College Tips for Freshmen

adulttalk:

• Get to know your college website. It’ll save you
  so much time in the future when you’re looking for information.
• Make sure that your college has copies of your
  AP, IB, or dual enrollment classes!!! My college claimed they didn’t have mine
  but I made them double check and they did. These classes can opt you out of
  several of your prerequisite classes.
• On top of that, check your school’s website for
  math and English placement. It’ll probably say something like “if you’ve scored
  ____ or higher on ____ section of the ACT/SAT, consider taking the following
  courses.” I opted out of a year of English and math each with this.
• If you know your major, check your college
  website for a four year plan. My college has a single sheet of paper that lays
  out all the classes I have to take each semester for four years. You can always
  rearrange this plan to your needs.
• If you don’t know your major, still take all the
  gen ed classes. Many colleges require a year of English and a year of math and
  some fine arts and humanities no matter what your major is.
• Make sure that if you have scholarships that you
  take the correct number of hours to keep your scholarships.
• Meet with your adviser at least once during each
  semester for your first year to make sure you’re staying on track. Lots of
  colleges require this anyways so double check that.
• If you don’t know your major, after your gen
  eds, take a couple classes that interest you. This can help you find your
  passion and what you want to major in.
• Before your first day of classes, print a campus
  map and mark the buildings where you have classes, where your adviser is, where
  you’ll eat, where you can purchase snacks, the bookstore, where you pick up
  mail and packages, etc. With this map, scope out your classes first, and if you
  have time, everything else.
• Do not buy textbooks until you go to the first
  day of class!!!! Ask your professor if you can buy an older version of a
  textbook or see if you can find a PDF to download. Oftentimes the professors
  will say that the older textbook is fine or that you don’t need a textbook.
  Sometimes, however, you will have to buy that textbook. I know that my math
  book came in a package with notes specifically written for my university that
  was only sold at my bookstore so I had to buy the package. It sucks but that’s
  college man.
• If your university is in a fairly large city,
  check to see if your student ID gets you on for free public transportation. If
  it does, you can save money buy not bringing your car to uni with you. You won’t
  have to pay for gas or for the parking tag. You could also always Uber.
• Try to carry snacks around with you in your
  purse or backpack. Snacks on campus will almost always be more than if you were
  to buy them in a store.
• Carry a water bottle with you. You will need it
  I promise.
• Print and KEEP all of your syllabi for your
  classes. Most of the time they’ll have your teachers’ contact info and hours on
  them and when you have finals/assignments due
• Check your student email account every day!!!
  You can sign in on your phone’s mail app or download something like outlook or
  gmail and allow for notifications. My teacher emailed our class 2 minutes
  before the class began to let us know of a location change. Having my email on
  my phone has saved my ass so many times.