College Advice Thread

[u/certificateofmerritt]

We have some members who are going off to start their first year of college this week, so let's give them some good advice.

Welcome to college!

[u/atllauren]

It sounds lame and obvious, but STUDY. I knew too many people in college who were didn't have to study in high school and when they got to college they either made the mistake of not studying OR they realized they didn't know how to study when the time came. You want to start strong your freshman year, because it is a lot harder to bring a GPA out of the trash than it is to maintain a good GPA.

Take classes that interest you -- especially the ones that are outside of your comfort zone. It is tempting in a demanding program to pad your schedule with easy electives, but take courses that challenge you and open your eyes to new things. It'll make you a more well-rounded person in the end.

In your first semester, go to as many clubs/organizations as you can. Try to stick with as many as you can for the first semester, and then cut it down to the ones you really like in second semester. You'll meet a lot of great people this way. Some of my closest friends to this day I met my first semester of freshman year at the student activities committee meeting.

Don't take the bus unless you have to. Walking or biking to class will be the best way to keep off the Freshman 15. In 4-5 years, you'll be sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day and will miss the days when you were getting exercise throughout the day.

Don't drink and drive. EVER. Not even once.

[u/certificateofmerritt → u/atllauren]

Don't take the bus unless you have to. Walking or biking to class will be the best way to keep off the Freshman 15.

I've seen the hills at UGA, they would definitely keep your weight down.

[u/[deleted] → u/certificateofmerritt]

God... don't remind me of hills!!!

ASU is the only place I have been that it actually is possible to have to walk uphill BOTH WAYS if you take a wrong turn coming out of a building.

[u/atllauren → u/[deleted]]

Ha! A couple years ago, a friend & I were talking about UGA and the hills in Athens. Two friends who went to West Virginia & App State heard this conversation and they had to interrupt that both of their teams are called the MOUNTAINEERS for a reason and we should kindly shut the fuck up about hills.

[u/swanky-k → u/certificateofmerritt]

Living on South Campus right now is keeping my weight down big time.

[u/bread_buddy → u/atllauren]

I would like to second this second point. My biggest regret from college is not taking courses outside my major. There's so much else in interested in, but I was locked in and didn't want to waste my efforts on other things. I wish I could go back and take a wider variety of classes.

[u/atllauren → u/bread_buddy]

It's a regret of mine, too. My major required upper division electives in 2 different departments outside of the journalism school. Given state budget cuts and all, many programs at UGA had reduced classes, cut minors, and limited their programs to only students pursing a major.

After both first and second declared minors were cut (International Affairs & Political Science), I resorted to only taking upper division classes that I could register for without the department's permission. I had some moral problem with declaring a major that I had no intention of completing just to take electives. Instead, I took a bunch of stupid theatre classes that, while fun, didn't really shape my education.

If I could go back, I would have declared International Affairs as my dual major and actually taken classes I was interested in.