Wow! Congrats, you are now a college student 🎉🎊🥳!
Or at least you’re getting ready to head to college. You should be proud. Like super proud.
Think about it:
- No more highschool schedule.
- Taking AP classes
- Writing a statement that shows you can be a college material.
You ARE a college material!
Let’s jump right into our 8 tips.
#1 in best tips for freshmen: Pause.
Remind yourself that the one thing you so wanted for a while is here. And enjoy that feeling.
Why does this matter?
Well, because this feeling of excitement as a freshman isn’t going to last too long.
Here’s how most students tend to feel as they go through college.
#2 in best tips for freshmen: enjoy the journey.
There’ll be rough times.
Enjoy them.
Here’s a snapshot of what most people’s lives look like in college.
| Label | Year in college | Typical mood |
|---|---|---|
| Freshman | 1st year | 🤩 Excited. Anxious. Future looking. |
| Sophomore | 2nd year | 🧐 Stress building. Curious. A little jaded. |
| Junior | 3rd year | 😰 Fully stressed. Jaded. Done. |
| Senior | 4th year | 😭 Just want to get out. Job search. Grad school. |
| Super senior | 5+ year | 🤬 Da hell am I still doing here?!? |
#3 in best tips for freshmen: up your note-taking game.
The better you take notes, the easier your studying will get.
One favorite note-taking strategy is to play the one-takeaway game.
Here’s how it works.
Immediately after a class ends, ask yourself this:
Ask yourself “What is one take away from this lecture?”
If you answer this, you’ve begun the step to store what you learned in your long term memory. If you can’t answer that you’ve lost and you should shake your head in disappointment.
Literally.
You should also look into the best methods for taking notes in college to prep yourself and up your note taking game.
#4 in best tips for freshmen: manage your procrastination.
You will procrastinate 💯.
I absolutely guarantee that.
It’s not if you’ll procrastinate; it’s when. And how often. In fact, you might already be a chronic procrastinator from high school, which means you have a super longer road ahead.
Your parents won’t be there to remind you.
Your friends won’t be there to motivate you to finish your homework.
Or stop playing video games or bingeing Netflix. You can skip classes, turn in assignments late, promise yourself ”never again”, and still do the same thing.
I know this sounds like bad news but it’s super common to procrastinate a ton in college.
The best way to fix it?
Accept procrastination is a problem and make proactive plans to fix it.
The more you dig into why students procrastinate, the better you’ll be at putting things in place to protect your future self.
#5 in best tips for freshmen: learn how to study.
I’m not talking about just sit there and go through pages.
Look, in college you’ll have way more materials to cover. It’s common to be in a writing class where you have to:
- read 30 pages for one class
- finish problem sets for another
- meet classmates for group projects
Before you know what’s happening, you feel incredibly overwhelmed. To get past this, you need to know how to study efficiently.
Some quick gotchas:
- Highlighting is not studying.
- Studying with a friend is sometimes worse than alone.
- Studying with music you can sing along to is not studying.
There are lots of awesome tips everywhere, like the best way to study, study tips for math, how to cram for a test, and more.
You need this.
Master them.
#6 in best tips for freshmen: reduce mental noise.
Some people will always have problems for every solutions. They’re mental noise. Avoid them.
If you’re hanging around negative people, that’s more mental noise. Change your circle.
Constantly comparing yourself with others? Check what you consume on social media. It’s got farmers that plant the seeds of comparison and mental noise. Change who you follow.
Someone in your life is constantly pointing out all the things that you do wrong? It’s time to turn down their volume. There’s a difference between advice and irrelevant critiquing.
Be selective about who you receive advice from.
Life is too short to allow any mental noise.
Guard yourself.
#7 in best tips for freshmen: explore.
This is an extremely important tip as a freshman. Don’t feel like you need to follow the safest possible and easier route so you don’t get stressed.
That’s a trap!
You may have an easy time but graduate into a job market where your skills are not as competitive. You could focus on only area for fear of exploring and end up never expanding your world view.
College is a one-time magical place to explore in multiple directions.
So do it.
Finale: believe in yourself!
Sometimes, things will get incredibly tough and you’ll feel out of place.
There are usually crazy periods during a semester that seem unbearable but it’s ok. Like an insane homework week packed with tests and then project due dates. It’ll look like the end of the world.
Whatever happens, remember that it’ll pass.
Some pick-me-up quotes:
- “Every year, many, many stupid people graduate from college. And if they can do it, so can you.” — John Green
- “If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” — Vincent Van Gogh
- “The things taught in schools and colleges are not an education, but the means to an education.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “When I die I want the people I did group projects with to lower me into my grave so they can let me down one last time.” — Unknown
That last one’s for group projects because people will disappoint you anyways.
Welcome to college! 🥳
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