Guidlines to Live By Your Freshman Year

The transition from high school to college is a major one. It is a culture shock to a lot of people. It is a totally different way of living and a major step up from high school. You don't have parents making sure you get up in the morning and you have a lot more independence.

There are two ways to handle this newfound freedom. You can go crazy and party and not worry too much about school and studying, but this option will leave you unhappy at Christmas break when you see your grades. The other option is to manage your time well and focus on school and do homework ahead of time. I would highly recommend the latter option. You may ask yourself "well that doesn't sound fun at all; i thought college was all about parties and meeting new people"? If you do manage your time well and get your school work and studying done when you should then you will also have time to meet new people and go to parties. Do not fret, college is a fun experience and should absolutely be enjoyed to the fullest. With great time management college won't stress you out to much and will be the best four years of your life. Also, both you and your parents will be happy when you get those grades back in December.

In order to achieve that success you want to have I would highly recommend getting a study group and meeting with your professor regularly. A study group is a great way to not only study, but to meet new people as well. Don't be afraid to throw the idea out there to your classmates about starting a study group. They will respect you for this because most of them have wanted to be in a study group, but were most likely to afraid to ask about forming one. You will make new friends and be encouraged to study by others who want to do well in class. As I saud, the other thing you should absolutely do is meet regularly with each professor. I recommend setting up a meeting with each professor every week or two weeks. This may sound like a lot but it is worth it. Meeting with them will help you make sure you unserstand everything in class and it will make sure that you are not behind in class. This also shows the professor that you are interested in their material and really want to get better as a student. With these two tactics and good time management you set yourself up for success. You will be a successful student, but also meet new people and be able to have fun and enjoy college.

The photo represents the last stage of my highschool career and the first stage of my "big transition".


His Buddy by Sherri Smetana is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.