I'm starting college tomorrow...

[iironiic]

Originally Posted by leonid

I couldn't follow a SINGLE rule from that quote when I was in college lol

Me neither haha. Good rules nonetheless.

[Reincarnate]

Originally Posted by Izzy

Yea, I suck at this. Glad I'll be done this year. A regular steady job seems much more doable for me. Not that the work is too hard. I'm just not too fond of the school life.

I actually hated college in many ways, too. Life in the "real world" is a bit of a grind, but the freedom / autonomy is fantastic.

Originally Posted by gnr61

lmao i thought rubix meant a club, like *BOOM BOOM UNTSS UNTSS THIS IS A CLUB* and was like 'this is some good advice!'

lmfao

Originally Posted by leonid

I couldn't follow a SINGLE rule from that quote when I was in college lol

To be fair, a lot of the advice I just gave in this thread is what I learned from *not* following that advice, haha. That is to say, learning the hard way.

[Callipygian]

Rubix knows what he's talking about. Let me add a few things that helped me attain two MA degrees:

1. When you are working on a thesis or large paper, you will probably feel the urge to keep on reading and/or experimenting instead of organizing your notes/results. Intellectual curiosity has led me to read too much and get more and more lost in details and side roads way too often.

Try to organize your notes and thoughts and explicitly write out your progress and ideas every week or use some other systematic way of handling a project rather than muddling along.

2. Study and research is not always fun and certainly is not always easy, especially at creative stages (e.g. organizing your thoughts after the intial readings, coming up withb a good research design etc.). When you have some serious creative work to be done, avoid distractions, especially internet distractions.

3. Set concrete goals, both long-term and short-term (e.g. get so many credits this semester, get this or that average grade, finish this paper by next weekend) and award yourself after, and only after attaining a goal.

4. Freedom is cool, structured freedom is cooler. Unless you have a really strong discipline and motivation, it's best to force yourself into a regular study/work structure. As indicated by rubix, getting up early and not procrastinating until you are forced to pull an all-nighter is essential to your study progress and your own sanity.

5. College is more than an opportunity to study. It is also an opportunity to meet interesting people, get involved into sports and cultural campus activities etc.

6. Your MMORPG days are over. If you want to continue to play games, pick games that you can play in moderation.

7. Break at least one of these rules once in a while so you can feel like a rebel.