I am starting college this fall, advice needed please?

Answer 1

(1) Plan to be "balanced". Eat, exercise, and sleep in normal proportion. Mange your time well. Do the big things first and fill in with the less important.

(2) Keep a written record of every person you meet in your travels. Try to "connect" with as many as possible. They can become your "network of contacts" in the future.

(3) Be ruthless in your financial discipline. You can bury yourself in debt. Think Return on Investment. Seek to earn some money with your education as it progresses. It'll help later on getting a "real job".

(4) Pick your major, minor, and electives with your future employment in mind. Your while collar job will provide the big component of your earnings in the future. Choose wisely.

(5) Try to pick up a blue collar skill that will allow you to earn money if you're laid off of your white collar job and have some time to spare. Never saw a "poor" plumber. Pick something you like and make it fun while putting some coins in the bank.

(6) Be alert to any internet based business that you can "do" in parallel to the all the above activities. Look for synergy between the activities such that you can recycle, reuse, or repurpose. Write a paper for your college course, offer it to a blog - publication - other outlet.

(7) Have fun, (but not too much); it's the "best time" of your life. Live it to the fullest.

I'm green with envy and wish I could do it again with what I know now. :-) But life doesn't work like that. I can state authoritatively that the "woulda, coulda, and shouldas" will KILL you later in life. Don't miss anything.you would, should, or could try. Consistent with good judgment.

Let us know how you make out,
fjohn

Ferdinand J. Reinke
Kendall Park, NJ 08824

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Answer 2

You've gotten lots of great advice from others here. Here are my two cents. Don't think of college as vocation training, where you just study hard, memorize facts, and then try and get good grades so you get a high GPA. You'll get asked about your GPA initially (and for grad school, if you go on to that), but within a year or two that won't matter much. What will matter is whether you have learned to think critically. Can you understand an argument about a subject and make a case for or against it? Can you analyze a problem and come up with several creative solutions? Can you write clearly and grammatically (despite the popularity of abbreviated text messages, lower case "chat" and so on, the world in US business and scientific communities still uses real English) and communicate an idea to others? Do you understand how to evaluate whether an idea is good or not?

It doesn't take long for technical knowledge to become outdated quickly. Nor does it take long for certain rote skills to become outdated or outsourced. Critical thinking and clear writing, especially if coupled with some basic understanding of mathematics, and an understanding of how to find information and understand it, will always help you.

Answer 3

1. Make sure you find a roommate that you can get along with. Nothing worse than having to find a friend's place to sleep over because you can't get along with your roommate.

2. Manage your free time. Since you're on your own, you tend to mismanage your time, so set a plan on how many hours you need to study each night, what time to go to sleep so you can wake up early for those morning classes and also to get a spot in the shower.

3. Try to find a study group in your dorm. College moves at a much faster pace, so it might be tough to keep up.

4. Don't let your parents call you every night. Tell them to call you at most once a week.

Answer 4

Make sure all of your paper work is taken care of on time if not early. so your financal aid and grades don't get messed up. Go to all of your classes. If you can break your studying up into manage able sections. Try to pair up with about three poeple in each class that you can swap notes with (someone who may actually take them) if any of you miss its also a great excuse make some new friends

Answer 5

Study diligently and attend all of your classes. Meet new people - don't just hang out with people you went to high school with who attend the same college. Stay sober (at least most of the time).

And stay away from the credit card offers you get - they'll just get you in trouble.