Any advice from those who are in/have gone to college?

[Ultracheese]

I will be attending college either this year or next year if my request for a gap year gets approved. For those who are in college or have gone to college, what were your experiences like? What advice would you give to someone who is in my position?

 

[Deo volente]

I heard that you should say yes to any invitations to do things you get, at least in the beginning.

My own experience was awful but I also didn't really take that advice. Not that anybody ever invited me to do anything.

 

[chocolatebar]

Just try not to stress yourself too much, high grades don't matter, as long as you pass. Making connections matters more than learning the topics (I learned this the worst way).

And try to live the moments. Don't live it like a preparation for a future, but as its own complete moment.

 

[noname223]

I will be attending college either this year or next year if my request for a gap year gets approved. For those who are in college or have gone to college, what were your experiences like? What advice would you give to someone who is in my position?

I think many students in college struggle because they lack discipline to study. I think self-organization and conscientiousness are good predictors for success in college. However other factors like resilience play a huge role too. Furthermore building connections to other students can help a lot. There are internet websites for very helpful summaries they saved my ass a couple of times.

 

[Ultracheese]

I think many students in college struggle because they lack discipline to study. I think self-organization and conscientiousness are good predictors for success in college. However other factors like resilience play a huge role too. Furthermore building connections to other students can help a lot. There are internet websites for very helpful summaries they saved my ass a couple of times.

I'm hoping that since I've been to community college and did well there that I have some good study skills in place for "real college", per se. I'm going halfway across the country so that's very nerve-wracking too but I think I will get over it in time. Do you have any good study tips and advice for making connections?

 

[Ambivalent1]

Lots of missed sexual opportunities. I deeply regret it. The academic side is fine. Lot of essays

 

[Ultracheese]

Lots of missed sexual opportunities. I deeply regret it. The academic side is fine. Lot of essays

Were you/are you any good at essay writing? I don't consider myself the strongest writer so advice would be appreciated if you have any.

 

[Ambivalent1]

Were you/are you any good at essay writing? I don't consider myself the strongest writer so advice would be appreciated if you have any.

Yes. There's different types of essays. The most popular is the persuasive essay. The first paragraph is the intro where you point out what each following paragraph will be about (individual arguments supporting your thesis). Final paragraph is a summary.

 

[noname223]

I'm hoping that since I've been to community college and did well there that I have some good study skills in place for "real college", per se. I'm going halfway across the country so that's very nerve-wracking too but I think I will get over it in time. Do you have any good study tips and advice for making connections?

I think you are quite smart which is a pretty good presupposition for college. I was two times at college. The first time I was pretty naive. Doing everything what the lecturers say is impossible. You have to evaluate on your own what is essential.

I am not that socially skilled. Despite that I have made good connections. I think there was some luck involved. I searched for people who are similar to me. People that can support each and who don't attend college simply for getting drunk. I looked for genuinely good people. So I found a clique that fits. My best friend at college is extremely good connected and I have profited of that.

 

[blazysuzan]

if it's a uni, then have fun. don't stress it too much you're prob still young asl try and enjoy it

 

[MelancholyMagic]

I heard that you should say yes to any invitations to do things you get, at least in the beginning.

This depends. If you deny requests in the beginning, then in short time you won't be getting any more invitations. But perhaps that is a blessing; it spares you from having to interact with others in their distasteful bacchic revelry.

 

[Absolute Chips]

Expect tons of work to do, and learn to manage your time efficiently. This is certainly not the first time you heard this when you asked for an advices like this, but I'm speaking from my experience here. I am majoring in physics, have a lab to do almost every week, and one lab equals to one report to write. The work is fine at the beginning since I can basically just chill along way, that was until the middle of the semester where it starts to get busy. Every classes have one assignment to do, I wasn't ready for it until I got like 6 things to be done. 4 assignments and 2 lab reports that's starting to get overdue. Glad that my lab lecturer is fine with me handing my reports later or else I'm going to get overwhelmed more than what I had from the work.

 

[Ultracheese]

Expect tons of work to do, and learn to manage your time efficiently. This is certainly not the first time you heard this when you asked for an advices like this, but I'm speaking from my experience here. I am majoring in physics, have a lab to do almost every week, and one lab equals to one report to write. The work is fine at the beginning since I can basically just chill along way, that was until the middle of the semester where it starts to get busy. Every classes have one assignment to do, I wasn't ready for it until I got like 6 things to be done. 4 assignments and 2 lab reports that's starting to get overdue. Glad that my lab lecturer is fine with me handing my reports later or else I'm going to get overwhelmed more than what I had from the work.

I appreciate this a lot! I was hoping for academics and studying based advice anyway, and I probably should've specified that. Thank you so much.

 

[Linda]

I will be attending college either this year or next year if my request for a gap year gets approved. For those who are in college or have gone to college, what were your experiences like? What advice would you give to someone who is in my position?

I was at college 1971 - 1977, so my experience is old, but I think it's still relevant. You need to get the balance right. I have seen people who were striving to get the very best degree possible push themselves very hard and have almost no social life. That's OK if you can cope with it and are aiming for a path in life that needs that level of commitment, but it's not for everyone, and I have seen it result in nervous breakdowns and even suicides. On the other hand, doing very little work is a bad idea too. I have a nephew who went to college 20 years ago, played for 3 years instead of working, and failed his exams as a result. No doubt it was great fun, but he threw away his future. He was a bright kid, and could have had an exciting and well paid career. As it is, he is still struggling to this day, has had a succession of rather mediocre jobs, has no real career, and barely enough money.

 

[HyperdimensionLoser]

Self organization+discipline is super important especially if you've got a tough and/or demanding major like STEM. Get a physical planner and write things out on paper since imo its a lot less distracting than keeping everything digitally.

Try to also keep a consistent schedule of studying/doing homework especially at the beginning of the semester so those habits set in and you don't end up procrastinating too hard. Making a schedule on excel and printing that out/pinning that to a wall is something I do to help keep me on track along with some alarm reminders on my phone.

As for the tougher classes join or make study groups, those will help out a lot, especially with math classes since people generally tend to learn more and better from explaining concepts to people or learning the concepts from other students. This also helps out a lot with making connections since you're all in a similar boat suffering through a class together (hell, I've made some good friends out of making/joining study groups in my classes).

Interacting with your professor is important too, especially if they're ones in your field. Talk to them and that's how you make opportunities for yourself for letters of recommendation and research and such. People who show up to office hours and stick around after class asking questions stand out way more than the people that just show up to class and do the bare minimum.

One more point since this is getting wordy, you can't get away with minmaxing social life/academics unless you're absolutely cracked as a student. You'll be miserable with just one or the other; you gotta find the right balance for you that ensures that you're not miserable but also not failing your classes.

 

[floatingfish]

What are you planning on studying?

 

[Ultracheese]

What are you planning on studying?

I'm planning on double majoring in philosophy and English.

 

[FundamentalAspect]

Congratulations on heading to college!

This is the only real piece of advice I can offer you:

It is vital to look after your sleep. You will be of no use to yourself if you are completely exhausted, regardless of what anyone else may tell you. This is easier said than done, I am painfully aware of that, but it really will make a huge difference if you can get at least a few decent hours a night.

Insufficient and erratic sleep is one of the biggest regrets from when I was in college; my mental and physical health, and certainly my academic performance all suffered terribly because of it and I could have done so much better. This is part of the balance and organisation/keeping a regular schedule mentioned by Linda and some of the others that gets lost too often.

I can't think of anybody who regretted going into an exam with some rest under them.

Love your choice of majors, BTW.