By Katie Azevedo, M.Ed.
Starting college can be exciting, overwhelming, and full of unfamiliarity. Whether you’re moving into a dorm on campus or commuting to college from home, there are some universal truths that will make your freshman year smoother, smarter, more manageable, and more enjoyable.
Below is a list of 25 things every college freshman should know, broken into four categories:
- Academics and Study StrategyÂ
- Time, Task and Routine Management
- Dorm Life and Daily Adulting
- Social Growth and Self-Discovery
25 Things All College Freshmen Need to Know
The following tips are created particularly for college freshmen. However, if you’re reading this tutorial and youâre in your second, third, or fourth year of college, it’s not too late to change how you’ve been doing things. Let the list below inspire you.
Academics and Study Strategy
The way you managed academics and study routines in high school does not work in college. To learn more things you did in high school that don’t work in college, check this out. In college, your academic habits and systems can make or break your success in your courses.
1. Attend class consistently, even when you donât feel like it.
It’s super easy to skip class in college. Nobody calls your parents or asks for an absence letter. However, skipping class breaks your momentum and costs you more than you think. College courses are cumulative, which means skipping even one course can derail your understanding of all the content moving forward. If you have to miss a class in college, follow these steps immediately.
2. Wait until the second week to buy textbooks.
Unless your professor communicates that you need your textbook on the first day of class, I suggest waiting before you purchase your books. Professors often make last-minute changes to the specific edition they require, or they might provide an alternative PDF or digital version on the first day of class.
When you do need to purchase your textbooks, consider purchasing them from a student who just took the class before you. Be sure to check secondhand bookstores and eBay for your cheapest options.
3. Use RateMyProfessors and peer feedback.
As a freshman in college, youâll be choosing your courses at least a few weeks before your semester starts. Whereas you know nothing about professorsâ reputations via word-of-mouth, reviews from other students can give insight into a class or professorâs teaching styles, workload, and expectations. As with any online rating system, always take extreme reviews with a grain of salt. If someone provides excessive praise or excessive criticism for a professor, their experience was likely uncommon or their review was based more on emotion than facts.
4. Meet with your advisor at least once a semester.
Your college advisor is nothing like your high school guidance counselor. Advisors offer a range of services and supports far beyond what you likely got in high school, so take advantage of this professional guidance. College advisors help you stay on track with graduation requirements, major/minor requirements, and course planning.
They can also help with career planning and internships. Just don’t expect your college advisor to reach out to you to schedule meetings; at the college level, that relationship is up to you to maintain. Set a reminder in your calendar to meet with your advisor at least once a semester.
5. Get to know your professors.
It’s always important to develop relationships with your teachers, but even more so at the college level. Many college freshman courses are large seminars where, unfortunately, you’ll simply be a face in the crowd. Sometimes, the only way a professor will know who you are is if you make an effort to introduce yourself and stay connected throughout the semester. The truth is that whether or not youâre struggling, professors are more likely to help (and recommend) students they know personally.
6. Your study method matters more than your study time.
Studying looks very different at the college level. In high school, your teachers likely provided study guides and study resources, and facilitated study sessions and reviews during class time. College doesn’t work this way. To have any level of success in college, you need to use legitimate study strategies that go beyond memorization. Itâs time to master active recall and spaced repetition to study smarter, not longer.
The fastest way to learn legitimate study strategies and figure out which ones work for you is in SchoolHabits University. You donât have time to figure this out on your own.
7. Make a plan before each study session.
At the college level, you need to upgrade your study session planning skills. Why? Because you don’t have time to waste, and you likely have multiple tests to study for at once. Decide what youâre working on, for how long, and with what method. A clear plan makes your study session effective and efficient, so you can learn the thing and move on.
8. Do the hard thing first.
This advice doesn’t work for every student, but it works for most: tackle your most challenging task when your brain is freshest, often earlier in the day. Throughout a typical college day, itâs easy to lose motivation to work on hard tasks (like writing essays and studying), and you’ll be more likely to procrastinate. Itâs difficult to rely on willpower alone in these moments, so get the hard thing done first so you donât have to fight against your late-day motivation dip.
9. Avoid the all-or-nothing trap.
A typical college day looks very different from a typical high school day. You may have back-to-back classes all day or you may even have full days without classes. With that irregular structure, it can be easy to fall into the all-or-nothing trap. This is the false belief that if you don’t have a huge chunk of time to work on your homework or assignments, then it’s not worth doing anything at all. But that’s not how college works. Even 10 focused minutes is better than none. Small efforts add up to forward movement.
10. Treat school like your job.
If you’re a full-time college student, then school is literally your job. That means you should be treating it like one. What does that mean? Be professional, stay accountable, and show up for yourself. Dress appropriately. Communicate clearly and effectively. Maintain your reputation and take pride in the work you produce. One of the most listened-to episodes on my Learn and Work Smarter podcast is How to Be Professional (episode 46), and it contains a bunch of good tips for college students.
Time, Task and Routine Management
Mastering your college calendar, tasks and routines will give you more freedom in college, not less. Getting your time and task management system in order will also significantly reduce your stress and improve your grades.
11. Build a weekly routine.
Every weekday in college will be different, but every week will essentially look the same. In other words, all your Mondays will look the same, all your Tuesdays will look the same, etc. Once you understand how a typical college week works, you can create a weekly routine with recurring blocks for classes, study sessions, meals, workouts, and rest. Then tweak your schedule as needed. Creating a predictable weekly schedule can reduce procrastination and time mismanagement.
12. Use a task manager (not your brain) to track assignments.
Whether itâs a planner, app, or sticky-note system, get your to-dos out of your head. As much as we want to believe we can remember it all, we cannot. And itâs silly to think otherwise. It is also not sufficient to use your learning management system as your task management system. At the college level, you need a task manager that lets you add your own tasks, including individual steps to long-term projects, study sessions, and anything else that is not technically an âassignment.â
13. Start before you feel ready.
The only way your assignments get done in college is if you do them. Iâll repeat that because it is exceptionally important: the only way your assignments get done in college is if you do them. That means youâll have to start before you feel ready. Rarely do we ever approach assignments with complete enthusiasm and motivation â but that’s not the point. At the college level, we need to understand that motivation is nice to have, but itâs not required to take action.Â
14. Overestimate how long things will take.
Most things take longer than we think theyâll take. That’s okay, and it’s all part of the process. Until you get the hang of your personal work pace, consider giving yourself time and a half to complete assignments. In other words, if you think something will take you sixty minutes to do, give yourself ninety minutes to complete the task. Time blindness is real, but itâs totally workable if you factor that in when making your schedule.
15. Build a weekly reset routine.
Building a weekly reset routine is a great way to reduce your stress and assess how things are working (or not working). Choose a day to clean up your space, check your grades, plan your week, and recalibrate. If we don’t build in this time to reflect on our processes, it’s easy to keep going in the wrong direction, using the wrong strategies that don’t work for us.
The solution is simple: give yourself about 30 minutes once a week, maybe on Sundays, to look at the week ahead, get an overview of what you have coming, reflect on the past week, and reset your space and emotions to zero. The upcoming week will go much smoother. Here are my best tips for how to do a weekend reset in thirty minutes.
Dorm Life and Daily Adulting
The following seven tips will help you survive (and even enjoy) living on your own in college.
16. Be considerate with your roommate.
Ideally, you would have connected with your roommate before school started to figure out some key characteristics of each other that will make your relationship run smoother. But if not, it’s not too late to do this when you first meet on campus. Set expectations early around noise, guests, and cleaning, as well as bedtimes and wake-up times.
17. Know your RA.
Just like forming relationships with your professors is important, forming relationships with your RA is also critical. Theyâre more than a rule-enforcer; they can help with a variety of issues, including solving roommate conflicts, answering questions, or finding campus resources. Try to introduce yourself within the first week of school and make an effort to smile and say hello whenever you see them in the hallway. Trust me: Your relationship with your RA can end up saving your bum down the road.
18. Stay on campus (even when you want to go home).
After the excitement of the first week on campus wears off, many students experience significant loneliness. If your college is close to home, you may be tempted to leave campus on the weekends to avoid homesickness. However, I strongly recommend staying on campus for at least the first month â even if you donât want to. Doing so helps you make friends, find your rhythm, and feel more connected.
If you dip home every weekend, youâll never form the relationships that have the potential to keep you on campus, happy, in the first place.
19. Explore your college town.
Your college campus will have plenty of resources and activities to keep you busy and entertained. However, it can be fun to explore your college town every once in a while â whether solo or with friends. New restaurants, parks, and cafes can help you feel less homesick and more independent. Also, novelty is a primary ingredient in motivation, so taking your work off campus to a new coffee shop has the potential to give you a motivation boost.
20. Save your money.
Every single thing about college is expensive. Therefore, simple financial responsibility and basic money management strategies are essential. Learn to cook, track your spending, and avoid impulse buys. If your friends plan a trip or a night out and you need to contribute to that expense, find another way to make back that money by reducing your spending in other areas. Smart choices now can give you freedom later. You can also get a part-time job in college, which I teach you how to do here.
21. Exercise and eat decently.
You’re a human being first, a college student second. That means you need to take care of your body to function at your optimal level. Movement and real food support your brain as much as your body, so make smart choices. At a minimum, get 30 minutes of activity and eat something green every day.
22. Stay organized.
Being disorganized makes everything in college exponentially harder. Don’t believe me? Read this. At the college level, you’re too old to rely on teachers and parents to keep you organized… plus, that’s not how real life works. Look at the different areas of your college life (dorm, academics, study space, school materials, calendar, task management system, etc.) and assess what’s working and what’s not working. If any of those areas feel stressful, that means it’s not working.Â
Use whatever system works for you â folders, color-coded notes, digital apps â it doesnât matter. Chaos creates resistance. Here are 11 essentials I recommend all students need for their college dorms.
Social Growth and Self-Discovery
Your freshman year is the time to build friendships, confidence, and self-awareness. The following tips can help you do exactly that.
23. Try at least one student club.
College clubs are different than high school clubs. If you weren’t a club person in high school, give it a shot in college because it might be exactly what you’ve been missing. Try something, even if itâs outside your comfort zone. You might discover something unexpected about yourself, which is one of the best parts of college.
24. Get involved in something beyond class.
In addition to joining some kind of student club, I recommend getting involved in something beyond the classroom. Examples include a campus job, a student internship, or a volunteer gig; any of these can shape your path in ways a textbook canât. How to do this? Use your collegeâs career center. Simply set up a meeting at the career center and let them guide you through the next steps. Colleges have incredible connections with local businesses and alumni networks, both of which can lead to amazing career or internship opportunities.
25. Enjoy the experience.
It’s true that many aspects of college are challenging and scary. But for many students, it’s also the most incredible experience of their lives. There is always something to enjoy, even when your days are stressful and your future seems uncertain. Say yes to new things, take breaks when you need them, and rememberâthis season is meant to shape you. Stay flexible and open-minded, and one day your future self will thank you.
Final Notes About What College Freshmen Need to Know
You donât need to master all of these strategies at once. In fact, I suggest starting with just three or four items from the above list to see how you adjust. Just keep showing up, learning, and being open to what path reveals itself to you as you move forward. College is never just about what you learn in class: itâs about learning how to manage your time, energy, and choices in a way that sets you up for everything that comes next.
Bonus Tips: Here are 3 more things you MUST know before going to college.