Hey everyone! Today's post is for all my current and pre-college students. college is truly one of the best and most stressful times of your life. For me personally, my freshman year hit a few bumps in the road. mostly from stress but all of it came from the trials and tribulations of learning life for yourself. Before college I had a lot of people give me pieces of advice to make the transition smoother but there's of a lot of key pieces I had to learn for myself. Today I'm going to be sharing with you guys three things I learned about college that most people haven't told you.
1. One college semester feels like 2 regular years
College time FLIES. It’s absolutely insane how fast time feels in college. One mistake I saw many people make during my freshman year was take advantage of time. In September midterms and assignments seem far but before you know it, its the middle of November you only have one more month to pull your grades up.
The hype of everything being new makes it really easy to forget how fast time is moving. You’re meeting new people, in a new place, and doing new things which can be fun and exciting but could also be what cost you a good grade in your classes.
Keep yourself on track the best way you can. Use a planner or an app that will help you stay on top of your assignments and check your emails. And most importantly DO NOT PROCRASTINATE!!! This one is the hardest one out of all of them but will pay off in the end.
2. Yes you’ll find your “life long friends” after you swim through the sea of associates
One thing that I was told the most before starting college was that my high school friends won’t matter and college is where I'll meet my “lifelong friends” and to an extent this is true. You'll grow, evolve, and bond with the people you meet in college that will create strong bonds and potentially life long friendships. But this is an expectation you should leave at the door when you first go to college.
When in my freshman year I saw many people group together and declare themselves, lifelong friends, only after a few months of knowing each other. One year later after at the end of my sophomore year most of those people are complete strangers to each other now.
Most of the people you meet, especially in the beginning will be associates. Yes, you’ll have things in common and bond with them over it. But over time you will evolve and so will they. Take the time to get to know people first. Explore all the friendships you can have before you close yourself off to one specific group that may not be beneficial to your personal growth in the long run.
3. It’s okay to withdraw from a class
When you are in college you have the option to drop or withdraw from a class. When you drop the class (usually before two full weeks of classes has started) you are able to drop a class from your schedule without it showing on your records or transcripts. When you withdraw from a class (usually done no later than 4 weeks before the semester ends) you are unenrolling yourself from a class but it will show on your transcript and a W which is equivalent to nothing.
When I was educated on college I was told that you want to avoid withdrawing from a class by all means necessary, which is true. However, it is not the end of the world if you decide to make that decision for yourself. In my freshman year, I withdrew from a class because I was advised to do so, which obviously took some of the weight, shame, and fear off of making that decision on my own. However the second time I was approached with different reactions. My new advisor told me I would be making a mistake and that it’ll look horrible on my transcript. In the end, I went with my gut and withdrew from that class
Heres the reason and the reality of withdrawing from a class. I knew that I will have the opportunity to retake this class in the future without sacrificing my GPA and finishing the class through the semester was personally a waste of time for me because it would take away time I could’ve put into my other classes. Can withdrawing form a class affects your GPA? Yes, if you withdraw from serval classes within your college career and don’t keep up with how many credits you need to be a full-time student. That option is there for a reason so don’t be afraid to use it. Just really evaluate your pros and cons to see if it’s worth doing.