Homesick? Actually, that can be a good thing

If going off to college means you’ll be away from home for the first time for more than a sleepover, you might be worried you’ll be homesick. Feeling homesick is nothing to be ashamed of—it’s not something that affects only younger kids! After all, it’s pretty natural to miss home if that’s all you’ve ever known. Believe it or not, pretty soon you’ll get used to the whole being away at college thing, and that homesickness will dissipate. In the meantime, though, there are some ways to lessen that homesick feeling and, strange as it may sound, to appreciate it.

Your very first few days at college probably won’t have you going to any classes at all. Most schools have a period of a few days where you’ll live in your dorm and hangout on campus before classes start. This gives you the chance to get your textbooks for classes and to start getting acclimated to your campus. Yet in those first few days, homesick feelings will be at their peak. To this, unfortunately you’ll just have to tough it out for a few days. Calls to mom and dad can lessen homesick feelings, and Skype chats will let you feel like they’re your new roommates … if that’s what you want.

Once classes finally begin, the pace of college life really picks up. Perhaps it’s not the most welcome replacement feeling, but you might be at first overwhelmed with all the reading you’ll be assigned and with penciling in tests and finals down the road. The good news is that all this activity will take your mind off of missing your friends and family back home. You’ll be so caught up in starting off college strong that you won’t find yourself as distracted by homesickness. Plus, staying on top of your school work will require some real brain power! Literally, your brain will be too occupied with learning new subjects and materials. By the end of the day, you’ll be more tired than homesick.

At the start of your college career, there will also be plenty of students groups and organizations that will be all around campus hoping to recruit new members. Getting involved won’t be a bad idea by any means. You’ll definitely make new friends, and you’ll have even more to take your mind off of feeling homesick. Homesick feelings can really sink in if you haven’t made many friends yet and you find yourself alone in your dorm room a lot. Joining a group or organization doesn’t let this homesick-conducive situation occur!

Some homesickness can actually be a good thing. Here’s why: first off, missing home means you have something to miss! As much as it might be a relief to be away from your family, missing them means you care about them and that they care about you. While we don’t want to get overly sentimental, it can be comforting to know that. If you’re far away from home and will have the opportunity to go back home only between semesters, you’ll have all the more to look forward to when you can finally return home. If you miss home, it’ll make the trip back that much better. You’ll also have something to look forward to all semester!

Some homesickness will be only natural. It’ll be tough at first, but the routine and pace of college life quickly lessen homesick feelings. You would have had to leave home at some point, so at least by going away to college you’ll know you’ll capable of making it on your own. That’s really an accomplishment if you think about it; this way you know you won’t be living with your parents your whole life!

Keeping Track of Those Finances In College

College is one expensive endeavor. No matter if you’re going to a small school, a large school or a public or private school, the bills will be high! If you’re fortunate enough to have a scholarship, that’s great. If not, it means that you and likely your parents too will be seeing some big bills. Tuition sure isn’t going down anytime soon, so you’ll have to keep reminding yourself that college is a lifelong investment … you’ll get those student loans paid off in good time!

 
Moving beyond those big tuition bills, there are a multitude of other expenses that college life will throw at you. Even if you enter college with the best intent of keeping track of all your finances, it’s easy to let things go awry! Whether you’ve saved up for college or if your parents gave you some allowance money, you might start off the semester feeling quite rich! … Only to discover a few months later that that money’s all gone. Yet if you plan and keep track of your personal finances along the way, you’ll be fine. It does take some work and persistence to keep track of all those pennies, but it’s a task that’s well worth it. 

First off, there are all those textbooks you’ll need. As you might have already heard, your school’s bookstore will stock most of those books, yet they’ll likely be more expensive there than from other bookstores or online vendors. If you keep those shopping sprees to a minimum, textbooks might very well be your largest expense all semester. If you allot enough funds for textbooks, you’ll at least have your biggest purchase out of the way right away. It’s best to get the biggest obstacle done first.

Now that you’ve got your textbooks, the financial planning really begins. From going to restaurants to buying dorm essentials to having some money for a night out with friends, it takes some disposable income to truly enjoy college life. However, if you’re not careful, it’s easy to lose track of all those expenditures! Whether you’re the type of student who pays with a credit card all the time or you like using cash, both are just as easy to use without regard. Some students actually avoid carrying cash, as they think that if they have cash in their wallets, they’ll be more inclined to spend it freely! Still, whether it’s cash or credit cards, both require some limitations.

Spend wisely during your first few weeks of school, but also start keeping track of how much you’re spending and what you’re spending it on. This will allow you to gauge those expenses for the rest of the semester. Whether it’s ordering pizza a couple times a week or buying some extra snacks or school supplies to keep in your dorm, the costs can add up quick. After you’ve checked how much you’ve spent and what you’ve spent it on, start making some goals. If you’re more of a long term planner, try planning a monthly budget for yourself. If you think you can better manage smaller goals, plan to spend a certain amount of money each week. With these goals in mind, you can save up for a week and you’ll have more money the next week. Then, spending money in college will feel more rewarding than draining, as it can often feel!

To keep those spendings under control, you can also limit how often you do things that require spending a good amount of money. No, college life shouldn’t be all about limiting yourself and squandering fun! Still, it’s nice to have some limits in place so you don’t end up broke by the end of the semester. If you like going out to eat with friends, do it! But only go a couple times a week, rather than almost every night. Keep those goals realistic, but don’t overburden yourself with limitations. There’s a fine balance between spending money and enjoying yourself and spending money to the point where you’ve enjoyed yourself too much. Find that point, and stick with it. Alas, the expenditures will never end, so you might as well start off next semester in the black!

Is Choosing A Class Just Because It’s Easy Always The Best Option?

It can be pretty tempting to sign up for classes that have a reputation for being easy. In fact, it can even be tempting to cram your whole schedule with easy classes! If you’re a biology or neuroscience major, your schedule won’t be easy. The truth is that no matter your major, you’ll face some difficult classes, especially when you get to higher-level classes.

So to balance things out and to keep that ever-important GPA up, you’ll probably end up signing up for some easier classes to fulfill your general education requirements. Your school might have a different name for these class fulfillments (the ones that are required to graduate, such as a certain number of science classes, writing classes, history classes etc.), but you’ll end up having to study all sorts of subjects. Simple logic might say that if it’s a class you have to take in order to fulfill a requirement, and you’re given the option between a hard and easier class, you should definitely take the easier one! This is true at times ... but shouldn’t always be the case.

If your GPA can use a boost, by all means you should sign up for an easier class. If you’ve hardly studied a foreign language, for example, sign up for beginner Spanish, not intermediate. Or, if you have to take a history class, try an introductory American history class, not one that focuses on learning every detail from one specific battle a couple centuries ago. Even if your GPA doesn’t necessarily need a boost, it can be pretty crushing to let those grades slide over a basic science or history class.

So it seems taking the easy way out is never a bad idea, huh? Again, there’s usually little point in giving yourself extra work, difficulty, and stress by taking a harder class when an easier one will do just fine. However, another significant factor is the class’ focus. If there’s a certain subject within a subject that you’d find more interesting, that class is often the better option, even if it’s more difficult. While there’s almost never a need to take some senior-level class just to fulfill a basic science requirement, it is worth signing up for classes that you’re interested in.

Maybe history isn’t really your thing, but you’re more interested in ancient Roman civilization than other early cultures. If it’s a fulfillment you’ll have to take, you might as well make it as interesting as possible! Even if that Roman history class is a slightly higher level than the Chinese history class, the fact that you’ll find it more engaging will make up for any difficulty. You’ll quickly learn in college that it’s tough paying attention to classes in which you have no interest. It’s equally tough getting yourself to do the reading and studying required for those classes.

By choosing a class that piques your interest, even if it’s more difficult, you’re still ultimately making it easier on yourself. While easy classes will always be a nice way to help boost your GPA, if they’re not engaging in the least, they could end up being harder than a higher-level class. Just keep that schedule well-rounded and give it some thought and research while selecting your classes. The academic side of college is the most significant aspect, after all, and your classes are the key factors. Schedule with care!

Making A Large School Feel Smaller

If you’re attending a larger school, you’ll have the benefit of meeting plenty of new people from all types of backgrounds; it’s really a great chance to make some diverse friends. And if you’re going to a school with a notable sports team, it can be plenty of fun to go to a big stadium and be part of a huge crowd of fans! Yet sometimes you’ll want that big school to feel smaller, as it can even get overwhelming how many other students there are. Sometimes you can’t help but feel like  a number—and that’s the biggest drawback to attending a large school.

Fortunately, there are ways to make larger schools feel smaller. At times when the number of students and sheer volume of your school feels overwhelming, keep a few tips in mind in order to make that school feel smaller. When thinking of large schools, perhaps the first thing that comes to mind are those enormous lecture halls. Yes, some introductory classes will have you and an a few hundred other students all sitting in the same auditorium—it could be the equivalent of your whole high school, if you attended a smaller school! There’s a simple trick to remedy this situation and make that lecture hall feel smaller. Perhaps you’ve heard of it: sit up front and you’ll quickly forget that there are a couple hundred students behind you. By sitting toward the front, you’ll also be more focused and engaged. Paying attention in class can come in handy!

On the academic side of things, large schools can be more intimidating. You might feel as if you have to compete against so many other students, or that there are so many other students that teachers won’t have time to pay attention to your learning rate. Yet no matter how big your school, that professor at the front of the lecture hall will have open office hours and will likely have multiple teacher assistants who have office hours as well. It’s a guarantee that if you go to a teacher’s office hours, you can receive extra help or explanation, often one on one. Suddenly that teacher who lectures in front of a few hundred students has become your own private tutor! That sure is a reversed situation.

Large schools won’t feel so gargantuan if you get involved with some clubs or organizations! No matter your interests, there’s a club out there for you. While clubs themselves vary in size, you’ll find plenty where you can fit in just fine. By joining a club or organization, you’ll be part of a group—a group that doesn’t consist of several thousand students! If you join a club or organization and really get involved with it, you’ll also feel like part of a small team and not one of several hundred students in a large room. Clubs build camaraderie, which ultimately makes you feel more involved and like you’re part of a team.

Since larger schools by their nature have larger staffs, you might think it’s difficult to become involved and really learn from one teacher—this isn’t the case. As smaller schools have fewer teachers, it can be easier to sign up for classes with that teacher and take a class just because you like the teacher. In larger schools, while some might argue there’s the advantage of learning from more teachers, you can still take more than one class with a preferred teacher. After you discover you like a professor, simply ask her what other classes she’s teaching. Even if you won’t have her again next semester, there will probably be a different class you can take down the road, especially if it’s something within your major. By taking a couple classes from the same well-liked teacher, you’ll feel like you’re in a smaller, more personal academic environment. Large schools have literally hundreds of teachers, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find a couple you like and let them be your favorite teachers throughout college.