Just be honest, starting freshman year of college with no idea what to anticipate is a fairly huge deal. To say that the prospect of leaving behind familiar surroundings, friends, and a routine is daunting would be an understatement.

In addition to gaining insight into the work of your professors, you can expand your network of like-minded peers. Any student who has the chance to work with a professor on research during the summer should take it.

Allow yourself to absorb your new environment

Expect to feel excitement in meeting new people and forming new friendships at university in a distant city, but also some homesickness.

Utilize available resources for study

The discipline you learn in college will serve you well throughout your life. Regular class attendance and active participation will expose you to information and ideas beyond what can be found in any textbook or online summary. Email a few of my professors and had one of them take me on as a research assistant. As an assistant professor, now in a position to repay the generosity of my mentors by offering jobs to some of the brilliant students the school had the pleasure of teaching in the introductory chemistry course.

Prioritize your efforts to maintain order.

Many first-year college students find it challenging to get and keep organized due to the independence required. At the end of each period in high school, teachers would always go around and remind students when the next assignment was due. However, this is rarely the case at college, where students are often given detailed schedules outlining when each paper is due and each exam will be given. Most students they’ve talked to agree that it’s crucial to keep some sort of weekly agenda or calendar in which they can note down anything from due dates for projects and dance team tryouts to when their professors hold office hours.

Never be scared to defend your expertise.

It took a while to realize that college wasn’t just another world, but rather a collection of them. When people were undergraduate students of Indigenous descent, students often struggled with how to approach discussions in which Indigenous ways of knowing were the minority. Is it the classroom, on the one hand, where this information is best absorbed? Contrarily, students were concerned that Indigenous knowledge systems would be disregarded. Looking back, students can see that being challenged in this way was a crucial step in my development.

Who wants lower scores because they lost track of their tasks because they couldn’t be bothered to get themselves organized? If you prefer digital methods, the calendar app on your phone might serve as a useful reminder tool. Keep these things in mind to help you survive college. Check out kisacademic.com.au for some study skills course. Wishing you the best of luck!a