For many college students, preparing to return to school is almost always full of happy jitters and anticipation. These happy jitters can be for numerous reasons when it comes to returning students. Finally getting to link back up with the group of friends they made at school and missed all summer, moving back into the dorms and having their own independent spaces again, even starting that one class they’ve been looking forward to since they registered for it last spring; these are just a few reasons returns are usually filled with happy jitters and anticipation to come back.
For the new freshmen starting classes this fall, there is probably a lot more jitters and anticipation than returners. Everything is new. A new living space, new school environment, new independence, new people, etc… For freshmen, there is so much to anticipate and so many things that can cause jitters. From making friends and adapting to the new environment to adjusting to college classes and learning how to be a college student. During my freshman year, these factors in combination with the lack of knowledge about college and nobody to give me advice kind of led to an uneventful and somewhat disappointing first year.
As a senior who went from severely lacking knowledge about college and going through unnecessary stress to living my best life as a university student, here are my top 5 tips for freshmen students.
1.Come prepared when meeting your advisor
I have seen almost a thousand TikToks and heard plenty of college students at Radford complaining about advisors and them doing their job. While I understand it’s not all advisors, and they also have lots of students to help, so they deserve a little slack. But at the same time I’ve also personally had more than one bad experience here at Radford University with my advisors. As a general rule of thumb, use your advisor as a verification source but not the source of all your academic information. I am a firm believer you should gather the information you need as best you can before brining whatever you find to your advisor, rather then being entirely empty handed and knowledgeless when you meet with them. You’re signing up for spring classes? Come with some classes required for your major that you may be interested in (you can find these on your degree audit). Don’t let your Advisor choose your classes willy-nilly, especially if it has nothing to do with your major or minor because that’s how you end up taking classes that are random and not helping you complete you major/minors. Wait till you finish you required classes before you start taking randoms.
2. Check your email
Coming from high school where checking your school email isn’t a thing and arriving at college where checking your email a thousand times a day is normal, it’s understandable why incoming freshman students never check their emails unless someone tells them to. That habit has to get trashed immediately though. Nothing is worse than walking across campus for class that was canceled, but you didn’t know because you never check your email and the teacher emailed the class in advanced a week ago. Not to mention teachers often email students about things related to class on the same day of class. Since my freshmen year, I realized early on that checking my email is a must. So many stressful situations can be avoided by just checking your email once or twice a day.
3. Take advantage of free stuff and student discounts
Everyone knows the stereotype about college students being broke. It’s frequently apart of the package as a college student. Which explains why you should always take advantage of the free stuff and discounts that the school can give. Groceries are expensive, take advantage of the school’s food pantry. Hulu and Spotify both give discounts for college students. Certain stores and restaurants, like DP doughs, give discounts for Radford University students. Some even let you use your meal plan money to buy things. So generally speaking, its take advantage of things that could save you resources and money because once you graduate you might not have those options anymore.
4. Go to the club fair and campus events
Going to club fair and campus events is one of the quickest ways you can make connections around campus. Friends, partners, and even faculty mentors can be made just by popping into an event and showing your face. Going to club fair and joining a club lead me to meeting my best friend Shay who is like my twin flame in all honesty. I know plenty of people who got jobs after going to the career fair that Radford hosts. These events can lead to great opportunities, and freshman tend to miss out on them because they either don’t know about the event or think nothing of it. Go out and try new things!
5. Practice self-discipline
One of the greatest challenges that freshmen/sophomores seem to have is maintaining self-discipline throughout the year. Mostly because there is so many things (fun and less stressful thing) that can distract you from the stress of school. Why do a homework assignment that’s due tonight when I can go hang out with the gang and play videos games instead? Things like that are what quickly lead to students falling behind and failing classes. Consistently skipping classes lead to that too. So as a general rule of thumb, practice some self-discipline because failing a class and having to retake it is gruesome.
Hopefully these tips are helpful and make it easier to avoid unneeded stress!