MARGE, SOMEONE SQUEEZED ALL THE LIFE OUT OF THESE KIDS. AND UNLESS MOVIES AND TV HAVE LIED TO ME, IT'S A CRUSTY, BITTER OLD DEAN: Our regular commenter Maddy is starting college next week. Any words of wisdom to share?
Don't take Italian at 8am. Thinking in another language that early in the morning is too hard, and the coffee won't have kicked in, yet. If the first semester is tough, that's okay. There is a lot to adjust to and it can be overwhelming. Know that it will get better. And that we're all here to distract you whenever you need to procrastinate (which will be often).
join the radio station and newspaper; biggest scam going. Gives you access to free concerts, movies, CDs, plays, books. Aside from all the generic crap companies send out, most of which is used for staff giveaways and never reviewed, just about anything you want is available with a polite phone call. New book out that sounds interesting? Call the publisher and tell them you want to review it. Want to see the traveling broadway show, even though it closes two weeks before the next issue is published? Not a problem, here's a couple of $50 tickets, just send us a tear sheet whenever you get around to it.
-Don't fall in love the first week. -Don't let the first five cool people you meet become your only friends in college. -Don't let the first five lame people you meet turn you off of meeting new people. -Don't drink too much. -Don't drink too little. -Don't pick a major for at least two semesters. -Don't get too pigeonholed by the first cool extracurricular you do. -Don't forget to play intramurals, even if you aren't athletic. -Don't be afraid to leave campus/town every now and then. -Don't go home every weekend. -Don't let one philosophy class change your whole outlook on the world, but don't worry if your outlook starts to change because you are getting smarter. -Don't be afraid to take a few random classes that have nothing to do with anything. -Don't forget to call your mom from time to time.
I second this -- great access to anything you want to see, read, or do. At our college paper, our ad revenues were so strong, we could afford to buy Macs and software that I would not be exposed to for years in the professional world. I once got an advertising job solely because I knew how to lay out a page on a Mac. And if you're a pop culture person and a night owl, these are your people.
Even though it's tempting to skip, go to class. The professors oftentimes tell you exactly what you need to know there; that makes studying for tests significantly less painful.
join some stuff right away freshman year (newspaper and radio are excellent contenders) but really just any group that strikes your fancy.
It is a great way to get some new friends going right away and to get into a part of the campus life right away, and if they turn out to not be your bag, you can always walk away or get busy with something else.
If given the opportunity to do anything slightly dangerous that you might want to do, do it now. I had the opportunity to go skydiving when I was a freshman and I totally would have done it, but I didn't want to spend the money. Now I am over 30 I know I will never have the guts to go skydiving. Take the opportunities which present themselves.
I love Bobby's list. In addition, I'd say to take the professor, not the class. That is, if there's some professor who is widely acknowledged to be awesome, take a class with him or her, even if the topic wouldn't ordinarily draw you. At least try it.
Also (and I fear I might offend some people with this), avoid the temptation to be a double/triple major if you can. Where I went to school, all that meant was that you took the same number of classes as everyone else, but in a more limited group of fields, which isn't a good thing. (If you're still going to be diverse but just will be taking MORE classes in order to do a double major, that's a different story.)
And don't be afraid to take classes in which you think you won't do so well. Learning entirely new things is kind of the point. And, keeping with my theme of exposing yourself to different kinds of experiences, I'd say you should study abroad if possible and if consistent with your plans. I suspect studying abroad is less consequential in the age of Facebook and Twitter and texting than it was when I studied abroad (less prospect for true immersion/isolation), but I also suspect it's still quite a valuable experience.
Oh, and finally: If you've read about it on TFLN, it's not something you want to be doing! :)
Let me third this. Anyone who's interested enough in culture to be writing comments for this blog should probably give her college newspaper a try, especially if it's a weekly and therefore not all-consuming.
Let me clarify one thing: The "single major" advice (which, again, I suspect will draw disagreement) does NOT mean "be scattershot." If I'm a grad-school admissions officer or in a hiring position, I'm probably most interested in someone who took one, two or even three informal "clusters" of courses outside her major, while leaving room for other, non-clustered courses. So, for example, I majored in PoliSci, but had significant "clusters" of course work in Japanese and economics, and a mini-cluster in religion/anthropology.
Be aggressive and creative during add-drop periods. Sample as many classes as you can. And don't be afraid of non-"intro" classes during freshman year.
You're part of a multi-college system in Claremont, something many of us are familiar with through the Five Colleges of western Mass. Take advantage of that -- socially, academically, everything.
Eat dinner off-campus at least once a week.
If your roommate situation makes you unhappy, it's not your fault. By Thanksgiving, fix it.
Take advantage of faculty office hours. Don't be scared or intimidated.
OTOH, if you want to wind up as cool as Ted Mosby, join the school's obscure literary journal -- preferably one with a title drawn from an overlooked line in a minor Keats poem -- and (natch) get a ridiculous hairdo.
Take road trips. Some of my best times in college were road trips with my college friends. It can be as simple as trying to find a Taco Bell in upstate New York or as complex as getting 15 people from all over the place to converge on Cooperstown for Tom Seaver's Hall of Fame Induction (yes, I did both of those). But something about cramming 9 people into a hatchback is life-affirming. Life-risking, to be sure, but I remember it well 20 years later.
Join extracurriculars. Don't be afraid to try a bunch out freshman year and leave the ones that aren't doing it for you. Most importantly, end up in a leadership position in one or two of them. Most of the life lessons, useful skills, and adulthood training I learned in college were from running my speech and debate team (which didn't have a faculty coach) and producing theater productions, not in chem class.
Take advantage of the arts on campus. See the student avant garde plays in the black box theater, go see the bad Pink Floyd/Justin Bieber mashup band, take in the visual art exhibitions, go to the poetry slams and the step shows. Do this even if you don't know someone in the show. Even if the stuff sucks, you'll learn a ton about the arts (and even a bad production of Ibsen exposes you to Ibsen), and it'll never be this inexpensive to be entertained again.
Especially freshman year, take care of yourself physically. Try not to eat just crap. Try to exercise your body with some regularity. Get some sleep. I didn't follow this rule, and I had a great time, of course, but I felt like crap most of the time because I was malnourished and exhausted. Despite what you'll observe, college students should not live on pop-tarts and beer alone.
The adage "Life is too short to drink crappy beer" does not apply in college. Drink whatever the local swill is (for me it was Genessee...blech) - it will be something you and your classmates will bond over and reminicse about for decades.
Participate in campus traditions - the older the better, and the stupider the better. Dance naked in the quad at midnight, touch the 4.0 statue, go looking for the ghost that haunts the library, help build the bonfire, walk through the arch, jump on a winter coat to bring on good weather.... whatever it is.
And yes, go to class. Take hard classes. Soak up the knowledge. And always remember that half the learning at college should take place outside the classroom - in office conversations with the prof or TA, in arguments with your friends about what you're learning, in the eureka moment in the library. Immerse yourself.
Best of luck with everything, Maddy. I loved college, and I hope you do too.
That office hours point is really good. Many students assume the professors don't want anything to do with them. My experience (which may not be entirely representative, but hopefully isn't too far off) was that professors genuinely wished that the students would engage with them more, and wouldn't keep so much distance. They're just people. In fact, for the most part, they're nerds who are thrilled when other people take an interest in the things that interest them. I remain friendly with several professors, and even close with one, some 15+ years after graduating, and I'm incredibly grateful for those relationships.
Ok, sorry to post so much, but I'm on vacation and this topic is interesting to me. Here's an oddball recommendation. One of the best jobs I ever had was a college job in which i drove people around campus on Thursday nights (the service ran all week; I just did it on Thursday). People who wanted a lift around campus would call security, who would radio me on a walkie-talkie, and I would drive this REALLY old car to where they were, pick them up, and drive them where they were going. A benefit of doing the late shift on Thursday was that it was the beginning of the weekend for party purposes, so I got to drive a lot of drunk and semi-drunk people around campus. It was sort of Taxicab Confessions, except in a 1600-student school where you always saw people again after the encounter. I met a lot of interesting people that way.
One of the more awesome things that I did (academically) in college was to swap professors with a good friend: I took a class from her favorite professor (in art history), and she took a class from my favorite professor (in philosophy). We both got to experience a subject area that we normally would not have taken, and had a personally-vouched-for prof. On Adam's "take advantage of faculty office hours" point: my favorite prof was one I took my very first quarter in school, and he ended up being a mentor for me and supervising one of my honors theses.
On the subject of drinking: I did not drink in college. It did not hurt my popularity. If anything, it helped, because I was definitely a reliable designated driver. On that note: if you do drink, make sure that you have a reliable designated driver or other reliable way of getting home. Really, you should have someone in your group who can be relied upon to get everyone home okay.
Go to concerts. Many cool acts go through college towns. Some are (while awesome) never heard from again. Some continue to plug away, and you can follow that obscure act that you found in college that no one else knows. Some hit it big, and you'll have gotten to see them before everyone knew them and before they were in bigger, more expensive, less cozy venues.
Take naps, but even more importantly, enjoy taking naps. I miss the ability to take a nap in the middle of the day. For whatever sad, sad, sad reason, employers seem anti-nap.
Also: ignore advice if you feel that doing things differently will bring you more joy.
Yah, to Jenn's last point: Without getting all SDS on you, don't necessarily trust anyone over 30 when it comes to college advice. I.e., take everything that pretty much everyone else here says with a grain of salt. When we were in college, we bought landline phone service -- often from the university itself -- and sometimes were out of touch with our friends for HOURS, ferchrissakes.
I have to second the idea of the interesting job. I worked at the Student Center. I met a lot of people and learned about events on campus (concerts, movie screenings, guest lectures etc).
Don't let your parents handle everything (or frankly, much of anything) for you. I'm constantly floored by the number of parents I talk to instead of the actual student with the problem. Learn when to ask your parents for help (like the FAFSA!) but try to tackle situations on your own. And for the love of God, don't give your parents your email password!
1) The people you make friends with in the first few days will largely kind of suck, and you'll notice it right away. Don't worry - these people won't be your real friends in college. You're just sticking with them now because that's what everyone does in new surroundings. After 6 or 8 weeks, that tortured group of not-friends will disperse, and you'll start spending time with people who are *actually* your friends and will be for years. When you find yourself saying, "Wow, these friends kind of suck," don't panic. They'll be people you say a polite "hi" to soon enough.
2) If anyone says, "Here, drink this," don't. Pour your own drink.
3) You're not actually expected to do ALL of the reading. It takes a few weeks to get the hang of it, but you'll learn how to do the reading that matters and the reading that doesn't. Don't panic about the workload - you'll make sense of it soon enough.
4) Every semester, do one thing (class, activity, etc) that you've never done or thought you would do. It's a good growing experience, introduces you to people you might not have otherwise met, and you never know what you might stumble on to.
5) Call your parents the same time every week. They'll like the regularity of it, and you'll be able to schedule around it accordingly so you're always in good condition. Remember the rules of George Costanza: have a "you were right" story, have a "fun thing i learned in class" story and have a "fun thing i did socially" story.
Just have so much fun -- reading these comments and reminiscing has made me long to go back. (I've only been out 7 years, but it feels so much longer.)
On the job note, if you have to work, find a job that will help you in the long run, even if it doesn't have to do with your major or future profession. My example: I worked at the Career Resource Center (now ranked number 4 in the country! yay!) for three years. Not only did I work with great people, but I know how to write a kick ass resume and cover letter and can help my friends do the same. That is a skill that I will always use.
Actually, the naked quad dancing tradition is one of the ones on the list that (to my knowledge) did not exist at my own college. But I've heard of several other schools where it does.
My campus did, in fact, have a tradition of "Stepping on the Coat" - an elaborate ritual during Spring Fling where winter coats are thrown on the ground and stomped on in an attempt to bring on spring. IIRC, ice cream is then served. It's pretty great.
A lot of college kids turn up their noses at these sorts of things - they're too cool to participate. Don't be one of those kids.
When I was a freshman, I was the only person in my entire dorm who had my own computer.
Perhaps the best thing about cell phones is eliminating the need for college students to deal with the University land line phone service. That's where people work who are deemed too stupid and unhelpful to work at the DMV.
Oh yeah, go to your school's sports games. I bought season tickets for football the first year even though I didn't know a thing about it. One of my girlfriends ended up teaching me everything about it. We ended up with season tickets the entire time I was there. I then got in to basketball and would camp out for hours to get in the arena and get good seats. If possible, you should camp out for one night for a big game. We did it for a huge basketball game and at midnight, the coach and players came out to thank us and brought us all pizza from one of the team's sponsors. That is one of the most fun nights that I had in college.
Where are you living, Maddy? I was in Toll Hall my freshman, junior, and senior years, and in Frankel my sophomore year. Obviously, I loved Toll. What are you majoring in? I mean, it's been 10 years, but some of those professors are probably those professors, and if you have questions in that first week where you haven't made tons of friends among the upperclasswomen, feel free to ask me. I'm bristlesage at yahoo dot com. I did a dual major in history and biology, so I met a lot of profs.
I had two boyfriends in college, both from HMC. If you meet a person from there you like in a romantic way, ask them to show you the Libra Complex. It's a series of underground tunnels and they'll probably think it's cool you know it's there. Also, it is super-fun to rollerblade around after hours.
21 Choices is a good place to spend your snacking dollar. So is the Claremont Juice Company, which people my age still call "Podge's", its old name.
Make sure to take your family into the Fowler Garden; it's a gem. I always found Denison library better for studying than Honnold Mudd; I liked the darker, more "library" feeling.
If you're not from California, you might like taking Field Biology. Fun to spend time in that environment, tromping around. It may require a year of bio as a pre-req, though; if it does, get a bio major to take you over there.
In El Nino years, go to the beach. The water will be way warmer than the Pacific usually gets, hooray! Laguna is my favorite; Newport is also good. Doheny has fire pits (and so do some other beaches), great for a big group in, say, November.
I could say tons more! Obviously, the school is pretty much great in all the ways, as far as I'm concerned.
These are making me nostalgic. Sorry for the repeats of other people.
- Road trips. They are awesome, no matter if you have a destination in mind, or a car that is fully functional, or a place to sleep. Just so much fun.
- Try to leave on or two really interesting classes for your senior year. It will help stave off senioritis if you actually care about going to a class.
- Sleep in a loft if possible. It seems silly to think you can have your own "space" in a very small dorm, but if you are in a loft, at least when you are in bed you can be a bit removed from whatever is happening in the room.
- No matter what else the dining hall is serving, there is always a wide array of breakfast cereal.
- If and when you get an off campus apartment, try to make sure it isn't sandwiched between the world's best pizza place and a beer distributor. Believe me, the freshman 15 are nothing compared to the Off Campus 50.
Definitely true, Adam, though Ifinally broke away from the desktop the very last month of college. I had asked for a laptop as a graduation/going to law school present. Then, my college Mac SE crashed and died ONE WEEK BEFORE MY THESIS WAS DUE (fortunately, I had nearly the whole thesis on a floppy!). I needed a new computer post-haste. I wound up renting an early Mac laptop for the week from some random place in NoHo, finished my thesis in the Hampshire and Smith libraries, and was able to convince my parents and grandparents to buy the new laptop and send it to me for the final weeks of class. I recall well writing my final non-thesis papers on a new PC laptop with a completely unfamiliar OS. But at least it was portable! :)
Don't be afraid to do extracurriculars that let you travel, especially when that travel is partially or wholly on the school's dime, even when that travel may not be to the most exotic of places. I travelled to St. Louis, Conway, AR, Murfreesboro TN, Des Moines, Chicago, and several other places partially or wholly on the school's money. I have fond memories of pretty much all of those trips.
Don't be afraid to take courses far afield from your major. I'll admit that I was a declared major basically from Day 1 (though my minor changed from Econ to History and I dropped a potential double major in International Studies), but I took intro to inorganic chemistry, theatre, and music appreciation, partially because I was required to by requirements, but partially out of interest.
Don't be scared of your classmates--some of them are going to seem like they have far more impressive academic records/background than you do, but they're oftne just puffing and there's no there there.
Study abroad! Especially if you want to be fluent in another language. You'll never get a chance to imerse yourself in another culture the way you will with study abroad. I did it for a semester but wish I had gone for a year.
I definitely agree with the advice to go to office hours. Your professors will love you, and those are great relationships to have.
Also, totally agree with Marsha about participating in whatever school traditions there are.
I was just telling someone about a geology course that I took in college that started in Georgia, went west through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, up to Utah and Nevada, back to Arizona and New Mexico, up the West Coast from California, Oregon, and Washington, over through Idaho into Montana, and then back Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah, before zipping our way through the midwest.
Okay, so I graduated from college (gulp) 21 years ago. I typed papers on an electric typewriter and avoided profs who wouldn't let you use white out or correction tape. I knew maybe 2 people who had computers - basic ones - Macs, I'm sure. So I decided to ask my daughter, now that she has her freshman year under her belt, for her insights. Here they are:
- Get involved in something - anything. It's a great chance to meet people as well as give you some focus other than school. - If you find an organization you like, step up and take a leadership role. It will keep you involved as well as giving you a chance to learn new skills. - Talk to your professors - especially if you are having an issue. They want to help. Mine have really wanted us to do well and understand the subject matter. After all, this is the stuff they love. - Don't feel obligated to do anything 'because you are supposed to do it when you are in college'. Just have fun and be yourself. You'll find the friends and groups you want to be part of because you are being yourself. - A meal plan might have been better than preparing meals in the dorm because the cafeterias would have been another place to meet people.
On the cool concerts front--my bosses' boyfriend regales people with a story of his first week in America from Indonesia where he grew up, there he was at the University of Washington seeing a ragtag band playing totally new music in the basement of like a dorm or the student union or something in like 1989 or 1990 and of course that band was Nirvana. It too can happen to you.
Yes, if you're in a bad roommate situation, fix it as soon as you can. My first-year roommate had a roster of 10 guys she regularly slept with. In our room. With me in the next bed. Shudder.
1. Learn a second language, preferably by being in another country. 2. Get off campus and figure out what the neighborhood/city/state is about. 3. Be smart about your money and your debt. Know what you're signing and what you're buying. Never say "oh, I'll just put this on a credit card" or "I'll just take a loan for it." You'll be old and poor like a lot of us. 4. Spend your summers doing things that you want to do, not worrying about the perfect internship. 5. Get some air, exercise and sleep. But be creative about the first two- explore campus, learn a new sport, etc. Don't sleep in class. 6. Go to class. 7. If you have opportunities to take classes at different colleges or departments, do it. I took a class at all Five Colleges in the Pioneer Valley and made quite a few friends in that process. 8. Call your parents.
I had a computer programming class where I used PL-1 on punch cards. Therefore, I offer no advice.
--bd
Okay, ONE item. Keep more underwear relative to the rest of your wardrobe than you did at home. You can always wear a pair of jeans for a couple of days at a time if you're behind on laundry; underwear, not so much.
Do everything, anything you always wanted to do, thought about doing or secretly dreamed of doing -- unless it involves killing someone. College is the place to be stupid, wild, adventurous, free, transformed. Also, have a lot of sex. Because later in life? When you have kids or you are mad at your spouse or maybe just when your jeans don't fit? You're going to wish you had more sex. A lot more sex. And you're going to wish you had it when you were young and bendy.
Good luck, Maddy! There's lots of great advice here - I'd be overwhelmed. :) I agree with most of everything here, especially joining lots of clubs at first to see what sticks, road trips, dealing immediately with bad roommates (I had a fantastic one, though - total opposites but we got along beautifully), and going to class. What I remember most about college is the friends I met through theater and the newspaper - the ones I stayed up late with, took the roadtrips with, roomed with during and after college.
My only other advice: - if you don't like your academic advisor (if you have one), you can change it to someone you like better, once you get to know your professors. I did, and it was a choice that helped me for four straight years.
- I took all my required, "core" classes in my first two years and never regretted it. I got stuff I hated (like Biology) out of the way early, so I could enjoy my junior and senior years by focusing on the classes I really wanted to take. (And by then, my English classes were getting far more intensive, so I could focus on them more.) Also, it was good to take those classes early, when I was fresh from high school and still used to taking science and history classes, rather than later after a couple of years off.
- Budget. But try not to say no to anything because of money.
- Come back here and post now and then! :) But don't spend too much time on the computer (or chatting, or texting, or twittering..) Get out onto campus and have fun!
I'm living in Routt! Not sure about my major yet (I'm hoping Core will help me decide).
Oh yes, definitely dating Mudd boys. I tend to like em smart and just a tad socially awkward...
I actually have a friend who's going to be a junior there who promised to show me the tunnels as long as I write him an essay about any lesbian experiences I have in college (which I'm fairly certain I'm not going to have, but that was the deal).
* I disagree with Adam and Marsha. Unless your roommate is a walking STD or dealing drugs in your dorm room, I think you should try to make it work. I'm a big fan of college as a social living experience. If you can keep an open dialogue (and avoid passive aggressive notes) you should be able to live with anyone for 9 months. * If your school doesn't let you pay for laundry on your points card bring about $50 in quarters with you. This seems like a lot, but trust me it will be gone by Thanksgiving. * Buy a box of thank you cards & a book of stamps to have on hand. That way if you have a rocking internship interview or Cousin Gladys sends you a care package you are always prepared to show off your superior good breeding. * Avoid the overprice campus bookstores & <span>minimarts</span> whenever possible. If you have access to your syllabus online try ordering your books now from an Internet retailer. Carpool to Target or <span>Walmart</span> with friends on the weekend to stock up on snack and supplies. Your wallet will thank you. * Make friends with the secretary/admin in either your major or your campus job. She/he can hook you up with all kind of freebies like free photocopying and faxing, as well as saving leftover lunches from staff meetings! *Make friends with upperclassmen. They are your best source of advice about classes, faculty, campus jobs, shady boys, good bars, and secret study spots. Or they can just browbeat you into watching the West Wing (thank Matt!). * Get creative with the dining hall microwave and resist the weekly desire to order pizza at 3AM. * Jock or not, take advantage of the campus gym. Most schools have state of the art athletic facilities that are barely used. Hit the treadmill or take the free yoga class. Take care of you! * Put the number for a local taxi company in your cell phone before you head out on the town. Better safe than sorry. In fact, you school may offer a free voucher deal with one particular company. Find out. * Ditto what everyone said about getting to know your faculty. If you connect with a particular professor in your field, don't just ask them to be your advisor, ask if they have any research you can assist with. It will look great on grad school apps! * It is okay to feel overwhelmed, or shy, or just homesick. Everyone else does to! Touch base with the campus counseling center. That is what they are there for.
If you're financially-minded, work out (based on your per-credit-hour cost) what you pay for each lecture. Somebody pointed that out to me at the end of my sophomore year. I didn't miss a single class for the next two years.
This is all great and making me so terribly sad and I graduated all of 27 months ago. A few repeats, but here we go:
1) Road trips are fantastic. Do them on breaks, on weekends, for sports, for concerts, whatever. One of the highlights of my college career was making the drive from Atlanta to South Bend after ND's opener in 2006, arriving in the dining hall for brunch after an 11 hour hike and having a friend come up to us and ask what we did last night. Well, actually...
2) If you can set your schedule to have no Friday classes, set your schedule to have no Friday classes. And unless the professor or class is fantastic, there's no reason to be up for 8am. Three day weekends and late mornings are great because it gives you a lot of time to recover from the copious amounts of drinking you'll be doing or catch up on the copious amounts of work you'll have to do. If you're used to waking up at 9:45, you'll be amazed how much you can accomplish in one morning waking up at 7.
3) If you feel like napping, nap. This is probably the most flexible your schedule is going to be for the rest of your life. There should be no judging napping in college as long as you are productive - and I use that term loosely - in your awake time.
4) Once you've met the people you're pretty sure are your friends for the long haul - and you'll probably know - find a TV series or four on DVD and enjoy them together. One of my old roommates got married Memorial Day weekend and we groomsmen were quoting "Arrested" the entire time. In fact, find friends and watch "Arrested" with them, it will make you all very happy.
5) If a friend's parents is in town and offering dinner, go to that dinner. Always.
6) Don't feel bad if you don't have a major or don't know what you want to do in life, and if you are pretty sure about what you want to do, don't let that deter you from tacking on a double major, minor or just changing things altogether.
7) Speed quarters is the best drinking game, period. No one has ever played it and not had fun.
You're going to have the time of your life. You've obviously got a good head on your shoulders if you can hang out with this crowd and hold your own, so I have little doubt this is going to be a great four-to-however many years for you. Good luck, and cherish it all.
Oh, by the way, I don't actually have a roommate. I have this long-term illness deal that requires that I get a lot of rest, so I needed a single. I'm actually kind of bummed about not having a roommate, but I'm about as extroverted as they come, so I'm not too worried about making friends.
My younger brother tells me that Amazon.com will give you Amazon Prime for free if you're a student. Much cheaper for textbooks, plus lots of other stuff.
There's a reason why I'm going 3,000 miles away for college... (Well, they're not really the reason. But definitely looking forward to that independence.)
Seriously--taking an 8 AM class probably cost me graduating magna cum laude--I had American History since 1865 at 8 AM MWF Spring Semester Freshman year. I usually made it, but one of the few times I overslept was when there was a quiz. I missed the quiz, and as a result, wound up with a B+ rather than an A- in the class. I believe that would have given me the couple hundredths of a point I would have needed to jump over the magna barrier.
(That said, I liked my schedule a lot that semester--A 8-12:30 block of 4 classes on MWF, and then a late afternoon class on TTh.)
I read about a service called BookRenter that's basically Netflix for textbooks - could save you a bunch of money (and a bunch of piles of books you'll never look at again).
I graduated from PO. One of my regrets is not taking advantage of all the amazing activities and extracurriculars -- you won't necessarily get another chance so easy to act on stage, get singing lessons for free, learn to surf, camp near Idlewild, learn to pot, play balinese gamelan, etc. Do all that stuff. Also, Claremont's fairly far from LA proper, so it's easy to stay on campus for weeks at a time. Try not to do that. That campuses are great but the city has a lot to offer. Finally, something I regret discovering as a senior, the art museum that is either associated with SC or CGS has an open house every Thursday (I think) with student art installations and a bar. It's fun.
My way-out-of-date advice would be to have a TV small enough that it's not a huge deal to carry it over to the Sci-Fi Club offices on Thursday nights so everybody can watch The Simpsons.
Now, I'll grant you that having a roommate can be a good learning experience. (It's amazing, isn't it, how my later roommates were so much easier to live with than the first two were?) But I have to say that my randomly assigned roommate was not the key to my social life. Thank God.
And this may be obvious, but don't fail out. I did, and I went on academic probation for a year. I stayed in the college town and worked as a waitress, paying my own bills with no help from the parents. I spent that year watching all the idiots around me blowing their parents' money and wasting their time, while all I wanted was to get back in class. A few years later, I graduated cum laude.
Yes on the underwear thing. If you tend to be clotheshorsey like me and lazy like me, you want to have at least a 2 month supply of undies. Just saying. And so now everyone knows how often I did laundry in college and quite frankly how often I did laundry until I moved in with my fiancee who pays the housekeeper to do the laundry (every other week)!!
A word of warning about Adam's first piece of advice: If you're going to "course-shop," be discreet about it. If you show up to the first class and don't like the grading scale or the workload or the professor's hairpiece, and decide to try something else, no one will care except maybe some poor schlub in the Registrar's office. But avoid peppering your instructors with questions about grading or specific topics, and good heavens don't send them emails before class even starts, except maybe to ask what the textbook is (and even then only if that information isn't readily available elsewhere).
Thanks, Jenn. And like you, I won't be drinking (at least not as long as I'm sick and on meds that would result in bad things happening if mixed with alcohol). But that's ok-- I've found that when I go to parties and am really tired, I'm on about the same functioning level as the drunk people anyways.
I had a subscription to Rolling Stone in college, and I ripped out the full-page ad for the Simpsons premiere and taped it to my door. It was the only thing stolen from that door the entire year.
I actually don't miss college much at all. But I can offer just a few things, and you can trust me because I'm under 30.
1. Study Abroad. When I went, I didn't really want to that much. I was pretty ambivalent about it at the time, but I went anyway. It was the best thing I've ever done. Like Raje, I wish I had known ahead of time how awesome it was going to be so that I could have planned to go for two semesters instead of just one.
2. Don't get into any kind of long-distance relationship. Shonda's advice is sound; a LDR will hamper your ability to follow it.
3. Find some time on a weekday during the day as your regular laundry time each week. You know, if you have three hours free between classes on Thursdays or whatever. Crowded laundry rooms are not worth your time.
In both college and law school, I strived to have as many three and four-day weekends as possible. My first semester of college I had Friday classes from 9-10 and 11-noon. I napped in-between.
Get your textbooks' ISBNs ( I WILL NOT say ISBN <span>number</span>) ASAP. They are your gateway to Half.com and other used textbooks sites. If the edition you are using is over a year old, TONS of used books are floating out there. The older the current edition, the cheaper the book. The ISBN should ensure that you don't accidentally buy a previous edition.
If you are as smart as the rest of the crew here, you may be attending on a full-ride scholarship. If your parents' finances allow them to qualify for the expanded education credits (American Opportunity) that kicked in last year, SAVE THOSE TEXT BOOK RECEIPTS from whatever source derived. Yes, even half.com. The first $2,000 of the credit is DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR and includes textbooks for the first time ever. Scan and save those now as opposed to being awakened some morning next March when your parents are visiting their CPA. If your out of pocket tuition is greater than $4,000, this won't be necessary. They will have maxxed out the $2,500 credit from the tuition at that point.
I didn't go to class my first semester. My dad took one look at my grades and said, "so, you haven't been attending class, huh?" Considering he was paying for part of it, I had to deliver. Never missed class after that.
How about this: never decide to take or not-take a class based on the grading scale. If it's a subject matter you're interested in, just take the class, and never take a "gut" just for an easy grade.
One quarter of three-day weekends in law school convinced me I should try to have classes five days a week, because otherwise I got out of the student mindset by the time Monday rolled around.
(Also, I decided not to take a class my 2L year because it met too early in the morning. The class I decided not to take was Barack Obama's last law-school class. Having said that, yea, try not to have classes before noon.)
This was going to be mine! I loved college, but my biggest regret is not spending a semester abroad. All these other suggestions are awesome too! Also, befriend a hall director or RA -- they are generallty good people, but find one you REALLY trust to be an unofficial advisor of sorts, who knows the college and is close to your age.
I had a roommate once who informed me that whenever she ran out of underwear in college before it was time to bring the laundry home to her parents, she just bought new underwear. I've never known someone with so much underwear.
Also, if you do not know how to do your laundry now (which, with what I know of you, Maddy, is not the case) learn before you go. People who stand in the laundry room looking completely clueless and begging for help are kind of pathetic, and going around with all your clothes a pale shade of pink isn't much better. Laundry just isn't that complicated.
I don't think that was me. I had great roommates in college, and terrible ones too. The only person I've ever even considered punching out was one of my two freshman year roommates. (Being tripled in a double room magnifies every roommate problem.) Sure, you should try to make it work, but sometimes it's not possible.
One of the two fall semester freshman year roommates had a boyfriend back home, but slept with several different guys a week at school (yes, in the room, while we were there). She asked us to lie to the boyfriend when he called. I was a chem major and had 12 hours of classes and labs on T-Th, starting at 8am. She had no classes on T-Th at all (she had chosen all her classes to be MWF classes, in part to avoid going home to see the boyfriend). So every Monday and Wednesday night, she'd bring her gaggle of boys back to the room at about 2am - all of them drunk, carrying food of some kind. They'd turn on all the lights and the stereo, waking up the two sleeping roommates, and tell us we were killing their buzz. Yes, she's the one I almost hit. Sleep deprivation will do that to you.
The other one wasn't so bad, except that she'd grown up 20 miles away and her boyfriend stayed over several nights a week. She was in the top bunk and I was in the bottom. This was not fun for me.
I survived an entire semester with them, but it wasn't easy and I was very glad when it was over.
Maddy, I didn't drink much in college either. Didn't prevent me from making friends or having a good time. And, as above, not having a roommate is probably a blessing.
Another great textbook site - Chegg.com. They send the book(s) in a box, you keep the box and at the end of the semester you print out a label and send it/them back in the same box. They also plant a tree for each rental and you get to choose where it is planted. Has saved us a bunch of money!
If you do troll for used books, beware of "International Editions" sent from India, Thailand, China, etc. Stick with stateside sellers, either other students or reputable dealers.
I can't agree enough with the study abroad suggestions. It's probably one of my biggest regrets from college. My friends who did made lasting friendships with people from around the world and now have places to stay or friends to visit when traveling abroad.
Don't be afraid to drop a class or change your major or admit to yourself that pre-med (or pre-law or theatre or whatever) is not for you. I enjoyed college so much more once I decided that biology wasn't for me and religion was.
I'd recommend babysitting as a great way to earn money during college. I babysat for an alum of my university for 4 years. It was nice to have a support system of adults outside of school and to get paid in cash.
Live off campus for at least one year if possible. Having the responsibility of an apartment is immensely helpful for post-college life.
Finally, you can (and should) use the cafeteria microwave to make rice krispie treats.
LA things to do when you get off campus: concerts at the Greek or Hollywood Bowl. Griffith Park. Dodger games. Huntington Gardens. LACMA & the Norton Simon museums.
A simple one that some people reminded me of--if you're hanging out in your dorm room for whatever reason (reading, chilling, etc.) and don't want/need privacy/quiet, leave your door open and be open to the drop-by.
Also, impromptu communal TV watching in the residence halls? Awesome--I quickly formed a bond with several of my hallmates due to watching ER every Thursday night, with a high point being one of my classmates who would do the Peter Benton downward fist-pump at the appropriate point in the opening credits. (Also an attraction my Freshman year? "Watch Matt watch Jeopardy!")
Sorry if this posts twice - blackberry not coorperating. Not studying abroad is probably one of my biggest college regrets (well, that and getting sick on the El at 2am and then bursting into drunken tears). My friends who did met people from all over the world and now have interesting places to crash when traveling and friends to visit in tons of different countries.
Don't be afraid to admit to yourself that pre-med (or pre-law or theatre or economics or whatever) isn't for you. I enjoyed college so much more when I finally realized that biology was making me miserable and giving me a ridiculously low GPA. Making the switch to religion didn't really lead to a career path (although it was the reason I got my summer associate job as a 1L), but it did make me so much more engaged in my classes.
Babysit to make money. I babysat for an alum all four years at Northwestern. The family was amazing, invited my friends to their awesome pre-football game tailgates and provided me with an adult support system separate from professors, administrators, etc. And I got paid in cash.
Everyone in a while, wse the cafeteria microwave to make rice krispie treats.
I second Matt's communal TV watching suggestion. I have fond memories of watching Melrose, Party of Five, ER, 90210, a 2-day marathon of the Miami season of Real World in the lounge of my dorm, sorority house and apartment.
If permitted at your campus, live off campus at least one year (preferably senior year). Being exposed to the responsibility of an apartment was pretty valuable for post-college living.
I really, really, really do not like doing laundry. In fact, I found a service in Chicago (pre-fiancee and in an apartment with no laundry facilities) that let me do as much laundry as I could fit in a bag they provided for $20 and I have never so diligently packed dirty clothes before. But they picked up and dropped off and they wrapped it all in cellophane and usually mine spilled over into 2 or more paper grocery sacks on the drop off.
It was at this point that I vowed when living in a city with such wonderful amenities, I need never do laundry again!--it was a very Scarlett O'Hara moment.
But yeah, I definitely had about 65 pairs of underwear before even touching special occasion or I-don't-know-why-I-still-have-this-pair-that-is-uncomfortable-and-rides-up-strangely pairs.
I really hate laundry. In fact on my do I or do I really not want children, laundry is a majorly weighted factor towards nope, nope I don't..
I love the idea of watch Matt watch Jeopardy. That is awesome.
My communal watching was South Park in its 1st season my freshman year. Also Friday night pre-club time "Annie" always managed to gather a bunch of girls in various stages of 'getting ready.'
Several things, and I'm a more recent graduate (2007 undergrad, 2010 MBA):
1. Don't get mono. This f'd up my wife's GPA and college career. 2. If/when you live off-campus, make sure to determine what you want in an apartment, and/or if you want roomies. 3. Choose your roomies wisely. 4. Do some wacky college crap. Examples: Lightsaber battles on the front lawn, play ultimate Frisbee at least once, Halo tournaments, and my personal favorite: playing tag/hide and seek at a large local playground. 5. Arrange your dorm room to have a TV, but more importantly some type of gaming system. You will soon have friends. 6. Find the good professors, because they're worth listening to. 7. If you have a bad professor, sit in the back of the room and take a crossword puzzle book (I got a subscription to GAMES magazine in my college years.) 8. Take classes that interest you. 9. Work hard in your first 2-3 years so you can slack off as a junior/senior. You'll need that time to apply/look for jobs. My last semester? Technically 12 hours, but I really only had class on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. 10. Get involved in at least one organization/group on campus. 11. Whatever you do, don't sign up for a credit card just because you want a free pizza/t-shirt/doodad. 12. Catch some of the local music scene. 13. Find at least two good local restaurants and at least two good local bars that fit your personality (once you can drink). 14. Get and use a bike, but be careful not to run people off the road. It cuts down on how late you are for class. 15. If you're dating someone when you enter college, it has a good chance of ending. If you start dating someone just after you enter college, it has a good chance at ending. It's out of the friends you have at the end of college that good relationships form. That's not always true, but it was for me. 16. GET ONLINE TEXTBOOKS. Recent example: My sister-in-law is a sophomore in college. She was going to buy her books at the college bookstore for $500. My wife got all of them online for $115 total. Just get them ahead of time so you aren't waiting on them for the start of class. 17. Invest in a lot of quarters. This will be both for laundry and for buying soda/coffee on long lecture days. 18. You will gain weight your first year in college. The freshman 15 is true, so get used to it. 19. Remember, it's the time of your life. Parents and scholarships will foot most of the bill, you are creating your life as an adult, and you have freedoms you will never have again. Live it up and enjoy it.
don't get too cozy socially with locals, since they will have the excuse that they've already been there. find some friends with no such excuse - go to the beach, of course. But climb the mountains, camp in the desert, eat the hell out of LAs Mexican cuisine (Korean too). Get down to San Diego. Go to the Eastern side of the Sierras.
Quality of the show is really irrelevant here -- my freshman floor became obsessed with Barnaby Jones reruns, a good 15 years after it went off the air. The point is the bonding, not the show.
As a corollary, I lived uphill from campus my sophomore year because I knew the only way I was going to make it to class -- hungover, before noon, in the middle of an Ithaca winter -- was if it was downhill.
90201's "California University" was actually filmed at Occidental, and for the same four years I was there. I don't think any Oxy student who attended during that span missed an episode. Certainly no one who lived in the dorms.
That was me, from my iPhone, with some weird edits - let me rephrase:
You will be in Los Angeles, despite my biases, one of the world's great playgrounds. Nevermind that the first three attempts to colonize the place left every man woman and child dead, the place is incredible. The mountains to the north have some brilliant hikes, the deserts to the east some of great camping options, and LA mexican food is unbeatable.
One thing, though, is at the Claremont Colleges you will meet a lot of natives that have done all this stuff. Don't let them talk you out of doing cool local stuff because they've done it. Pair up with some friends who aren't local and do the silly stuff -- Mann's Chinese Theater and a game show taping and Santa Monica Pier -- without shame.
Totally agreed about 8 am classes. My first semester freshman year, my faculty advisor at orientation convinced me to take a schedule that had an 8:30 class every day. I thought: hey, I started high school every day at 7:45, so isn't it the same thing? NO. IT IS NOT THE SAME THING.
And I spent my senior year never taking a Friday class, and it was so great that I wish I'd done that earlier.
Also agreed on not worry ing about having a major or a plan. One of my best friends came in as a Bio major, added a Theater minor, then became a Bio/Theater double major, then dropped the Bio. (And she still has a successful career in theater.) College is the chance to figure all of that out.
Everyone in my dorm pretty much kept their doors open, except when sleeping. Made it really easy to stop by, hang out, socialize, regardless of where you actually kept your things. And dorm lounges are great for finding people to talk to, or seeing who wants to grab a bite.
I would dissent from Christy's #2. I am about to celebrate 13 years of marriage to my long-distance college relationship, and I believe we managed to make good on Shonda's advice -- you just need to do visits frequently enough, and to make good use of them! :)
I lived in a suite with 2 double rooms, with the other 3 girls in the same sororiety (brothel laws in Albany prohibit sororiety housing off campus). I was the only freshman. Around the first month, a tally appeared in the bathroom, with their three names on it, with checkmarks amassed over the course of the year. In May, I found out the checkmarks were guys they had slept with. There were more checkmarks than seemed possible, given the amount of time that had gone by. I felt very sad that the bathroom was only cleaned once a week. Plus my roommate had a guy she was seeing regularly (while she was getting other checkmarks), and they had early Sunday morning... traditions. I started sleeping on the floor in the common room most nights.
But then I made my best friends ever and lived with them for the rest of college. I love them dearly. I have never spoken again to the sororiety sisters.
Yay for the wash & fold! The one by me had a customer loyalty program (basically, every 6th wash was free), and taking that into account, it ended up belng almost as cheap as doing it myself at a laundromat.
I think one thing I would do if I were back in school would be to pick three random things that are going on around campus/town every week and just do them. Lectures, concerts, plays, one-off classes like DJing or cheesemaking or what-have-you, especially things that are different than what you're normally interested in. I kind of took for granted all the cool free stuff available to me as a student, and wish I'd done stuff like that a little more.
If possible, go home with your new friends on breaks... being introduced to new places by people who live there (and getting to stay on the cheap) is amazing... for example, because my new friends freshman year were from NYC, the little country bumpkin from NH got to spend a significant amount of time being introduced to the big city by people who lived there. Lots of great memories. My mom also had this experience- her college roommate was from Hawaii, and she got to spend a summer with her, living with her family and working at a pineapple canning factory. And, bring people home with you. It's fun to play tourguide :).
I am a non-faculty-type staff person at a large state university (which I also graduated from), so I'll take a different tack:
1)Not that you wouldn't, but remember to be nice to the non-faculty types. The custodial staff in the residence halls, the people at the various offices you will be forced to trudge between while dealing with bureaucratic crap (many of them don't like it, either), the people who work at the dining hall, etc. The diversity of experience you encounter in college does not necessarily come strictly from your classmates and professors. Also, if you are nice to them, they will be more likely to help you out (don't laugh -- I can't tell you how many students don't seem to comprehend this).
2) Get a flu shot early (assuming it isn't contraindicated by your meds). Many of your classmates will not, in spite of all the warnings and clinics and flyers.
3) Memorize your student number.
4) Treat your student ID like a driver's license or credit card, especially if it has money on it. You would not believe how many lost IDs we end up with in my department.
5) Nthing the advice to do things for yourself instead of relying on family or friends. EXCEPT when you hit a wall. I am violating the code of universtity staff people by telling you this, but if you've followed all the procedures and don't get the answer you want, have a parent (or parent substitute) call the college president/chancellor/whatever's office and mention how much they're paying for you to attend this cockamamie school and how angry they are. Sometimes this still gets you nowhere. Often it works. Reserve this strategy for Big Deal issues, though, please.
Well, don't be afraid to skip a class either. Sometimes it's a gorgeous spring day in New Orleans, and going to The Boot for a pitcher and an impromptu backgammon tournament just really is more important than going to a psych 101 lecture. I skipped a lot more class than I recommend skipping, and it all turned out just fine.
So much advice! So many people rooting for you! I have only one tiny piece of advice.
There's probably something that you love to do -- something that makes you feel like yourself, something that is not related to your future career or your major or anything. It might be playing the piano, or reading YA novels for pleasure, or watching Grey's Anatomy, or writing Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfic, or running marathons. People will tell you that In College, you will be Far Too Busy for these pastimes. Take it from me: you are not too busy. After a semester thinking I was too busy for pleasure reading, I realized it was crazy and proceeded to read fiction, for pleasure, fairly voraciously throughout the rest of college (and through six semesters of law school). I am convinced that it made me a better student and a more pleasant human being.
Do that thing that makes you feel like yourself. Do not listen to the "Too Busy" vampires.
I just want to thank you all again for being super helpful and generally awesome. You guys are the best! And I'm definitely going to take a media/cultural studies class or two to put all of the knowledge I'm accumulated here to good use.
Maryann's comment #2 reminded me of the time my entire first-year floor got a bad cold (we all shared one bathroom, men and women alike, so it was bound to happen) and developed a floor-wide addiction to Nyquil for a few weeks. There was a whole black market and everything. Ahh. :)
Aw, I don't know. I met some girls at accepted students day (and have kept in touch through facebook) who will probably be my first group of friends and they all seem legitimately cool (obviously we're not all going to be lifelong friends, but I think I might end up close with a few of them). I've also talked to a bunch of other people on facebook (seriously, it's been awesome for this. We've been able to start getting to know each other (you guys will be pleased to hear that there is an active thread about tv on our discussion board) and get excited together. On the day we got our housing assignments, older students answered questions about the dorms.) and maybe this is exactly why I need this piece of advice, but I have to say that they all seem to very much not suck. I'm actually really excited about my future classmates.
Speaking of bathrooms: buy a pair of flipflops, ALWAYS wear them in the shower. Always. Give your friends flipflops and insist that they wear them, too. One of my closest friends brought a case of flipflops back after winter break (she was from Hawaii and this was before they were popular mainland) and we all wore them after.
I think the key in skipping is balance. My Spanish prof was a little snippy when I missed a class due to being hositalized, whereas my history classes tended to have rotating professors and the essay schedule meant if I went to the ones pertaining to my next assignment, I had plenty to get me through the exams. But yes, I found it quite a revelation that in most classes no one knew nor cared if I was there.
Seconding the study abroad bit, if possible. Even find a class that does something as a group in summer. Or get a Eurail pass one summer. I think the experience is invaluable.
Amen to this. And an addendum: There will always be those who try to tell you that you are studying too much or not enough. It was worse in law school than in college (from my experience), but ultimately, you need to figure out for yourself how much studying you need to do in order to do well and to be neither panicky nor utterly burned out. Everyone studies differently, and the right amount of studying for so-and-so down the hall might not be the right amount of studying for you---even if so-and-so really thinks that it is.
We communally watched SNL every week without fail. We even had a board game (one of my dear friends colelcted board games and tried them out on us) that youwere supposed to play *while* watching TV that worked best with SNL.
We also communally watched Ren & Stimpy, over and over and over again. I also remember watching the 1988 baseball playoffs in large groups, as well as the finale of Family Ties.
As a fellow non-faculty-type-staff-person (though at a smaller private school), I can heartily endorse Maryann on 1, 2, 3, and 4. Given that I work at a graduate school, I don't agree on the end of #5 - it might work, but it'll piss everyone off enough that you'll encounter obstacles for the rest of your time at school.
Amen to both of you. I found it really helpful to bond with people who had the same study patterns that I did - we kept each other on track in studying, but also kept each other balanced. After all, if X studied the same times and for the same amount of time I did, when she left the library, it was ok for me to leave the library!
I work in alumni relations and I just love the connection here. On the heels of freshman move-in day and all the annoyances it causes in a small college town, I needed to see this and be reminded of why I do what I do.
Maddy, I don't have a lot of advice that others here haven't already shared, but I will say don't forget about the alumni/alumnae association... there are often great opportunities for students to connect with alumni, and you will forge relationships that can be very beneficial when it comes time to find a job. As you can see from bristlesage's comments, alumni have so much to offer to students and they LOVE sharing.
Have fun! Good luck! And thanks for giving us all a chance to reminisce about being right where you are. There is no more perfect time in life.
I once flushed my student ID down the toilet. Fell right out of my back pocket, and I didn't notice until I saw the last blue plastic corner going down. Made for quite an embarrassing story when I went to get a new one.
My roomie and I didn't have a television the first 2 years, and I remember going down the hall to a friend's room to watch this new show called Friends.
Don't take Italian at 8am. Thinking in another language that early in the morning is too hard, and the coffee won't have kicked in, yet. If the first semester is tough, that's okay. There is a lot to adjust to and it can be overwhelming. Know that it will get better. And that we're all here to distract you whenever you need to procrastinate (which will be often).
ReplyDeletejoin the radio station and newspaper; biggest scam going. Gives you access to free concerts, movies, CDs, plays, books. Aside from all the generic crap companies send out, most of which is used for staff giveaways and never reviewed, just about anything you want is available with a polite phone call. New book out that sounds interesting? Call the publisher and tell them you want to review it. Want to see the traveling broadway show, even though it closes two weeks before the next issue is published? Not a problem, here's a couple of $50 tickets, just send us a tear sheet whenever you get around to it.
ReplyDeleteI compiled some advice for a friend (a different Madi) who headed out last year, and my favorite tip was: "Never drink anything out of a trash can."
ReplyDeleteHave a great time, Maddy!
-Don't fall in love the first week.
ReplyDelete-Don't let the first five cool people you meet become your only friends in college.
-Don't let the first five lame people you meet turn you off of meeting new people.
-Don't drink too much.
-Don't drink too little.
-Don't pick a major for at least two semesters.
-Don't get too pigeonholed by the first cool extracurricular you do.
-Don't forget to play intramurals, even if you aren't athletic.
-Don't be afraid to leave campus/town every now and then.
-Don't go home every weekend.
-Don't let one philosophy class change your whole outlook on the world, but don't worry if your outlook starts to change because you are getting smarter.
-Don't be afraid to take a few random classes that have nothing to do with anything.
-Don't forget to call your mom from time to time.
I second this -- great access to anything you want to see, read, or do. At our college paper, our ad revenues were so strong, we could afford to buy Macs and software that I would not be exposed to for years in the professional world. I once got an advertising job solely because I knew how to lay out a page on a Mac. And if you're a pop culture person and a night owl, these are your people.
ReplyDeleteEven though it's tempting to skip, go to class. The professors oftentimes tell you exactly what you need to know there; that makes studying for tests significantly less painful.
ReplyDeleteTake classes with good professors, even if they aren't necessarily in your major.
ReplyDeleteHave fun, and a lot of it, but know/learn your limits.
join some stuff right away freshman year (newspaper and radio are excellent contenders) but really just any group that strikes your fancy.
ReplyDeleteIt is a great way to get some new friends going right away and to get into a part of the campus life right away, and if they turn out to not be your bag, you can always walk away or get busy with something else.
If given the opportunity to do anything slightly dangerous that you might want to do, do it now. I had the opportunity to go skydiving when I was a freshman and I totally would have done it, but I didn't want to spend the money. Now I am over 30 I know I will never have the guts to go skydiving. Take the opportunities which present themselves.
ReplyDeleteI love Bobby's list. In addition, I'd say to take the professor, not the class. That is, if there's some professor who is widely acknowledged to be awesome, take a class with him or her, even if the topic wouldn't ordinarily draw you. At least try it.
ReplyDeleteAlso (and I fear I might offend some people with this), avoid the temptation to be a double/triple major if you can. Where I went to school, all that meant was that you took the same number of classes as everyone else, but in a more limited group of fields, which isn't a good thing. (If you're still going to be diverse but just will be taking MORE classes in order to do a double major, that's a different story.)
And don't be afraid to take classes in which you think you won't do so well. Learning entirely new things is kind of the point.
And, keeping with my theme of exposing yourself to different kinds of experiences, I'd say you should study abroad if possible and if consistent with your plans. I suspect studying abroad is less consequential in the age of Facebook and Twitter and texting than it was when I studied abroad (less prospect for true immersion/isolation), but I also suspect it's still quite a valuable experience.
Oh, and finally: If you've read about it on TFLN, it's not something you want to be doing! :)
Let me third this. Anyone who's interested enough in culture to be writing comments for this blog should probably give her college newspaper a try, especially if it's a weekly and therefore not all-consuming.
ReplyDeleteLet me clarify one thing: The "single major" advice (which, again, I suspect will draw disagreement) does NOT mean "be scattershot." If I'm a grad-school admissions officer or in a hiring position, I'm probably most interested in someone who took one, two or even three informal "clusters" of courses outside her major, while leaving room for other, non-clustered courses. So, for example, I majored in PoliSci, but had significant "clusters" of course work in Japanese and economics, and a mini-cluster in religion/anthropology.
ReplyDeleteA few more:
ReplyDeleteBe aggressive and creative during add-drop periods. Sample as many classes as you can. And don't be afraid of non-"intro" classes during freshman year.
You're part of a multi-college system in Claremont, something many of us are familiar with through the Five Colleges of western Mass. Take advantage of that -- socially, academically, everything.
Eat dinner off-campus at least once a week.
If your roommate situation makes you unhappy, it's not your fault. By Thanksgiving, fix it.
Take advantage of faculty office hours. Don't be scared or intimidated.
OTOH, if you want to wind up as cool as Ted Mosby, join the school's obscure literary journal -- preferably one with a title drawn from an overlooked line in a minor Keats poem -- and (natch) get a ridiculous hairdo.
ReplyDeleteTake road trips. Some of my best times in college were road trips with my college friends. It can be as simple as trying to find a Taco Bell in upstate New York or as complex as getting 15 people from all over the place to converge on Cooperstown for Tom Seaver's Hall of Fame Induction (yes, I did both of those). But something about cramming 9 people into a hatchback is life-affirming. Life-risking, to be sure, but I remember it well 20 years later.
ReplyDeleteJoin extracurriculars. Don't be afraid to try a bunch out freshman year and leave the ones that aren't doing it for you. Most importantly, end up in a leadership position in one or two of them. Most of the life lessons, useful skills, and adulthood training I learned in college were from running my speech and debate team (which didn't have a faculty coach) and producing theater productions, not in chem class.
Take advantage of the arts on campus. See the student avant garde plays in the black box theater, go see the bad Pink Floyd/Justin Bieber mashup band, take in the visual art exhibitions, go to the poetry slams and the step shows. Do this even if you don't know someone in the show. Even if the stuff sucks, you'll learn a ton about the arts (and even a bad production of Ibsen exposes you to Ibsen), and it'll never be this inexpensive to be entertained again.
Especially freshman year, take care of yourself physically. Try not to eat just crap. Try to exercise your body with some regularity. Get some sleep. I didn't follow this rule, and I had a great time, of course, but I felt like crap most of the time because I was malnourished and exhausted. Despite what you'll observe, college students should not live on pop-tarts and beer alone.
The adage "Life is too short to drink crappy beer" does not apply in college. Drink whatever the local swill is (for me it was Genessee...blech) - it will be something you and your classmates will bond over and reminicse about for decades.
Participate in campus traditions - the older the better, and the stupider the better. Dance naked in the quad at midnight, touch the 4.0 statue, go looking for the ghost that haunts the library, help build the bonfire, walk through the arch, jump on a winter coat to bring on good weather.... whatever it is.
And yes, go to class. Take hard classes. Soak up the knowledge. And always remember that half the learning at college should take place outside the classroom - in office conversations with the prof or TA, in arguments with your friends about what you're learning, in the eureka moment in the library. Immerse yourself.
Best of luck with everything, Maddy. I loved college, and I hope you do too.
That office hours point is really good. Many students assume the professors don't want anything to do with them. My experience (which may not be entirely representative, but hopefully isn't too far off) was that professors genuinely wished that the students would engage with them more, and wouldn't keep so much distance. They're just people. In fact, for the most part, they're nerds who are thrilled when other people take an interest in the things that interest them. I remain friendly with several professors, and even close with one, some 15+ years after graduating, and I'm incredibly grateful for those relationships.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm of course wondering whether my friends from [MARSHA'S UNDERGRAD INSTITUTION] have danced naked with Marsha.
ReplyDeleteOk, sorry to post so much, but I'm on vacation and this topic is interesting to me. Here's an oddball recommendation. One of the best jobs I ever had was a college job in which i drove people around campus on Thursday nights (the service ran all week; I just did it on Thursday). People who wanted a lift around campus would call security, who would radio me on a walkie-talkie, and I would drive this REALLY old car to where they were, pick them up, and drive them where they were going. A benefit of doing the late shift on Thursday was that it was the beginning of the weekend for party purposes, so I got to drive a lot of drunk and semi-drunk people around campus. It was sort of Taxicab Confessions, except in a 1600-student school where you always saw people again after the encounter. I met a lot of interesting people that way.
ReplyDeleteOne of the more awesome things that I did (academically) in college was to swap professors with a good friend: I took a class from her favorite professor (in art history), and she took a class from my favorite professor (in philosophy). We both got to experience a subject area that we normally would not have taken, and had a personally-vouched-for prof. On Adam's "take advantage of faculty office hours" point: my favorite prof was one I took my very first quarter in school, and he ended up being a mentor for me and supervising one of my honors theses.
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of drinking: I did not drink in college. It did not hurt my popularity. If anything, it helped, because I was definitely a reliable designated driver. On that note: if you do drink, make sure that you have a reliable designated driver or other reliable way of getting home. Really, you should have someone in your group who can be relied upon to get everyone home okay.
Go to concerts. Many cool acts go through college towns. Some are (while awesome) never heard from again. Some continue to plug away, and you can follow that obscure act that you found in college that no one else knows. Some hit it big, and you'll have gotten to see them before everyone knew them and before they were in bigger, more expensive, less cozy venues.
Take naps, but even more importantly, enjoy taking naps. I miss the ability to take a nap in the middle of the day. For whatever sad, sad, sad reason, employers seem anti-nap.
Also: ignore advice if you feel that doing things differently will bring you more joy.
Yah, to Jenn's last point: Without getting all SDS on you, don't necessarily trust anyone over 30 when it comes to college advice. I.e., take everything that pretty much everyone else here says with a grain of salt. When we were in college, we bought landline phone service -- often from the university itself -- and sometimes were out of touch with our friends for HOURS, ferchrissakes.
ReplyDeleteI have to second the idea of the interesting job. I worked at the Student Center. I met a lot of people and learned about events on campus (concerts, movie screenings, guest lectures etc).
ReplyDeleteDon't let your parents handle everything (or frankly, much of anything) for you. I'm constantly floored by the number of parents I talk to instead of the actual student with the problem. Learn when to ask your parents for help (like the FAFSA!) but try to tackle situations on your own. And for the love of God, don't give your parents your email password!
ReplyDelete1) The people you make friends with in the first few days will largely kind of suck, and you'll notice it right away. Don't worry - these people won't be your real friends in college. You're just sticking with them now because that's what everyone does in new surroundings. After 6 or 8 weeks, that tortured group of not-friends will disperse, and you'll start spending time with people who are *actually* your friends and will be for years. When you find yourself saying, "Wow, these friends kind of suck," don't panic. They'll be people you say a polite "hi" to soon enough.
ReplyDelete2) If anyone says, "Here, drink this," don't. Pour your own drink.
3) You're not actually expected to do ALL of the reading. It takes a few weeks to get the hang of it, but you'll learn how to do the reading that matters and the reading that doesn't. Don't panic about the workload - you'll make sense of it soon enough.
4) Every semester, do one thing (class, activity, etc) that you've never done or thought you would do. It's a good growing experience, introduces you to people you might not have otherwise met, and you never know what you might stumble on to.
5) Call your parents the same time every week. They'll like the regularity of it, and you'll be able to schedule around it accordingly so you're always in good condition. Remember the rules of George Costanza: have a "you were right" story, have a "fun thing i learned in class" story and have a "fun thing i did socially" story.
When we were in college, Russ, we all had computers that you couldn't carry to class.
ReplyDeleteJust have so much fun -- reading these comments and reminiscing has made me long to go back. (I've only been out 7 years, but it feels so much longer.)
ReplyDeleteOn the job note, if you have to work, find a job that will help you in the long run, even if it doesn't have to do with your major or future profession. My example: I worked at the Career Resource Center (now ranked number 4 in the country! yay!) for three years. Not only did I work with great people, but I know how to write a kick ass resume and cover letter and can help my friends do the same. That is a skill that I will always use.
Actually, the naked quad dancing tradition is one of the ones on the list that (to my knowledge) did not exist at my own college. But I've heard of several other schools where it does.
ReplyDeleteMy campus did, in fact, have a tradition of "Stepping on the Coat" - an elaborate ritual during Spring Fling where winter coats are thrown on the ground and stomped on in an attempt to bring on spring. IIRC, ice cream is then served. It's pretty great.
A lot of college kids turn up their noses at these sorts of things - they're too cool to participate. Don't be one of those kids.
When I was a freshman, I was the only person in my entire dorm who had my own computer.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the best thing about cell phones is eliminating the need for college students to deal with the University land line phone service. That's where people work who are deemed too stupid and unhelpful to work at the DMV.
Oh yeah, go to your school's sports games. I bought season tickets for football the first year even though I didn't know a thing about it. One of my girlfriends ended up teaching me everything about it. We ended up with season tickets the entire time I was there. I then got in to basketball and would camp out for hours to get in the arena and get good seats. If possible, you should camp out for one night for a big game. We did it for a huge basketball game and at midnight, the coach and players came out to thank us and brought us all pizza from one of the team's sponsors. That is one of the most fun nights that I had in college.
ReplyDeleteWhere are you living, Maddy? I was in Toll Hall my freshman, junior, and senior years, and in Frankel my sophomore year. Obviously, I loved Toll. What are you majoring in? I mean, it's been 10 years, but some of those professors are probably those professors, and if you have questions in that first week where you haven't made tons of friends among the upperclasswomen, feel free to ask me. I'm bristlesage at yahoo dot com. I did a dual major in history and biology, so I met a lot of profs.
ReplyDeleteI had two boyfriends in college, both from HMC. If you meet a person from there you like in a romantic way, ask them to show you the Libra Complex. It's a series of underground tunnels and they'll probably think it's cool you know it's there. Also, it is super-fun to rollerblade around after hours.
21 Choices is a good place to spend your snacking dollar. So is the Claremont Juice Company, which people my age still call "Podge's", its old name.
Make sure to take your family into the Fowler Garden; it's a gem. I always found Denison library better for studying than Honnold Mudd; I liked the darker, more "library" feeling.
If you're not from California, you might like taking Field Biology. Fun to spend time in that environment, tromping around. It may require a year of bio as a pre-req, though; if it does, get a bio major to take you over there.
In El Nino years, go to the beach. The water will be way warmer than the Pacific usually gets, hooray! Laguna is my favorite; Newport is also good. Doheny has fire pits (and so do some other beaches), great for a big group in, say, November.
I could say tons more! Obviously, the school is pretty much great in all the ways, as far as I'm concerned.
These are making me nostalgic. Sorry for the repeats of other people.
ReplyDelete- Road trips. They are awesome, no matter if you have a destination in mind, or a car that is fully functional, or a place to sleep. Just so much fun.
- Try to leave on or two really interesting classes for your senior year. It will help stave off senioritis if you actually care about going to a class.
- Sleep in a loft if possible. It seems silly to think you can have your own "space" in a very small dorm, but if you are in a loft, at least when you are in bed you can be a bit removed from whatever is happening in the room.
- No matter what else the dining hall is serving, there is always a wide array of breakfast cereal.
- If and when you get an off campus apartment, try to make sure it isn't sandwiched between the world's best pizza place and a beer distributor. Believe me, the freshman 15 are nothing compared to the Off Campus 50.
Have a great time!!!
That was me.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely true, Adam, though Ifinally broke away from the desktop the very last month of college. I had asked for a laptop as a graduation/going to law school present. Then, my college Mac SE crashed and died ONE WEEK BEFORE MY THESIS WAS DUE (fortunately, I had nearly the whole thesis on a floppy!). I needed a new computer post-haste. I wound up renting an early Mac laptop for the week from some random place in NoHo, finished my thesis in the Hampshire and Smith libraries, and was able to convince my parents and grandparents to buy the new laptop and send it to me for the final weeks of class. I recall well writing my final non-thesis papers on a new PC laptop with a completely unfamiliar OS. But at least it was portable! :)
ReplyDeleteDon't listen to a bunch of old people.
ReplyDeleteWe're not old! Well, you are now, Isaac, but not some of the rest of us!
ReplyDeleteDon't be afraid to do extracurriculars that let you travel, especially when that travel is partially or wholly on the school's dime, even when that travel may not be to the most exotic of places. I travelled to St. Louis, Conway, AR, Murfreesboro TN, Des Moines, Chicago, and several other places partially or wholly on the school's money. I have fond memories of pretty much all of those trips.
ReplyDeleteDon't be afraid to take courses far afield from your major. I'll admit that I was a declared major basically from Day 1 (though my minor changed from Econ to History and I dropped a potential double major in International Studies), but I took intro to inorganic chemistry, theatre, and music appreciation, partially because I was required to by requirements, but partially out of interest.
Don't be scared of your classmates--some of them are going to seem like they have far more impressive academic records/background than you do, but they're oftne just puffing and there's no there there.
Study abroad! Especially if you want to be fluent in another language. You'll never get a chance to imerse yourself in another culture the way you will with study abroad. I did it for a semester but wish I had gone for a year.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with the advice to go to office hours. Your professors will love you, and those are great relationships to have.
Also, totally agree with Marsha about participating in whatever school traditions there are.
Try new things. Be a little ridiculous. Enjoy!
I was just telling someone about a geology course that I took in college that started in Georgia, went west through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, up to Utah and Nevada, back to Arizona and New Mexico, up the West Coast from California, Oregon, and Washington, over through Idaho into Montana, and then back Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah, before zipping our way through the midwest.
ReplyDeleteOkay, so I graduated from college (gulp) 21 years ago. I typed papers on an electric typewriter and avoided profs who wouldn't let you use white out or correction tape. I knew maybe 2 people who had computers - basic ones - Macs, I'm sure. So I decided to ask my daughter, now that she has her freshman year under her belt, for her insights. Here they are:
ReplyDelete- Get involved in something - anything. It's a great chance to meet people as well as give you some focus other than school.
- If you find an organization you like, step up and take a leadership role. It will keep you involved as well as giving you a chance to learn new skills.
- Talk to your professors - especially if you are having an issue. They want to help. Mine have really wanted us to do well and understand the subject matter. After all, this is the stuff they love.
- Don't feel obligated to do anything 'because you are supposed to do it when you are in college'. Just have fun and be yourself. You'll find the friends and groups you want to be part of because you are being yourself.
- A meal plan might have been better than preparing meals in the dorm because the cafeterias would have been another place to meet people.
On the cool concerts front--my bosses' boyfriend regales people with a story of his first week in America from Indonesia where he grew up, there he was at the University of Washington seeing a ragtag band playing totally new music in the basement of like a dorm or the student union or something in like 1989 or 1990 and of course that band was Nirvana. It too can happen to you.
ReplyDeleteOk, everyone, from avenue q, all together: "I wish I could go back to college. . . "
ReplyDeleteYes, if you're in a bad roommate situation, fix it as soon as you can. My first-year roommate had a roster of 10 guys she regularly slept with. In our room. With me in the next bed. Shudder.
ReplyDeleteI second a lot of these. But my top eight are:
ReplyDelete1. Learn a second language, preferably by being in another country.
2. Get off campus and figure out what the neighborhood/city/state is about.
3. Be smart about your money and your debt. Know what you're signing and what you're buying. Never say "oh, I'll just put this on a credit card" or "I'll just take a loan for it." You'll be old and poor like a lot of us.
4. Spend your summers doing things that you want to do, not worrying about the perfect internship.
5. Get some air, exercise and sleep. But be creative about the first two- explore campus, learn a new sport, etc. Don't sleep in class.
6. Go to class.
7. If you have opportunities to take classes at different colleges or departments, do it. I took a class at all Five Colleges in the Pioneer Valley and made quite a few friends in that process.
8. Call your parents.
I had a computer programming class where I used PL-1 on punch cards. Therefore, I offer no advice.
ReplyDelete--bd
Okay, ONE item. Keep more underwear relative to the rest of your wardrobe than you did at home. You can always wear a pair of jeans for a couple of days at a time if you're behind on laundry; underwear, not so much.
Do everything, anything you always wanted to do, thought about doing or secretly dreamed of doing -- unless it involves killing someone. College is the place to be stupid, wild, adventurous, free, transformed. Also, have a lot of sex. Because later in life? When you have kids or you are mad at your spouse or maybe just when your jeans don't fit? You're going to wish you had more sex. A lot more sex. And you're going to wish you had it when you were young and bendy.
ReplyDeleteThank you all so, so, so, so, so, so much! This is making me even more excited than I was before and I didn't think that was possible.
ReplyDeleteGood luck, Maddy! There's lots of great advice here - I'd be overwhelmed. :) I agree with most of everything here, especially joining lots of clubs at first to see what sticks, road trips, dealing immediately with bad roommates (I had a fantastic one, though - total opposites but we got along beautifully), and going to class. What I remember most about college is the friends I met through theater and the newspaper - the ones I stayed up late with, took the roadtrips with, roomed with during and after college.
ReplyDeleteMy only other advice:
- if you don't like your academic advisor (if you have one), you can change it to someone you like better, once you get to know your professors. I did, and it was a choice that helped me for four straight years.
- I took all my required, "core" classes in my first two years and never regretted it. I got stuff I hated (like Biology) out of the way early, so I could enjoy my junior and senior years by focusing on the classes I really wanted to take. (And by then, my English classes were getting far more intensive, so I could focus on them more.) Also, it was good to take those classes early, when I was fresh from high school and still used to taking science and history classes, rather than later after a couple of years off.
- Budget. But try not to say no to anything because of money.
- Come back here and post now and then! :) But don't spend too much time on the computer (or chatting, or texting, or twittering..) Get out onto campus and have fun!
Jebus, don't take ANYTHING at 8 am, and I say this as someone who has taught 8:00 classes for most of the last 7 years.
ReplyDeleteTrue story: So, my mom called me one Sunday my freshman year around 11 am. And I was still asleep. This led to this conversation:
ReplyDeleteMom: Why are you still in bed? It's 11 am!
Me: I just went to sleep. I stayed up all night playing cards.
I don't think that my mother called me before 2 pm for at least another decade after that.
I'm living in Routt! Not sure about my major yet (I'm hoping Core will help me decide).
ReplyDeleteOh yes, definitely dating Mudd boys. I tend to like em smart and just a tad socially awkward...
I actually have a friend who's going to be a junior there who promised to show me the tunnels as long as I write him an essay about any lesbian experiences I have in college (which I'm fairly certain I'm not going to have, but that was the deal).
* I disagree with Adam and Marsha. Unless your roommate is a walking STD or dealing drugs in your dorm room, I think you should try to make it work. I'm a big fan of college as a social living experience. If you can keep an open dialogue (and avoid passive aggressive notes) you should be able to live with anyone for 9 months.
ReplyDelete* If your school doesn't let you pay for laundry on your points card bring about $50 in quarters with you. This seems like a lot, but trust me it will be gone by Thanksgiving.
* Buy a box of thank you cards & a book of stamps to have on hand. That way if you have a rocking internship interview or Cousin Gladys sends you a care package you are always prepared to show off your superior good breeding.
* Avoid the overprice campus bookstores & <span>minimarts</span> whenever possible. If you have access to your syllabus online try ordering your books now from an Internet retailer. Carpool to Target or <span>Walmart</span> with friends on the weekend to stock up on snack and supplies. Your wallet will thank you.
* Make friends with the secretary/admin in either your major or your campus job. She/he can hook you up with all kind of freebies like free photocopying and faxing, as well as saving leftover lunches from staff meetings!
*Make friends with upperclassmen. They are your best source of advice about classes, faculty, campus jobs, shady boys, good bars, and secret study spots. Or they can just browbeat you into watching the West Wing (thank Matt!).
* Get creative with the dining hall microwave and resist the weekly desire to order pizza at 3AM.
* Jock or not, take advantage of the campus gym. Most schools have state of the art athletic facilities that are barely used. Hit the treadmill or take the free yoga class. Take care of you!
* Put the number for a local taxi company in your cell phone before you head out on the town. Better safe than sorry. In fact, you school may offer a free voucher deal with one particular company. Find out.
* Ditto what everyone said about getting to know your faculty. If you connect with a particular professor in your field, don't just ask them to be your advisor, ask if they have any research you can assist with. It will look great on grad school apps!
* It is okay to feel overwhelmed, or shy, or just homesick. Everyone else does to! Touch base with the campus counseling center. That is what they are there for.
If you're financially-minded, work out (based on your per-credit-hour cost) what you pay for each lecture.
ReplyDeleteSomebody pointed that out to me at the end of my sophomore year. I didn't miss a single class for the next two years.
This is all great and making me so terribly sad and I graduated all of 27 months ago. A few repeats, but here we go:
ReplyDelete1) Road trips are fantastic. Do them on breaks, on weekends, for sports, for concerts, whatever. One of the highlights of my college career was making the drive from Atlanta to South Bend after ND's opener in 2006, arriving in the dining hall for brunch after an 11 hour hike and having a friend come up to us and ask what we did last night. Well, actually...
2) If you can set your schedule to have no Friday classes, set your schedule to have no Friday classes. And unless the professor or class is fantastic, there's no reason to be up for 8am. Three day weekends and late mornings are great because it gives you a lot of time to recover from the copious amounts of drinking you'll be doing or catch up on the copious amounts of work you'll have to do. If you're used to waking up at 9:45, you'll be amazed how much you can accomplish in one morning waking up at 7.
3) If you feel like napping, nap. This is probably the most flexible your schedule is going to be for the rest of your life. There should be no judging napping in college as long as you are productive - and I use that term loosely - in your awake time.
4) Once you've met the people you're pretty sure are your friends for the long haul - and you'll probably know - find a TV series or four on DVD and enjoy them together. One of my old roommates got married Memorial Day weekend and we groomsmen were quoting "Arrested" the entire time. In fact, find friends and watch "Arrested" with them, it will make you all very happy.
5) If a friend's parents is in town and offering dinner, go to that dinner. Always.
6) Don't feel bad if you don't have a major or don't know what you want to do in life, and if you are pretty sure about what you want to do, don't let that deter you from tacking on a double major, minor or just changing things altogether.
7) Speed quarters is the best drinking game, period. No one has ever played it and not had fun.
You're going to have the time of your life. You've obviously got a good head on your shoulders if you can hang out with this crowd and hold your own, so I have little doubt this is going to be a great four-to-however many years for you. Good luck, and cherish it all.
Oh, by the way, I don't actually have a roommate. I have this long-term illness deal that requires that I get a lot of rest, so I needed a single. I'm actually kind of bummed about not having a roommate, but I'm about as extroverted as they come, so I'm not too worried about making friends.
ReplyDeleteI like your advice. Your advice is fun.
ReplyDeleteMy younger brother tells me that Amazon.com will give you Amazon Prime for free if you're a student. Much cheaper for textbooks, plus lots of other stuff.
ReplyDeleteThere's a reason why I'm going 3,000 miles away for college... (Well, they're not really the reason. But definitely looking forward to that independence.)
ReplyDeleteSeriously--taking an 8 AM class probably cost me graduating magna cum laude--I had American History since 1865 at 8 AM MWF Spring Semester Freshman year. I usually made it, but one of the few times I overslept was when there was a quiz. I missed the quiz, and as a result, wound up with a B+ rather than an A- in the class. I believe that would have given me the couple hundredths of a point I would have needed to jump over the magna barrier.
ReplyDelete(That said, I liked my schedule a lot that semester--A 8-12:30 block of 4 classes on MWF, and then a late afternoon class on TTh.)
I read about a service called BookRenter that's basically Netflix for textbooks - could save you a bunch of money (and a bunch of piles of books you'll never look at again).
ReplyDeleteIn high school I did a lot of hanging out with Quakers, who tend to be frequently naked. If there's nude dancing in the quad, I will be there.
ReplyDeleteAnd I won't be one of those kids-- I quite enjoy silliness and ridiculous traditions.
Why do I expect this speech (especially the "young and bendy" part) to make its way onto Grey's or PP at some point this season? Maybe from Violet.
ReplyDeletebill- Awesome. Will definitely have to look into the radio station and/or newspaper.
ReplyDeleteEw, too early. I think both of my required classes are later in the day, which is nice.
ReplyDeleteI graduated from PO. One of my regrets is not taking advantage of all the amazing activities and extracurriculars -- you won't necessarily get another chance so easy to act on stage, get singing lessons for free, learn to surf, camp near Idlewild, learn to pot, play balinese gamelan, etc. Do all that stuff. Also, Claremont's fairly far from LA proper, so it's easy to stay on campus for weeks at a time. Try not to do that. That campuses are great but the city has a lot to offer. Finally, something I regret discovering as a senior, the art museum that is either associated with SC or CGS has an open house every Thursday (I think) with student art installations and a bar. It's fun.
ReplyDeleteIn your student orientation box of free samples, you will find many things that are of value to your daily life.
ReplyDeleteTHROW THE VIVARIN AWAY.
Sweet, thanks. I'm thinking of joining On the Loose so I can do awesome outdoorsy things in beautiful places.
ReplyDeleteLet me assure you that any browbeating I may have done to LJ was assuredly returned in kind by her.
ReplyDeleteI believe that this advice should apply to everyone.
ReplyDeleteMy way-out-of-date advice would be to have a TV small enough that it's not a huge deal to carry it over to the Sci-Fi Club offices on Thursday nights so everybody can watch The Simpsons.
ReplyDeleteNow, I'll grant you that having a roommate can be a good learning experience. (It's amazing, isn't it, how my later roommates were so much easier to live with than the first two were?) But I have to say that my randomly assigned roommate was not the key to my social life. Thank God.
ReplyDeleteI totally should have had this advice when I went to college.
ReplyDeleteAnd this may be obvious, but don't fail out. I did, and I went on academic probation for a year. I stayed in the college town and worked as a waitress, paying my own bills with no help from the parents. I spent that year watching all the idiots around me blowing their parents' money and wasting their time, while all I wanted was to get back in class. A few years later, I graduated cum laude.
ReplyDeleteHa, well I'm not bringing a TV but there is a club called Get Your Nerd On where they watch geeky movies and TV shows that I may possibly join.
ReplyDeleteThere are actually so many cool clubs. It's really exciting.
My brother is the proud owner of a poster from one of the first concerts he attended in college -- R.E.M., with 10,000 Maniacs opening. He paid $2.
ReplyDeleteYes on the underwear thing. If you tend to be clotheshorsey like me and lazy like me, you want to have at least a 2 month supply of undies. Just saying. And so now everyone knows how often I did laundry in college and quite frankly how often I did laundry until I moved in with my fiancee who pays the housekeeper to do the laundry (every other week)!!
ReplyDeleteA word of warning about Adam's first piece of advice: If you're going to "course-shop," be discreet about it. If you show up to the first class and don't like the grading scale or the workload or the professor's hairpiece, and decide to try something else, no one will care except maybe some poor schlub in the Registrar's office. But avoid peppering your instructors with questions about grading or specific topics, and good heavens don't send them emails before class even starts, except maybe to ask what the textbook is (and even then only if that information isn't readily available elsewhere).
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jenn. And like you, I won't be drinking (at least not as long as I'm sick and on meds that would result in bad things happening if mixed with alcohol). But that's ok-- I've found that when I go to parties and am really tired, I'm on about the same functioning level as the drunk people anyways.
ReplyDeleteExactly, I really wish I had done OTL. Camping now would take so much investment.
ReplyDeleteI had a subscription to Rolling Stone in college, and I ripped out the full-page ad for the Simpsons premiere and taped it to my door. It was the only thing stolen from that door the entire year.
ReplyDeleteI actually don't miss college much at all. But I can offer just a few things, and you can trust me because I'm under 30.
ReplyDelete1. Study Abroad. When I went, I didn't really want to that much. I was pretty ambivalent about it at the time, but I went anyway. It was the best thing I've ever done. Like Raje, I wish I had known ahead of time how awesome it was going to be so that I could have planned to go for two semesters instead of just one.
2. Don't get into any kind of long-distance relationship. Shonda's advice is sound; a LDR will hamper your ability to follow it.
3. Find some time on a weekday during the day as your regular laundry time each week. You know, if you have three hours free between classes on Thursdays or whatever. Crowded laundry rooms are not worth your time.
In both college and law school, I strived to have as many three and four-day weekends as possible. My first semester of college I had Friday classes from 9-10 and 11-noon. I napped in-between.
ReplyDeleteGet your textbooks' ISBNs ( I WILL NOT say ISBN <span>number</span>) ASAP. They are your gateway to Half.com and other used textbooks sites. If the edition you are using is over a year old, TONS of used books are floating out there. The older the current edition, the cheaper the book. The ISBN should ensure that you don't accidentally buy a previous edition.
ReplyDeleteIf you are as smart as the rest of the crew here, you may be attending on a full-ride scholarship. If your parents' finances allow them to qualify for the expanded education credits (American Opportunity) that kicked in last year, SAVE THOSE TEXT BOOK RECEIPTS from whatever source derived. Yes, even half.com. The first $2,000 of the credit is DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR and includes textbooks for the first time ever. Scan and save those now as opposed to being awakened some morning next March when your parents are visiting their CPA. If your out of pocket tuition is greater than $4,000, this won't be necessary. They will have maxxed out the $2,500 credit from the tuition at that point.
Form:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8863.pdf
Instructions:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i8863.pdf
--bd
And now you're a damaged homeless vagabond. ;)
ReplyDeleteI didn't go to class my first semester. My dad took one look at my grades and said, "so, you haven't been attending class, huh?" Considering he was paying for part of it, I had to deliver. Never missed class after that.
ReplyDeleteOh and 4. I strongly agree about getting your textbooks online. Campus bookstore's such a scam.
ReplyDeleteTwo MONTHS? Crikey. That may be more underwear than I've owned in my adult life.
ReplyDeleteSometimes, it's good to be a boy.
How about this: never decide to take or not-take a class based on the grading scale. If it's a subject matter you're interested in, just take the class, and never take a "gut" just for an easy grade.
ReplyDeleteOne quarter of three-day weekends in law school convinced me I should try to have classes five days a week, because otherwise I got out of the student mindset by the time Monday rolled around.
ReplyDelete(Also, I decided not to take a class my 2L year because it met too early in the morning. The class I decided not to take was Barack Obama's last law-school class. Having said that, yea, try not to have classes before noon.)
This was going to be mine! I loved college, but my biggest regret is not spending a semester abroad. All these other suggestions are awesome too! Also, befriend a hall director or RA -- they are generallty good people, but find one you REALLY trust to be an unofficial advisor of sorts, who knows the college and is close to your age.
ReplyDeleteDon't be sad you don't have a roommate.
ReplyDeleteI had a roommate once who informed me that whenever she ran out of underwear in college before it was time to bring the laundry home to her parents, she just bought new underwear. I've never known someone with so much underwear.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if you do not know how to do your laundry now (which, with what I know of you, Maddy, is not the case) learn before you go. People who stand in the laundry room looking completely clueless and begging for help are kind of pathetic, and going around with all your clothes a pale shade of pink isn't much better. Laundry just isn't that complicated.
I don't think that was me. I had great roommates in college, and terrible ones too. The only person I've ever even considered punching out was one of my two freshman year roommates. (Being tripled in a double room magnifies every roommate problem.) Sure, you should try to make it work, but sometimes it's not possible.
ReplyDeleteOne of the two fall semester freshman year roommates had a boyfriend back home, but slept with several different guys a week at school (yes, in the room, while we were there). She asked us to lie to the boyfriend when he called. I was a chem major and had 12 hours of classes and labs on T-Th, starting at 8am. She had no classes on T-Th at all (she had chosen all her classes to be MWF classes, in part to avoid going home to see the boyfriend). So every Monday and Wednesday night, she'd bring her gaggle of boys back to the room at about 2am - all of them drunk, carrying food of some kind. They'd turn on all the lights and the stereo, waking up the two sleeping roommates, and tell us we were killing their buzz. Yes, she's the one I almost hit. Sleep deprivation will do that to you.
The other one wasn't so bad, except that she'd grown up 20 miles away and her boyfriend stayed over several nights a week. She was in the top bunk and I was in the bottom. This was not fun for me.
I survived an entire semester with them, but it wasn't easy and I was very glad when it was over.
Maddy, I didn't drink much in college either. Didn't prevent me from making friends or having a good time. And, as above, not having a roommate is probably a blessing.
ReplyDeleteAnother great textbook site - Chegg.com. They send the book(s) in a box, you keep the box and at the end of the semester you print out a label and send it/them back in the same box. They also plant a tree for each rental and you get to choose where it is planted. Has saved us a bunch of money!
ReplyDeleteIf you do troll for used books, beware of "International Editions" sent from India, Thailand, China, etc. Stick with stateside sellers, either other students or reputable dealers.
ReplyDelete--bd
I was perfectly content going through college without drinking. Didin't feel then, nor do I feel now, that I missed out on anything because of it.
ReplyDeleteI can't agree enough with the study abroad suggestions. It's probably one of my biggest regrets from college. My friends who did made lasting friendships with people from around the world and now have places to stay or friends to visit when traveling abroad.
ReplyDeleteDon't be afraid to drop a class or change your major or admit to yourself that pre-med (or pre-law or theatre or whatever) is not for you. I enjoyed college so much more once I decided that biology wasn't for me and religion was.
I'd recommend babysitting as a great way to earn money during college. I babysat for an alum of my university for 4 years. It was nice to have a support system of adults outside of school and to get paid in cash.
Live off campus for at least one year if possible. Having the responsibility of an apartment is immensely helpful for post-college life.
Finally, you can (and should) use the cafeteria microwave to make rice krispie treats.
LA things to do when you get off campus: concerts at the Greek or Hollywood Bowl. Griffith Park. Dodger games. Huntington Gardens. LACMA & the Norton Simon museums.
ReplyDeleteA simple one that some people reminded me of--if you're hanging out in your dorm room for whatever reason (reading, chilling, etc.) and don't want/need privacy/quiet, leave your door open and be open to the drop-by.
ReplyDeleteAlso, impromptu communal TV watching in the residence halls? Awesome--I quickly formed a bond with several of my hallmates due to watching ER every Thursday night, with a high point being one of my classmates who would do the Peter Benton downward fist-pump at the appropriate point in the opening credits. (Also an attraction my Freshman year? "Watch Matt watch Jeopardy!")
Our biggest crowds freshman year, other than for NFL games, were for Twin Peaks.
ReplyDeleteSorry if this posts twice - blackberry not coorperating. Not studying abroad is probably one of my biggest college regrets (well, that and getting sick on the El at 2am and then bursting into drunken tears). My friends who did met people from all over the world and now have interesting places to crash when traveling and friends to visit in tons of different countries.
ReplyDeleteDon't be afraid to admit to yourself that pre-med (or pre-law or theatre or economics or whatever) isn't for you. I enjoyed college so much more when I finally realized that biology was making me miserable and giving me a ridiculously low GPA. Making the switch to religion didn't really lead to a career path (although it was the reason I got my summer associate job as a 1L), but it did make me so much more engaged in my classes.
Babysit to make money. I babysat for an alum all four years at Northwestern. The family was amazing, invited my friends to their awesome pre-football game tailgates and provided me with an adult support system separate from professors, administrators, etc. And I got paid in cash.
Everyone in a while, wse the cafeteria microwave to make rice krispie treats.
I second Matt's communal TV watching suggestion. I have fond memories of watching Melrose, Party of Five, ER, 90210, a 2-day marathon of the Miami season of Real World in the lounge of my dorm, sorority house and apartment.
If permitted at your campus, live off campus at least one year (preferably senior year). Being exposed to the responsibility of an apartment was pretty valuable for post-college living.
I really, really, really do not like doing laundry. In fact, I found a service in Chicago (pre-fiancee and in an apartment with no laundry facilities) that let me do as much laundry as I could fit in a bag they provided for $20 and I have never so diligently packed dirty clothes before. But they picked up and dropped off and they wrapped it all in cellophane and usually mine spilled over into 2 or more paper grocery sacks on the drop off.
ReplyDeleteIt was at this point that I vowed when living in a city with such wonderful amenities, I need never do laundry again!--it was a very Scarlett O'Hara moment.
But yeah, I definitely had about 65 pairs of underwear before even touching special occasion or I-don't-know-why-I-still-have-this-pair-that-is-uncomfortable-and-rides-up-strangely pairs.
I really hate laundry. In fact on my do I or do I really not want children, laundry is a majorly weighted factor towards nope, nope I don't..
I love the idea of watch Matt watch Jeopardy. That is awesome.
ReplyDeleteMy communal watching was South Park in its 1st season my freshman year. Also Friday night pre-club time "Annie" always managed to gather a bunch of girls in various stages of 'getting ready.'
Several things, and I'm a more recent graduate (2007 undergrad, 2010 MBA):
ReplyDelete1. Don't get mono. This f'd up my wife's GPA and college career.
2. If/when you live off-campus, make sure to determine what you want in an apartment, and/or if you want roomies.
3. Choose your roomies wisely.
4. Do some wacky college crap. Examples: Lightsaber battles on the front lawn, play ultimate Frisbee at least once, Halo tournaments, and my personal favorite: playing tag/hide and seek at a large local playground.
5. Arrange your dorm room to have a TV, but more importantly some type of gaming system. You will soon have friends.
6. Find the good professors, because they're worth listening to.
7. If you have a bad professor, sit in the back of the room and take a crossword puzzle book (I got a subscription to GAMES magazine in my college years.)
8. Take classes that interest you.
9. Work hard in your first 2-3 years so you can slack off as a junior/senior. You'll need that time to apply/look for jobs. My last semester? Technically 12 hours, but I really only had class on Monday and Wednesday afternoons.
10. Get involved in at least one organization/group on campus.
11. Whatever you do, don't sign up for a credit card just because you want a free pizza/t-shirt/doodad.
12. Catch some of the local music scene.
13. Find at least two good local restaurants and at least two good local bars that fit your personality (once you can drink).
14. Get and use a bike, but be careful not to run people off the road. It cuts down on how late you are for class.
15. If you're dating someone when you enter college, it has a good chance of ending. If you start dating someone just after you enter college, it has a good chance at ending. It's out of the friends you have at the end of college that good relationships form. That's not always true, but it was for me.
16. GET ONLINE TEXTBOOKS. Recent example: My sister-in-law is a sophomore in college. She was going to buy her books at the college bookstore for $500. My wife got all of them online for $115 total. Just get them ahead of time so you aren't waiting on them for the start of class.
17. Invest in a lot of quarters. This will be both for laundry and for buying soda/coffee on long lecture days.
18. You will gain weight your first year in college. The freshman 15 is true, so get used to it.
19. Remember, it's the time of your life. Parents and scholarships will foot most of the bill, you are creating your life as an adult, and you have freedoms you will never have again. Live it up and enjoy it.
don't get too cozy socially with locals, since they will have the excuse that they've already been there. find some friends with no such excuse - go to the beach, of course. But climb the mountains, camp in the desert, eat the hell out of LAs Mexican cuisine (Korean too). Get down to San Diego. Go to the Eastern side of the Sierras.
ReplyDeleteQuality of the show is really irrelevant here -- my freshman floor became obsessed with Barnaby Jones reruns, a good 15 years after it went off the air. The point is the bonding, not the show.
ReplyDeleteAs a corollary, I lived uphill from campus my sophomore year because I knew the only way I was going to make it to class -- hungover, before noon, in the middle of an Ithaca winter -- was if it was downhill.
ReplyDelete90201's "California University" was actually filmed at Occidental, and for the same four years I was there. I don't think any Oxy student who attended during that span missed an episode. Certainly no one who lived in the dorms.
ReplyDeleteThat was me, from my iPhone, with some weird edits - let me rephrase:
ReplyDeleteYou will be in Los Angeles, despite my biases, one of the world's great playgrounds. Nevermind that the first three attempts to colonize the place left every man woman and child dead, the place is incredible. The mountains to the north have some brilliant hikes, the deserts to the east some of great camping options, and LA mexican food is unbeatable.
One thing, though, is at the Claremont Colleges you will meet a lot of natives that have done all this stuff. Don't let them talk you out of doing cool local stuff because they've done it. Pair up with some friends who aren't local and do the silly stuff -- Mann's Chinese Theater and a game show taping and Santa Monica Pier -- without shame.
Totally agreed about 8 am classes. My first semester freshman year, my faculty advisor at orientation convinced me to take a schedule that had an 8:30 class every day. I thought: hey, I started high school every day at 7:45, so isn't it the same thing? NO. IT IS NOT THE SAME THING.
ReplyDeleteAnd I spent my senior year never taking a Friday class, and it was so great that I wish I'd done that earlier.
Also agreed on not worry ing about having a major or a plan. One of my best friends came in as a Bio major, added a Theater minor, then became a Bio/Theater double major, then dropped the Bio. (And she still has a successful career in theater.) College is the chance to figure all of that out.
Everyone in my dorm pretty much kept their doors open, except when sleeping. Made it really easy to stop by, hang out, socialize, regardless of where you actually kept your things. And dorm lounges are great for finding people to talk to, or seeing who wants to grab a bite.
ReplyDeleteI would dissent from Christy's #2. I am about to celebrate 13 years of marriage to my long-distance college relationship, and I believe we managed to make good on Shonda's advice -- you just need to do visits frequently enough, and to make good use of them! :)
ReplyDeleteMaret - what year were you again? Mrs. Earthling was '92.
ReplyDeleteI lived in a suite with 2 double rooms, with the other 3 girls in the same sororiety (brothel laws in Albany prohibit sororiety housing off campus). I was the only freshman. Around the first month, a tally appeared in the bathroom, with their three names on it, with checkmarks amassed over the course of the year. In May, I found out the checkmarks were guys they had slept with. There were more checkmarks than seemed possible, given the amount of time that had gone by. I felt very sad that the bathroom was only cleaned once a week. Plus my roommate had a guy she was seeing regularly (while she was getting other checkmarks), and they had early Sunday morning... traditions. I started sleeping on the floor in the common room most nights.
ReplyDeleteBut then I made my best friends ever and lived with them for the rest of college. I love them dearly. I have never spoken again to the sororiety sisters.
that was me. stupid cookies.
ReplyDeleteYay for the wash & fold! The one by me had a customer loyalty program (basically, every 6th wash was free), and taking that into account, it ended up belng almost as cheap as doing it myself at a laundromat.
ReplyDeleteI think one thing I would do if I were back in school would be to pick three random things that are going on around campus/town every week and just do them. Lectures, concerts, plays, one-off classes like DJing or cheesemaking or what-have-you, especially things that are different than what you're normally interested in. I kind of took for granted all the cool free stuff available to me as a student, and wish I'd done stuff like that a little more.
The "brothel laws" thing is an urban legend across the country.
ReplyDeleteIf possible, go home with your new friends on breaks... being introduced to new places by people who live there (and getting to stay on the cheap) is amazing... for example, because my new friends freshman year were from NYC, the little country bumpkin from NH got to spend a significant amount of time being introduced to the big city by people who lived there. Lots of great memories. My mom also had this experience- her college roommate was from Hawaii, and she got to spend a summer with her, living with her family and working at a pineapple canning factory. And, bring people home with you. It's fun to play tourguide :).
ReplyDeleteI am a non-faculty-type staff person at a large state university (which I also graduated from), so I'll take a different tack:
ReplyDelete1)Not that you wouldn't, but remember to be nice to the non-faculty types. The custodial staff in the residence halls, the people at the various offices you will be forced to trudge between while dealing with bureaucratic crap (many of them don't like it, either), the people who work at the dining hall, etc. The diversity of experience you encounter in college does not necessarily come strictly from your classmates and professors. Also, if you are nice to them, they will be more likely to help you out (don't laugh -- I can't tell you how many students don't seem to comprehend this).
2) Get a flu shot early (assuming it isn't contraindicated by your meds). Many of your classmates will not, in spite of all the warnings and clinics and flyers.
3) Memorize your student number.
4) Treat your student ID like a driver's license or credit card, especially if it has money on it. You would not believe how many lost IDs we end up with in my department.
5) Nthing the advice to do things for yourself instead of relying on family or friends. EXCEPT when you hit a wall. I am violating the code of universtity staff people by telling you this, but if you've followed all the procedures and don't get the answer you want, have a parent (or parent substitute) call the college president/chancellor/whatever's office and mention how much they're paying for you to attend this cockamamie school and how angry they are. Sometimes this still gets you nowhere. Often it works. Reserve this strategy for Big Deal issues, though, please.
Good luck, and have fun!
On behalf of all the RAs and Hall Directors of the world, thanks for the recommendation. We are a lot more than party busters!
ReplyDeleteAnd I totally have the same regret about Study Abroad. Anytime I meet a student who is going abroad I am more than a smidge jealous.
Maddy, I'm so excited for you!
Well, don't be afraid to skip a class either. Sometimes it's a gorgeous spring day in New Orleans, and going to The Boot for a pitcher and an impromptu backgammon tournament just really is more important than going to a psych 101 lecture. I skipped a lot more class than I recommend skipping, and it all turned out just fine.
ReplyDeleteAmen on the first group of friends kind of sucking. That will apply doubly if you go to law school.
ReplyDeleteSo much advice! So many people rooting for you! I have only one tiny piece of advice.
ReplyDeleteThere's probably something that you love to do -- something that makes you feel like yourself, something that is not related to your future career or your major or anything. It might be playing the piano, or reading YA novels for pleasure, or watching Grey's Anatomy, or writing Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfic, or running marathons. People will tell you that In College, you will be Far Too Busy for these pastimes. Take it from me: you are not too busy. After a semester thinking I was too busy for pleasure reading, I realized it was crazy and proceeded to read fiction, for pleasure, fairly voraciously throughout the rest of college (and through six semesters of law school). I am convinced that it made me a better student and a more pleasant human being.
Do that thing that makes you feel like yourself. Do not listen to the "Too Busy" vampires.
And GOOD LUCK.
That was also going to be mine. I spent a year in Jerusalem, and it was the best experience ever. Every day was ridiculously awesome.
ReplyDeleteNever jump out of a perfectly good airplane.
ReplyDeleteI am not that much older than you, and I had a "portable" electric typewriter. OMG.
ReplyDeleteI followed your advice in college. I was much younger and bendier. Or at least bent.
ReplyDeleteAnd with Amazon Prime sometimes it seems like you get the stuff before you order it and without paying any shipping.
ReplyDeleteI just want to thank you all again for being super helpful and generally awesome. You guys are the best! And I'm definitely going to take a media/cultural studies class or two to put all of the knowledge I'm accumulated here to good use.
ReplyDeleteMaryann's comment #2 reminded me of the time my entire first-year floor got a bad cold (we all shared one bathroom, men and women alike, so it was bound to happen) and developed a floor-wide addiction to Nyquil for a few weeks. There was a whole black market and everything. Ahh. :)
ReplyDeleteAw, I don't know. I met some girls at accepted students day (and have kept in touch through facebook) who will probably be my first group of friends and they all seem legitimately cool (obviously we're not all going to be lifelong friends, but I think I might end up close with a few of them). I've also talked to a bunch of other people on facebook (seriously, it's been awesome for this. We've been able to start getting to know each other (you guys will be pleased to hear that there is an active thread about tv on our discussion board) and get excited together. On the day we got our housing assignments, older students answered questions about the dorms.) and maybe this is exactly why I need this piece of advice, but I have to say that they all seem to very much not suck. I'm actually really excited about my future classmates.
ReplyDeleteOh man, I can't wait to study abroad. It's going to be so hard figuring out where to go, though. I want to go everywhere!
ReplyDeleteWe're old, Adam; it's ok.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of bathrooms: buy a pair of flipflops, ALWAYS wear them in the shower. Always. Give your friends flipflops and insist that they wear them, too. One of my closest friends brought a case of flipflops back after winter break (she was from Hawaii and this was before they were popular mainland) and we all wore them after.
ReplyDeleteIt was either that or the city just didn't want the greek housing in the city... I know St. Rose had to keep their system on campus as well.
ReplyDeleteI think the key in skipping is balance. My Spanish prof was a little snippy when I missed a class due to being hositalized, whereas my history classes tended to have rotating professors and the essay schedule meant if I went to the ones pertaining to my next assignment, I had plenty to get me through the exams. But yes, I found it quite a revelation that in most classes no one knew nor cared if I was there.
ReplyDeleteSeconding the study abroad bit, if possible. Even find a class that does something as a group in summer. Or get a Eurail pass one summer. I think the experience is invaluable.
ReplyDeleteAmen to this. And an addendum: There will always be those who try to tell you that you are studying too much or not enough. It was worse in law school than in college (from my experience), but ultimately, you need to figure out for yourself how much studying you need to do in order to do well and to be neither panicky nor utterly burned out. Everyone studies differently, and the right amount of studying for so-and-so down the hall might not be the right amount of studying for you---even if so-and-so really thinks that it is.
ReplyDeleteWe communally watched SNL every week without fail. We even had a board game (one of my dear friends colelcted board games and tried them out on us) that youwere supposed to play *while* watching TV that worked best with SNL.
ReplyDeleteWe also communally watched Ren & Stimpy, over and over and over again. I also remember watching the 1988 baseball playoffs in large groups, as well as the finale of Family Ties.
Yup, I'm old. O. L. D.
As a fellow non-faculty-type-staff-person (though at a smaller private school), I can heartily endorse Maryann on 1, 2, 3, and 4. Given that I work at a graduate school, I don't agree on the end of #5 - it might work, but it'll piss everyone off enough that you'll encounter obstacles for the rest of your time at school.
ReplyDeleteAmen to both of you. I found it really helpful to bond with people who had the same study patterns that I did - we kept each other on track in studying, but also kept each other balanced. After all, if X studied the same times and for the same amount of time I did, when she left the library, it was ok for me to leave the library!
ReplyDeleteI'll do laundry if you take out the garbage and vacuum.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe this advice has not been offered yet:
ReplyDeleteDon't go to college. Become a hobo.
I work in alumni relations and I just love the connection here. On the heels of freshman move-in day and all the annoyances it causes in a small college town, I needed to see this and be reminded of why I do what I do.
ReplyDeleteMaddy, I don't have a lot of advice that others here haven't already shared, but I will say don't forget about the alumni/alumnae association... there are often great opportunities for students to connect with alumni, and you will forge relationships that can be very beneficial when it comes time to find a job. As you can see from bristlesage's comments, alumni have so much to offer to students and they LOVE sharing.
Have fun! Good luck! And thanks for giving us all a chance to reminisce about being right where you are. There is no more perfect time in life.
I once flushed my student ID down the toilet. Fell right out of my back pocket, and I didn't notice until I saw the last blue plastic corner going down. Made for quite an embarrassing story when I went to get a new one.
ReplyDeleteMy roomie and I didn't have a television the first 2 years, and I remember going down the hall to a friend's room to watch this new show called Friends.
ReplyDeleteI regret that I didn't study more broads as an undergrad.
ReplyDelete