College Life 1001

Last year, I attended my first year at the University of Minnesota. If you ask anyone who has been to college, they will tell you that college is totally different from high school. The transitional stage will be tough. College is a whole new chapter in a young person's life. It does not matter who you were in high school. College is a brand new beginning. It is a place to explore opportunities, possibilities, skills, talents, and abilities. It is the perfect opportunity for someone to find an identity. College shows you what you are made of. The journey is not at all easy. The important thing is to not give up no matter how difficult it may get. You have to constantly keep swimming. Otherwise, you will get eaten by the sharks. College teaches you so much that you can never learn in high school. You can gain significant life skills. It is the perfect place to be yourself, to step out of your comfort zone, and to gain valuable life experiences. Based on my freshman year, I will enlighten you about the college life. I am not perfect, nor am I an expert on college. I still have a lot to learn and understand about college myself. Hopefully, what I have to say about college will help and benefit you in the future. First of all, make sure to get involved early and often. A college year goes by quick. Do not sit on the sidelines. Be active. Join a club or a sport. Also, college is no doubt expensive. So, take advantage of events and other stuff that are free. Find new friends in your classes in order to make study groups for tests and finals. If you live on-campus, try to keep your dorm room door open as much as possible. This way you can meet tons of people on the same floor. If you are a commuter, you can still get involved with college life and activities. Make conversations on the bus. Find locations on campus where the commuters like to hang out at. Another thing that is important in college is professors' and teaching assistants' office hours. Take advantage of office hours as much as possible. It is a good way to meet professors, ask questions on difficult material, and to catch up if you are ever behind. Professors and Ta's like it when students come to office hours because these people want to see students succeed in their classes. Plus, professors love to talk about themselves. Most professors are really friendly. During my freshman year, the most important skill I learned was time management. College is like one big balancing act. Spending time in college is nothing like spending time in high school. In high school, more time is spent inside of class. In college, students have more time outside of class. It is important to manage time because no one is going to look after you when you get to college. Most college students like to be active. So, it is important to decide how much time you are going to study. A good rule of thumb is that for every hour you are in class, you should at least spend two to three hours outside of class studying. You only have so much time. Perhaps, you want to socialize, work at a job, and work out. It is important to balance out and organize your schedule to fit in everything including classes. The most important part of college is that you always attend classes. When you arrive at college, your parents are not going to be there to take care of you. It is to your advantage that you go to classes because you (or your parents) are paying big money for each separate class period. Skipping classes is equivalent to throwing money down the drain. When you are in class, make sure to take detailed, organized notes. Some of the class material you will not understand right away in lecture. So, you will be able to look back at your notes later to try to make sense of class information. This is why it is critical to read assigned readings from the textbook or articles because these are meant to supplement the material you learn in lecture. Also, keep track of your spending. Live life like a student now, so you won't have to later. You want as little as debt as possible when you leave college. Do not let money get in the way of your education. Make smart shopping and buying decisions. If you track where your money goes, you are more aware of how much you spend and where you spend it. In college, it is also important to have fun. Enjoy your time in college but make sure to do it safely and responsibly. Make smart choices because your parents are not at college to make them for you. There are many ways to have fun but at the same time be mature about it. Now, there are many more things to learn about college. These were all things I learned from the University of Minnesota. I thought I would share my college experience so far to give people an idea of what college life is all about.