Have a Productive and Successful College Career with these Tips

This is incredibly odd to write, but it was 10 years ago, this month, that I first packed up and left home for college! It’s weird to think it has been a decade but I can still remember the day I packed up my dad’s truck and made the four hour drive with him from New Jersey to Virginia, where we then stopped off at my mother’s house to get more boxes and my little brother to help with the moving in process. We spent the night in a hotel right off campus after another two hour drive down to what would be my final destination for the next 3.5 years! On move-in day, I remember everything taking far less time than I expected. Since we were staying so close to my dorm, we woke up very early and after a few quick trips between the truck and the three flights of stairs to my dorm room, it was all over and my father and brother were gone. That’s pretty much the long and the short of it! After that, came an unforgettable few years that were filled with more ups and downs than I will ever have time to convey. Last fall, I wrote briefly about my college experience in a post chronicling my biggest regrets from college. It’s a must read for any soon to be college freshman or really any college student who still has time left to get in those critical experiences that will be carried with you for a lifetime. Today, however, I thought it could be helpful if I shared some tips for college freshman on how to have a productive and successful college career.

Stay on top of your credits: One of the reasons I was able to graduate early, despite having two full majors in college, was because I was always on top of my credits and graduation requirements. For the most part, colleges and universities lay out a plan for students by major with required and elective courses that they are required to complete before graduation. Make sure you are actively paying attention to that list and have a plan for the classes you are going to take to fulfill these requirements. That means you may need to take a certain number of classes per semester to stay on track for a timely graduation and you may also need to be a little flexible when it comes to which classes you want to take vs which classes you need to take.

Prioritize your major: The second reason I was able to graduate early with my double major is because I always prioritized taking the classes I needed for my major. This meant that I took prerequisite classes as soon as I was eligible to, I sometimes took less interesting classes that fulfilled major requirements when others I was interested in filled up, and when necessary, I took the maximum number of courses allowed (with my advisors permission, of course). I pretty much did whatever it took to make sure I was on track to graduate, which in the end resulted in me graduating early at a school that had an unusually high number of students that went on for a 5^th year to complete course requirements.

Don’t skip class: This was my one major mistake the first semester of my freshman year! I made the mistake of signing up for 8am classes every day, thinking, “no problem, I had to be in class at 7:20am in high school, so this should be a piece of cake!” No! It was not a piece of cake, it was terrible and I unfortunately received the lowest marks in my college career in those classes because I skipped too often (C’s, gasp)! However, I learned from my mistake and never again signed up for an 8am class! I also stuck to a general rule, which was not to skip more than two classes of a single course. At my college, some teachers had this as a general rule and missing more than two classes resulted in a negative grade on your attendance, but many teachers operated under the concept that as a college student, you are an adult and if you want to waste your money by skipping class, that’s your choice, good luck with that final! Look, when you break it down, as a college student you will have a class 1-3 times a week on average, and a semester lasts about 16 weeks. Seriously, there is really no reason, other than illness or emergency, that you should be skipping class anyway, so keep your missed classes to a minimum!

Choose your professors wisely: When I was in college, and I assume the same goes today, students were always talking about their professors. Everyone had an opinion on each and every teacher they took and even some they had never taken. It was not uncommon for certain teachers to get a bad reputation, which then caused certain students to avoid taking their classes. Now, I believe that listening to peer reviews of teachers/professors is important, however, you need to make sure you are being smart about it. For example, in college, I remember taking two classes with teachers that were notoriously “hard.” At the time, I had no clue what “hard” meant really. So, I assumed these classes were going to be hell. As it turned out, they weren’t really as bad as people said and I ended up receiving fairly good marks (I think B+) because I did my work and didn’t skip class. See, as it turned out, the people who’s recommendations I was taking failed to explain that the reason they thought the teacher was hard was because they were not “nice” to their students. However, as professors, they were thorough, fair graders and willing to answer questions outside of class to help you understand the content and increase your grade! In fact, I remember, one of these “hard” professors had this clever tactic that scared the shi*t out of me at the time, but once the semester ended, I understood and appreciated what she had done. On the first day of class, this notoriously “hard” professor gave the scariest lecture ever. She outlined how hard her class would be, her zero tolerance policy for lateness and missing classes, and explained how excruciatingly hard her exams were, encouraging the students who were unwilling to do the work to drop the class now! By the second class, half the students were gone, but I will tell you what! She ended up being the most easy going person after that, an excellent resource for her students and a fairly easy grader, in my opinion. Everyone left that classes with at least a B, despite the fact that she explained that she graded on a “harsh curve.” She wasn’t “hard” she just didn’t want to waste her time with students unwilling to take her class seriously! So, when discussing your professors with other students and friends, make sure to ask the right questions. Ask what grade the student had received, how often they studied, if they missed class or were late often. Just because a professor doesn’t like to put up with BS from their students, doesn’t mean they are “hard” or bad teachers.

Remember what you came for: At the end of the day, I think the most important thing to remember is that as a college student, you have chosen your path. As much as our friends, family and especially our parents encourage us to go to college and do the best we can, ultimately, you are the one in control of the situation. If all you wanted from college was to party and hook up, good for you, but I will say there are easier and less expensive ways to achieve this without going through the trouble of a college admission. If you are eager to learn and want to grown and develop new skills and passions, try to remember that from time to time when you would prefer to go out partying with your friends or want to wait until the last day to study for your final. When it all boils down, by the time you graduate, it doesn’t matter what grade you got in econ, or if you went to that one blow out mixer! The only thing that really lasts from college, other than that piece of paper they give you that says you finished, are the lessons you learned about yourself and the type of person you have become from the effort of your own self discipline. So, have fun, stay safe and above all, actively participate in your own self discovery and education!

I hope you enjoyed this post and if so, I encourage you to share this in your social media feeds or send it along to any college students, or soon to be college students, that you know!