College Life (Help Needed)

My list of suggestions:
#1 watch your finances. If you are not paying for college out of pocket, consider how tiny amounts of money very quickly add up to big money. Perfect example: $2 starbucks coffee X 3 times per day = $6/day *5=$30/week. By contrast it costs you $14 to buy a coffee maker and $10 every few months to buy ground coffee.

#2 Do not forget why you are there. It is extremely easy to lose your way in college. College does not care if you fail. If anything its more profitable for them because they will make you retake classes.

#3 NEVER buy books ahead of class start date. About half the time you will not need books and about 25% of time you can buy off other students and 25% of the time ALWAYS ask to buy used books from book stores to save you money. They will not sell you used books by default unless you ask first. Resell books asap after semester is over.

#4 have fun but do not be stupid. STDs are a common occurrence in college. Robberies are common so do not flash your cash nor tell every random stranger where you live or what you have in your apartment.

#5 It is cheaper to stay off campus. Trust me... it just is.

#6 Stagger your classes. Never take your easy classes and then your hard classes. Every semester you need to maintain your overall GPA so you need to have offset in case you start getting C's. Even though colleges have curve systems, there will always be some asian kids getting A+++++++++ so always strive to do your best and obviously do not cheat because repercussions are quite severe.

#7 Lastly and most importantly. NEVER rely on anyone in college. Colleges promote group projects. Every group will have people who bring group down by sheer lack of effort, others will want to take your project off course. Be over prepared to pick up slack for others.

 

yes. i learned this from high school. Im working alone as much as I possibly can.

Thanks for the insight

Red are my answers

 

It is WAY cheaper to live off campus. Make some buddies this semester in the dorms and get a house off campus. Way more freedom, cheaper, more room, better in every way.

 

and no RA...

 

Goes along with more freedom

 

god yes. I have a house with a porch, yard, kitchen and all that jazz. freshman dorm and a meal plan was way more than I am paying now with bills and groceries.

 

Im paying about 4,000 a Semester(housing and meal plan)...

>_> thats expensive?

 

That is way cheaper then what I ever paid...

 

Thats what im saying.

Im only paying about 11K a semester which is like dirt cheap for such a large college.

But thats about 30% of the cost, food and housing.

 

Im paying around 2k per semester off campus, and that's including a worst case scenario for the utilities.

 

See that's what i'm doing, but there is just some awesome aura about the dorm life every time i go in to hang out with my friends. IMO you need to stay in the dorms at least once, just for the experience.

 

Freshman year we are required to stay in dorms.

 

Bull manure. Nobody should be required to stay in college. They are feeding you banananananas and they know it because many new college students just sign on a dotted line and pay.

This is why living off campus is cheaper:

#1 Food. You can eat very healthy for $200/mo if you cook at home. If you constantly go out to eat then your food budget would be higher. You can, however minimize your spending. For example in my case I would eat dinner at work for free and grab free supper home. I worked in a restaurant so that kind of was a given. By contrast average meal plan with college is $1600/semester which means that you are paying about $500+ month vs 200. Also college food is not exactly great to begin with so I would not recommend eating it anyways. You can also join a "meal deal" with many local restaurants. For example Subway has that sticker/punch thing that I have been using for years where every 6th sub is free.

#2 Living expenses. You can very comfortably share a room/apartment/house for a lot less than what you would pay in dorm. In my case I paid $600 for my studio which was amazing. Minutes walking distance from college, minutes from a train, minutes from any restaurant and grocery store so I barely drove my car except to visit parents and to and from work.

 

Thus the reasoning why im stuck, we are required as freshman to live one year on campus. >.> this combined with the fact that even if i wanted to live off campus i dont really have that "core" group of friends that i'd be willing to trust with sharing a load with me bill-wise quite yet. So in the meantime i'll just bite the bullet and just carry on till next semester.

 

Thread revival! Figured I'd start the thread up again since college is starting here in the next little bit. Wondering if anyone had anymore advice to add to the previous posts and was curious how the first year at college went for the OP. I'll be starting Tennessee Tech in August. Can't wait!

 

Don't get into a relationship through college.

 

I don't know what has been added...and frankly I don't want to read. College is not what you see in movies and has changed drastically since the olden days.

The saying "C's will get degrees" is somewhat true....but C's will not get you into grad school.

The girls worth spending your time, energy, and money on are not the girls you talk to for an hour and they open wide for you..

Good rules of thumb are: If you're not study your working. If you're not working your in class and if you are not doing any of those you're at the gym or catching up on some sleep. Pretty strict, but when you start pulling 4.0's and getting internships with some major companies, you will be happy you did it.

Don't be one of those people who start off doing a legit degree, but don't want to study so you start changing majors to easier and easier ones. You will look stupid

Sit in the front of the class and ask questions. Get the teacher to know your name and your face. If you are a boarder line grade odds are you will get bumped up. And if you do hit an 89% email a "thank you for a great class" ass kissing note after finals. You don't know how much I hate 89%'s...

read your text books and do your own research prior to asking help. YouTube is a fantastic site for instructions for physics, chem, anatomy, physiology, etc. Khan academy is also very good. No one like teaching/tutoring someone who has no initiative in doing things on their own.

And lastly, tutor people. If you can explain a concept to someone and they understand it, that means you understand it and your test scores will reflect that

It the person you're with is a good influence on you its not a bad thing.


Where the heck is Cham?

 

That's what I thought initially, until he turned into a douchebag in the end after college was pretty much over. In my experience and observations, it doesn't work 90% of the time. So don't do it, enjoy being single and have fun.

Look into online classes as well. I have found them to be easier than regular lecture classes. Also, don't be afraid to take summer classes either, I've found them to be easier as well.

 

If you have never smoked pot/drank a lot/ect. And you think its your time to shine your probably gunna have some problems coming your way. Have fun but don't light your "hair on fire". If you literally do that by accident CVS sells an awesome spray on burn medication.

 

Join a fraternity is my advice. Meet a lot of great guys who can help you along the way and also gives you a break from studying. I have one more year as an undergrad but college flew by for me. Enjoy freshman and sophomore are best years.