10 Ways to Design Your College Career

I am fully aware that no one thinks about DESIGNING their college career.....they just GO to college-I was one of those people. But hindsight is a beautiful thing. If I could do it over again, here is how I would design:

1. Believe everyone when they tell you college will FLY by. Why will it fly by? Because these 4, or 5 or 6, years will be the absolute best years of your life. Why should I believe them? So that you don't waste ANY of your precious college time doing something you don't want to be doing. Realizing the truth to this statement also helps you to appreciate each moment, even more!

2. Figure out what you like and what you don't like so that you don't have to waste a bunch of time taking classes that may not transfer to a different department. Take a personality test and a career assessment test. (all available online). Starting college somewhat knowing what you want also allows you to take lighter loads each semester. Which leads me to...

3. Don't take more than 5 classes in one semester. Just don't do it, unless of course you don't want to have a social life and you really REALLY don't want to sleep. So take an extra semester to graduate. You won't regret it. (tell the rents you want to focus on the classes so you can keep up or improve your GPA...but then you kinda have to follow through).

4. Seek and listen to advice, help, guidance from career counselors, departmental advisers, professors, current students (upperclassmen) or the admissions recruiters. All of these people know the happenings of your respective college and they can guide you better than ANYBODY else on how to schedule, socialize, study (basically, how to get the most out of your college experience)! It is amazing how people enjoy helping other people...they would be thrilled to help you (so don't think you would be bothering them)

5. Be ready for a serious lesson in time management. Working (academics and financial) and playing both require time. It is going to be up to YOU to manage everything you want to do. Going to school, working, interning AND still having a social life is possible (I did it); but just know, something will take a toll (your health, sleep, your friends, your family, quality of your work or classwork).

6. Choose to customize and design your dorm room. Though you will most likely only be in your room to sleep, it is still your home for 2 full semesters (maybe more if you do interim or summer). So, put some time into making it feel like your home.

7. Research fun things to do in your respective town. MANY things will come up once you get there. But, in case no one else knows what's up around town, you will have the low down so y'all don't get bored!

8. Invest in storage bins. Because you are probably bringing your entire closet, 1-2 seasons at a time, AND you have all the other important parts of your room from home, you WILL need places to store clothes, shoes, purses, blankets, sheets, towels, office supplies, etc. I would also highly suggest labeling these plastic storage bins. It helps speed up the process of retrieving something from within it.

9. Don't mess around so much freshman year that your grades suffer. I have several friends who didn't care about their grades freshman year and suffered the remaining 3 years of college trying to boost their GPA. One year can really hurt your GPA. Though GPA's have become less important post-undergraduate school, they ARE important for the following reasons: graduate school admission, specific careers (i.e. accounting, finance, etc.) and differentiation on a job interview. Thus, a high GPA can aid is succeeding your goals in numerous ways. A good GPA can never be bad. But, on the flip side, a bad GPA can never be good!

10. Lastly, make a conscious effort to remain in touch with the people you care about back at home. Whether that be your family, high school friends, best friend, whoever. College has a funny way of removing you from home. It becomes REALLY easy to loose touch. Worst part about it is, you don't even realize it is happening until it may be too late (or until you return home).

Hope these make sense and end up helping you!

caio

J