25 Things Every College Freshman
Should Know Before Classes Start

Since its inception in 2005 our Survival Guide has been read (and distributed via the condensed, downloadable pdf available here) to tens of thousands of college students, administrators and parents. But in April of this year ‘freshman survival’ took on a disturbingly literal meaning. The world watched in horror as the events on campus at Virginia Tech changed forever the meaning of terms we’ve taken for granted like ‘campus safety,’ and ‘security’ and introduced a new term to campuses: ‘lockdown.’

In light of these heightened concerns, BustedHalo.com is dedicating an entire week to different aspects of Freshman Survival. We spoke with students, campus experts and mental health professionals from across the United States as well as people on campus at Virginia Tech to address any new concerns along with the age-old challenges faced by college students. Over the next week, we’ll have a new article each day devoted to helping the campus’ newest arrivals through these first few months of college life.

Look for articles in the coming days on how to study time management, how to be safe on campus and even advice for parents on helping them and their new college student through this transition. Then visit the BustedHalo page on Facebook to see even more tips in an interactive environment where you can ask questions or add your own advice.

The Send Off

As a youth minister, I say goodbye to my freshly graduated high school seniors every August and somewhere between leaving home and arriving on campus they become college freshman. Some of them seem to hit the ground running and never look back. For others their freshman year, especially the first few months, can be more of a challenge. There are a number of things that make these first months away at college tricky:

• You’re in a new place away from everything and everyone familiar.

• There’s no one to keep you accountable and true to the person you have always been.

• You’re learning to set your own limits.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed. Keep in mind though, others have gone before you and lived to tell the tale. Here are 25 tips and tricks to help you avoid the most common pitfalls, plus advice from other college students and experts to get you through the next few months…

1. Be Generous with your Friendship but Stingy with your Trust
The friends you have back home didn’t get to be your friends overnight. It took months or, more likely, years, to establish those friendships. You

trust your friends because

they’ve proven themselves trustworthy. At college it can feel like these new people are your old friends. You’re eating together, studying together, sometimes spending more time with these people than you ever could

with your friends from back home. These new friends need to earn your trust though, don’t just give it to them. The people you meet in your first few weeks of school may be great, some of them may turn out to be the best friends of your life, or they may turn out to be criminals. Every freshman class has its gems and its jerks (I’m not kidding, some of them are actually criminals). Which ones are which will come clear over the next few months. Wait until you get to know them a little before you say…loan them your car, give them all your passwords or

your ATM card, or share your deepest secrets with them.

2. Go to Class!
Seems obvious, it IS why you’re at college but you wouldn’t believe how many freshmen skip their way out of school. Do a little math and figure out how much it costs for you to have your butt in that chair per hour. You’ll be less willing to blow one off. Most professors will allow one or two absences but save ’em for the end of the semester when you’ve got mono and three papers due in the same week.

3. For the First Few Weeks Live Like a Monk
Monks take vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience. There’s plenty of

fun to be had at college and lots of time to have it. The first few weekends, especially among freshman, can be a bit of a free-for-all and

are often when you are at your most vulnerable. Give yourself a chance to get acclimated to your new surroundings before you start taking chances. Those chances will most likely look a lot less attractive once you’re feeling more comfortable.

• Chastity College may be the place where you meet the love of your life but you probably won’t know that in the first week of school, especially on Friday night after a couple of drinks. It’s too soon to tell who’s who. Give yourself some time to settle in before adding a boyfriend or girlfriend to the mix or hooking up with someone who may turn out to be bad news.

• Poverty Don’t blow all your money your first weekend there. In a few weeks you’ll be amazed what you can live without. If you have the luxury of calling home for cash, the parents will be a lot happier if you don’t do it the second week of school. All the more so if you worked all summer for spending money that has to last the semester. Companies love to give credit cards to new college students. JUST SAY NO! Credit is bad. It’s way too easy to get in over your head.

• Obedience Go to class!
  Fr. Charlie Donahue, CSP Catholic Chaplain at University of California, Berkeley also suggests humility—You are back at square one, just on a different board.  That great application that got you into this school is now filed away somewhere.  You are not your scores, on a court or field any more than on a test.  Yes, you are "God's special and unique snowflake" but it is snowing outside! 
  
  If you’ve always been able to skate along without really working too hard – that might just catch up with you now. Check out the BustedHalo Study Budget to help you develop a plan of attack.

4. Sleep is Good

Sleep! Do it at night as often as possible. Daytime sleep screws up your body clock and your ability to attend your very expensive classes. Lack of

sleep also impairs judgment. It may not seem like a big deal to pull a few

all-nighters but according to Dr. Richard Kadison, Chief of Mental Health Services at Harvard, poor sleep quality can lead to depression, anxiety, reduced physical health, poor problem solving and attention difficulties,

and increased use of drugs and alcohol. 

Kadison adds—Less than six hours of sleep per night can lead to deficits in attention, concentration, memory, and critical thinking, along with increased depression, irritability and anxiety.

5. Get involved...but not too involved

Every club, activity, and association will be vying for your time. The college experience is about so much more than classes. Campus activities and organizations are a great way to expand your horizons and connect with other students who share your interests. Be choosey and if you’re a “joiner” be careful not to over commit yourself.

Campus Minister Dave Nantais at the University of Michigan warns against doing too much at first—Sometimes I see freshman who come in and sign up for everything under the sun and by mid-October they’re already burned out from being too involved.

6. Living with a Weirdo
They might be weird or messy or talk too much or keep different hours than you but work hard to establish and maintain a positive relationship with your new roommate. You may not spend every waking moment together, nor should you, but even roommates who are polar opposites can still offer each other a little sympathy after a hard day. It’s also nice to have someone to go to the dining hall with.

Michelle Goodwin, Associate Director of Catholic Campus Ministry at the University of Texas offers this advice—Even if you filled out the likes/dislikes form the college sent you, it may take one semester to understand more clearly what you can and can not tolerate. Your roommate may look different, have different taste in music and interests and still be the best person in the world but you will never find out if you don't give them a chance.  If conflicts arise, try to work them out with your roommate first and then go to you RA for help.

7. Homesickness can be really tough but one of the worst ways to fight it is by heading home for the weekend

Tough it out for one more weekend and make the effort to get out and do something. You’ll miss out on a lot of college life if you hit the road and spend all of your weekends back home. Plus when you get back on campus Sunday night you can end up feeling even more isolated. If you really can’t make it without a little homemade TLC try a nice long phone call first or see if you can con your folks into coming to visit you. 

8. Helpful People: they come standard on virtually every campus! 

Coming out of high school it can be easy to think of administration as part of the problem but...

Michael Galligan-Stierle, Vice President of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities suggests—Trust the institution of RA’s and adults as mentors rather than looking at them as authority figures.

There are lots of people on campus whose job it is to help you. Depending on your question or problem there are any number of folks to help you through: health services, counseling, your academic advisor, your RA. Colleges know the transition can be a rocky one. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it!

9. Find Out About Campus Ministry
Speaking of helpful people…in addition to the folks mentioned above, many campuses have great Catholic parishes and staffs that can both comfort and challenge you in your faith. It’ll be different than home but should be familiar enough to keep you grounded. “We call ourselves a student parish, this is your parish and you shape what happens here.” says Dave Nantais. Campus Ministry can be a great place to meet people with similar values, get connected with service and retreat opportunities and can be a real life line if you find yourself struggling later in the semester. Prayer groups, social events, interfaith opportunities and even spiritual direction (someone to act as a mentor and guide for your prayer life) are often available through campus ministry.

Fr. Larry Rice, Director of Catholic Campus Ministry at Ohio State suggests—Your Catholic campus minister, chaplain, or Newman Center staff members are here to help.  If you need someone to talk to, a place to belong, a community to be a part of, and a place to be accepted for yourself, look us up.  Generally speaking, we're a different kind of church than you may have experienced before: energetic, welcoming, faith-filled, and fun. Seriously. 

10. Be Yourself and Take Time to Reflect
College is a great opportunity to reinvent yourself but don’t go too far.

Remember that whomever you decide to become is the character you’ll have to play for the rest of this drama. Don’t forget who you are just because you‘re in a new place. You’re still you and it’s gotten you this far! Your values, your likes and dislikes, the things you’re good at haven’t changed, hang onto those things, especially while you’re getting used to this new environment. Rev. Charles L. Currie, S.J., president of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities explains that there is “an explosion of options” for students in their first few weeks on campus.

Rev. Charles L. Currie, S.J., president of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities suggests—Once a week, step back and say to yourself “What’s going on? What choices have I made and have they been good ones or bad ones?” Try to develop a whole lifestyle of conversation, of both listening and responding in as mature a way as possible. That’s a lifetime project, obviously, we’re still doing it, but these are the early stages.

Joshua Daly adds—College is a great time to find yourself and what you love. Some people have known what they wanted to do when they grew up since they were 7; others, not so much. You don't have to figure it all out at once. With all of the pressures, I found I really figured out the big questions little by little, and I learned from lots of different experiences and people.

11. Friendships
After your first week reassess your new friendships. Do it again after your first month. If the friends you connected with initially don’t seem to be a good fit, widen your circle. If you find your group stays in when you want to go out, drinks too much or just has different interests don’t be afraid to continue meeting new people.

12. Too Much of a Dangerous Thing
You might be tempted to tune this advice out because you've heard it so many times before...DON'T! I can’t tell you how many kids I’ve known who've bombed out because they drank too much! Without the simple

limits of home—curfews, my mom will know if I spend the night hugging the toilet, friends who don’t want to go drinking—it’s easy to find yourself with a very expensive waste of a semester. It’s a really embarrassing way to flunk out of college or get yourself into stupid trouble. If you won't take my word for it, the statistics on the effects of college drinking are astounding, see for yourself. If you’re getting wasted every weekend you’re headed for trouble. If you’re missing class because you’re hung over you’re IN trouble. (See the list of helpful people in #8 and #9.) Underage drinking is a bad idea. Don’t do it.

R.A. Anthony Bernardo from SUNY Purchase warns, “People are going to do dumb things in the hall. If you have friends who drink but you don't, and they invite you over to their room where everyone is loud and will get caught, don't do it. You can still get written up.”

13. Psych 101
Later adolescence and early young adulthood are the blooming seasons for many mental illnesses. The college environment, little sleep, no supervision, a lack of people who know what “normal” is for you can all add up to danger when it comes to addiction or mental illness. If you find yourself behaving in ways that are contrary to your values or like you’re in the bottom of an emotional pit and can’t get out—get to the counseling center! Addiction and mental illness are two of the deadliest issues for college freshman.

The most painful thing I experience as a clinician is witnessing the amount of suffering that students endure before seeking help. They often suffer alone, which compounds the problem. They don’t want to burden parents or friends, and ironically that selfless desire increases their isolation, which further worsens the problem. They haven’t learned yet that sharing stress invites others to share their own stresses, solidifies connections and provides opportunities for new perspectives and solutions.

—Dr. Richard Kadison

14. Go to Class!

NEXT>

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We encourage people to

print out and distribute

an abbreviated, one-page

2007 Freshman Survival Guide

PDF version         MS Word version

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Facebook: log onto Facebook and search for the group “BustedHalo” Add your own suggestions and experiences to the Survival Guide (or read other people’s)…

Interested in inviting Nora Bradbury-Haehl to lead a Freshman Survival Workshop for you? Email her at nora@bustedhalo.com

Nora Bradbury-Haehl is a contributing editor at BustedHalo. She writes from Rochester, NY.

Comments to: editor@bustedhalo.com