Tips for the College Bound
From MidnightWiki
General Tips for the College Bound
1) Resist at all costs the temptation to complain about how much homework/exam prep you have to do. Not only will you annoy all the other equally overwhelmed students, you'll inadvertently give off the impression that you're stupid. Conversely, if you never complain and act like your organic chemistry course is a breeze, people will think you're some kind of genius.
2) If you ARE buffaloed under by the workload and need to (gulp) work on a Friday or Saturday night, it might be possible to show up late at that all important party. You have the double advantage of being (at least initially) sober and clear-headed, while that girl/boy you've had your eye on is already a few sheets to the wind. Not only that, but the rest of the players in the mix are most likely drowning in their own vomit next to the already kicked keg, leaving the field wide open.
3) Despite the lies perpetrated by Hollywood, one night stands suck. There are ALWAYS strings attached, and you will end up having awkward run-ins with that questionable conquest at least twelve times a day for the rest of your miserable four years. If you're really dead set on putting a few notches in the old belt, try to stretch your hookups to at least a month. The sex will VASTLY improve, and you'll have time to perfect your exit strategy.
4) Don't just hang with the geographically convenient friends in your dorm. College is one of the last chances in your life to make friends easily (trust me on this). Seek out the most interesting/coolest people you can find, and you'll have good friends for life.
5) Refuse to be bullied. College is not high school, and you're an adult now. If some Cro-Magnon jock threatens to kick your ass, tell him that assault and battery is illegal and you fully intend to press charges and sue for damages. If said jock kicks your ass anyway, then CALL THE POLICE (not just campus security), press charges, get him expelled, get a restraining order, and SUE the prick for psychological damages. You should be able to find a lawyer willing to work on a percentage of the settlement. The point is not to make a lot of money, it's to ruin the bully's life.
6) Learn to skim. There's no way to realistically read all the books that are assigned, so you need to learn how to skim for the important stuff. Ideally (at least in humanities courses), you should be reading with your essay topic already in mind. This may take a semester or two to perfect, but it's KEY to getting easy As while still having a social life (the only part of college that you're liable to remember later).
7) Learn to write. It's probably the single most important skill you can pick up in college. Not only will well-written essays drop the jaws of your professors, but the ability to write will make you a stand-out in just about any profession. Even hard science majors can benefit (Stephen Hawking made serious cash WRITING books for non-scientists, and grant writing itself is an art). How do you learn to write? By re-writing until your eyes bug out of your head.
8) Definitely do a year (or at least a semester) abroad. Some top schools (Princeton comes to mind) actively discourage students from going overseas under the misguided notion that foreign schools have inferior academics. Ask anyone who actually spent a year abroad, and he will inevitably say that it was the most memorable year of college (if not his entire life). Once you graduate and get a job, you're unlikely to ever have the chance to actually live overseas again. You'll come back to campus your senior year a completely different (and better) person.
9) Fear Google. Not the company, but the info on you it could dig up for a potential employer/grad school admissions officer. That online drunken jpeg of you with your pants around your ankles, a bong in one hand, and a bottle of Jaeger in the other can easily cost you your dream job. Perhaps even worse (if you're a woman) is the "Girls Gone Wild" issue. That drunken flash (while certainly appreciated by millions of men) will haunt you for the REST of your life. Even political rants in the school paper or on your blog can torpedo your career twenty years later (remember, just about everything is archived now). Do bosses, admissions officers, future dating prospects, even next door neighbors Google you? YES!
10) There is no "real world" (even on MTV) after college. The corporate world is just as artificial as the campus. For most people, life does not get much harder than college. If you can hack college, you've got nothing to fear.
Anyone else got advice? Questions?--Ronrico, 16 March 2006
Is college work really hard?
Well, there are a lot of variables (what kind of college you're attending, how well your high school prepared you, what you're majoring in… etc.). Personally, I found myself a little overwhelmed my freshman year. It's not just the workload, but also the disorienting effect of moving to a new place and living on your own. However, once I stopped thinking about my classes with a high school mindset (i.e. just a series of stupid hoops I had to jump through), things got a lot better. If you pick classes in fields you're really interested in (something high schools never let you do), they can actually be fun. A great professor teaching a fascinating subject is a wonderful experience, and at almost any college, these professors exist (it's definitely worth asking around). Once learning is fun, it gets a hell of a lot easier.--Ronrico, 18 March 2006
