Emma is heading off to college soon. (Well, “heading off” means traveling down the road to move into an institutionalized living space of the type that no sane person with options would ever chose to call home (proof: how many people choose to live in a dormitory after graduating from college? (further proof: how much would you have to be paid to live in a dormitory for the next 10 years (and no, you don’t get your own bathroom))).) This is one of those moments when parents give their children lots of unwanted advice. Oddly, it seems that younger siblings also give advice on the matter—Lily made a very slick handbook for Emma on how to deal with Life At College. Lily is 16 (and, I should add, ridiculously creative and clever). She has never been to college and yet she is giving advice on the matter. Giving advice on something about which she really knows nothing. Like Father, Like Daughter.
Ah, but I do know something about going to college; I've spent over a quarter century attending and teaching at colleges. Emma’s impending departure got me thinking about what advice I would give to someone about to start college. So here it is. These are the things I would tell any new college student.
1. Take Professors, Not Classes
This was actually one of only two pieces of advice my academic advisor gave me when I was an undergrad. The other piece of advice was “Buy Low, Sell High”—good advice, but not terribly useful. But the advice on professors and classes is perfectly accurate. A good professor can turn any subject into a riveting opportunity to learn all sorts of fascinating things. A bad professor will suck the life out of everything. Sometimes, a student can’t avoid a bad professor in a required class, but insofar as it is possible, find out who the good professors are and take all your courses with them.
2. Don’t worry about your Major
Picking a major is the most overrated thing in the American College. In the American job market, nobody really cares what you majored in. If you are smart and hard-working, you’ll do fine. There is a lot of popular confusion on this matter because people confuse cause and effect. On any college campus there are easy majors; these are in departments which have a hard time attracting students so they set very low requirements to do well in their courses. Students who do not want to actually work in college are attracted to such majors for obvious reasons. But, if a smart, hard-working student majored in one of those fields, there may be some reputational effect to overcome, but in the end, intelligence and hard-work will pay off. So, pick a major because you love the subject. The only problem with this advice is that not all parents will believe you when you tell them not to worry about your major.
3. Use Office Hours
Visit every professor once in the first two weeks of classes. Invent some questions about the material and stop by to ask. The goal of this visit is to see what the professor is like outside the classroom. Some of these visits will be painful; not all professors are happy to talk with you. But, you will be pleasantly surprised by other professors; some will actually seem interesting. (I know it is hard to believe that your professors might be interesting, but really, some of them are quite pleasant individuals.) For the rest of the semester don’t be afraid to go to office hours if you have a question about the course material; professors are being paid to talk to you, after all.
4. Study Too Much Your First Semester
Figure out how much you think you need to study to hit your target grade and study much more than that your first semester. Gauging how much you need to do in college compared to high school is really hard. But, the habits you form in your first semester will linger. It is far easier to realize you studied too much your first semester and then study less in the future than to go the other way. If you study too little your first semester, then not only will you be unhappy with your grades, but you will have a difficult time rearranging your life in subsequent semesters.
5. Work when You Work, Play when You Play
Nobody can work all day every day. But, far too many students ritually mix work and pleasure. This is a very bad idea. One of the most common things professors hear after a student has done poorly on an exam is, “But I spent all night studying.” If said professor probes that statement a bit, it doesn’t take long to discover that “study” means “the text book was open while I did other things.” Remember: Facebook is not Your Friend. Nor are TV, Twitter, iPods, the internet or any of the million conversations you really need to have right now. If you are studying, then study. Then, when you are done studying, close your books and do something else entirely. You will get far more done, and have far more free time by separating these two activities.
6. Sleep
Sleep is a biological requirement. Sorry about that, but it’s just true. There is so much medical evidence on the benefits of sleep that those who deny their need for sleep are the equivalent of Flat-Earthers. You need sleep. Every night. 8 hours is good. And that includes the night before a test. You will do better, much better, on any exam with a good 8 hours of sleep than you will by spending an extra 8 hours studying. Moreover, when you know you are going to sleep for 8 hours in evening, you will be more productive during the day, both because you know you can’t plan to do all that studying later on, but also because your brain works better because you slept for 8 hours the night before.
7. Don’t Even Think about Cheating.
You have a marvelous opportunity here, an opportunity that many people would dearly like to have. The entire academic enterprise hinges on an implicit contract that professors will always strive to relay accurate information and students will not claim to have done work which they did not do. Don’t violate that contract. Don’t even think about doing so. It’s not worth it.
8. Read at least one Book for Pleasure each Semester
That suggestion is the hardest one to convince someone to do. But, it is a really good idea. The average college student is already spending a ton of time reading for courses, so the idea of reading for pleasure seems like a non-starter. But, seriously, try it. It s amazing how much you will enjoy picking up a single book at some time during the semester and just reading it because it is fun. Schlock fiction is the perfect choice for this, by the way.
9. Buy Textbooks Early and Online
The monopolistic college bookstore is outdated. You will generally save a lot of money by buying your books online. Competition is a good thing for the consumer.
10. Learn the Requirements for Graduation
The requirements for graduation are generally not all that complicated. You are in college. You know how to figure things out. So, this is one of those things you should learn. You don’t want to be one of those students who discovers unfulfilled graduation requirements three months before your parents were planning to come to your graduation.
11. Enjoy Your Time
You’ll hear lots of people say that you should really make sure you enjoy college because these will be the best years of your life. Statements like that are nonsense. For all anyone knows, these could be the worst years of your life. But, no matter what, life is too short to spend four years, any four years, being miserable. So, enjoy your time in college. And then, enjoy your time after college. This is a pretty amazing world, after all.
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