Growing up: Going to college

[Madara]

So, tomorrow is the ACT. :smallsigh:

Yes, I have studied, and yes I have my calculator...ect


But, I'd like a little bit of encouragement from my Gtippers. I know many of you have gone/are going to college, so let's keep it simple.
What was the highlight of the admissions process for you? Was there some cool person you met on campus? Did the class you sat in on really excite you? Did your shadow go perfectly? I'm getting pretty pumped, and I'd love to hear about your tales of excitement and joy. :smallsmile:

[RndmNumGen]

For the love of X, make sure the colleges you are applying to are good. When I was in high school, we had a recruiter from DeVry come to our school, and give us his pitch. I bought it, and never really considered going anywhere else... until two semesters in, when I realized I was learning absolutely nothing. I made the decision to drop and applied to a different college, and the difference is greater than night and day. I've met some awesome people, learned tons of stuff, and everything's going much better.

(Sorry if you go to DeVry and like it, but my experiences there were terrible).

Aside from that... I would recommend trying to find some good roommates, especially ones in a similar degree program. A good roommate is a great thing to have, though you might not actually know who you want to room with until after a semester or so.

[MCerberus]

Do everything as early as possible.
Seriously.
Class in a half hour? RUN don't walk to lunch.
Paper due in a week, do it tonight.
Sign up for classes ASAP.


And don't be afraid to find a club that does something weird. There were some guys who did foam sword fighting. We also ended up playing racquetball every Friday. Just get out there.

Personal mistake I made: do not take Philosophy 141 at 7:30am

[Tvtyrant]

I'm graduating from university right now (1 week!), and here is my general advice/encouragements.

University is a balancing act, and if you let it get out of balance you can find yourself lost or unhappy. There are about six major things to balance in university, and each one deserves thinking about.

1. Companionship. This is the single most important thing you need to have a good college experience. I'm not saying that you need to be a social dynamo, but you need to find companions or you will go crazy. We are social animals by nature, and too much time alone leads to depression and anxiety (even for wallflowers).

2. Going to class. I promise you that if you go to your classes and give them a chance, they will say something relevant to your interests. The dumbest class I ever had (with a prof who the entire class agreed was a lunatic) still ended up being worth it as an experience (I learned how to exploit a hated authority as a source of companionship.)

I have also gotten As in classes I never went to. This freed up lots of time for my schedule, time that I mostly wasted. I didn't learn anything from these classes, except eventually that classes are what you make of them.

3. Sleep. Try to get regular sleep at the same hours each day, and don't crash on the weekends. You remember things better on a regular sleep schedule, you feel more awake, and you wake up more easily. I often pick classes based on the sleep schedule I want; because you really want to be getting up at the same time each day.

4. Exercise. Doing it regularly makes you more energetic, awake, focused, and approachable. So find something you don't hate (jogging and running suck IMO, so I swim or hike) and do it. The best thing about regular exercise is that it makes you less prone to sickness and gives you more stamina for, say, crash projects.

5. Prioritize. If there is an assignment and a test on the same day, and one is 1% of your grade and the other is 15%, concentrate on the test. If a friend is having a massive party and its the first week, you should probably go. If they're having a massive party on dead week, excuse yourself and hit the books.

6. Relax. I suppose this could also be called "don't panic." Don't work yourself up about life to the point where you can't enjoy it. Make your life enjoyable, but don't pack it so full that you feel like you are collapsing all the time. Fights with SOs, occasional bad grades on papers, your roommate playing loud music at night, all of these are simply part of life. Life isn't perfect, and if you concentrate on the bad things you will blind yourself to the good ones.


Sorry about sounding all self-help book-y, but I think I got my general point across. College has been the best experience of my life, but it only became that once I made myself smell the roses.

[Madara]

Sorry about sounding all self-help book-y, but I think I got my general point across. College has been the best experience of my life, but it only became that once I made myself smell the roses.

Trust me, advice is one of the things I value most :smallsmile:

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

For me, it was really only ever a choice between 2 large, prestigious, downtown universities, and I ended up choosing between the two based on which city they were in, so...

I did end up sitting in on a Linguistics class, which is good...

[Mauve Shirt]

All of the above is great. I'm basing this on my stressful-but-fun college experience.
Do things. Do all the things. Join the scuba diving and taxidermy club if you need to, but don't spend all day on the computer.
Don't try to be friends with your roommate if you don't mesh, but do try to find friends outside what you'd consider your "niche".
Sleep, go to class, do your assignments early instead of late. If you get drunk, wait til it's legal and don't do it in public.
It's a terrible idea to go rock climbing along the river during dead week, but if you need a break, don't be afraid to do it anyway.

[Rallicus]

I dropped out of college.

Here's my advice: don't be me. :smallcool:

[THAC0]

But, I'd like a little bit of encouragement from my Gtippers. I know many of you have gone/are going to college, so let's keep it simple.
What was the highlight of the admissions process for you? Was there some cool person you met on campus? Did the class you sat in on really excite you? Did your shadow go perfectly? I'm getting pretty pumped, and I'd love to hear about your tales of excitement and joy. :smallsmile:

I sat in on a class and was able to answer a question that no one in the class could answer. That was pretty cool.

[razark]

Don't sign up for 8:00 AM classes if you're not a morning person.

If the professor wakes you up in the middle of a test to advise you to drop the class, consider it.

Don't sit in the front row, read the newspaper, and correct the professor when he makes mistakes in a lecture.

If you're so tired that you might not stay awake through lecture, don't go. You'll find your classmates are a bunch of pranksters. So is the professor. So is the next class to use the room.

Beware of any class taught by the guy that literally wrote the book.

And don't forget to have fun while you're there.

[MCerberus]

Beware of any class taught by the guy that literally wrote the book.


My Calc I prof both wrote the book and was a department chair.
Of course every piece of his teaching was perfect... according to him.

[Rising Phoenix]

I'm graduating from university right now (1 week!), and here is my general advice/encouragements.

University is a balancing act, and if you let it get out of balance you can find yourself lost or unhappy. There are about six major things to balance in university, and each one deserves thinking about.

1. Companionship. This is the single most important thing you need to have a good college experience. I'm not saying that you need to be a social dynamo, but you need to find companions or you will go crazy. We are social animals by nature, and too much time alone leads to depression and anxiety (even for wallflowers).

2. Going to class. I promise you that if you go to your classes and give them a chance, they will say something relevant to your interests. The dumbest class I ever had (with a prof who the entire class agreed was a lunatic) still ended up being worth it as an experience (I learned how to exploit a hated authority as a source of companionship.)

I have also gotten As in classes I never went to. This freed up lots of time for my schedule, time that I mostly wasted. I didn't learn anything from these classes, except eventually that classes are what you make of them.

3. Sleep. Try to get regular sleep at the same hours each day, and don't crash on the weekends. You remember things better on a regular sleep schedule, you feel more awake, and you wake up more easily. I often pick classes based on the sleep schedule I want; because you really want to be getting up at the same time each day.

4. Exercise. Doing it regularly makes you more energetic, awake, focused, and approachable. So find something you don't hate (jogging and running suck IMO, so I swim or hike) and do it. The best thing about regular exercise is that it makes you less prone to sickness and gives you more stamina for, say, crash projects.

5. Prioritize. If there is an assignment and a test on the same day, and one is 1% of your grade and the other is 15%, concentrate on the test. If a friend is having a massive party and its the first week, you should probably go. If they're having a massive party on dead week, excuse yourself and hit the books.

6. Relax. I suppose this could also be called "don't panic." Don't work yourself up about life to the point where you can't enjoy it. Make your life enjoyable, but don't pack it so full that you feel like you are collapsing all the time. Fights with SOs, occasional bad grades on papers, your roommate playing loud music at night, all of these are simply part of life. Life isn't perfect, and if you concentrate on the bad things you will blind yourself to the good ones.


Sorry about sounding all self-help book-y, but I think I got my general point across. College has been the best experience of my life, but it only became that once I made myself smell the roses.

Agreed on everything except attending all classes.

If a) the class is not of interesting to you and b) the course for the class is not essential to your degree than don't bother attending. If you're like me it's just going to be a waste of time. You are much better off picking a course you like.

And being an undergrad was a lot of fun for me... Now as a post doc I really miss the days when you didn't have a whole tone of expectations piled on to you...


Oh and good luck!

[Helanna]

*snip*

This is all incredibly excellent advice. I'm just going to add one more piece: listen to it.

I can't stress that enough. This all might sound like pretty obvious advice. These were all things I knew before I started college. Now I'm two years in, and I wish more than anything that I could take them over again because I didn't actually really follow it, and now my GPA sucks, I'm behind in my core classes, and I'm in danger of suspension.

Some negative learning experiences and more advice:


Admittedly, my problem is more procrastination and unwise justifications - "Oh, it's fine if I skip this class, the teacher doesn't say anything useful" . . . for the sixth time. "Oh, I forgot to work on this paper, but I'll just work on it extra long tomorrow" . . . guess how often that ends up happening.

So I guess my advice is to focus. Attend your classes, don't allow yourself to procrastinate, and for the love of whatever deity you choose, make SURE you understand the material. This may be more or less important, depending on your field. My field is programming - if I don't understand a concept or I'm shaky on a particular language, I'm screwed. Learned that one the hard way. But make sure you do and understand the homework, read supplementary materials (on your own time if you have to) and talk to the teacher until you thoroughly understand the subject.

Also, try to avoid working 35 hours a week at a location an hour away. That maaay have had something to do with my poor academics. Most advisers I've spoken to recommend working no more than maybe 20 hours a week at most. Unfortunately, some of us don't have that luxury, but if you do enjoy it.

Good experiences and funness:

I've had to take some classes that I wouldn't take normally, and it turned out to be a really good thing! Like 2D and 3D animation - I can't draw, at all, and animation isn't a field I would go into. But it turned out to be LOT of fun, and if I can learn to draw a bit I wouldn't mind creating some little 2d shorts and stuff in my free time. 3d modelling is harder, but I actually just really, really enjoyed it.

Being surrounded by nerds and educated people is awesome. FINALLY, somebody who won't look at me weirdly if I ramble about video games or books!

Humans vs. Zombies. I haven't had a chance to play yet, but it's great when half the campus is walking around with friggin' arsenals of Nerf weaponry.

The clubs: There is a club for EVERYTHING where I go. Metalworking, knitting, animal rescue, rock climbing, you name it. You are guaranteed to find at least two clubs that will spark your interest. Try them out!

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Oh god, I actually have to choose majors and minors BEFORE my first year of university, because I'm skipped out of all the freshman courses.

Mein gott.

[Douglas]

My admissions process was rather dull - apply, get accepted, and go - but freshman orientation had some fun stuff. There were quite a few jokes and exaggerated put-downs aimed at the traditional rival school (I went to Georgia Tech, so the target was UGA), plus tours of various parts of the campus, a few group activities, and so on.

My first year of college was great. I learned, among other things, that missing a single class didn't really make any significant difference and that most professors didn't care. Oh, and parents were sufficiently far removed from the situation that they were unlikely to even find out, much less have a good opportunity to scold me for it.

My second year of college went rather less well, as I learned that skipping class once in a while very easily turned into skipping a lot of classes which had a rather large effect on my class performance. I had to struggle against that bad habit through the rest of my college experience, and it was rather unpleasant.

Try to avoid learning that lesson the hard way. If you have a good reason for skipping a class, that's ok. Just make sure that it really is a good reason and not just laziness or entertainment. Being too tired to pay attention is a good reason, but try to make sure such fatigue on class days is caused by a good reason too. If you're ever tempted to stay up super late, force yourself to consider whether the reason you're staying up is good enough to justify skipping class the next day. If it isn't, stop and go to bed - immediately, not after "a few more minutes" or "one more turn".

The same thing applies to procrastination and out of class assignments.

You don't need to be all study all the time, and college does allow a lot of opportunities for fun that you will probably have never had before, but keep it balanced and be wary of slippery slope tendencies for bad academic habits.

[Anxe]

Couple things stood out in the admissions process for me.

Meeting professors is really great. I met one from each school. It doesn't tell you a lot about the school as a whole, but I still based a lot of my decision making on that.

Meeting the students on campus is also good. I never met people I really wanted to stay in touch with on my college tours, but this definitely turned me off to a couple schools.

Getting rejected from my reach schools wasn't frustrating at the time, but in hindsight it really pissed me off. I can believe there are better applicants, but I can't believe someone would look at my application and then go, "Nope!" Confidence sprinkled with narcissism I guess.

The hard part about the admissions process is the essays for the colleges. At least it was for me. You should start writing your essays in October.

Colleges care about stuff in this order,
1. Grades
2. SAT/ACT
3. Extracurriculars
4. Essay
5/6. Demographics/Legacy
7. Interview
Notice how the interview is last. No college really gives a **** about the interview. It's just to make the alumni feel like they're involved. I got this view into the process from my dad who does Yale interviews. The admissions boards never really cares about his recommendations.

Final bit of advice, don't be afraid to transfer. My first college was a horrible fit for me socially. I'd picked a place that was far away from my family because I initially wanted to be separated from them. That was a bad decision. I ended up missing them terribly and transferred to a closer college after my first year.

EDIT: One more thing I forgot to mention. The actual tours that colleges give are rubbish. They show you the buildings, tell you about Greek life and clubs on campus, and brag about their study abroad program. I went to about 10 and every single one of them said the exact same thing. Also, none of it was interesting. My fiancee is now an orientation leader so she does those tours sometimes. Most interesting stuff is what they don't tell you. Like how the theater has a serious rat problem, or that one of the buildings was used to house the Japanese during the WW2 internment. Not that any of that would help you choose a school, but neither does saying your college is a college with buildings, fraternities, classrooms, and a study abroad program.
My advice if you go on a tour, ask them what they aren't supposed to tell you about the college. Or ask one of the students who isn't paid to tell you nice things about the college. The bad stuff is much more useful to make a decision on.

[Temotei]

Colleges care about stuff in this order,
1. Grades
2. SAT/ACT
3. Extracurriculars
4. Essay
5/6. Demographics/Legacy
7. Interview

A professor once told me grades were fourth on the list. I know extracurriculars and ACT scores were above them, but I forgot the third.

[Mauve Shirt]

A professor once told me grades were fourth on the list. I know extracurriculars and ACT scores were above them, but I forgot the third.

Yeah, grades are not at the top of the list at all. Extracurriculars and ACT/SAT are up there, but sadly also near the top of their list is your race/sex/disability status that makes their diversity statistics go up. If you can write a sob story about how being mistreated as a child only made you stronger, or how going to this school is SUPER IMPORTANT to you because it's the only way you can escape a life in the coal mines, you're good.

[noparlpf]

So, tomorrow is the ACT. :smallsigh:

Yes, I have studied, and yes I have my calculator...ect


But, I'd like a little bit of encouragement from my Gtippers. I know many of you have gone/are going to college, so let's keep it simple.
What was the highlight of the admissions process for you? Was there some cool person you met on campus? Did the class you sat in on really excite you? Did your shadow go perfectly? I'm getting pretty pumped, and I'd love to hear about your tales of excitement and joy. :smallsmile:

I dunno, it was all kind of a pain in my opinion.
Never took the ACT, I took SATs. Sitting there staring at the ceiling because you can't leave early or continue to the next section is a pain.
And just a warning in case you ever decide to transfer, the Common App site deletes your info every year. So you'll have to start from scratch, which is more of a pain.
Not to be a killjoy or anything, I'm just really jaded. College is alright. You can meet new people, you can take some neat classes, you can go tens of thousands of dollars (or whatever national currency you happen to use) into debt before you're even eighteen. (I feel robbed by my old school. 56k a year for what? None of that went to my actual education, it all went to the liberal arts people. It's nearly a lie for them to claim to have a science department.) You get to bumble your way through learning to live on your own because nobody bothers to teach you. Orientation at my school was seriously the most useless thing ever. You'd think they could teach people how to plunge a toilet (you'd think kids who could get into an early college would know how to plunge a toilet), but no.

[CoffeeIncluded]

You will make friends in college; it's pretty much guaranteed to happen. Don't be upset if your roommate/hallmate(s)/both don't end up your friends.

Find out what works for you with studying early and stick to it. Also, quit procrastinating. I did; I stopped procrastinating nearly completely within the first month and that's how I managed to maintain nearly a 4.0 GPA.

You're going to do stupid stuff, but once you do it, don't do it again. College is a time for taking a good hard look at yourself; it's the best time for self-improvement. And you'll have a fantastic time doing it too.

[snoopy13a]

My advice:

1) Strongly consider majoring in something "marketable." Engineering, computer science, math, the sciences, accounting, and, to a certain extent, business and Spanish are marketable. English, history, political science/government, philosophy, classics, psychology, and the other assorted liberal arts are not. Quite frankly, the point of college--despite what some people say--isn't to grow as a person or have new experiences. Rather, it is to make yourself more attractive in the job market. If you want to learn for learning sake, try the public library down the street; it's free. A philosophy major simply isn't as attractive as a chemical engineering major.

Granted, one can be successful as a liberal arts major but the career paths are extremely competitive. There are a glut of PhDs in America and getting a tenure-track job is very difficult. The law, as law school is a popular option for some college graduates with no clue what to do, has also become highly competitive, and there are horror stories of unemployed law graduates with six-figure student loan debt. Breaking into the corporate world is more difficult in this economy as employers will hire business, marketing, and accounting majors over English and art history majors. Finally, the last option for some liberal arts majors, high school teaching, is not only competitive to get into but teachers are currently the scapegoat of choice for many of society's ills.

2) Choose your college based on a balance between academic reputation and cost. Two things are important: (1) the marketability of your degree and (2) how much money you will owe after graduation. Ideally, look at the flagship state university where you live (for example, if you live in Michigan it would be the University of Michigan) or at the truly elite private schools such as Yale, Stanford, MIT, Amherst, etc. If you don't have the academic record to get into these colleges, look at the less prestigious state colleges where you live. I strongly recommend not attending a non-elite private school unless you are getting signficant grant-based or scholarship aid (i.e., aid that you don't have to pay back).

3) Research your potential choices heavily. You will spend four (or perhaps more) years of your life and tens of thousands of dollars on this decision.

4) Work hard in college. Many, if not most, undergraduates do not work hard. By working hard, you should out-perform most of your peers.

5) Go to professors' office hours. This is especially important for classes with subjective evaluations, such as those graded by essays. The more you talk with a professor, the more you will understand what they want and look for in their graded assignments. Further, if the professor likes you, you may get a "grade bump" if your essay or paper is borderline (i.e., between a B+ and an A-). Additionally, professors who like you will write better letters of recommendation for graduate school if you choose to apply. Finally, a few professors in certain fields may be able to provide job leads.

[noparlpf]

You will make friends in college; it's pretty much guaranteed to happen. Don't be upset if your roommate/hallmate(s)/both don't end up your friends.

Find out what works for you with studying early and stick to it. Also, quit procrastinating. I did; I stopped procrastinating nearly completely within the first month and that's how I managed to maintain nearly a 4.0 GPA.

You're going to do stupid stuff, but once you do it, don't do it again. College is a time for taking a good hard look at yourself; it's the best time for self-improvement. And you'll have a fantastic time doing it too.

Basically the only guy in my dorm I talked to was my freshman year roommate. All my other friends lived elsewhere.

And don't procrastinate. I'm actually a genius, and my GPA just went from pi to 3.15 at the end of my second year because I don't work hard, don't study, and don't do half of my lab reports. (Seriously, how did I get a B- in Physics II when I only did one lab report?)

And don't get caught climbing buildings. That's another mistake I made.



My advice:

4) Work hard in college. Many, if not most, undergraduates do not work hard. By working hard, you should out-perform most of your peers.

Yes to all of these points, and especially #4. My old roommate had a 2.something in high school and has a 3.6 cumulative now; I had a 4.4 in high school (we had A+ as 4.5) and graduated 21st in a class of ~630 two months after I turned sixteen, and my GPA is 3.15.

Edit:

Yeah, grades are not at the top of the list at all. Extracurriculars and ACT/SAT are up there, but sadly also near the top of their list is your race/sex/disability status that makes their diversity statistics go up. If you can write a sob story about how being mistreated as a child only made you stronger, or how going to this school is SUPER IMPORTANT to you because it's the only way you can escape a life in the coal mines, you're good.


A professor once told me grades were fourth on the list. I know extracurriculars and ACT scores were above them, but I forgot the third.

Where did you guys hear about this?

[Anxe]

Admissions criteria may be different for their schools. I go to UC Davis. They're pretty up front about what they care about first. Grades and SAT/ACT scores. If you do not meet the minimum they require you do not get accepted.

And the thing I forgot was letters of recommendation. That was probably third on your professor's list.

As for diversity, I put that near the bottom for a reason. I've toured a few colleges and gone to UC Davis and Beloit College. All of them were dominated by white people. Second was Asians. UC Davis has a few Latinos because its in California. Neither had very many black people at all (I think Beloit had less than 50). I casually observed similar ratios at other schools I toured. If they cared about diversity then I feel they would actually be more diverse.

There are other schools that are definitely more diverse. My fiancee goes to SJSU. There are probably more minorities going there than white people. This is probably in some way related to family income, but I think that would get too political to really discuss here.

[Eldest]

Yeah, grades are not the top of the hill for many colleges. I got slightly above straight Bs in high school, and it didn't matter as much as my SAT/ACT scores, which were good because I have a knack for standardized testing. So I ended up with a nice scholarship because of that, along with the 4.0 students who went to India to preform dentistry for free during their summer. There was actually somebody who did that.

[Madara]

Your warnings, words of advice, and encouragements mean a lot to me. I think the test went well, now I just wait 4-6 weeks to find out :smallsigh:

On the bright side, now I can move on and focus on something fun, like the upcoming con :smallsmile:


Looks like I have a year to start developing some good habits :smallbiggrin:

Procrastination is my greatest enemy :smallamused:


Yeah, I'm a little worried about my GPA. It's a 3.4 ever since the week before school ended some teacher :smallsigh: decided to try to do a full chapter in 3 days...the class did poorly.

[Eloel]

Do something you like. It makes life easier.

I graduated from high school with a 65 average (out of 100. 160 something'th out of a class of 200). Luckily our college admissions are done solely with an SAT-like exam, which I wasn't as much a wreck in.

College? 3.95 average (out of 4, as normal) last semester. No change in amount of studying (which summarizes to "go to classes, do any homework that is scored, ignore everything else, including pre-exam studying") , just doing easy (I know the definition changes from one person to another) stuff like math and comp sci. bumped my average by a huge lot.

Also important to note is: Do something marketable. Someone above me gave a nice advice on that, so go back to that.

If the two match, perfect. If not, tough luck.

[Moff Chumley]

I barely got a 3.0 throughout high school, and got accepted into a quite good school. So, I'm thinkin' SAT/ACTs, essays, and extracurriculars are counting for a good deal. :smalltongue:

[Temotei]

Where did you guys hear about this?

...From a professor. I took his word for it (bad, whatever, dun care) because he was basically the go-to guy for help on college knowledge before actually being in college.

Besides, highly prestigious schools were looking to get me there because of my ACT score when I had just above average grades in high school.


Yeah, I'm a little worried about my GPA. It's a 3.4 ever since the week before school ended some teacher :smallsigh: decided to try to do a full chapter in 3 days...the class did poorly.

Dudebro brodude. Worrying won't make it better and if you did even decently on your ACT, that score will mean a good school.

[noparlpf]

...From a professor.

Besides, highly prestigious schools were looking to get me there because of my ACT score when I had just above average grades in high school.

I ask because my grandfather (a former university professor, taught at NYU among others) couldn't believe that was true and demanded I cite my claim.

[NerfTW]

Everyone's got the academic points down. I'm going to hit the stuff nobody ever tells you about.

Beer is nice. Beer is a delicious and wonderful thing to drink. I brew my own. I love beer. However:

Alcohol is a poison. Limit your intake of it.

Ying and Yang. Don't be another drunken college student whose liver is about to shut down by the age of 24. I had a friend who did that.

Drink in moderation. You're going to have far more fun when you can remember what you were doing the previous night. Not when it's a black haze and you're useless the next day.

Don't do keg stands. Don't do power hour. If you puke while drinking, that's a bad thing, not something to be proud of.


Eat a balanced diet. I don't know how so many college students do this, but you can't survive on calories alone. You need a lot of other things. Did you know scurvy is rampant on college campuses? Because students don't eat any fruits and veggies without parents demanding it, and they get Vitamin C deficiency. (Yes, even potatoes have Vitamin C)

Don't be the loser that takes a bet to eat only beef jerkey and beer for a month and wind up 100 pounds heavier with a failing liv.... um, yeah, same guy.


Having sex with a passed out drunk woman is rape. Anyone who does it is a scumbag and deserves to be in jail. That shouldn't have to be said, but sadly, at the college I went to, it did. If you see someone being taken advantage of, call the police and keep an eye on them.

They might have been drugged. This is debatable how big of an epidemic date rape drugs are, but never assume someone "deserves" what happens because they made the choice to get drunk. They might not have.

[noparlpf]

Everyone's got the academic points down. I'm going to hit the stuff nobody ever tells you about.

Beer is nice. Beer is a delicious and wonderful thing to drink. I brew my own. I love beer. However:

Alcohol is a poison. Limit your intake of it.

Ying and Yang. Don't be another drunken college student whose liver is about to shut down by the age of 24. I had a friend who did that.

Drink in moderation. You're going to have far more fun when you can remember what you were doing the previous night. Not when it's a black haze and you're useless the next day.

Don't do keg stands. Don't do power hour. If you puke while drinking, that's a bad thing, not something to be proud of.

Personally, I don't drink, but I'll agree with this. If you do drink, do it in moderation. Don't be stupid.


Eat a balanced diet. I don't know how so many college students do this, but you can't survive on calories alone. You need a lot of other things. Did you know scurvy is rampant on college campuses? Because students don't eat any fruits and veggies without parents demanding it, and they get Vitamin C deficiency. (Yes, even potatoes have Vitamin C)

Don't be the loser that takes a bet to eat only beef jerkey and beer for a month and wind up 100 pounds heavier with a failing liv.... um, yeah, same guy.

Personally, I cook for myself most days. Simple beef, chicken, pork, &c. meals are easy to cook, and they're much tastier and healthier than most cafeteria food. Don't forget vegetables and grains. Fruit is also excellent. My school was cool enough to have apples and sometimes bananas or oranges at the dining hall. I dropped in once a week, filled my pockets (I wear cargo pants) or sometimes my bag, and then there was a rumour I had an orange tree growing under my desk because I literally always had oranges in my pockets. I love oranges. The point is, eat fruit. (And then they were poops and limited everyone to one piece of fruit per meal. Probably because I was always taking half the fruit. But seeing as I only came to the dining hall once a week, and only took fruit, and they got the entire meal plan anyway because they refused to cancel it, I think it balanced out and I stole extra fruit anyway.)
As for scurvy--an upperclassman friend told me about a student a few years back who had scurvy...twice in the same year. Ate nothing but microwave noodles, got scurvy, got over it, went right back to microwave noodles every day.


Having sex with a passed out drunk woman is rape. Anyone who does it is a scumbag and deserves to be in jail. That shouldn't have to be said, but sadly, at the college I went to, it did. If you see someone being taken advantage of, call the police and keep an eye on them.

I stayed away from the drinkers and druggies, and my old school is small enough that sexual assault is pretty rare. But in big colleges and universities, especially in frat society (I'm not saying all frats are like this, mind), rape can be pretty common, and a lot of guys won't even consider it rape to have nonconsentual sex with an unconscious drunk woman. It's still considered rape even if she is conscious if she's drunk.


They might have been drugged. This is debatable how big of an epidemic date rape drugs are, but never assume someone "deserves" what happens because they made the choice to get drunk. They might not have.

Victim blaming is despicable. Yes, one can put oneself in a potentially dangerous situation, but it's always the rapist's fault.
http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb416/noparlpf/dontrape.jpg

[NerfTW]

Victim blaming is despicable. Yes, one can put oneself in a potentially dangerous situation, but it's always the rapist's fault.
http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb416/noparlpf/dontrape.jpg

You're right. I worded it a little insensitively. I was focusing on the reasons people use to excuse rape or not act when they see it happening that I saw in my college years. In any case, it's rape, but in the case of "Why didn't you intervene?", the answer is usually "Well, they chose to put themselves in that position" (Sad but terribly true). The response that's going to end any argument or debate about responsibility (which always comes up) is that you have no idea if they chose to do anything. Which tends to put a stop to any philosophical moral pondering. I was afraid of derailing the thread with the last one.

[evil-frosty]

I was told that grades were on top and that your essay was second or third depending on your extracurriculars and what you write about versus the type of the school you are applying to. ACT score was fourth I was told. A counselor at St Louis University gave me this information and I just graduated high school this year for what it is worth

[Knaight]

Regarding the ACT in particular: It is a joke, you can get good scores on it half asleep, and the best way to do poorly on it is to stress out (or to double guess yourself because "it can't be this easy").

Regarding college: How prestigious a college is is surprisingly irrelevant for undergrad studies. What you want is something cheap; a community college that costs $4,000 a year is probably a better choice than an ivy league school that costs $60,000 a year. Make sure that you aren't going to a place with an actively bad reputation, avoid diploma mills, and don't go somewhere that focuses far more on the sort of major you don't have, and you'll be fine.

[AtlanteanTroll]

Regarding the ACT in particular: It is a joke, you can get good scores on it half asleep, and the best way to do poorly on it is to stress out (or to double guess yourself because "it can't be this easy").

Pretentious much? I for one haven't taken the ACT, but I know some people who have found it generally difficult and dismissing it as a joke is ... Rude.

[Knaight]

Pretentious much? I for one haven't taken the ACT, but I know some people who have found it generally difficult and dismissing it as a joke is ... Rude.

No. It is a joke, and deserves to be treated as such, and the biggest enemy you have on it is making it more complex than it is because it seems too simple. The second biggest is stressing out over it. It may have been difficult in the past, but it isn't anymore.

[Madara]

No. It is a joke, and deserves to be treated as such, and the biggest enemy you have on it is making it more complex than it is because it seems too simple. The second biggest is stressing out over it. It may have been difficult in the past, but it isn't anymore.

Some people are just bad at taking tests. I didn't have an awful time, but I wouldn't call it a "joke". More like a "Marathon"

and I would mention some stupid things in the test, but I had to sign a nondisclosure agreement :smallsigh:

[noparlpf]

You're right. I worded it a little insensitively. I was focusing on the reasons people use to excuse rape or not act when they see it happening that I saw in my college years. In any case, it's rape, but in the case of "Why didn't you intervene?", the answer is usually "Well, they chose to put themselves in that position" (Sad but terribly true). The response that's going to end any argument or debate about responsibility (which always comes up) is that you have no idea if they chose to do anything. Which tends to put a stop to any philosophical moral pondering. I was afraid of derailing the thread with the last one.

I wasn't saying you were at fault or that you worded it poorly. I just have strong feelings on the subject and was backing up what you said with slightly firmer wording.

[Anxe]

Gonna counter the beer comment (part of it anyway). Beer is nasty. It's probably the worst tasting alcohol that's made. Most people that I've met only drink it because its also the cheapest alcohol that's made.

Another good piece of advice I got when first going to college was to keep in touch with my high school friends. That's worked out really well for me.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I'm gonna have to counter the counter-beer comment.

Beer is delicious. The drinking age is half the reason I'm going to the university I am: because EVERY university student is drinking age, there's almost NO stupid binges, just safer social drinking.

And maybe I'm just lucky, but all my friends and I, we drink beer because we like the taste. Beer SUCKS at getting drunk really quickly, but it's great for when you really just want to sit out tanning in the sun, with a couple of ice-cold beers, practicing with throwing knives and listening to awesome music.

[noparlpf]

I've only ever found one beer I found palatable, and it was at an Indian restaurant, and I forgot the name. Otherwise I don't like beer, but at least it's better than coffee. (I am going to be the weirdest American adult.)

[Moff Chumley]

I like good beer. Unfortunately good beer is not found on campuses particularly frequently. The only reason to drink crappy beer is to get drunk, and drinking beer to get drunk is awful.