5 College Freshman Mistakes + How To Avoid Them
Freshman year of college can be a land mine of boobie traps that if you make one misstep could ruin your whole year or put you back on your goals. With the newness and excitement, it can be hard to gain perspective on what will actually affect you in the long run.
While you can't sidestep all the pitfalls (you gotta learn somehow, right?) there are some common mistakes that you’re just better off not making. These tips will save your sanity and your time.
Here are five mistakes college freshmen make and how you can avoid them.
Overloading on classes
This has got to be the most popular one. Coming from high school to college you feel invincible. Why would you go from doing 8+ classes to doing 4 right? Well, that’s where you would be wrong.
College classes are structured differently from high school classes and those 4 puny little classes make up a course load that feels like 8.
Remember that in college along with the work you do in class you're expected to do that much, if not more, outside of class. Listen to your counselor or upperclassmen when the give a recommended amount of classes.
Usually, 4 is a good number to take your first semester and if you're truly just killing it, you can take more classes in your second semester.
Trying to live up to the freshman expectation
Everyone comes to college trying to be a different or better version of themselves. They try to overcompensate for what they think they lacked in high school. Coming from high school to college that newfound independence can feel exhilarating.
It's a totally normal thing to try new things and do things you maybe wouldn't have done in high school. I’m not discouraging that exploration at all, what I am discouraging is doing things you KNOW you don’t like or it’s just plain stupid because you think that’s what a college student “should” be doing.
I've seen so many people come into first semester freshman year and go overboard with drinking and bad friends just for the sake of keeping up the appearance of living that “college life”.
You have to remember that regardless of what everyone else is doing you have to listen to your PERSONAL boundaries and intuition when it is telling you that something is no good for you, the longer you fight it the more miserable you'll be.
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Not communicating with your roommate
This is a pretty common one and for good reason. Most of us have never lived in such close proximity to a stranger before and it can feel a little intimidating to initiate confrontation if you don't know a person well. It's scary, I get it.
However for your sanity, in the long run, you have to bite the bullet and communicate things you're not comfortable with before they escalate. It's hard and everyone has different communication styles but ultimately being direct is THE MOST effective communication strategy.
Not engaging with the community outside of your campus
The campus bubble is real! Most college campuses have everything their students could ever need and it super easy to go your entire freshman year only leaving your campus like once a month.
This is a trap for two reasons
1) you will graduate and you need to have ties somewhere
2) all your college problems seem huge because you can forget that outside of your college bubble there's life happening.
As easy as it is to stay on campus, make an effort to go to events in your local community, scope out the cool spot and just walk around and get a feel for your area. Connecting to the community outside of your campus could make or break the way you feel about your college.
If you're looking for ways to get outside more I recommend eventbrite for finding cool things to do in your community.
Joining Cliques
It's so easy to cling to the first group of friends that you meet in college. It can be scary to branch out because you just want to have a solid group to enjoy freshman year with, there's nothing wrong with that. However, I would recommend keeping your friendship pool open.
Don't always sit with the same people and even if you do invite some friends from other classes to sit with you guys. It can be hard enough to make friends in college but it helps to sit beside someone you think is cool, go to the events on campus and walk around.
Related: How to make friends in college
I won't tell you that you can't be attached to your first friends because let's be real your gonna be, but having other friends around campus can be the difference between you hating your college because of a toxic friend group or having a banging time getting to meet new people.
It’s better to go for a solid group of good friends than try to lock it down with some “bffs” you've known for a month.
So those are five mistakes that you should look to avoid your freshman year. I've fallen prey to some of these and I can say overall I still had an AMAZING time in college so don't be scared if you end up making these mistakes. College is fun but hard and that just comes with the territory. No matter what you'll make it out stronger in the end.
Let me know if you're an incoming freshman what part of college you're most excited for and if you're already done with you freshman year, what's one mistake you wish you didn't make?
I'll see you in my blog post, until then,
Xoxo