1. Branch out of your comfort zone
You tend to hear this a lot as an incoming college student, but truer words couldn't have been said. Freshman year is the best year to try new things because there are hundreds if not thousands of other freshman at your school who are in the same boat as you. This will open the door to new friendships that you will cherish throughout your uni years and well beyond them as well. If you're more shy and quiet by nature like myself, start with little things. Interact with your hallmates and your RA first. Make small talk on how crazy the walk up the hill to your 8 AM class is. The best way to make new friends is to find similarities between you guys. It's been scientifically proven that finding likenesses among individuals increases the probability of befriending that person.
Aside from making friends, join clubs or play club sports. You're going to want an outlet from all that studying and working that isn't Netflix. Try something you've never done but that you're intrigued by.
2. Find an internship early
I recommend this for everyone and cannot stress this enough. For one, the competition is rough and it only gets worse from there. The best time to intern, in my opinion, is the summer of sophomore and junior year because this gives you an idea of what you might be looking for when it comes time for all the senior year career fairs you'll be wanting to attend. Even though a job might be listed as "entry level," they still want at least one year of functional work or internship experience from you, and you want to be competitive.
But what if you don't know what career you're after yet? You should definitely still intern. Look up listings on a job search engine (I use Indeed.com). Apply to internships that particularly peak your interest. Check it out and see if you can envision yourself working in a similar position in the future. This is honestly the best way of finding out whether or not you truly have the capacity for, and will enjoy the job you're looking at. I made the mistake of delaying this more than I should have and definitely wish I could have started my internship search sooner. Finding a job and transitioning to life after college will be more simplified if I had found an internship sooner, but I am happy that I have found something, even if it's a bit delayed. If you do find an internship earlier on, you might even get a full-time job offer from the company you're interning for.
3. Take advantage of free services on campus
There are so many valuable resources available to you on campus that you may not even know that exist. And they're free, or covered in your mandatory student fees anyway. These could include the more obvious services like interview skills workshops and specialized career information sessions. Please, please, please do yourself a huge favor and attend these when you can. These workshops and information sessions offer such a wealth of information when it comes to finding jobs after graduation or figuring out whether you'd want to attend grad school. There also may be other less obvious services available on campus. For example, at my university, there is a designated graduate student for each school of majors who advises undergraduates on how best to get admitted into grad school. This includes reading and revising your personal statement, to offering advice on approaching the GRE to viewing and evaluating your resume. As you can imagine, this one-on-one advising is a great way to get specialized help on getting into grad school. There are many services outside of your university that charge for this kind of advising, so make sure you can take advantage of this opportunity while you're still an undergrad.
4. Double major if you can
I really, really wish I could've done this because you're quite literally getting two degrees for the price of one. Of course, this doesn't come easy. It does take a large portion of your time and you really have to be dedicated toward both of the majors you're working towards. However, if you make sure to put in the effort, completing a second major is incredibly valuable. This looks stellar on resumes and gives you the chance to have extensive knowledge in two major fields.
How would you choose your second major? Purely on something you enjoy? Or maybe something that compliments your first chosen major? I would try to incorporate a bit of both. If that isn't something that's possible, then go with something you'd enjoy since a second major is such a huge time commitment.
5. Don't take an 8 AM class
You hear this all the time, but don't take this piece of advice lightly. I don't know what it is, but there's something about 8 AM classes in college that makes waking up early twice as unbearable than it was when you did it for high school. Since you have the liberty of choosing your classes, try and arrange them when you feel you're at your personal best during the day. Assess whether you're a morning, afternoon, or evening/night person. For example, I am purely a late morning/afternoon person so I don't really like to schedule classes for the early morning or evening times, unless there is a mandatory class I need that is only available at that time or the professor for that class just happens to be exceptional. I ended up taking a couple of 8 AM classes that I honestly didn't need to, and truly believe that if I took it at a different time, I would've performed better.
Obviously, if you need to take a class that is only available at 8 AM and there is no other choice or time in the semester or quarter you can take it, no worries - take that class and try to manage your time accordingly. However if it's avoidable, don't take it. In college, sleep is as valuable as money. You want make sure you're getting your money's worth by performing as best as you can in class, which means you need to sleep!
I really hope this helps anyone who has already started college or is going to start soon. Good luck!
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