Conquering College
An Abbreviated Guide to Collegiate Success
As my college career has drawn to a close, for now, I have tasked myself with one final assignment. Not one that is required to be turned into an online drop-box by 11:59 p.m., but rather one that I know anyone that takes the time to read will appreciate throughout their college careers. Success in any thing is challenging, however in many cases those challenges are lessoned with knowledge. While I certainly won’t be able to provide insight on every obstacle you’ll face throughout your journey, I have a few that I think will give you a great start. My hopes are that this will help students weigh their college options more carefully, and help them get off to a prodigious start in their first few semesters, because contrary to popular opinion, it’s very important. One important piece of insight going forward, this is the view from one student in one university across the country. Everyone will have experiences that vary from this, but my hopes are that reading this will provide you some insight into how to begin to achieve success at the next level. Below, I’ve listed all the topics that I’ll touch on throughout this memo. These topics will serve as sub-headings going forward, so the information will always be easily accessible.
1. Choosing the Right School
2. Selecting your Roommates
3. Staying Organized
4. Finding your Balance
5. Overcoming Stress
6. Dealing with Deadlines
7. Become a Leader
8. Making the Memories
Choosing the Right School:
This is undoubtedly one of the most difficult, and important decisions your life thus far. Daunting? Without a doubt. However, this decision is one that must be made as logically and systematically as possible. With over 4,000 institutions for higher education in the United States, narrowing down your choices won’t be easy. The first step in this process should be narrowing down the schools that have your anticipated major, this will eliminate many choices for you right away. For instance, not every institution has a business program. After having narrowed down your list, begin thinking about where you want to live. Have you always wanted to get away from home? Do you want to be able to see family every weekend? All important questions that should be considered. From there begin doing some research on the schools, and not ‘how great are the parties’ but rather things like average graduation rate, typical job placement ratings in your programs, and organizational offerings that you think could benefit you. At this point, hopefully you have your choices narrowed down to a few schools that you think give you the best opportunity for success. This is when you should schedule your campus visits, which will allow you to get a brief feel for what the institution can offer. These tours will vary from school to school, but will likely show you around the college in which you’d be studying in, and possibly around the entire campus. Take advantage of these opportunities and come prepared with questions, you can never leave these tours with too much information. After touring a few campuses, it’s likely going to be decision time. It’s important to remember exactly what you’re looking for in a school at this time, because the easy route would be choosing the same school as your friend. It’s likely however, that what’s important to you in a school varies from them, which will lead to more complications in the future. Choose your school based on the careful research, and visits you've conducted, and know you've made the right decision for you regarding your future.
Selecting your Roommates:
The best part about this decision is that it is usually a short-term decision, but it’s still important to choose wisely, and try to avoid any potential conflicts. The first piece of advice, be brutally honest on the roommate matching forms you will fill out. If you like to go to bed a 9 p.m. don’t put 12 a.m. just to seem 'cool.' These forms truly do land you with fairly compatible roommates if your honest with the questions, I’ve used them, and seen the success. Are there occasions when unpredictable circumstances arise? Sure. This is far less likely though if your honest in that initial form. If you already have some friends that you are considering living with, choose wisely. No one wants to ruin a friendship over dishes left in the sink, or a messy apartment, but culminating these experiences week after week will certainly take a toll on your relationship. Try to choose people you share interests with, this will allow you to participate in activities together outside of just hanging at the apartment, and make the college experience more fun.
Staying Organized:
ORGANIZATION! ORGANIZATION! ORGANIZATION! Subtle enough? If you aren’t the king/queen of whiteboards, phone alerts, and planners by the time you finish college you most likely weren’t performing to the best of your ability. This is a lesson that will likely be learned at 12 a.m. during your first month of classes when you remember you have a paper due the next day in your 8 a.m. Heed the warning now, and get in the habit of writing down the things you must accomplish, and checking it regularly. Without a doubt, the first few weeks of the semester you will be bombarded with papers, quizzes, assigned readings, and more. This will occur in all your classes, and no matter how much you think you can remember, you’ll forget one or two. These missed assignments early in the semester can have a substantial impact on the rest of your semester. The difference between the most successful college students, and the ones that go home after first semester is the ability to organize and prioritize the tasks at hand. Master this trade early and you’ll find yourself with much more free time, far less stress, and the ability to take on more tasks.
Finding your Balance:
If you can accomplish one thing outside of achieving success in the classroom your first semester, make this a priority. One of the toughest parts of college is balancing all the “new” aspects of life. Face it, you’re doing your own laundry, and dishes, your homework load has just increased, you’ve picked up a part-time job, you’re meeting new friends, and trying to avoid the freshman 15 at the gym. There are a lot of new variables being thrown at you. Understanding how much time each of these activities consumes, and budgeting that time into your day will help you remove a lot of stress from your life. It’s also important to remember to budget some time for yourself though. In my first couple years of college, I failed to do much of this, and while I maintained a 4.0 GPA and established a lot of great connections within the college, and become involved with student organizations, I undoubtedly missed out on some great memories outside of the college walls. Finding your balance that contributes best to your success will be challenging at first, but eventually you will know what nights you can spend out with friends, and when you’re better off staying in to study. This balance will never be perfect, and when conflict arises between extra-curriculars and studying, remember what you're spending all your money on.
Overcoming Stress:
One thing is certain, you will face a great deal of stress throughout your time in college. This stress will come from a lot of places, some of which I mentioned above in the “Finding your balance" section. Stress will come from a lot of places you may not expect though also. Perhaps you have a foreign teacher that you find difficult to understand, you’re missing your family back home, you’re struggling to make new friends. These could all be major sources of stress early in your college career, but it is important to embrace these stressors and use them to your advantage. What I’ve found throughout my time in college is that if you are stressed, you’re likely unprepared. If you’re feeling stressed a couple days before a big exam, take that as a sign to study a bit more. If you are constantly stressing about public speaking, make yourself do it repeatedly until it becomes second-nature. The more prepared you are, the less there is to stress about, which will come in very handy, especially during your busier weeks of the semester (midterms and finals). There will undoubtedly be stressors that you can’t overcome, and you must take them in stride. It’s important to remember that there are around 16 million other college students feeling the same way you are, and succumbing to the stress certainly won’t alleviate the burden. Some of the key stress relievers I used during my time in college; The gym, nature walks, spending time with friends, pick-up games at the recreational courts, among many more. It’s also crucial to use some of the advice in the “Staying Organized” section of the memo to help you remove some of the stress you’ll face, and never underestimate the impact that coming home to a clean apartment and tidy bedroom can have on calming your nerves.
Dealing with Deadlines:
Much like the working world that you’ll be entering after graduation, deadlines are often firm, and have a significant consequence if they are unmet. Sure, there are a few professors that will push a deadline back for you if you ask nicely, but for the most part they want you to learn the importance of staying on top of your tasks. This is important to realize early, because unlike high school, your professors won’t care if you are turning in your assignments or not. Don’t mistake this statement for them not caring about your success, but they truly don’t have time to comb through their 250-student class list to see who turned in each individual assignment. This self-sustainability that will be expected of you is why it is crucial to become familiar with your campuses grading software, and get very comfortable with checking your email regularly. Oftentimes, if an assignment date is pushed back or other schedule changes are made, it will be communicated through email. I would estimate that 70-80% of the communication between students and faculty about ‘logistical’ issues occur over email, another key difference from high school. Thus, it’s important to ensure that you have a solid grasp on what a professional email looks like, and how to send one. This seems simple, but it's a skill that will set you apart from your peers early in the semester.
Become a Leader:
Make this a goal, write it down, and accomplish it. If you want to be on a first name basis with professors, get asked to participate in cool things around campus, have an expansive network of friends, and land that big job out of school; being a leader is one of the best ways to set yourself up for it. Being a leader in college is far different from being the “leader” in high school. In high school, the leader was likely the star athlete, that had tons of friends, and all the other kids envied. In some retrospect, those leaders still exist in college. But what you’ll quickly learn is that there are completely different leaders in college also. These are the students with the 3.5+ GPA’s, active on the boards of student organizations, those involved in student government, or perhaps they are teacher assistants for classes. There are so many ways to stand out and become a student leader, but the important part is having the drive to do it. In my college career, I was a member of two student organizations, one of which I held an executive board position on, I was the student coach for our sales team, I co-instructed a class for first year business students, and I participated in other various promotional activities for the college. While these take up some of your time, the return on investment you receive is second to none. Having the ability to put on your resume that you serve on an executive board, or that you are the president of XYZ, helps you stand out among your competitors in the job market. So, while few peoples’ idea of the perfect Thursday night is partnering up with your peers and participating in meetings for hours, I strongly urge you to make that sacrifice early on, it will pay dividends for you in the long run.
Making the Memories:
I’ll leave you with this, enjoy this four years of your life. While, the day to day process seems like it takes forever, in four years you’ll look back and question where the time went. While the grades, and taking the time to stand out professionally are important, it’s equally important to develop the friendships that will undoubtedly last a lifetime. Some of the best nights of my life came throughout my four years at Western Michigan University, and while every campus can’t live up to the ‘House Crawls’ down Lafayette and the Friday nights at Grotto, every campus is going to offer you the chance to make amazing memories with new found friends. Just remember, that in the day and age we live in, everything you do is monitored. Don’t let one night of fun impact the rest of your life. I truly hope that reading this has provided some insight into how to prepare for your transition into college, and that this helps elevate the level of success you reach early on. Best of Luck!
Thanks for Reading,
Jeremy Juday