Just lookin for advice from those that have Gina to college cause I’m gonna start this August.
Any Advice for a Freshman College Student
Posts
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25
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@ILikePie5
Watch out for DEM LIBTARDS
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@PressF4Respect
Watch out for DEM LIBTARDS
Way ahead of you lol
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@ILikePie5
Which college are you going to?
while pressf is joking it is absolutely a calculated effort to turn students liberal
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@Dr.Franklin
while pressf is joking it is absolutely a calculated effort to turn students liberal
I know, it’s pretty obvious tbh
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@ILikePie5
The obvious ones:
Attend your lectures as much as you can. They will keep you on the right track, regardless if you don't feel you're getting much out of them. If you miss a couple for frivolous reasons, it'll slide down to you missing a lot for frivolous reasons, so avoid skipping out on them in the first place.
Academics are only half of the university experience. Joining clubs, attending events and networking with people is the other half. This half is Incredibly important, so don't neglect it.
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@ILikePie5
Unlike Dustryder, I advise you to lay relatively low especially in your first year. Do very little 'extra' and worry almost solely about academics. The reason is twofold:
- Especially if your university has groupwork arranged with optional (rather than assigned) group partners, you want a reputation as a nerd, so that the nerds invite you to their group work regularly. The importance of this in unis/colleges that don't enforce randomised groups cannot be overstated, it will cost you dearly in later years (later months within the first year too) if you don't push hard as hell to give a very obvious and blatant message that you are a nerd who loves working hard to get good grades. Once this is your reputation and image, also make sure to not 'piss off' the other hard workers and you'll be fine. While they may reject you, you'll at least work with the 'second best' group, you do not want to be grouped with the lazy procrastinators, it is so toxic to have to do 4 peoples' worth of work regularly over your entire course. Even if your university randomises groups, make sure that you have put in the hard work year-1. This both helps you have good enough grades to enable you to very slightly 'slack off' when workloads gets unbearable and you are indeed doing more extra things on the side, like Dustryder suggests, helping your average/mean grade at the end be very decent no matter how hard life hits you over the remaining years. If you flunk the first few months, it is extremely punishing both because you'll naturally find your only friends are slackers and because professors begin to 'talk' and your name will come up as a low achiever and that reputation/image alone leads to expectations of you being the liar in groupwork scenarios where you both accuse the other of being the reason it failed. You want my advice? Do not fuck up your first year, it is everything and has a huge snowball effect.
- Do not bother with this networking BS. Do not party, do not join a fraternity, just be a nerd and work hard as hell. University isn't about socialising, that's the illusion portrayed. You are there to get a quantity in score and quality in how employable you are, the only 'extra things' you should do are things you're naturally good at and which are essentially turning hobbies into résumé-worthy assets. Only join the student board/body, for example, if you are naturally a politician-type of person. You will become completely stressed and drowning in the workload and pressure if you're not going for extracurricular stuff that you naturally enjoy and/or have prowess in. You want to make your real self seem brilliant, not a fake self that will only be employable to a job in the future where your role requires you to stay fake as they're looking for a 'type of employee' that you were never born to be.
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@RationalMadman
@dustryder
Thank you! I appreciate the advice!
To add an addendum after RM's post: Some majors are incredibly competitive. In which case by all means, skip past frats and parties. However ultimately the objective of going to college for most people is getting a job after it. Depending on your career goal, networking can be an incredibly important part of this because often who you know is as important as what you know.
Showing up is 80% of life. Suddenly you're in this environment where it seems like nobody's paying attention to how often you show up but actually it ends up being one of the most important things. Its so tempting to skip classes, study periods, etc but just hitting those marks on time and out of habit makes success so much easier than catching up later.
It is easy to overjoin orunderjoin. Join one extra group right off the bat- something that definitely reflect your interests, generates new friends and associates and gives you something to talk about that isn't the same thing as everybody else is talking about. Then look for some other project to join, take your time and shop around. If you find some group that feels like home that's the thing you should be prioritizing- figure out how your academic plan, social life, career etc is reflected in that project and how your participation makes that project more the thing you want it to be. If that seems vague its because that project can be just about anything- just look for something that feels like you belong.
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@oromagi
Appreciate it man!
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@ILikePie5
if ur gonna smoke watch out for fake carts cuz lots of dealers sell fake carts
especially if u live in a state where trees illegal
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@skittlez09
Nah I don’t do that shit😂
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@ILikePie5
i figured but u never know man could save ur life
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@oromagi
Showing up is 80% of life.
I love that quote and have known about it for years!
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@ILikePie5
R.M. is correct imo, focus on grades and study habits, most colleges don't care if you do the work or not, it's not like high school where the teachers will get after you (generally speaking, always some exceptions) not that I would totally cut out all social activity, but I wouldn't obligate myself to anything that would require a lot of time or a strict, potentially conflicting schedule.
28 days later
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@ILikePie5
Joining a fraternity can potentially help you in real life jobs. Fraternities give you a connection to other places/people who were in that fraternity and boost your reputation with employers. It won't do much but add a bit more layers to the cake for "reasons to higher me." Some frats don't even drink as well.
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@TheDredPriateRoberts
And do the work and focus on that before other stuff. Just like the rest.
It's okay to not enjoy yourself. I hated my first two years, my third was tolerable, and finally my senior year I started to actually enjoy it. Much like on social media (and because of social media) it seems like everyone else is having the time of their lives. Some might be, many aren't. If you love college, great. If you don't, don't be discouraged and think you're the only one.
Also, more concrete tips:
- I'm sure I'm not the first and probably won't be the last to tell you this but don't take that 8AM. Don't do it to yourself. I know you got up earlier than that in high school. I know it doesn't seem that bad. Don't do it.
- If you're the type to lift, the gym is usually packed from roughly 4-8PM. Go during the day if you have a gap in your classes or at night when most people have gone home. On top of not having to compete for equipment there's something cool about lifting either in the early morning or late at night in my opinion.
- Take advantage of free food and t-shirts early on, the supply dries up. But if you really try you might be able to pull off getting free food on a very regular basis.
- Like RM said don't join something just to join it. Everyone has at least one club they're probably interested in. Go to whatever event your school probably has for students that is almost like a career fair but with all the clubs. If you're into politics there are plenty of clubs, even multiple for each of the mainstream ideologies. My school (which was, to be fair, a large state school's flagship campus) had clubs for almost anything. Think that college students aren't into knitting? Wrong. Knitting club. Might have been small but it existed. I'd find one or two that you enjoy and attend those regularly. Don't spread yourself super thin in six clubs or professional workshops or whatever just for a resume boost. Being president of one club is more impressive than a member of six.
- What Supa said about fraternities is true but the benefits are pretty negligible. Do it if you want, don't if you don't. And if you do, don't worry about the status or reputation it has as a "good" or "bad" house. Pick the one that you think you'd fit in best with. One of my friends joined a lower-middle tier fraternity and loved it, another joined the "best" one on campus and was absolutely miserable.
- Finally, this is the best one in my opinion: a lot of people go out on the weekends. I'm not into drinking or partying, so my freshman year I would rather hang out with a friend or two in their dorm room. Anyway, the laundry rooms are completely empty on Friday/Saturday nights. Don't have to worry about if a machine will be open or if someone will take your clothes out 30 seconds after your cycle ends and toss them on the floor because you hadn't come for them and the person didn't want to wait on a machine any longer like you might during busier times.
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@warren42
Appreciate the advice homie!
319 days later
More focus on practical work than theory. What I've noticed is many students are very expert in their theoretical knowledge but weak in practical work. Also write your dreams in a note book and give yourself a deadline to achieve it. If you're not a good writer don't worry, try to start writing, you can choose these topics to start your writing. Good Luck for your better future.
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@HalianRonaldo
I’m a sophomore now but thanks!
25 days later
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@warren42
It's okay to not enjoy yourself. I hated my first two years
That's not something I want to hear lol