College is a time of significant transition and change. It comes with many firsts and is vastly different from high school.
Knowing how to make the best use of your first year can be challenging with all of these changes. What should you avoid? What should you strive to accomplish? Read on to see our best tips and tricks for first-year college students and how you can use this time to set yourself up for success for the rest of your life.
20 Tips for Incoming College Freshmen:
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1. Get Involved On Campus
Getting involved on campus is a great way to connect with fellow students and make friends. Beyond just exploring your interests and trying new things, you鈥檒l connect with people outside your major and your year of school. Taking the time to get into campus life is a great way to find mentors and understand what your future in college can look like.
Explore 91吃瓜鈥檚 student clubs and organizations
2. Go to Class
It can be tempting to skip class, but it鈥檚 essential to go. You鈥檙e paying for your classes, so you should make the most of them and attend as many as possible. Not to mention, some professors start taking away points from your grade if you miss too many classes. Professors also often drop hints about things that will be on tests or important notes for projects during class time.
3. Meet Your Professors
Having a relationship with your professors can make it less awkward if you need to ask for help or extensions later. Plus, professors have an abundance of wisdom in the course material they teach and beyond, so you should take advantage of their knowledge!
4. Manage Your Time
College is a time when you have more freedom over your schedule than before. It鈥檚 important to find an organizational system that works for you early on. Coming up with a way to make time for your homework, sports, social commitments, and sleep is important.
5. Explore Your Interests
Whether it鈥檚 through your major or your minor, take time in your college years to learn more about your interests. You can even take classes that interest you but are unrelated to your major. Ask your academic advisor about what electives you can take. You鈥檒l probably even make some new friends through those interests.
6. Make New Friends
College brings people from all over the world together. Through your classes, your dorm, and social events, you鈥檒l get to know people you may have never met otherwise. Take this opportunity to branch out and make new friends.
7. Ask for Help
If you find yourself in a tough spot, either academically or personally, it鈥檚 better to get help sooner rather than later. It can be scary to ask for help, but your professors, advisors, mentors, and RAs want to see you succeed in this season. They won鈥檛 know how to help you if you don鈥檛 speak up, so try to advocate for yourself.
8. Use the School鈥檚 Resources
Lots of colleges have free or discounted services for students鈥� mental and physical health. If you find yourself needing to talk to someone, be sure to reach out to your school鈥檚 counselors. Lots of schools also have tutoring services for students.
9. Make Peace With Your Roommate
You might get along great with your roommate, or you might find that you don鈥檛 vibe with them as well as you hoped. Whatever the case, do your best to live with them well. You鈥檙e both in a new circumstance and trying to adjust to the demands of college life, so try to show each other grace. A great way to avoid arguments is to talk early on in the semester about things like cleaning schedules, how you both work best, and what each of you should do if you want to bring friends to your room.
10. Take Care of Yourself
Taking care of your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health is crucial during your first year of college. You鈥檒l be experiencing a lot of changes to your routine and your responsibilities, so it鈥檚 important to check in with yourself and see how you鈥檙e doing.
Taking care of yourself can look like getting enough sleep, eating healthy, and keeping in touch with your spiritual health.
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1. Miss Class Too Much
It can be a slippery slope once you start skipping. Make sure to take time away from class if you鈥檙e sick or really need a break, but do your best to get there otherwise. Even if you鈥檙e unprepared or tired, it鈥檚 better to go to class than to miss it.
2. Isolate Yourself
Try to make an effort to be social, even if you鈥檙e shy or introverted. Loneliness can easily set in, and it can become harder to put yourself out there the longer you wait.
3. Overcommit Yourself
You鈥檒l be adjusting to a new environment and a new amount of school work, but all the new social opportunities can be too exciting to pass up in college. However, it鈥檚 easy to burn out or have important things slip through the cracks if you overcommit yourself in college.
Learning to say 鈥渘o鈥� is an important skill to develop in college, and it鈥檚 one that will be valuable to your life after college too.
4. Procrastinate Endlessly
It鈥檚 important to stay on top of your readings and assignments while in college. This might look like doing some homework on the weekends, staying up later, or getting up earlier. Whatever it takes, try to make sure you keep track of what鈥檚 due and when so you can keep your grades up.
5. Eat Junk Food Constantly
Having a balanced diet is important when you鈥檙e in college. Be sure to treat yourself from time to time, but make sure you鈥檙e fueling your body well too. If the food in the dining hall gets too repetitive for you, check out some local restaurants or foods that are unique to your college town!
6. Feel Pressure to Decide on a Major
It might feel like you need to know what your major is right away and stick to it all four years. However, it鈥檚 really common to start college without knowing what you want to major in, and it鈥檚 even more common for students to change their major some time in their college years.
You usually have a year or two to explore programs and decide on a major, so don鈥檛 feel like you have to have it all figured out right away.
7. Neglect Your Spiritual Life
. A great way to stay consistent in your walk with the Lord is to get involved in a local church. From here, you can join Bible studies and small groups to have people who push you toward Christ.
8. Lose Touch With Your Friends Back Home
Even as you make new friends at college, make sure you take time to connect with your friends from back home. They鈥檙e probably going through their own changes too, and it鈥檚 important that you stay there for each other.
9. Spend Frivolously
The freedom that college brings can make it tempting to spend your money on a lot of things. Now is a great time to get really good at building a budget that works for you and sticking to it.
10. Forget to Take It All In
Your freshman year is a special time, and one that you only get once. Make sure you do everything you can to enjoy it to its fullest and make lots of memories. Don鈥檛 spend all your time studying, but also don鈥檛 spend all your time socializing and missing out on the cool things you can learn as you go deeper into your coursework.
91吃瓜: Helping Freshmen Thrive
At 91吃瓜, we believe Christian community can transform your college experience. That鈥檚 why we put Christ and His Word at the center of everything we do, including the freshmen college experience.
All freshmen participate in our First Year Experience Seminar. Through this course, you鈥檒l get practical tips on how to adjust to college life and how to keep Christ as the foundation of your life through your college years.
Want to learn more about what life at Cairn is like?听Request more information today!
