Eight Tips for New College Freshmen

Starting college is a crazy time; you leave behind everything you have grown to know for the first 18 years of your life, you move out "on your own", and you embark on the journey you have aimed for for the last four years. Change is inevitable and adjustment is a requirement, and you must be prepared for it. Here are eight pieces of advice to think of and/or consider, coming straight from someone who had to experience it all first-hand.

1. If you can do it, live on campus in the dormitories. There will never be another opportunity for you to live amid 60+ people, all in the same position. Living in the dormitories gives you the unique opportunity to meet different people of different interests and backgrounds, all at the same time and within the same environment. You will find, learn and discover several things about humanity, your dorm mates, and yourself along the way.
2. Remember you're 18 (give or take a year). The temptation to go crazy when you are finally on your own, out of your parent's house will be strong. But being 18 also means adulthood; your parents will not and cannot be there to bail you out or write a note excusing you. You are responsible for your own actions.
3. Remember, you're only 18. Be smart, but allow yourself some mistakes. You are still young. Go out, party, have fun. Don't think that having to be the responsible college student only means studying and working your way towards a career. You have barely lived a quarter of a lifetime - join a club, experiment with interests, be outgoing, and test the waters.
4. Every class matters, and yes, every class differs. Even if it is a general education class, it can still completely mess up your GPA if you are not careful. All classes count towards your GPA or overall transcript. And even if every other history course you have taken didn't track attendance at lecture, it does not mean the next one you take will not either. Every professor runs his course different from the next, and you have to remember that. No professor accepts "but that other one in your department does it this way" as a valid excuse.
5. It is easier to maintain a GPA than raise a GPA. Work hard and don't screw around entirely. It is ten times harder bumping up your GPA one point than it is to put a little effort into getting that one point you wanted in the first place. You cannot imagine the extreme disappointment and frustration of earning a 3.8 one quarter, only to find out it raised your GPA from a pathetic 2.23 to a lesser-pathetic-but-still-dismal 2.47.
6. Every other first-year is on the same page. You are all experiencing the same things and feeling the same emotions. But everyone is also different and will express it in different ways. So be compassionate and understanding, because chances are you feel the same way and you don't recognize it.
7. Be aware of human nature. You know that fake-nice, overly polite persona people adopt when first meeting people they do not know? Keep that in mind when you begin your year. Everyone is scared and trying to impress; many people will be people they want to be, want to try to be, or feel they need to be - and unfortunately, most of those people are not who they are. Facades are hard to maintain and masks will eventually fall. People change, and as a result, people get hurt.
8. Learn to accept change. No matter how much it sucks, how inconvenient it is, and how much of a straight up pain in the butt it is, change will happen. Different classes, teachers, assignments, papers; different people, friends, enemies, roommates; different environments, rules, laws, and regulations. You will quickly separate which "friends forever" will actually last forever (or at least through college), you will quickly learn that even though you were able to write your 7-page Beowulf analysis in three hours hung over it does not mean you will be able to write your 4-page Whitman paper in the same state or time, and you will quickly learn that just because the campus security didn't bust up your party the first time does not mean they will not the second, third, or fourth time.

That said; enjoy college and your experiences there. While I do not know yet if these really are "the best times of your life", they are definitely interesting and exciting.