What do you wish you had known when starting college?

[nehalita]

I just wanted to note that I'm a prefrosh and I am reading all of these with great interest. It's really nice to hear advice from our fellow FIRST mentors/college students. Keep 'em coming!

[Melissa Nute]

Bring a pair of flipflops for the showers.
You never know what might be on that floor.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Meli W.

Bring a pair of flipflops for the showers...

...that you can throw away at the end of the year. (I had a dedicated pair last year, and by the end of they year they looked a little...sketchy.)

[MrForbes]

has it really been 25 years since I was in college? sheesh....

If you have to get a part time job, try to get one in a field where you can apply some of what you're studying....I worked at a junkyard taking cars apart, and a transmission shop taking transmissions apart....somehow that fit in pretty well with my mechnaical engineering studies, at least more than flipping burgers would have. In lieu of a job, get involved with a project such as an SAE car, or helping a FIRST team (if you're in engineering), or anything else that lets you apply what you're learning. You really don't learn well until you can put the new info to use somehow.

And be careful with your punch card decks, DON'T let them get out of order!

[kaszeta]

Originally Posted by squirrel

And be careful with your punch card decks, DON'T let them get out of order!

That's why you draw a diagonal line down the side of the deck with a magic marker, so it's easier to re-order them.

Hmmm, I'm feeling a need to add a card reader or papertape reader to the robot.

Never actually programmed with cards (yes to papertape, tho), but during my early undergrad years the old course registration system used punchcards, and if you went and found the old manual cardpunch in the Computer Science department, you could make your own cards and do things add seats to a section and stuff like that. Much fun was had, especially since the enrollment thing was basically one big black market anyways.

Bringing this back to the college advise topic: Don't get caught hacking into the school's computers.

[Richsgt]

Apply what you learn to an internship that next summe(us FIRST connections), find the place on campus outside of the dining hall which accepts the student meal cards. Buy all the books online and used if you can. Join a club or 6 to meet new people and most of all try everything because you won't know what you don't like(even in engineering..i found out i enjoyed law as well). And of course, cheap throw away flip flops for the shower

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by squirrel

... In lieu of a job, get involved with a project such as an SAE car, or helping a FIRST team (if you're in engineering), or anything else that lets you apply what you're learning. You really don't learn well until you can put the new info to use somehow.

Help your local FIRST team even if you're not in engineering. The benefit of putting your learning to use applies equally well to non-technical learning.

One of our team leaders is starting college in the Fall and plans to major in Journalism. She is mainly responsible for this year's STL winning WFA essay. I'm sure she will be a tremendous asset to an FRC team near her college -- I think they've already started recruiting her!

[JaneYoung]

I forgot this in my earlier post, my apologies:

singing in the shower
dancing in the rain
snowball fights outside the dorm
walks in the sunset
if you look up from your books and spy a rainbow
stop and watch it for a little while

One of my all time favorite memories is a spider web that was woven between branches of a sapling in the central campus of my college. I was on my way to an early morning class and the sun made the water droplets on the spider's web sparkle and shimmer. I've held that memory for 32 years. The tower bell was tolling 8 a.m. -
Jane

[Chris Hibner]

I want to keep this short:

1) You will retain more (and for a longer time) if you study many times for short time periods than if you study in one long study period. This has been shown in many psychological and educational studies. Break up your study periods and take advantages of short downtimes (like between classes) to quickly study something.

2) GET SLEEP!!!! You think you're doing yourself a favor by doing an all night cram session, but in reality you would have done better on the exam if you stopped studying and got 8 hours of sleep. With a little experience, you will start to notice when your productivity starts to take a dive. As soon as you notice this, it's sleep time. Set your alarm for 8 hours from now and resume studying after sleeping.

Good luck. If you do it right it will be the hardest thing you've ever done while also being the best and most rewarding thing you've ever done.

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by Jane

dancing in the rain
snowball fights outside the dorm
if you look up from your books and spy a rainbow

Well that's just great -- how was I to know? I went to school in Southern California and missed EVERYTHING!

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Rick TYler

Well that's just great -- how was I to know? I went to school in Southern California and missed EVERYTHING!

- California Dreamin'

- The Beach Boys

- I think not -

[Kims Robot]

I will start with the ones I listed for the Clarkson Social in Rochester... Note that all of these are pretty much aimed at engineering students (might change for other majors).

1. (Ok this is for pre-prefrosh) PAY Attention in your chemistry and physics and calc classes in high school!!! It will make your life 10 times easier when you get to college! (I know... I had to spend so much more time studying in college because I didnt pay attention to calc and physics the first time!)

2. DO NOT blow off your freshman classes because you have already taken them (ie the calc, chem & physics I mentioned above!) It will be similar material, but the tests are MUCH harder... they actually expect you to think!! not just repeat repeat repeat! I know many of my friends that were really smart, ended up graduating with 2.5-2.9 GPA's because they thought freshman year just didnt matter, and they would do better in their "real" classes... guess what? All of your classes count!! Take advantage of the "easy" ones!

3. Get a co-op or internship while you are in college!! Im a key recruiter at Harris, and I cant tell you how many times we have turned down kids with great GPA's or good leadership because they just dont have industry experience, or didnt seem to have the drive to get a "real job" while in college.

4. Don't be afraid to ask for help. I dont know if all schools are this way, but Clarkson was great at giving help IF you asked... your advisor will meet with you occassionally, but most schools expect you to act like an adult and ask for help if you need it. Dont be embarrassed... I was a physics tutor, and had to go get tutored in calc 3, it was really hard to accept at first (I always thought I was smart!) but I got a lot from the tutor, and ended up with a B+ instead of the D I got on my first test!!

5. At any decent engineering school, you WILL fail one of your first tests. At Clarkson, its physics... everyone fails the physics test! Studying in college is so much different from studying in high school. Learn what works for you, find some friends, get a tutor, or just plug through it.

And some other advice I would give:
6. Get a credit card... I came out of college and had ZERO credit... with money in the bank, I wasnt allowed to finance a $1700 bed, but my boyfriend, in 60k of debt could! Your debt and/or a credit card will get you some credit to start with. But keep your credit on the good side. If you have to, use it to pay for things like books you already have $$ for, and then send it home with your parents and dont touch it until next semester!!

7. LEARN TIME MANAGEMENT!!! We had A LOT of fun up at Clarkson, but we also worked really hard. I can remember during pre exam weeks (dubbed he** week), I would plan out every waking hour of my day, 2 hours on physics, 3 hours on chem, 2 hours for lunch, 5 hours on calc, 1 hour for coffee, 3 hours for physics, 2 hours for frisbee... etc. You dont have to go to that detail, but dont procrastinate, start assignments the night they are given to you, first thing in the semester, or you will end up behind for the whole semester. Figure out when you are going to work, and when you are going to play and commit yourself to it!

8. This is important, and I know it may cross some small lines, but its what my dad told me, and I think its the best advice I ever got. We know you are going to party. BE SMART about it... seriously, cabs or walking in the cold are worth it when lives are at stake, even just one is too many. Also, if you are going to party, always bring a friend that you know will watch out for you, and do the same for your friends (especially girls). Dont just run out with the new person you met and head to their friends party... take a friend you know and trust, it will be worth it!!

Ok ok thats it best of luck in college!! It WILL be the best time of your life!

[Denman]

6. Get a credit card... I came out of college and had ZERO credit... with money in the bank, I wasnt allowed to finance a $1700 bed, but my boyfriend, in 60k of debt could! Your debt and/or a credit card will get you some credit to start with. But keep your credit on the good side. If you have to, use it to pay for things like books you already have $ for, and then send it home with your parents and dont touch it until next semester!!

Thats crazy! Banks know they can get more money from people in debt than those with money... it sucks.
Get a debit card ... then you can't go over your credit limit...here we can get student accounts with no interest on a £1250 overdraft ... and free railcard too
May i suggest getting an acc similar to above, and another account, with high interest. Then putting all your money into the high interest and setting up a standing order for a budget. eg £40 a week, and if you keep to it , your balance will be 0 or above.

[hallk]

-Learn to use an alarm clock and a calendar
-Don't always just in the cafe, explore your surroundings some
-Meet upper classmen, they can be helpful when picking out professors, with homework, and sometimes they will "loan" you their old books.
-Free is your friend, don't feel bad because in some form or another you are paying for it

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by Denman

Thats crazy! Banks know they can get more money from people in debt than those with money... it sucks.

Well, it isn't actually such a bad idea, provided that you don't buy things which you can't afford. The trick is, exactly as Kim said, to build up a (good) credit history by buying things which you can repay immediately when the statement arrives. As long as you don't carry any debt beyond the end of the billing period, you don't pay any interest, and a good credit history accumulates. (This makes it easier and cheaper for you to conduct future transactions where you might need to take on significant amounts of useful debt—mortgages, for instance.)

The problem is, people (idotically or ignorantly) buy things on their credit card which they can't afford immediately. If you need to borrow money, borrow it at the lowest interest rate available to you—which is to say, don't use your credit card for that purpose. Try the store's financing options, or a bank loan, for example. (And, of course, ask yourself if you really need whatever it is that you're buying....)