Your high school years are done and you are now to face College life. After saying goodbye to old friends and before meeting new people, living away from home and entering this new chapter, there are a few things that it can help to know before your enter your College years.
Value the little things. Your parents are still there to support you. You will find new ways to keep in touch. They might send you emails or calls just to check if everything is going fine and that you’re settling in OK. Let them do this! Through this, you can strengthen the bond that you never expected to have. At the end of the day, you parents will be there for you through the hard times and the good times, so keep the communication lines open!
Be Prepared if you are Homesick. It is very common to become homesick in your first year of College, and that’s ok. It’s your first time living away from home and away from your parents. Give yourself time to adjust and be prepared. The best thing that can help you go get over homesickness is to visit home once in a while or have you parents come and visit you on weekends. Visit your mom and dad and all other friends you have missed while away from school. This can be hard in the beginning as you need to give yourself an adjustment period but a few months onwards you’ll likely to feel much better and you will have started to make new friends and will be in a new routine.
Picking up your major in first year is not mandatory for the moment. If you’re still undecided on what course to take you might want to check out things and evaluate yourself. You will need to make a commitment sooner or later, but don’t worry too much about it in the beginning. In your Freshman year the first term is spent on very general topics, giving you a bit of time to make the right decision.
Only Pack the Important Stuff Presents from your high school graduation may have overwhelmed you and you wanted to go to a shopping spree and buy the all the things to turn your dorm room into your home. This is a big NO NO. It is better and actually recommended to pack only the items that you NEED. Keep in mind that dormitories are small in size and there is only limited space for furniture and appliances. Get in touch with your roommate and discuss what appliances they might have already.
Avoid having Credit cards. Avoid filling out every credit card application that’s shoved at you. You may be enticed to apply since there are a lot of freebies, but it is not that practical to have. These things will just tempt you into buying things which when you re-evaluate, they may be un-needed. So better to avoid those since it will just increase your bills in college.
And after all that the most important College Tip that we can offer, is to be yourself and have fun!