I go to a private College, and I want to make sure I’m maximising what I get from my costly tuition. However, when I started college in the US I had no idea how the system worked (as I just emigrated from Europe), this led me to do things somewhat inefficiently an8d make silly mistakes. If I just started college today I’d be very lucky if someone gave me these 8 tips. *Disclaimer, since I only attend one college I don’t know how applicable these tips are to all of them, but I think they’re general enough.
1. Don’t go to an expensive college straight after high school. Get an associate’s degree first in a cheaper community college. As far as I’m aware every college in the US will accept an associate’s degree, and this allows you to essentially do what you would have done in the first two years of college (Gen-Eds) for a fraction of the price.
2. If you do go straight to a private college, don’t pick any classes exclusively linked to your major. From all of the people I’ve met on campus, more than half had changed or wanted to change their majors from what they selected in freshmen year. Remember every course you take costs additional time and money, a lot of it. If you go into college as a political science major and end up in political science 101, but then want to swap to an accounting major the next semester, you just did a Class for absolutely nothing.
3. What you should pick are general education classes. Although I’m planning to write a post on my problems with Gen-Ed classes, since they’re stuck with us for now, we should plan for them. Like I said in tip number 1, getting an associate’s degree is best, but if you can’t or don’t want to do that, do this instead. Doing the Gen-Ed classes first ensures that you are not wasting any time or money doing a class that you don’t need. They usually take 3-4 semesters to complete which also gives you an additional benefit of having more much needed time to choose a major that you’ll definitely stick with.
4. Don’t try to challenge yourself in general education classes. The goal of college is to graduate with a degree and to have a good GPA in doing so. If your college requires you to have at least College Algebra, but the placement test put you into Calculus, drop to something lower that’s still above or the same as college algebra level. Unless calculus will be useful for whatever field you’re going into there is no point to struggle in a harder course if you’re already well above the minimum criteria. The easier the course the higher your grade and GPA, plus you’ll spend a lot less time studying which gives you more time to do so many other things.
5. Figure out your food situation ASAP. Whether you have a meal plan or you are buying from a grocery store, make sure you know how you will acquire food, and make sure it’s good food. A lot of freshmen are not used to living alone and when they’re left to their own devices they end up living on a diet of junk food, which leads to other health complications down the line. College is a good chance to transform so don’t miss out.
6. If your course requires an online access code don’t buy the book from the college bookstore first. Very frequently the professor doesn’t even care if you have a physical textbook as long as you have a virtual version. I made this mistake in my first year of college and it cost me $200. The bookstore will always try to sell you the book with the code, but the website that the code is used for will often sell just the code for half the price (which includes a virtual textbook).
7. Buy a shower curtain with hooks. Unless shower curtains come with your dorm, the bar size is unknown to you until you see it. For that reason, I would either check the room and then buy a curtain or buy a curtain that will fit on all shower bars. I made this mistake 3 semesters in a row. I always picked the cheapest curtain and the holes were always too small for the bar.
8. This tip may be a bit situational since everyone has a different way to study, but I feel the best way to maximize learning is to not write notes during class. If you’re committed, read the material you’ll be covering in class and write notes on it beforehand, then in class clarify your understanding of the topic, and perhaps make small additions to your notes. Writing notes in class means you often get both incomplete notes because of the professor talking too fast or there is just too much to cover, and you don’t fully pay attention to the professor because you’re busy writing notes. But like I said, everyone studies differently, just something to keep in mind.
