You’re the new kid in town. Well, your college town, that is. But let’s admit—it’s embarrassing to stumble around campus asking people how to get to your next class…even though you may have already gone there three times last week for lecture. Get together with your roommates and start checking these items off your to-do list:
Find the best eateries on campus.
Gather your new college friends together and arrange to seek out good eats that can be found around your school. Dining hall food will get old quickly, so start trying out the various restaurants on and outside of campus. Many colleges have popular and familiar franchises available right in the middle of campus, but if you’re not too fond of the selection available, start looking for affordable restaurants that are only a few miles away.
A+ Tip: If your school is located in a suburban or urban area, go to a local shopping mall with your friends to find good places to eat and treat yourself throughout the semester.
Go to your professors’ office hours.
Unlike in high school, it’s not that easy to go stop by your teachers’ classrooms and ask questions. In fact, in almost all colleges, your professors are typically not going to remember your name, much less recognize you. Although your college education is relatively impersonal compared to your grade school experience, you can stay connected with your classes by attending your professors’ office hours. You don’t need to have an intensely intellectual debate for two straight hours with your professor, but you should use the time given wisely, especially when other students are waiting to speak with your professor, to ask questions, address concerns, or even find out more information about the subject being learned. Office hours are also the only way to get acquainted with a professor that you’re thinking of asking a letter of rec from in a few years from now.
A+ Tip: If the office hours posted by your professors don’t work for you, don’t be shy to send them an email (about a week in advance is ideal) asking what other days and times they’re available. Most professors are very flexible, and can accommodate your schedule to see you, so take advantage of that opportunity.
Arrange study groups.
Group projects are never any fun, but studying with a group can be beneficial and even fun. Schedule a day with a friend or roommate—or several—who share a class with you and study together. As a group, you can figure out problems together, create mnemonics and other study strategies, and even reinforce what you’ve learned yourself by teaching and helping your peers.
A+ Tip: In the Digital Age, study groups are often taken online now. Many colleges now have their own networks on Facebook, where students often start groups intended for their classmates in a specific class. Take advantage of this opportunity by asking your classmates questions, helping out other students, and arranging study sessions via the Facebook group.
Attend a meeting for a club or two.
Just like in high school, clubs in college are one of the greatest ways to meet other students with like interests. However, in college, there is an even greater variety of clubs to join. If you’ve already determined what career you’re planning to go into, there are associations where you can meet like-minded peers and even get the chance to network with those in your field. Or if you just want to join a club in which you take up a hobby, there are plenty of those as well. (For example, my own college, UCSD, apparently has a Quidditch club. And yes, they really do play matches.)
A+ Tip: Your college should have a page with a comprehensive list of all the clubs on campus. The sad thing is that some clubs may not hold meetings anymore, so if you look it up on your college’s website or, even better, on Facebook or its official website, try contacting a club officer to find out when—and if—meetings are being held.
Learn how to use the campus copy machines.
Confession: I don’t know how to use my college’s copy machines. They’re all over campus, and I have no idea how to use them. I just know you pay a few cents per copy…yet I have absolutely no clue how to work those big clunky machines. But the printer-slash-copier I have at home? Thankfully I know how to use that, and even though I’m a commuter, I know those copy machines at school are going to come in handy one day. Especially for those of you who live on campus and don’t have a printer or copier at home, find out how much you need to pay (it’s going to cost more than a pretty penny to do color copies of half that biology textbook), what method you pay the fee, and how that copier works. And then when you do, get back to me and tell me the secret to getting that thing to work correctly for me.
A+ Tip: You may think that even though you have all your textbooks, you won’t ever need to copy anything. Wrong. If you take a class that involves intensive writing (and trust me, you will, no matter what your major is), there’s a pretty good chance that you’re going to need to make copies of the books you’re citing for research papers. Despite the prevalence of good Internet resources for your papers, a lot of professors aren’t too keen on using a plethora of online citations. Sadly, it’s not well in keeping with the more sensible idea of going green, but some classes may even require you to make such copies, so it’s best to be prepared.
What would you add to this to-do list for your first month of college? Which of the above have you already tried? (And do you actually know how to use those huge school copiers?) Tell us in a comment below.