College: How Do I Survive?
Tags: College Advice, Surviving College, College, Academic Success, Advice

College: How Do I Survive?

A complete guide to help you be successful in college, with an action plan for before, during, and after the semester. Xavier 6 hours ago·10 min read

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

For some of us, school just started, for others, we’re a week or so into it. While some people can breeze through college, the rest of us find ourselves struggling. Some of us watch the late work pile up, or the grade drop letter by letter. Some of us might be passing classes, but can’t be social if we tried. Some of us are running around like chickens with our heads cut off, managing but not without mountains of stress.

How do I survive college?

After going through a few semesters, mostly online, I’ve learned different tips that help me survive the hustle and bustle of college. And as most of us are starting to get back on campus, some of these tips are a reminder of how to manage in-person college.

This survival guide is built into three categories. Before, During, and After the semester. Yes, there are things you can do before and after a semester to help you survive college. I will explain in each category.

Before the Semester

While most people don’t even want to think about college (or classes) before they start, there’s a lot you can do to prepare yourself for college (or classes) that will make the experience better and easier.

Learn, or relearn campus

If you’ve never been on campus before, take a tour. The tour giver is almost always a student from said college, they’ll know where what buildings are, where activities take place, where admissions/testing/security are. Sometimes the tour giver will give tips that you won’t know by just looking at a map or looking around yourself. It is extremely important you know where everything is before classes start. Seriously, you do not want to be running around lost on the first day of classes.

If you’ve been on campus before, take a walk around to familiarize yourself of where everything is. Sometimes new buildings are built, sometimes they are renovated, sometimes things are moved just to be moved. I recommend walking around once the campus is open, then you may run into old professors or classmates.

Since I had only been online before this semester, I took the time to get on campus and familiarize myself with the area. I learned the drive there and where to park. I also took a tour when they were giving them, and that really helped me figure out where my lab was and where study rooms/bookstore/library all were.

Grab books/parking pass/ID before classes (if you can)

Most people leave grabbing parking passes and IDs on the first day of classes. At colleges with a small ID pickup, it makes the line extremely long. It’s not horrible, but do you really want to be standing in a line before/after your first class? Probably not.

If you can, grab your ID the week before classes start. I did and there was no one in line. Just walked up to the security desk and got both my ID and parking pass right away. I was also able to grab my books without having to wait in line at the bookstore. This made my first day far less stressful, as I knew I already had everything I needed.

Know your courses and professors

Well duh, I know my calc 3 class will be doing calc 3. Okay, but what is your humanities class going over? Not every professor chooses the same path. Read what the course is about, email questions to your professors, ask them if there is anything to review before class. Some professors don’t respond to emails before the semester starts, which sucks, but some do. If you can learn even a little bit about the class before it starts, it will give you a leg up when the semester kicks into gear. I emailed mine to let them know I was excited about the class, I asked a few if they would be okay with writing letters of recommendations later in the semester since I planned to apply for jobs or internships. I got responses from a few, which was great! Some of them told me some topics to relearn before class started, which really helped me that first week.

If you know people at the college, ask them about professors. Who did they like? Who did they not like? How was their class set up? You can also check rate my professor, but I don’t recommend it. If you think about it, the last time you gave a review was when you really hated something or really liked something, so the reviews on there are probably pretty bias. It’s better to go to someone you know, and who knows you, to give honest feedback about said professor.

Read. The. Syllabus.

I cannot tell you the amount of people who have lost points, missed dates, or really screwed something up because they didn’t read the syllabus. Almost everything you will need to know, deadlines, late policy, grading policy, contact, lab, office hours should all be in the syllabus. Seriously, you can save your ass by reading the syllabus. Actually reading, not just skimming it.

I found out required materials that weren’t on the bookstore list in the syllabus. I realized a date I couldn’t miss and rescheduled the doctor’s appointment I had that day. If I had missed that day, I would have gotten a big, fat zero.

And if you have questions about anything in the syllabus, ask! Your professor is there to help you. Ask them to clarify something or explain something you missed.

During the Semester

During the semester is the most stressful part of college, but it can be the most fun too! Balancing work and play during the semester takes skill, but once you have that skill it really pays off.

Go to Welcome Week

Most colleges have some sort of Welcome Back/Welcome Week. Your first week of classes are going to be the easiest, this is your time to take advantage of college activities without worrying about the coursework as much.

Welcome Week is a great way to learn about/relearn about the college, as most Welcome Weeks will have trivia about the college or more tours or information booths. It’s a great way to meet new people and make friends. Plus, some of them have free food, or games, or raffles! You pay for all of this in your tuition, so may as well enjoy it!

I’ve gotten to get free lunch, airbrush tattoos, tie-dye, and meet people! I know my semester will be stressful, so it’s relieving to start it on a good note.

Stay on top of due dates

Write them down, put them on your calendar, make a spreadsheet of them, whatever you need to stay on top of them. It’s easy to forget that paper is due next week, or that assignment was due yesterday. Some apps the colleges use have reminders for due dates. While it may be annoying for your phone to go off every time something is due, it’ll remind you when you forget.

Setting up reminders has definitely saved my grade. Usually, I try to get everything done asap, but sometimes that one or two assignments slip past my schedule. Next thing I know it’s due tomorrow and I never would have remembered if I didn’t have reminders about due dates.

Take advantage of college resources

Financial aid, counseling, tutoring- use them! Ask your advisor about programs the college has. Some have food drives, some have internship or career programs. If you are struggling, there are people at the college to help you, there are programs that you can use. It helps to learn about these programs before you need them. Sometimes Welcome week will have information about these programs, or sometimes your professors will tell you about them.

I learned that we have a nurse on campus in our wellness center through a student information day. I learned about our campus’s safe allies program through one of my professors. I have yet to use these programs but could see myself needing them in the future. So now, instead of scrambling last minute, I already know they are there and where to access them.

Take part in campus life/student life

As much as you can, obviously. If you have work or class, those come first but don’t choose to always skip out on campus life activities. It’s a great way to destress, meet some new people, and maybe even get free food (as a college student, free food is always a win).

Look into the clubs on campus, a big college will have just about any club you can think of, and if they don’t have the one you are looking for, you can always start one. I get that clubs are a little more of a responsibility, so it’s not viable for everyone. That being said, some clubs are really relaxed about how much you show up, so it could be a better way to meet people who have similar interests as you.

I was able to take part in a game club even during the pandemic. It wasn’t as fun as it could have been if it was in person, but I got to meet a lot of people and enjoyed playing games online with all of them.

After the Semester

After the semester, groan, we all just want to move on and take a break. But if you’re continuing on with school, it’s important to keep these tips in mind.

Stay in touch with friends and professors.

Even if you’re done with school, you still want to have connections with all the people you met in college. Do you really want to throw out all the connections you made in the past 2/4/6 years to go out the window? No. There’s always a chance you’ll get the time and money to go travel and see everyone you met at college.

Besides getting to hang out with your friends, professors or faculty can write you letters of recommendation. They might also know someone who works at that company and can get you a job there.

To add to that, if you’re returning to the school for the next semester, then you still have contacts of people there. You know professors that you like or dislike, you’ll know people if you want to take a class with someone you know, or room with a familiar face.

Keep your notes

Especially if you’re moving onto the next sequence in a class. Do you really want to throw away a semester’s worth of work? And then have to relearn in a rush right before class starts? No, you don’t. A lot of professors do go over key points from the class before, but it’s still good to have those notes around. Trust me, the time before the spring semester and fall semester is horrible for the memory. I walked into French class with a poor memory of what we did in the spring, and my notes are nowhere to be found.

So do yourself a favor and keep those notes.

However, if you aren’t moving up to the next class, I’d still keep them. Sometimes you’ll find a friend or someone you know who needs them. I’m not saying keep your notes for years and years, but at least keep them for the next semester, just in case you need them.

Catch up on things

School makes us fall behind in a lot of things, cleaning, working, self-care, reading, that tv series you really want to watch. Use the break to catch up on everything you need to catch up on. And no, I’m not saying work yourself to death, I mean catch up on all the rest you need to. Take some days between work and cleaning to go to a spa or a park or play video games until your eyes bleed. Let yourself reset and replenish before the next school semester starts up.

Use the time to hang out with friends too. No, not just the ones from college. If you go home, spend time with those friends and family. Go to places you missed while you were at college, or didn’t have the time to go to.

I always use the breaks to catch up on writing. I spent this summer getting into medium and working on short stories here and there. I don’t have much time over the semester for anything, I haven’t even gotten to play assassins creed for the past week because I’ve been so busy. So, I use my breaks to catch up and enjoy.

Take advantage of Internships

If you can, I know everyone is not in a financial situation that allows them to, but if you can, do it. Try to shoot for ones that are paid, government internships, or school internships are usually good ones. If you do land one that isn’t paid, I suggest looking into the legality of it because some of them that are supposed to be paid aren’t. But, that being said, try to get the experience, and make some connections.

Obviously, if they are just treating you like an unpaid secretary, then leave. Also, don’t super stress yourself over the internship, because if you don’t do great there it isn’t a be-all end-all. This is more of a looks good on your resume, good way to learn and make connections kind of thing.

Get ready for the next semester!

Yeah, this is a corny one, but it does help. Use the tips from before the semester to get ready. Make sure you’re all registered for classes and have your finances. Make sure you have all the notebooks and room stuff you need. Make sure your backpack still works okay and there are enough pencils to last you five years. Check to see who you’re rooming with if you’re rooming with someone.

And most important of all, be excited to start your next semester! College is an experience, maybe not the best, but it’s something for us to take one moment at a time. Bad classes, fun events, cool professors, sucky classmates, it’s all part of the process.