Freshman year is a lot of fun, but it can also be very difficult in a lot of ways. There are all kinds of new responsibilities that come with all of your newly found freedoms, and you will be a stranger to almost everybody at first. However, the truth is that this stage will pass very quickly if you just relax and then you will be having a really great time. You just need some basic campus life skills. Here are some college life survival tips for incoming freshman.
Connect with Your Roommate
If you are like most college freshmen, then you’re going to be living in the dorms. As such, you will be sharing your room with another person, and as much as the universities may try to pair compatible individuals, it’s not always that easy. Your roommate doesn’t need to be your best friend, but you do want to try and be friends, and you want to be as communicative as possible.
Schedule Your Studying
You know that you are going to need to be studying on a regular basis, but you will have so many classes to attend, and possibly even a part-time job that it can be hard to find the time to study. That’s because you never are going to study unless you set aside the time to make it happen. So make sure that you carve out at least 3-4 hours per week for studying and researching for papers.
Use the Campus Gym
You will be under a lot of stress at times, and you will be forced to stay seated for very long periods of time. That’s why you want to take advantage of your campus gym. If you go to a prestigious school, then a state of the art gym is part of what you’re paying so much money for, so you may as well take advantage. Not only will you be able to let off some steam from time to time, but it’s also a great place to flirt and meet other coeds.
Use Your Meal Plan
If you have a meal plan, which gives you the option to eat as much as you want in the cafeteria, then you should use it as often as possible. Your food costs will be one of the biggest chunks of your spending budget, so any way that you can keep these costs down will make it much easier to save. You might get tired of it sometimes, but you’ll be happy when you have some extra cash to go to that music festival over spring break.
Get Your Gen Eds Out of the Way
Even if you declare your major before you even apply for colleges, you are going to want to hold off on most of those major classes until your second or third year. You might know that you are earning NEC’s nonprofit degree, but you will need a lot of general education classes as prerequisites to other upper division courses, so if you don’t get them out of the way your freshman year, you could be delaying your graduation date.
