. It’s okay to prioritize fun. Staying in your room while all of your friends are having fun because you’re broke or need to finish a paper sucks. Planning can help you avoid this problem. If your friends always go out on Friday night, make sure you finish your work before then and set money for the weekend aside like you do for other priorities. It might mean missing a movie marathon with your roommate on Wednesday to finish a paper and you may have to cut down on fast food during the week. However, if you’d rather get to do whatever you want on the weekend, you’ll probably have to limit your fun during the week.
5. Fun doesn’t have to cost you. Coupons may seem boring, but they can make life a lot easier and you don’t have to go through newspapers or magazines to get them anymore (although that’s still a great idea if you have the patience for it). There are websites like Groupon and CouponSherpa that can help you save money on food and stores you visit all the time. Additionally, Macon’s a pretty big place. There are some fun things you can do for free, or for very little money. Check out The 11th Hour and The Telegraph (local publications) for ideas or try Googling different search terms according to the money you have to spend. But don’t forget to look for things happening around campus! A lot of campus groups set up around the cafe during the lunch rush to advertise different events, and there are many fliers posted in various locations that you can check for things that seem fun. These are usually cheap or free and they give you more opportunities to make friends on campus.
6. Work harder than you think you need to on first assignments. Whether it’s studying for a test or writing a paper, you can’t lose anything by going the extra mile on your first assignment. The easiest way to gauge what you need to know or do for a class is to talk to your professor and ask questions. For an exam, you can ask how they recommend you study, what they expect you to know, and how the test will be formatted. Just knowing if it’s multiple choice or not can tell you a lot about how you need to study. For papers, it’s a good idea to tell your professor what you intend to write about and make sure that it matches up with what they expect of you. After talking to your professor, you need to actually work hard. Make flash cards, study with a friend, or do whatever helps you prepare for tests the best, and then review a few times. If you’re working on a paper, edit it as much as you can, then take it to the Academic Resource Center and have a writing tutor go over it with you to find anything you may have missed and make sure your paper is well structured. If you end up working a lot harder than you needed to, you may feel silly or be disappointed that you didn’t spend the extra time having fun, but that’s a lot better than underestimating an assignment. In college, there are usually only a few assignments, so the grades matter a lot more than they did in high school. One bad grade can drag down your entire average, and leave you scrambling to make up for it for the rest of the semester. It’s way better to overestimate a test and tone down your preparation for the next one than to underestimate and risk messing up your entire semester.
7. Relax. While it’s important to try to do well, everyone makes mistakes, even when they’re trying to do everything right. Being stressed in college is normal, and so is messing up. It’s important to remember that no one’s perfect and to take mistakes in stride and try to learn from them instead of beating yourself. If your stress gets to be too much or you feel like you can’t handle all of your responsibilities, consider visiting CAPS. Their information is on the Mercer website and it’s totally free and confidential. They have a lot of resources on managing stress and are great at listening and providing advice. Making an appointment is as easy as dropping by or calling them, and having support from them can make the college experience seem a lot less daunting.
If you keep these things in mind, college should seem a lot less intimidating. But, if you’re still freaked out, remember that all of your professors, the upperclassmen, and your RA’s have been where you are now. Everyone starts out as a freshman, and getting used to college is something that comes with experience. You’ll get the hang of college eventually, but try to enjoy your first year, ups and downs and all, because you’ll never be a freshman again.