Staying in Touch

College is an exciting time in which you get to meet a ton of new people and do a lot of networking.  However, you need to stay grounded and keep in touch with your roots.

Obviously, you should be contacting your parents often.  You should at least make an effort to send them a text once a week, even if it’s a simple “thinking of home” it will mean a lot to them.  No matter what your parents say, they will miss you a lot.  They will want to know what you’re up to, whether you are 30 minutes away, or 3 hours.  Parents are going to be concerned for your safety every time the news reports of something bad (weather or crime related) anywhere near your school.  They will want to know that you’re doing well and that you still care and still want them to be in your life.

If you have younger siblings, depending on how young, they will want to hear from you every now and again as well.  If your siblings are close in age, and you’re close with them like I am to my sister, you leaving is going to be an adjustment.  There will be one less bed slept in every night, one less seat filled at the dinner table, one less load of laundry to be done.  Your siblings will miss you and they will be happy every time you contact them.

If you are in a relationship, time apart will be hard.  It’s not going to be easy, especially if you go to the same high school.  You will go from getting to see your significant other whenever you want, to only on holidays, breaks, or times that one of you makes the trip to the other.  In our modern day world, keeping in contact will not be a difficult task.  You can text and call each other.  You can videochat, snapchat, etc.  However, the separation will take a toll.  Before technology, people had to write letters to their significant other when they missed them, and that’s not such an outdated idea.  Don’t be afraid to send a little note in the mail, it will mean a lot more.  Being apart will make your time together more special, though.

Even though you will make plenty of new friends, don’t forget about your old ones.  Everyone will have completely new lives, but making time to text your hometown friends shouldn’t be a taxing thing to do.  You’re going to miss them, especially at first.  You should make plans to meet up during holidays and breaks just to catch up.  In your new crazy and fast paced life, it’s important to remember where you came from and all of the people that helped mold you into the person that you are today.

Declining an Acceptance…

Yes you read that correctly, declining an acceptance.  You got into your first choice, congratulations!  Now you need to tell those other schools that you got into that you won’t be attending their schools.  This can be very awkward, but it has to be done.  You may have been tucking the letters and invites to their open houses away or even throwing them out, but you need to be upfront with the school and let them know that you will not be attending.

There are a couple ways that you can do this, one way would be to call the admissions office and tell them that you have chosen another school.  You could also send them a polite email stating that you will be going elsewhere.  No matter how you handle things, they will ask you to explain your decision and to tell them where you will be attending.  Obviously, be honest with them.  If you think your school has better academics, tell them.  If you think that your school has a better campus, tell them.  You’re not trying to impress them anymore, just be honest.  It’s very awkward and uncomfortable, but thank them for their interest in you and move on.  You’re going to a school that you picked out for yourself.

Stay Healthy

In college, you have access to a cafeteria with tons of food; it’s so easy to take advantage of.  Sure, the weight room in the gym is always open, but your bed is way more comfortable and Netflix is totally calling your name.  The freshman 15 is just a myth anyway, right?  Wrong.  With all the new freedom and stress, your appetite grows larger and your pants grow smaller, how can this be avoided?

Start by making smart food choices.  Eat three balanced meals a day.  Get protein and carbs, fruit, vegetables, the whole ordeal.  When you snack, try to go for the fruit and protein bars, and unbuttered popcorn instead of the potato chips and candy bars.  Don’t sleep through breakfast just because you can wake up, eat a poptart, and run to class.  Wake up and give yourself time to make it to breakfast.

Provide yourself with enough sleep.  Don’t stay up all night trying to cram for that test.  Don’t procrastinate and that won’t be necessary.  Sleep deprivations not only has physical consequences, it also has mental consequences.  Your brain will start to shut down and your metabolism will slow down and it’s all around very unhealthy.  Try to count on getting at least 7 hours of sleep every night so that you can function properly.

Take advantage of your school’s weight room.  It will most likely be open everyday.  Go to it.  Create a workout plan or find one online.  Lift weights, squat, run on the treadmill, run outside, just get some sort of exercise.  Taking care of your body is very important and if you don’t work it out, you’re going to absolutely gain the freshman 15.  Working out and staying fit will help your mood, your brain, and your systems (like your immune system, metabolism, respiratory system, etc.).  You pay a large sum of money to be at the school, you might as well take advantage of the facilities and keep your body healthy.

Procrastination

Senior year makes it so easy to fall into the habit of procrastination.  You’ll get to it eventually.  However, in college procrastination is about as deadly as rat poison.  If you procrastinate in college, you will be up all night scrambling to finish your 30 page English paper and putting the finishing touches on that project that is due in your 8 A.M.  You will need about 4 times the amount of coffee you usually drink and you can forget about learning anything at all the next day.

There is really no point in waiting until the last minute to do all of your work when you have ample amount of time to do it.  Professors will tell you about due dates in advanced, they won’t spring things on you last minute.  Use your planner to plan out these projects and papers.  Mark out small amounts of time every day to work on them and spread it out over a period of time.  Make sure in these plans that you give yourselves a day off from all of the work so that you don’t burn yourself out. Give yourself enough time to get work done.  If you can’t work in your room, go to the library.  If you need help, contact your professor and ask them questions when you need to.  Go to the writing labs and get someone to read over your paper or look over your project for any detail that you may have missed.

After every finished product, reward yourself.  Watch that movie you wanted to watch, go out for dinner at your favorite restaurant, go out with your friends, do something that will make you happy so that you feel great about finishing your assignment early and then you will want to do it again.

If you do find yourself in a situation where time really go away from you, do not panic, that would be the worst thing to do.  Yes, you will have to pull an all-nighter to finish, but there are tactics that you can use to help you get through it.  You should drink some coffee and plug in your lap top, sit back and get started on that essay.  Map out your time throughout the night, after you finish a portion of the assignment, take a break.  Pour some more coffee, take a shower, take a power nap, eat some brain food, etc.  Do this periodically throughout the night so that you can finish the assignment and stay motivated while doing so.

Be Ready to Plan Your Life

Start now, get a day planner and start using it everyday.  You may think that this will be a waste of money, but you will thank me later.  In college you don’t have teachers who put the homework online or give you an online calendar of projects and tests.  You won’t have announcements every morning reminding you of upcoming events and you won’t have your parents reminding you of when you work next and what your hours will be.  You need to be prepared to keep track of everything yourself, and practice makes perfect.  Get in the habit of writing out all of your assignments and writing out due dates, tests, and when your clubs meet.  Add in what days you work, and any other fun activities that you may have planned.

Keep this thing organized and it will be your lifeline.  Mark off the days that you’ve completed and cross off the tasks that are finished.

Starting this practice now will help you later when you have to actually manage your time and keep your schedule under control.  You’ll be able to balance classes with working and any clubs that you’re in and anything you want to do that’s outside of all of that.  This is a very key thing that as a young adult you will need for your entire college career.

Roommates…

Yes roommates.  One of the scariest things about college.

–“Will they like me?”  “Will I like them?”  “What if they’re mean?”  “What if I can’t stand them?”  “I wish I knew who it was already.”

There are many ways to go about thinking about who this person you will be living with is, but the reality of the situation is that they are just as afraid as you are.

If you’re like me and you just have to know things before so that you can plan, social media will be your best friend.  Many colleges have “Class of 2018” facebook groups in which everyone who has decided on their school will post things about finding roommates and things that they like to do.  Or you could go through the “[Insert School] Class of 2018” hashtag on twitter or instagram to find people who are also attending your school and get to know them.  My roommate and I connected through social media.  Once you find someone that you get to know better and get along with, it’s sort of like an interview process to decide if you want to really room together, but eventually once everything checks out, you’ll have a roommate that you know you’ll get along with.

You could also just fill out the housing contract and have the school randomly match you up with someone.  Once you get randomly set up with another person you should get in contact with them and meet in person over lunch, or coffee, whatever you prefer, and talk and get to know each other.  Meeting before move-in day and having background information will help to build a better relationship with your roomie.  You wouldn’t want the first time you meet to be on move-in day, that is extremely awkward.

In the worst case scenario that you and your roommate just don’t get along at all, you’re not stuck with them for all four years (or however long you stay at college).  You will make tons of friends and you will hang out with them more than your roommate, unless you and your roommate get along really well, and sophomore year you can room with your new friends.  Plus, now you have the experience of dealing with people you don’t necessarily like in a mature manner.

If you still aren’t sure…

If you still have no idea which school to choose, don’t fret!  Lots of schools have weekends where they will invite prospective students to come stay at the campus with current students and explore the school a little bit more.  At these events you should be prepared with questions that you have for the students about the school and their experiences thus far.  Specifically make sure that you speak with current freshman, as they will be able to provide the best information on what it is like being new to the school.  You definitely want to learn the rules and really get a feel for what the school is like on a daily basis.

Use the weekend on campus to find all of the buildings you might be in for your area of study, where the gym is, where the fields are, where you eat, and anything else that might interest you.  Let your host students show you where they and their friends like to go to hang out, you’ll be able to learn a lot about where all of the fun stuff happens on campus.  If there is a town off campus ask your hosts if you can go explore that for a little.  Getting to know the area around the school may help you make your decision on whether or not this is the right school for you.

Learn about campus security and figure out if the campus feels safe at night or not.  If you don’t feel safe, you probably shouldn’t choose to go to that specific school.

You will also get the chance to talk with professors and faculty.  This is a great opportunity to see what kinds of things that they expect and learn about the school’s teaching philosophy.  Talk to students who are in your intended area of study for information on this as well.

And lastly, but also very important, see if you like the food.  This may seem trivial, however, if you can’t eat the food at school the freshman 15 will be something that you wish you had.  It’d be very unhealthy to skip meals because you don’t like the food and very expensive to cook in your dorm or go out all the time.

These weekends have so much information packed tight into a little period of time and will really help you to decide on a school, so it would be in your best interest to check them out.

Roomie Survey

Well once you get accepted, and you accept the acceptance, it’s time to fill out housing information, if you plan to stay on campus.  I would recommend staying on campus if you can afford it because it is a great experience.  So you have to fill out a contract saying that you will abide by all of the rules and that you won’t bring any illegal things into the dorm.  It will also tell you if alcohol (at the legal age) is permitted or not.  It will also let you know whether or not freshmen can have cars on campus (or maybe there’s an off campus lot), it will tell you about the campus safety/ security policies, and it will let you know a tentative packing list/ what types of appliances are allowed.  It will also make you aware of the dorm types (suites, community, singles, etc.) and whether the dorms are coed/ the visiting hours.  The housing contract must be sent back with two things: your housing deposit, and your roomie survey.

The housing deposit is non-refundable. 

The roomie survey, while this may seem like a trivial thing, is kind of important.  This is what determines who you will share a living space with for an entire year.  That’s a very long time to live with someone who is not your family.  You have to fill out the questions as carefully, truthfully, and thoroughly as you can.  You do not want to end up with someone who is the complete opposite of you.  Especially not if they are messy and you are clean (or the other way around).  Or if they are a night person and you’re a morning person (and vice versa).  Basically, you are probably going to see your roomie a lot so you should really write down specifics about yourself like, what you do for fun, or your favorite movie, or anything that will give some in-tell of who you are as an individual so that the school can match you up with someone who could become your best friend.  My mother is still best friends with her college roomie, will this be you?

Acceptance

Once you start getting your acceptance letters to the schools that want you, it may seem like the stress is lifted off of your shoulders.  That’s a great feeling, however there is still a lot that you will have to get done.  When you get a few acceptance letters, you may be ready to make a decision, but you should wait until you hear back from all of your schools to make that final decision.  Some things that you may want to take into consideration is the amount of money each school offers you.  Many schools offer an upfront merit-based scholarship which will account for your grades and SAT/ ACT scores.  Some schools may even give up to half tuition (or more) if you’re in the top 10% of your class.  The schools will send that number that they want to offer you with their acceptance letter.  They will also inform you on the materials that you need to complete and send back in order to enroll/ move in.  ONLY SEND THIS BACK AFTER YOU HAVE MADE YOUR FINAL DECISION.  I know that you probably have you first choice schools and back up schools, but what if one of your back up schools offers you $15,000 per year and your first choice offers you nothing?  Then are you still willing to go to your first choice?  I know right now that sounds like an obvious yes, but money is a very important thing to think about when you make your final decision.  Of course, you’ll end up picking the school that you believe is your best fit, but having the extra aid is always nice.

Once you do make that decision you’re going to have to fill out your acceptance form.  This is a form that allows you to accept their acceptance of you.  I know, it’s redundant, right?  Whatever works though.  Anyway so you have to fill that out and you have to get a physical done at your doctor, and you have to submit a vaccination history to make sure that you have all of your boosters up to date.  You also have to send your parents contact information and any other emergency information along with it.  You also have to send your housing deposit along with a housing contract and your roomie survey.  This all seems like a lot to handle, but once you get that over and done with, you’re pretty much set for school in the fall!  It’s all really crazy and really fast, but sending in all of that will make sure that you get registration materials when they become available, and then you’re really IN the school.

Essay Writing

The application process is very stressful and the essay is probably the part that everyone resents the most.  It isn’t that bad, though.  Some applications have what they call a “supplement” which is just like a short-answer test question.  Instead of having a full essay, they have just a small question and a short answer.  That doesn’t necessarily mean that the question will be simple.  In most cases, the question will be very specific to the college you are applying to or they will make you really think about yourself.  For example, the question may ask, “What are your biggest accomplishments?” or “How do your talents, interests, and abilities fit in with our mission statement?”  These questions are very direct and you probably have no idea how to even begin to answer them.  That’s alright though.  When you start to plan these essays, which if you normally don’t you really should, get together with someone who knows you really well.  Maybe your parent, or a religious leader, or a teacher, family friend, anyone who knows you well enough to be able to help you.  Just talk to them about your life, what you do, who you are.  Tell them the question and then just allow your conversation to flow from there; write down key points from the conversation to help you write your essay.  Talking it out and having someone to challenge you to really dig deep and find things about yourself that you wouldn’t be able to find on your own is a huge help when it comes to writing.  Talking time to just get all those thoughts and all the things that you’ve done and all of your characteristics out of your head and into a list will be extremely helpful when you go to write the essay.

When you do go to write the essay my advice to you would be drafts on drafts on drafts.  Write the first draft.  It’ll be pretty bad at first, I mean not horrible, but you shouldn’t write it and send it off.  Your first draft will be like the skeleton of what you want to say.  Have multiple other people read it and edit it.  Once you get their edits back, fix what they saw wrong, but make sure that you agree with it, too.  You don’t want to change your stance because of your edits.  Then when you edit your paper, have everyone read it again.  If there are more edits just repeat the process until you don’t think you should change anything about it.  Honestly, writing your college essay will take a lot of time, but in the end if you take your time and you have people edit your papers and you put effort into it, you will write an awesome essay.