In honor of graduation season, I asked one of my Class of 2024 students to share some reflections on her first year of college, in hopes that it makes the transition easier for students starting in the fall. Enjoy!
This time last year, I had just finished wading through the swamp of college applications and announced my plans for the next four years. Now, after two full semesters at college, I’m back to report on everything I learned. Beyond how to identify geological formations, past tense Spanish verb conjugations, and very specific information about the empresses of Byzantium, the biggest lessons I learned were about being a college student, and being a good one.
Here are my top six tips:
Get as “oriented” as you can. The many activities planned during orientation can seem boring and awkward, but they did help me find my way around the first few weeks. If your college offers any type of Pre-Orientation option, like my school did, sign up for it (really). Because I signed up for a week-long backpacking trip with eight other random freshmen, I had a sense of community before I even stepped foot on campus. Sure, it might seem easier just to show up the day before classes begin, but the experiences I had during Pre-O and O-Week helped set the tone for a great first year.
Don’t be afraid to get creative at the dining hall. No matter how delicious the food is during your first week, you will inevitably find yourself staring down a buffet that doesn't feature a single thing you genuinely want to eat. Don’t panic– it’s time to get creative. My friends and I developed several interesting meals that managed to make the not-so-great options into a meal we actually enjoyed. Froyo on a slice of zucchini bread, cold corn from the salad bar on top of a piece of cheese pizza, fries dipped in tomato soup, nutella on waffles from the breakfast station. The possibilities are endless (when you’re hungry enough).
Take a walk. You’re probably going to spend a vast portion of your day walking– to class, to dining halls, to the library, to your dorm. The trick is multitasking by making friends at the same time. I met so many of my friends simply because we both walked from Early American Literature to lunch every day, or because we both went from our 4:30 Spanish to the 5:45 European History class across campus. A few five-minute conversations a week are a great way to get to know people, and it helps distract you from the many stairs and hills in your way.
If it’s going to snow, you need a coat. Yes, you do. Not a sweatshirt layered over a long-sleeve shirt, not a denim jacket, and not a thin little California windbreaker. A puffer coat, as puffy as you can find.
Extensions are not the end of the world. If you ask in advance and send a polite enough email, your professor will most likely give you a few extra days to do an assignment. Even if you think there’s no chance, it’s always worth it to reach out and ask. I once emailed a professor at 9pm on a Friday night to plead for an extension on the essay due at midnight, and my professor responded two minutes later with only one word: “Sure”.
Always leave room for a ‘fun’ class. It can feel important to get all of your requirements out of the way as quickly as possible, but don’t let that prevent you from enjoying the variety of classes available to you. My class on film noir, which I only took because my Film major friend wanted to take it and it counted as one of my English credits, ended up being one of my favorite classes of the semester. Before, I never would have said I was interested in film techniques from the 40s, but I loved every minute of my professor’s lectures. Of course, you should make sure to take classes for your major, but diving deep in the course catalog can reveal some unexpected gems.
The most important lessons of college are things that everyone has to learn for themselves– like what kind of person they want to be and who they want to spend time with. There’s no list of tips that can help you with your whole life changing, but this list can help with the smaller things. While college can be confusing and overwhelming, this doesn’t mean you should be getting lost in the library or eating cold pasta for five days in a row while you figure it out. Trust me.
By Lucie Babcock
Lucie is a rising sophomore in college, double majoring in English and History.
