What I Wish I'd Known as a Freshman

As most schools are now back in session for the fall semester, I find this to be the opportune time to share my list of things I wish I knew this time last year, when I first set foot on a college campus. So, without further ado:

1) Professors do Not Bite (at least most of them don’t)

This was one of the tougher things for me to get over. I’m an athletic and fairly big guy: 6 feet tall and just around 200 lbs. Nonetheless, my Biblical Literature professor – all 5’5” of him – intimidated the living daylights out of me, at least for the first few weeks. It wasn’t that he was a mean or condescending man; rather, it was his intelligence and complete mastery of the subject that I found so intimidating. Finally, however, I worked up the courage to meet with him during office hours to discuss my term paper, and was blown away by how friendly and helpful he was. I even found myself nonchalantly making a few biblical jokes! Another of my professors willingly stayed late into the evening on several occasions to help me understand the subject material. As a straight A student my whole academic career, I’ve never been as proud as when I aced that final to earn a B for the course.

Lesson learned: most of your Profs want to share their knowledge with you. They were once undergrads just like you and me.

2) You do Not have to do all the Readings

Most of your professors will make it clear during that first class meeting that their class is the most important class you’ll ever take and that’ll you need to closely study each and every word of each and every reading in order to pass. It very well may be that that class turns out to be the most important one of your life, but your professor could be exaggerating a bit when it comes to the reading. I'm not suggesting that your prof is deliberately misleading you. Nor am I suggesting that you slack off and not even bother to open the textbook. What I am saying is that after the first couple of weeks of class you’ll get a feel for which of the readings you’ll need to do in order to do well in the class. Oftentimes, the syllabus has both primary and supplemental readings. Find out which sources provide the meat and potatoes and get to know those ones well. As for the others, skim them if you’re interested in the topic, but you should be able to get by without knowing them inside and out. Talk to your professor, the other students in the course, and people who've done the course before. Find out what you'll need to know for the exam and save yourself the time and effort of doing the work that turns out to be of marginal interest or use.

3) The Goal of each Class is Not to get an A

Yes, I said it: the goal of college isn’t to come out with a squeaky clean 4.0. Yes, grades are important but no potential employer wants to see a student who spent their past 4 years cooped up in the library to get a 4.0 and ignored all the opportunities afforded them to gain real world skills that translate over into the real world. Note: This isn’t just me trying to justify my not having a 4.0, but rather what I’ve learned from talking to recruiters who come and visit my campus to look for prospective interns and employees.

What is the goal then? In a word: learning. As I previously mentioned, the grade I’m most proud of is the “B” I received in Managerial Accounting. I struggled mightily with a few early quizzes and found myself needing to ace the final in order to pull off a decent grade. I spent many hours meeting with the professor to go over concepts I didn’t understand and address questions that I had. In the end, I aced the final and earned a “B” for the semester. Obviously I didn’t get an “A”, but does that mean that I didn’t know the material? Not so. I wound up learning the material well enough to ace the final and, more importantly, I learned a lot more about myself and what I could achieve when I put in the work. I know that I'll recount this experience to interviewers in the future, and that they'll be impressed too.

4) Just because Everyone Else is doing it does Not mean You have to

This applies to so many aspects of college. For one, just because everyone else seems to be on one schedule doesn’t mean you have to follow the same one. I noticed a trend of a lot of people lounging around between classes during the day and then spending many late hours in the library studying and doing homework. I, on the other hand, preferred to get up early and do my work in the morning before class, in between classes, and in the afternoon before dinner. That way, I’d minimize the time I had to spend on schoolwork after dinner and could instead spend my time reading or playing sports or working on an extracurricular project that interested me. Also, instead of passing out each night from brain overload, I could have the time I needed to relax and get to bed at a decent hour.

In another regard, just because everyone else seems to be out partying all weekend, that doesn’t mean that you have to. In reality, not everyone is doing it. I limit my nights out to a few times a month at most. The first few weeks of school, it was fun experiencing the freedom of staying out into the early hours of the morning with friends but it got to the point where I suffered from the after effects. Staying out later meant that I’d sleep away most of the next day and, when I did wake up, I’d feel sluggish due to being thrown off my sleep schedule. My campus hosts many activities on the weekends that I can go to with my friends, have a good time, and still be able to turn in at a decent hour.

These are my big four things. Look back over the headings. Note that each of the four has the word "Not" in it. I wish I'd known those Nots last September.