Avoid Common Freshman Pitfalls

Your freshman year can be overwhelming. Often it is your first time living away from home and your first time being responsible for living expenses and food. You are now responsible for everything! In order to make this transition to college, we offer the following advice on things you should do and pitfalls you should avoid.

Make a Plan – Write down your goals for your freshman year and create a plan for obtaining those goals. Write down realistic short-term and long-term goals, such as career aspirations, life goals, and personal goals too. Always keep your ultimate goal of graduating from college in your mind. If you don’t have a plan to follow, things can go terribly wrong. Keep your plan close by and refer to it for a little extra motivation. Evaluate your progress and make changes to your plan as things change in your life.

Leave the Past Behind – Being away from your family and friends can be overwhelming. You may feel like you’ve lost a little bit of your identity because no one here knows you’re the smart, popular kid that everyone is supposed to like. You have to start over. Leave the past behind and get involved in the present. Find a club, organization, intramural, or event to be involved in. Make new friends, meet new people, and have fun. You can still visit and chat with your old friends, but try not to be overly involved with home. Remember your life is here for the next 4 years.

You’re Not as Smart as You Thought – You are going to have to study. Often smart kids are surprised by this fact or even overwhelmed. Don’t be. And don’t give up. Set aside a time each day to study. If you get into a good schedule of studying everyday at the same time, you won’t get behind on all of that reading or writing of papers. Remember, you are in college to learn. In order to do that, you have to crack a book or two. If you need help or want to touch up your study skills, check with the college to see if there is a study skills workshop on campus.

Manage Your Time – Purchase a daily planner to write down all classes, assignments, meetings, social events, and plan out your weekly schedule. Time management is essential to successfully managing college life. Skipping classes, missing assignments, procrastination, and cramming just before an exam are signs that organization is a problem for you. If you need help, check with the college to see if there is a time management workshop available on campus.

Get Organized – Track important deadlines on your calendar, such as last day to drop a class, first day of registration, and tuition payment due date. Keep important numbers and a campus map tucked inside the front cover of your planner to help you find your way to appointments and events. Keep all important paperwork and forms neatly organized in file folders. Keep these additional tips in mind:

1. Register for Classes as soon as you are allowed! Classes will fill up fast and you may not get the classes you need. This could result in you having to take an unnecessary class just to be enrolled full-time or worse!
2. By registering for less than full-time, your financial aid award will be reduced.
3. By registering for less than half-time, you will not be eligible for any financial aid and your student loans will enter repayment 6 months after you are no longer enrolled or enrolled less than half-time.
4. Drop classes using the colleges official form and process and by the deadline required or you could end up with an ‘F’ on your transcript!
5. Pay your tuition or verify your financial aid will cover your tuition by the due date or you could be dropped from all of your classes and have to re-register!

 Take Care of Your Health – Over-eating, drinking too much, late night parties, and marathon video game playing may sound like fun to some, but it will affect you in more ways than one. Remember to eat healthy, get regular exercise, and plenty of sleep so that you stay healthy, have the energy available to study and learn, and minimize stress. Remember you are paying a large sum of money to obtain a college degree and have a successful career, not party.

Watch Your Spending – The most common reason students drop out of college or take a semester off is because they run into money problems. Live modestly, pass on the new clothes, eat Ramen, take the bus, and get a part time job to pay as you go. Avoid taking on credit cards, auto loans, and high rent payments that could jeopardize your college goals. In other words, budget your money and live like your in college. If you don’t, you could end up flipping burgers and living like a college student later! 

Protect Yourself – Do not give too many people personal information about yourself. You may think you know your roommate or his friends, the freshman across the hall, or your study partner for calculus, but you don’t know what they were doing prior to coming to college or what they are capable of doing. Your new dorm buddy could be a kleptomaniac or an identity thief using your credit card around town. Be cautious and keep things like your social security number, ATM pin number, and graduation ring locked up and secure or on a need to know basis. And in this case, you’re the only one who needs to know.

Be Balanced – Even though your primary focus is studying and getting good grades, you shouldn’t isolate yourself from the rest of college life. Find a balance. Getting involved with a club, organization, intramurals, or a volunteer group will help you manage the stress of academia. Meeting like-minded friends will not make the college experience more enjoyable, but it will provide you with a support group for life.  

Trust Your Instincts – You have gotten this far by listening to that inner voice. Now you have new friends, a new school, and basically a new life. Don’t forget to trust your instincts and hold true to who you are. Don’t let peer pressure get to you. Don’t become someone you don’t like. Don’t do anything dumb that could jeopardize your life, your goals, or your dream of a college education. And don’t ever give up on your dreams!