I'm starting college tomorrow...

[leonid]

Re: I'm starting college tomorrow...

The most important skill you can have is time management. I finished two degrees from a top school in four years during undergrad while working full time/paying for my own education -- and I still had extra time to dick around (even here on FFR).

How to do it:

1. Don't procrastinate, ever.
2. Don't procrastinate, ever.
3. Don't procrastinate, ever.
4. Use office hours. Super important. Very few people actually bother to use them, which is dumb because office hours tend to be more helpful than doing a shitload of reading and not understanding it in the end. Office hours are like one-on-one sessions where you can have some custom-tailored explanation, and it's oftentimes a useful way for you to figure out what's important and what is secondary.
5. Sleeping in is great, but if you want to be ambitious about shit, wake up early. Those extra couple hours per day = more time to get a bunch of shit done.
6. If you have to work a job at the same time, find something that will let you have access to a computer so you can get homework done and/or study during downtime.
7. Work out. I'm not kidding. It will help you maintain energy and mental awareness, and keep you on track with your routine/schedule everywhere else. Similarly, eat well so you'll be alert all day.
8. Get a credit card so you can start building a credit history, but use it like a debit card. In other words, every time you use the card, go pay it off as soon as you can so you can have your balance paid in full at all times.
9. Leave your dorm room door open so people can walk in and talk to you whenever. It'll help make you more social.
10. Make an effort to attend social events and maybe a club or two. Having a good set of friends is important.
11. Don't get too caught up in romantic relationships. There's plenty of time for that after college.
12. Talk with any on-campus academic advisers early on so you ensure you're planning ahead correctly.
13. Don't skip class.
14. Don't pull all-nighters. If you are staying up all night to study, you're doing something wrong. There are more than enough hours in the day to do all the studying you need. Wasting an extra 5-6 hours trying to cram more shit into your head is not going to help. Sleep instead. You'll do better.
15. If you have a class that has group projects, it's extra important to sit near the front of the class so you don't get stick with lazy people. Lazy people will waste your time.


Let me know if you want to know more.

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

[Izzy]

Re: I'm starting college tomorrow...

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.

[gnr61]

Re: I'm starting college tomorrow...

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

i'm a miserable student and always have been despite my fairly easy major, so i don't have much in the way of pointers. i CAN tell you that if you have a say in who you live with, shoot to shack up with other strivers like yourself. i spent my third year (first year at university) with a pretty well-off partying kinda guy and that was just a huge thorn in my wallet and academics because i'm irresponsible and prone to assuming the lifestyle of my peers.

also, if you're not a coffee person, become one. a quick black coffee will get you through countless otherwise sluggish mornings after a week of four-hour sleep nights.

[Ohaider]

Re: I'm starting college tomorrow...

Haha reincarnate I'll be coming back to this thread in 2 years and taking notes

Good luck artic! Congrats on making it this far

[Choofers]

Re: I'm starting college tomorrow...

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

i thought this as well rofl

[iironiic]

Re: I'm starting college tomorrow...

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

Me neither haha. Good rules nonetheless.

[Reincarnate]

Re: I'm starting college tomorrow...

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.

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

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]

Re: I'm starting college tomorrow...

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.