All-nighters, parties, and sports: three trademarks of my freshman year. I came into college expecting some challenges but I never thought I would experience what I did. I learned some valuable lessons that I will definitely take with me into my second year of school and beyond.
1). Office hours are ESSENTIAL to earning good grades.
My first semester I went to one of my professor’s office hours once. And I wasn’t even alone when I went. I never visited my GSI (Graduate Student Instructor)’s office hours and I would’ve undoubtedly benefited from it if I had pushed myself to attend in my downtime. My spring semester was denser in writing, so I forced myself to visit my GSI’s office hours to tweak my essay or give them a preview of my papers so they could give me advice and witness my progress in the final draft. Office hours are all-around a great idea if you need a little GPA boost. Plus, you get to know your professors or GSIs on a more casual and personal level, and who doesn’t want the clout that you’re homies with your professor?
2). But regardless of all the effort you put in, grade deflation wins in the end.
My first semester consisted of miscellaneous classes: astronomy, nutritional science, history and gender and women’s studies. During midterms and finals, I would sit myself down in the library for countless hours and study late into the night. No matter how confident I felt in my classes and the grade I previously had, some of my final grades did not reflect my diligence when I worked on papers or studied for exams. I have never been more frustrated in my life to learn that I was not rewarded for my hard work, even though I deserved it.
3). You don’t need to go out to every single party.
As an excited freshman I was so eager to go out and meet new people, all the time. Even the first week I arrived on campus I was already going out every night and losing sleep (before school even started!). My first semester entailed parties on frat row during the week and the weekend. Needless to say, I was losing sleep and my school performance started to suffer. My second semester, however, I got ahold of myself and hardly went out besides holidays and huge events. I performed much better academically, which was worth it all for me. It was a hard pill to swallow but going out was something I needed to cut back on.
4). Attend as many sports events as possible!
For UC Berkeley, the face of athletes in the fall is football, and in the spring basketball. But there are so many other sports that are not as promoted by the students or even the athletic department. Soccer, volleyball and water polo are just a few of the sports that play during the fall season. I attended one volleyball game and one soccer match last year and they were really fun. I highly recommend attending the other sports’ tournaments because it’s a great way to support the school and each team has a completely different vibe from the other sports!
5). Take as many interesting classes as you can, even if you aren’t interested in studying the subject.
I honestly don’t mind our College of Letters & Sciences requirement to take classes from a variety of subjects. Our professors are humble (most of them, at least) and the most passionate people I have ever met. You can tell they love what they do and want to share their passion with students in their classes. I took an Intro to Italian Renaissance Art class for an arts and literature requirement, and although I already loved art history, my professor advanced my ardor for it. Same case with my astronomy class; I would never say I’m interested in any sort of STEM career, but my professor was extremely passionate about it and animated lectures in a way that motivated me to attend every 720-person lecture.
Of course there are more things I learned but these are the ones that impacted me the most in my freshman year. Hopefully this is as helpful for others as it is for me! My primary advice is just to go to school and no matter what situation you find yourself in, make the most of it.