Halfway through your senior year of high school, but eagerly anticipating your freshman year of college? It is an exciting time, but it is also a completely new environment filled with obstacles that you’ll need to negotiate.
As such, you are probably looking for a solid survival guide so that you can get through your first year at university in style. This article is intended to serve as that road map so you can excel in your academics and in your life away from the books.
1) Go to orientation and the first classes of the semester
While it can be easy to get caught up in the non-stop partying that often happens during orientation week and the first week of classes, it is vital that you drag your hung over body to these sessions nonetheless. The former contains vital information on campus rules and regulations, when tuition is due and the financial aid that is available, student resources that is provided for free, and so on. There are also tours of campus that will make it easy to find your way around while your friends are still busy getting lost, so take advantage of all this free information.
Your first week of classes will give you the opportunity to feel out electives before you get too deep into the semester to drop them. If you are interested, be sure to pick up the syllabuses, as they will give you a chance to fill in your dry erase calendar with due dates of papers and exams.
As such, it is vital that you summon the will to get out of bed for them. Pro tip: Avoiding 8-8:30am classes like the plague will make this task infinitely easier.
2) Outsource the writing of less important work
We all want to tackle every assignment we are issued, but sometimes, a bunch of assignments end up being due the same week that you are dealing with the loss of your pet dog at home. At times like this, seeking out professional help with college essay that has less overall importance than another paper that is worth 30% of your final grade is one way you can get all your work done effectively. Let a skilled freelancer write a three page essay in your elective Canadian history course while you tackle the work that matters the most to your degree.
3) Avoid the freshman 15
When you are away from home for the first time, you won’t have your Mom or Dad cooking healthy meals for you anymore. You are solely responsible for nourishing yourself when you are at college, but this task is complicated by the fact that there is a lot of tempting fried food on offer at the meal hall.
It doesn’t get any easier if you are cooking for yourself, as top ramen, TV dinners, and blue box mac and cheese are cheap, easy to make, and unfortunately, crammed to the gills with carbs. Take the time to learn about how to choose or make balanced meals, and go easy on the beer, as hard as that can be sometimes. If you think this is impossible, I have three words for you: gin and tonics.
4) Consider joining a fraternity or sorority
Hey you, in the back: stop groaning. I already know what you are going to say – do I really have to pay to make friends? Well, no … but joining a fraternity or sorority will provide you with an environment where it is easy to establish deeper friendships that will stand the test of time. Not only that, but the dues you’ll pay allow you to collectively throw parties that are infinitely more fun than anything that you could come up with on your own. They also fund scholarships that can make your schooling cheaper as well.
As far as the paying for friends goes – that’s just insulting when you think about it, right? When you pledge a fraternity or sorority, you have to earn the respect of the brothers/sisters and your fellow pledges, but when you come out the other end, you’ll have relationships that transcend ordinary friendship. Rush as many houses as you can, and seriously consider what could be.
