When I got into my dream school, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I don’t have any older siblings, and none of my family has ever gone away to college, especially out of state. I’d like to think that I adjusted to my new life easily and quickly, and today I know that I made the right decision. Of course, there’s been good days and bad days and I’ve learned a lot of important lessons along the way.
1. You will have a love/hate relationship with dorm life.
Living away from home is a big adjustment and learning to share your space with another person can be a major challenge, but eventually you and your roommate will settle into a routine. You’ll be simultaneously grateful for being surrounded by all the girls on your floor because there’s always someone to hang out with (or someone to cry about an exam with, if that’s how the day is going); however, there will be nights when you need to go to bed early or have to study for a huge exam and it is on these nights specifically that there will be incredibly loud sing-a-longs to Adele’s new album or the hits from the early 2000s. Maybe these nights will happen more often than you’d like, but you’ll adjust and figure out how to block out the noise. You’ll never seem to have enough space for all your things, but you’ll also become a master of organization and making things fit in very unlikely spaces.
2. There is such a thing as too much pizza.
I know—it’s hard to believe. When you enter the campus dining hall, there’s probably going to be at least three staples: pizza, cheeseburgers, and fries. While I’d like to pretend that the Freshman 15 is a myth, I assure you that it is not. While there’s certainly healthy options available (read: a salad bar and maybe the sandwich station), it can be so much more appealing and much easier to grab a slice of pizza or mozzarella sticks from the dining hall or any food place on campus. Not to mention, it’s probably a lot cheaper than buying fresh fruit or any healthy foods. Pizza is an integral part of the college experience, and there’s no denying that, but the key is moderation.
3. It’s okay if you don’t get a perfect score on every test.
For those of us who were straight-A students in high school, getting back an 80% on an exam that you studied for can be a really terrible experience. It’s important to realize that college functions a lot differently than high school. If you’re at a large university, there’s a good chance that some of your freshman year classes (you know, the 350 people lectures) are meant to be weed-out courses. Even more importantly, a poor grade on one exam is not enough to strip you of your A- or A for the semester. Getting upset over a bad exam isn’t going to be productive, but using it as inspiration to work harder for the rest of the semester can make all the difference.
4. The professor won’t know if you didn’t do the reading… DO IT ANYWAY.
In a room full of 350 people, the professor will not be able to tell if you didn’t do the reading before class—unless, of course, they’re one of those professors who likes to put random students on the spot for answering questions in class. Even though there aren’t usually reading quizzes and they won’t come around and check your reading notes, I encourage you to do them anyway. First of all, textbooks are really expensive- so why buy somethinng to have it sit on the shelf? Second, professors love to pull material from the books for exam questions, even if they didn’t cover it in lecture. It gives them a metric to separate those who really prepare for the class and those who happen to show up to lecture. You’ll understand the material better and it’ll pay off in your grades. Do the reading because it will only serve to benefit you.
5. Burnout is real.
I’d like to say that I am not proud of this picture, but I think it’s absolutely important to understand that we were not built to run on no sleep and work until we drop. Midterms and finals are, without a doubt, the hardest weeks of the semester. You will simultaneously have at least three exams to study for and two papers to write while worrying about packing to go home and working and hopefully finding time to eat, sleep, and shower in between. I beg you—take a study break: go to the gym, go out for dinner, play videogames with a friend, or just curl up and watch Netflix. If you don’t take care of yourself, you will burnout, and that will put you further behind than the thirty minutes it would take to go for a walk and refresh your mind.
Now, let’s take these lessons and enjoy what’s left of our freshman year.