Well, I lived with my parents in my tender years, while my mom went to college for art. She was crying her eyes out because she was tired, or something was not working for her. I feel I am mildly prepared for what I am going into. But I want to be absolutely sure of what I am about to drown myself in.
Thanks you guys for the tips. OMG, it seems exciting but I feel that after the first three months I'll be tearing my hair out. I'll remember though, it was my decision
and I want to be the person I imagined I'd always be.
*college headband* WORK WORK WORK!

Last edited by Persephone (06-01-2007 12:19:23 AM)

Ah, Uni, my favorite place on earth.

I'm almost finished with uni and will be graduating this December.  I go to a small liberal arts college on the southwestern side of Pennsylvania and I'm a recently and mercifully retired Resident Assistant.  I loved damn near every moment of classes and had a major from almost every branch (arts, sciences, humanities) before I settled on sociology and I'm gearing up to start GREs and applications for Grad Schools.

Personally, I'm an rather outgoing but reserved person, I love being around people but also like my privacy.  Since a professor spoke, this is from an RAs perspective.

Regardless of whether you live in your uni's Res Halls:

Socially
+ Get involved, throw your bit in with clubs that meet your interests or wants or causes (Chem Club, Sociology Club, Math Club, and the Helping Hands Community Service Group here)
+ Sit with more than one group of people at meals, don't constrain yourself to a clique or single group
+ Make friends with as many people from different majors as possible.  You'll miss a lot of interesting things if you only talk to people from your major.  Some soc majors are interested in science and you'd be surprised how well science and art interact.
+ Be wary of the party scene, rapes can and do happen, and are unfortunately often covered up.  If you must, go but don't get tanked and always be on your guard, protect yourself.

Academically
+ For god sakes, sleep.  Trust me, you'll regret it if you don't.  You can't focus or learn as well on minimal sleep as you can on good sleep.
+ Plan out your week/month, use whatever works and write everything down.
+ Always take notes, even if it seems like jibber-jabber
+ Have at least one professor you can count on each semester.
+ I won't stress advising because I hated it myself, but if it's useful, use it
+ Be on time for class, I cannot stress this enough.
+ Be prepared for class, read all assigned readings before hand and come up with discussion questions or notes you want to bring up in lecture or with other students.
+ Most university's have writing and tutoring centers, use them!  They can save time as well as explain material from a different angle which might help more.

Physical Health
+ Learn to handle stress in appropriate ways whether its exercising or whatever you do.  Stress can do godawful things to you physically let alone mentally.
+ Drink lots and lots of water, it helps with stress as well as helps you mentally.
+ Eat well balanced meals and eat on a regular schedule (whatever that may be for you).
+ Exercise!  I didn't gain weight and actually lost weight at uni.  Most universities have amazing sports facilities free for student use, take advantage of it.
+ If you get hurt in any way, your university will most like have either a doctor or a PA on campus for such reasons, use them.
+ If you have any sort of physical disability or chronic illness, make sure you see the Disability Services office or similar, it can make dealing with uni life and the disability about 500 times easier.
+ Sleep! If you don't sleep enough, your body will rebel and it will make it a lot easier for you to get sick.

Mental Health
+ If you believe you are having trouble coping with adjusting to university life or something else, every university generally provides free counseling to students.
+ Make sure to get yourself a good group of friends as a safety net and to relax with.
+ Keep an half an hour to an hour for yourself each day, just to read or pamper yourself or watch your favorite show.  Life is not all about studying.
+ Have a morning ritual that starts off your day, whether just putting on make-up or stretches, it'll remind you that the day is starting.
+ I'm fond of recommending soothing music, but if that's not your thing, find something else relaxing.
+ Exercise, even if it's playing DDR for a round or two, exercise helps soothe the mind and it releases endorphines in the brain.
+ STAY AWAY FROM THE CAFFEINE!  I don't care how tired you are, caffeine is a horrible substance that not only aggravates your intestines, overstimulates you then leaves you crashing and cranky.  It will make you react to things that normally wouldn't bother you and its affects on the nervous system aren't worth it.  Either sleep or do without it, but do not use caffeine.
+ Oh?  Did I mention sleep?  Trust me on this one, pulling an all-nighter to cram for a test might seem like a good idea but if you have another paper you need to write for the day after, you're just gonna screw yourself.

Residence Hall Living
This is my area of experience and even though I did burn out at the end of three years as a Resident Assistant, I wouldn't give it up for the world.  Living in a university residence hall setting is an amazing, but intense experience.  It's something I've never regretted doing and would gladly do it again.  It does take a certain amount of adjustment and compromise however to live successfully in that type of community, but it's amazing.  This below comes from my experiences as both resident and resident assistant.

Socially - Roommate(s)
+ You don't have to be friends and happy-frappy to be roommates, you just have to be able to respect each other and each others boundaries and things.
+ Compromise is a must!  And everything must be compromised over including music volume, when visitors are welcome and when they aren't, bed/quiet time, etc, etc.  Again, it's not about being friends or being carbon copies of each other, it's the ability to respect each others person, time, and space.
+ Be civil at all times with your roommate, even if you classify them as about intelligent as pond scum or they're rude to you at first.  It's hard, but in the end, two incredibly different people can become great roommates.  I'm an atheist and my first roommate was uber-Catholic.
+ If you've tried everything within your power to make the situation work, schedule a conflict resolution session with you, your roommate, and a neutral party (a resident assistant, never a friend) and try to work out your differences that way.
+ If a negotiation like that doesn't work, most universities have room switches possibly and schedule a time in the first semester for them.

Socially - Hallmates
+ Your Resident Assistant (RA) or whatever your university calls them will be your single greatest ally in dealing with issues that come up on the floor and getting used to university life.
+ People on your floor can be as loud as all hell.  Trust me on this, freshmen are particularly notorious for it.  Generally speaking, most Residences Hall will have community standards or similar that will be established or given at the beginning of each semester.  Generally speaking, if you ask most people politely to quiet down, they will.  If the problem doesn't subside, defer to your RA.
+ Go to floor programs and events put on by your RA.  They're usually tons of fun and provide ample opportunity for getting to know your floormates.

Academically
+ For god sakes, sleep.  Like I've mentioned.
+ Study outside your room, whether at the library, a quad, the gym, the cafe.  There are way too many distractions in your room.
+ Keep your room as organized as possible.  You can't find anything in pig's trough.

Physical Health
+ Shower.  Every-frickin-day.  I'm not implying you don't.  However, good lord, the things I've seen and the smells I've smelled from people not doing that.  Trust me, the stories I can tell.
+ If you eat in your room, clean your dishes immediately.  They attract bugs and germs.
+ Keep a can of Lysol or Wal-Mart Knock-off Lysol at all times to hose down your door and room should you, your roommate, friends, or floormates get sick.
+ Do not use community sponges or towels, use your own towels or paper towels.  We had an epidemic of mono from a single sponge that took out nearly half a residence hall.
+ Wash your hands after using the bathroom.  I cannot stress this or how nasty other people are enough.
+ Wear shower shoes, you can catch some nasty things from showers.

Dealing with University Rules
+ If your university is a dry campus and you intend to drink: Don't drink on campus, go off campus and stay off campus.  Or if you do drink, don't be surprised if you get caught.
+ The university I go to has no alcohol and no co-habitation rules.  You know what I told my residents: If I can't see it, hear it, or smell it, it's not my problem.  Don't make it my problem.  Not every RA is like me, I was a hard-ass and stickler for the rules to a degree, though I knew when to bend them.  Some will be much more lax, others will be much more tough.
+ If you are caught violating rules, face consequences like an adult.  Unless somethings ridiculously unfair upon logical investigation, don't go running to mummy and daddy or higher ups because you got in trouble.  Acting like an adult will get you farther in the long run.



This list is absolutely not comprehensive.  If you want to hear more from my perspective or my experiences as student or RA, I'd be glad to tell stories either on the forums or by PM.  I have a lot of fun ones and some rather horrifying ones.

Last edited by Lee (06-02-2007 12:38:08 AM)

alexielnet wrote:

Lee wrote:

list

::begins slow clapping::

*joins in*

I think everyone has said the important bits, I'll throw what little else I can think of in:

Money: I don't know how it works where you are, but whatever student support you're eligible for, get it. Set it up so you have to work as little as possible and can focus on your studies. Trust me, I pull 24+ hours a week at the Australian equivalent of an iHOP just to afford everything because I'm not 'eligible for support,' and it's killing me at the moment. Still, $4000 more and I'll be free to drop to 8 hours a week.

Classes: If there's a lecture on at a convenient time that you're not enrolled in, but have a passing interest in, go and sit in on it! Find out if its interesting, and hey! You may even be able to sneak in frequently and learn lots. It can help a lot - actively learning for learning's sake can give you a boost of confidence about your main classes, which I find people tend to lose passion for as the semester rolls on.

Oh, and having been to a Japanese university? HOLY CRAP LAZY. It's incredible how little work they need to do to get by. So envious!

Last edited by Almaser (06-02-2007 01:20:58 AM)

Shit, I wish I'd seen some of this list before I came to university. I'm finishing up my first year now and oh god yes, the Freshman 15 is very real, especially when you're a lazy ass like me. It sucks

Hinotori wrote:

However, I have some advice if you're going to go that route: Make the one obligatory appointment with your adviser at the college, smile and nod, then get in contact with someone from your target university as soon as possible. Don't bother going after the associates and taking a bunch of credits you don't need. See if you can find an adviser over there that's worked with transfer students and ask them what kind of courses you need. A lot of people at the CC I went to took a bunch of history/social sciences classes at the urging of the academic adviser only to find out that n-n-n-none of them were viable at the university 90% of that school intends to transfer to.

This is as good a place as any for me to ask. I already have the associates, and I already know that my target schools accept the transfer with the exception at most of one class. I tried to make this all happen last year and it was a big fucking mess, I never even heard back from one. I got my associates degree at Miami-Dade College, which has an arrangement with UM to give a 'near' (very few who meet the requirements get denied, since uh...few meet the requirements) guaranteed scholarship of 50% if you meet a certain GPA, and another similar scholarship for being a member of PTK or whatever. FIU has an arrangement to cover full tuition if you have a certain GPA. UM is my target school but at this point I suspect that's just me being a dreamy jackass. FIU has already accepted me in the past, but no one told me that the tuition scholarship requires you get into the honors college there. In other words it's a big retarded mess of no one telling me what I need to know, regardless of who I speak to. (BTW, I HAVEN'T EVEN GOTTA A REJECTION LETTER FROM THE FAFSA THIS YEAR WHAT THE FUCK) So as someone trying to get into a university, and make them pay for it at least a little, who exactly do I need to browbeat my way into seeing? What do I need to know from them?

Keep in mind I know next to nothing about the college process, I never even had a high school advisor to speak to.

Edit: BTW, if it's important at all, I have no intention of rooming at the college. I can't afford the 'college life' and really don't think the debt's going to be worth it. I just want to fucking go and take my classes and get my obscenely high marks, ace the NCLEX, and be on my way.

College is only fun if you give a rat's ass about what you're studying.

That sounds reasonable. As for the FAFSA, I know I usually a get 'LOL NO MONEY FOR J00' letter. I don't qualify for anything they offer since I make too much money and they somehow magically assume I can save most of it for school. And like you said, they account for my mother's income as well. Which is bullshit. Their whole system of judging what registers as need makes my head spin. They only care about what comes in, never what goes out.

Although I'm not in college quite yet and just went through orientation, I wanted to add something.

Don't download music illegally on campus - The Uni I'm going to has had a few instances where people were caught downloading. This lead to expulsion and federal charges. Many people believe that it's a small chance that you'll be caught since so many people are using the same ISP. Just don't take that chance. As we all know, any expulsion due to a criminal charge looks bad on your record and will make it difficult to get in another school.

Instead, many campuses are partnering with a music downloading service called Ruckus. It's for all college students and everything in it is totally free! I'm serious, it's got almost everything you'd want to listen to. Of course, the only real catch is that you can only play their files on their media player which you'll have to download. I don't think it's a big deal though since I mostly listen to my CDs on my computer anyway. Profs and students alike kept advertising this like crazy. Since orientation, I've been addicted to it too!

All you need is a college e-mail address to join!

Ruckus

EDIT:  I forgot to mention that you have to renew the files in a month.

Last edited by Rae (06-30-2007 09:00:09 AM)