Top 5 Advice for College Freshmen

Being a sophomore myself and have gone through being a freshmen I would like to share some advice and insight on being a college freshmen. Hopefully these writings below may benefits you.

1] You don’t need to lug around your laptop

I found this out the hard way thinking that it’s a necessity. You know… activities like: -

• Using it to take notes
• Managing tasks
• Doing your work on your laptop
• The security of your data
• Personal entertainment.

Those might be noble idea for a freshmen to have because it comes with an extra ‘cool’ factor while you’re taking it out. Let’s be honest, we don’t usually do the activities as I stated above all the time. Just bring it when you really need it.

I’ve been bringing my lappy since the start of college but dump the routine in the middle of the second semester. It’s a back breaking job to carry a 2.1KG dead weight around.

Downside of carrying your laptop

• Heavy
• Afraid it might get stolen
• Hassle to setup [Long stay at a place]

Advantage of using your smartphone & tablet

• Light
• Portable
• Responsive
• Can function as a laptop [Have you look into Asus Eee Pad Trasnformer yet?]

Take home advice: Get yourself a tablet or a wide enough smartphone instead and if you really need some serious computing power. Don’t be lazy and go to your campus computer labs or computer center. Just don’t forget your login credential.

 

2] Not all textbooks are necessary

Lecturer will usually advise you to buy which book that is required for further reading or a must if it is use in the classroom. You can always find people selling used books at cheap prices online and if you are lucky to met some seniors in your program go ask them.

I usually use the web as my resource unless I can’t get a hold on a specific topic then I will go to my campus library to borrow. I would encourage you to do this on the courses you wish to dive in further because the notes given by the lecturer are usually at a minimum.

Take home advice: Decides on whether to buy new books or used books or just use the internet.

 

3] Explore your campus

Always make a point to explore your campus grounds and get familiar with it. This way you can recognize the layout of your college/university much more easier and would definitely help you to get to the right class without looking at the map.

Don’t worry about getting lost because that’s the fun part! Just pops your heads around and you might find some new friends along the way. Oh! Don’t forget to bring your student card since some facilities need to verify your identity before letting you in (E.g: library). Other than that most of the outer facilities are free for you to roam around.

Take home advice: Explore!

 

4] Manage your time & budgets

Before going to college we usually don’t care about our budget much nor the time we have since we are mostly dependent on our parents. However, as a freshmen you don’t have that luxury anymore since you’ll need to learn to become independent fast and live like a well managed college student.

Let me emphasis it, time and budgets are two important aspect even for a grown adult so do you. So, if you are able to manage your time well then you would have no problems at all when handling your assignment papers in time or earlier. It’s not just academical wise but it’s also important in your personal life since you’ll have tons of free time (Will be different if you’re in science subjects). Make sure you make most of it!

Finance is another important aspect to a college freshmen life. So, get your brain working and create a budget for each month and break it down to each week on how much you can spent and save. If you overspent for that particular month then the last few days might be hard on you with only cup noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Yikes!

Take home advice: Monitor your spending habits and thread carefully.

 

5] College food stuffs gets boring fast

Scout the outer boundaries of your campus to seek cafes/restaurants/student hangouts/stalls to get better foods and more bang for your bucks. I still remember how distasteful it were eating just a few types of foods available in the campus messing hall. Other than that junk foods are also abundant but they are not healthy nor able to probably fill you up.

Only in my second semester that I only dare to venture out to find alternatives. Myself, being a lacto-ovo vegetarian is not hard to find food but will be if you’re a complete vegan. Thank goodness there are plenty of vegetarian stores just outside of my campus and I have a wider variety to choose from now. To my vegan friends. Try lowering down your lifestyle level of being a complete vegan to accepts dairy and eggs when you are out and about as it will makes life more easier.

Take home advice: Expand your food variety