[GetM0tivated]

Well, I was catching up with an old friend who just finished his first year at UCI. I was being quite sarcastic about high school and its drug induced students who pass classes with flying colors and how school just seems to be preparation for the next level. High school for college, college for reality, reality for death (maybe?) Anyways... (This is what happens when you're oh so close to graduating, but of course the time is going by painfully slow).


Welcome to college! 12 years down, 4 to go (give or take a few). Good job getting here, you must have been among the top of your class. People have told you again and again how much potential you have, and how successful you will be in college. But as your parents walk back to their car and drive off, one of the biggest things on your mind will be "Ok, what now?"

Don't get me wrong, a lot of what you will do here will be to figure out the answer to that question. I'm not going to tell you what the answer to it is, because it really is different for everybody. But what I am going to share with you are a few things I think will make answering that question a little easier. Like the title says, its stuff I wish I knew when I was a freshman. A lot of this many people figure out the hard way. Some of this, people told me before I got to UCI, but I ignored them so I had to learn it again.

You might think some of these are real downers. They might be, but part of going to school is coming out of the idyllic, relatively-care-free-days-of-youth state of mind and into a more mature, realistic state of mind. I am optimistic, but if you can't take a dose of realism, maybe you should stop reading.

Here we go. In numerical order:

1. You get out of college exactly what you put into it. This applies to so many things, its awesome. Not having a good time in the dorm? Go out and socialize, jackass! Bored on another friday night? It's because you didn't go out and make friends/join clubs/etc! Unprepared for a test? You didn't study enough! Hungry? Go cook, stupid! This is probably the most important thing on this list. After you read the whole list, read this one again.

2. You are here to learn. High school was fun, but you know you half-assed everything. It wasn’t cool to try hard. Now you’re in college. Somebody, be it you, your folks, or the state, is paying a lot of money for you to learn. Even if you think your motivation for being here is something else (my parents are making me, I wanna have fun, a degree is only as useful as the job it gets you), if you set your mind to learning what your professors have to teach you, I think you'll do a lot better.

3. Related to 3, you are now solely responsible for your learning. No longer can you blame your teachers for doing a bad job. Many students are surprised to find out that most of your professors were not hired to teach you. Classes and office hours take up maybe six hours of their week, the rest of the time they are doing what they are being paid a lot of money to do: research. Some professors will make it clear that you are a low priority to them, maybe not explicitly, but in the way they make the TAs do the lions share of the grading, proctoring etc. If you fail a test, it is not because your teacher didn't make the extra effort to make sure you learned the stuff, it's because you didn't study enough, you didn't go to office hours enough, you didn't go to enough study groups, you partied too hard, or whatever.

4. You will appreciate food at the commons more when you move out. Since I just told you that, enjoy it now.

5. If you turn your t-shirts inside out when you wash them, the print will last longer.

6. This one is for people who went to SPOP. Hate to break it to you, but even in the dorms, college life is very rarely that fun. Yeah it hit me like a mack truck when I figured that one out. Consider that SPOP is designed to get you excited about college, and is packed with as many crazy icebreakers as they could think to fit into 3 days. SPOP was a lot like boot camp if you think about it; they break you down with crazy activities and a lack of sleep to build you up as a guy/gal ready to enter the very social world of college. But SPOP wasn't just to screw around with you: after all that bonding and having fun, you go back home a little more prepared, with a few new friends, and hey, at some point you learned what your schools add/drop policy is.

7. Next time you go to In N Out, order well done fries. You're welcome.

8. You are not who you were in high school anymore. Nobody will be impressed by how cool you were, what you were the president or captain of, or what your GPA was. Top 5% of your class? Good job, so was everybody else here. You've gone from being the cream of the crop to being in a big vat of cream. If you want your accomplishments to stand out, you'll have to do them again here.

9. Learn how to relax. Seriously, I've seen way to many students stumble into exams who look like hell. Their body is physically breaking down from stress; bags under their eyes, face breaking out and then there are the people who get hives when they get too stressed. You wanna know who's stressed out? Look for people scratching franticly. I've always wondered how well they end up doing on the exams compared to somebody who at least look more relaxed. Ok part of this is knowing how to manage your study time, but in general, learn how to relax when college gets too stressful. Pick up a video game, book, movie, whatever. Go out and party when you can. I'm willing to bet you'll do better.

10. Learn how to relax in moderation. Corollary to 4. Try taking a test with a hangover. Hell, try going to class with a hangover. Not only drinking though, if you sit around playing games all day, you know what happens? You get lazy. Get lazy and you fall behind in your work. Fall behind, and you get stressed, killing the point of kicking back.

11. Go play an intramural sport.

12. The two most important things you need to get down right away are organization and time management. Figure out a system for yourself. Get a planner, post it notes, a big calendar, a PDA, or just use your computer, but do something to keep track of what you have to do and when you have to do it by. If you say to yourself "I'll just remember my assignments," you probably wont. Organizing what you have to do makes time management really simple. "Ok, I need to study for the test by next wednesday, so if I do it 2 hours a night for the next 7 days, I'll be set" vs. "Ok, I need to study for the test by 8:00 am, so if I start right now, I'll still fail".

13. Albertsons and Ralph's club cards not only look good, but save you coin.

14. Learn how to study. This one is another thing you need to figure out for yourself. For me, removing myself from my computer and listening for music helps. A quick aside: a lot of people listen to music that you'd hear on the radio when they study. I can't see how that can help, especially when you're reading. The whole problem is lyrics: if you have somebody singing into your ear, your brain, whether you like it or not, processes the sounds and translates them into words, which takes away from how well you concentrate on studying. I'd suggest some music without lyrics. Go find some classical or jazz music (might I recommend the smooth jazz guitar stylings of Wes Montgomery?).

15. Learn how you learn. Sounds weird huh? Figure out how you best learn things, and what things you learn the best. Some people absorb lectures, some ask questions. Some learn from notes, some learn from recordings. Should you read the textbook, or read the notes posted online? Office hours or ask questions during class?

16. You have enough time to get a job, if you really want the money. But be prepared to manage your time better, because you will obviously have less of it.

17. "Homework" will soon become more than what you have to do for school. Taking care of your finances, bills, school admin stuff, etc. will start taking up more of your time than you think. Be prepared for this.

18. If you can help it, never buy textbooks from the bookstore. If you do, never buy them new. Your best bet for textbooks is here on AEF, or through Amazon.com or another online bookstore.

19. When you start buying food to cook, start simple. You're not going to want to have to make some fancy dish when you have a mountain of schoolwork to do, and if you buy all the stuff for that dish, it will most likely go bad. A waste of money and could piss of the other people using the fridge (odor).

20. You are most likely going to be living with roommates. This means you're going to have to start taking them into consideration for almost everything you used to do. Being a good roommate is something you actually have to put effort into, so expect that. If you got beef with your roommate, take it up right away. Brooding is the worst thing you can do, because you know what? You still have to live with that person.

[malevolent.]

Good thing 20 doesn't apply to me. We're moving into a huge house near where I'm going to college. Wasn't planned that it's so close to where I'm going, it's just where we found the perfect house.

Anyways, thanks for this list. Very helpful. My Vons card already saves me a pretty penny.

[jadey]

Hey! You got accepted into UCI too?! Thnx for the advice. Hope to see ya there!

[reallyAmused]

I dunno if this calms me down or makes me even more nervous but hey i'm about as ready for college as i'll ever be.

[litoxshortaii]

save quarters for laundry?

[touche`]

8. You are not who you were in high school anymore. Nobody will be impressed by how cool you were, what you were the president or captain of, or what your GPA was. Top 5% of your class? Good job, so was everybody else here. You've gone from being the cream of the crop to being in a big vat of cream. If you want your accomplishments to stand out, you'll have to do them again here.

I like this. I am done hearing people bragging how great their grades are.. So what? No body cares. XD