April 23, 2015

Time Management

Time management in college is important. You may not be thinking about that now or think that time won’t be an issue when you’re in college, but it is a huge issue and here’s why: you’re on your own for the first time. College is a time of independence- your parents can’t remind you to do your homework and your teachers surely won’t. There are no free periods or study halls built into your schedule in college like there was in high school to make sure you got your work done.
The first thing you need to do to get by in college is invest in a planner, and not a small one that offers just a tiny amount of space for each day. You need a good sized planner because even if you think right now that you won’t use all that space, trust me you will. You will have to write down pages of books to read, your homework assignment, when it’s due and if there are any special directions for your assignment. Don’t think that you can get away with just writing the assignment on the pages of your notes for that day. You may have 10 pages or more of notes from that 1 hour class (it is possible, trust me). You definitely don’t want to hunt through 10 pages of handwriting to find your assignment. Doing that wastes your precious time and remember- this is all about time management.
You may have time in between your classes. It may be a half hour, it may be an hour or longer. This time between your classes is a perfect time to study, read, or go to the computer lab and get a head start on your homework. You may want to relax and hang out with friends, but doing your work while between classes allows you more time to hang out with your friends later without the stress of knowing you have to go back to your room and write your paper. Plus, you’re already in your class building- since you’re there, use your resources while you have a chunk of time carved out!
Your teachers will provide you with a syllabus at the start of the semester and your homework may be outlined in it. If you have a light work load one week, it’s not bad to try to get ahead a little bit if you can. Not too far ahead- you don’t want to forget what you learned or get lost. But if you’re really into a book you’re reading for English, it is okay to continue reading and have less work the next week when you may really have a pile up of homework.
Speaking of that English book- make sure you are reading the amount you are supposed to when you are supposed to. There’s nothing worse than putting it off until the last minute and finding at the end of that unit that you have to read the entire book in two days so you can write your essay. You really don’t want to read a 400 page classic in two days and then write a 5 page essay on what you just read. Nothing will stress you out more.
When you manage your time for when you do your homework and studying, you will find you have more chunks of quality time to spend with your friends. Of course college is about learning and earning the degree for the field you want to go into, but you need to break that up a bit and see your friends. Of course that also means you can’t abandon your homework and studying to go out at night.
It’s all about balance- you need to find a balance between when you do homework and when you can see friends. When you first start college, it is going to be hard to find that balance because you will have to get used to your schedule and then you may add or drop classes and your schedule could change a couple times in the first two weeks. Once you get into the swing of things, it will get easier and then in your sophomore year or even your second semester of freshman year, time management will come naturally. 

April 16, 2015

Getting Used To Having A Roommate

You may have never shared a room with someone before, and if you have it may have been a relative. You may already know this, but we’re going to say it anyway- dorm living is completely different. When you’re living in a dorm with a roommate, it requires both of you to act in different ways. Not complete personality change, but both of you do need to be considerate of each other.
Hopefully you have the chance to talk with your roommate before you move in. You probably won’t be able to meet them depending on where each of you live, but we do hope you get to talk to them a little bit and find out what they like, dislike and most importantly to coordinate on who is bringing what.
Talking with your roommate and finding out those basic things is going to be easy- it’s what comes after that may take some getting used to and you will find that these are things that also require talking with your roommate about but you may not have thought of.
Guests:
Talk with your roommate about what to do when you each have guests over. And don’t just spring a guest on your roommate, either! Your roommate may have just had a really stressful and long day of classes and want to take a nap or read/watch TV quietly. If they’ve had a bad day, they don’t want to be surprised by someone they don’t know. Be courteous and give each other a heads up when there will be company. And also introduce your company to your roommate- it will make things less awkward. Who knows- maybe all of you will become close friends.
Morning Routines:
Maybe you listen to music in the morning while you get ready or all of your classes are at night so that you can sleep in. Talk about routines and schedules with your roommate so that each of you know if you need to get ready in the bathroom or listen to music with earbuds in. Be considerate of each other in the morning- one of you may have to be up at 7 A.M. and one of you may not have gotten to bed until 3 A.M.
TV:
This may sound like a weird thing to talk with your roommate about, but if you’re sharing a TV one of you can’t use it all the time. Be considerate of what you’re watching, too. If your roommate doesn’t like horror movies, either watch one while they’re not there or watch it through your tablet or laptop. 


And this goes for everything- just because your roommate is doing something, it doesn’t mean that you have to do it just because you live together. If you need to study and they’re watching TV or going out at night, don’t feel like you have to join in if you don’t really want to. 

April 9, 2015

Help! I Have Roommate Problems!

Unfortunately, roommate problems are something that can happen in college. I hope it doesn’t, but it may. After all, you’re living in a small space with someone you may not have known before college and you’re going to be living with them for almost a year, maybe longer.
First, don’t go straight to your RA or Director of Residence Life and plead with them for a new roommate. This should only be done in extreme situations. The first thing you should do (as awkward as it is for both of you) is talk with your roommate. Especially if you two have been the best of friends up until this point and then out of nowhere something went wrong. Who knows- it may not be something that happened with you, it could be that your roommate has some personal things at home that are bothering them or they are really stressed from class.
If this is the case, be supportive of your roommate. Don’t push them to talk if they don’t want to. However, do let them know you’re there for them. If you find out that it was not something between you two that happened, you will be relieved that you didn’t go straight to the RA!
If it is something that happened between you and your roommate, try to work it out and find if there is a way to fix it. For example, maybe your roommate has been up really late for the past week studying for an important exam and you get up really early and make a lot of noise and wake them up. If you talk with your roommate, you can find a way to work through this.
I hope it doesn’t get to this point, but if things are really bad between you two, you may have to go to your RA and see what your options are- maybe your RA can mediate the discussion between you two. Again, don’t jump right to the Director of Residence Life and tell him or her that you want a new roommate- it may be impossible due to how full the dorm is and with this move you may have hurt things even more with you and your roommate. Try to talk things through first. If things are really, truly bad then you can talk with the Director.
Most importantly, handle every situation kindly and with class. Don’t slam doors or items around and definitely don’t talk meanly to your roommate! It may be hard when you’re upset, but take a deep breath and handle the situation kindly. You don’t want to make the situation worse, especially if you are unable to switch rooms. Plus, moving in once is hard, you don’t want to do it again in the same year or semester!


April 2, 2015

Communicating With Your Roommate

You may have the opportunity to talk with your roommate before move in day. You may not be able to meet them, but I hope you can talk with them! If your college gives you an email address or phone number for your roommate, don’t just stick it in a junk drawer somewhere- call or email them!
Talking to your roommate before move in day is good because you can coordinate what to bring. You don’t want to end up with multiples of big items. Your dorm room isn’t big enough to have two microwaves, two TVs, and two mini fridges! Coordinate what you already have (for example, one of you may already have the TV) and what you need. Most importantly, don’t leave it to your roommate to buy the remaining items you need just because one of you is bringing an extra large TV. Split up the rest of what you need- one of you can buy a mini fridge, one of you can buy a microwave. That way, everything is fair for both of you- after all, you wouldn’t want your roommate to make you buy all of the big items.

Communicating with your roommate before move in day is also good for relationship building. Get to know each other, find out each other’s hobbies and what music, movies or books you both like. When you talk with your roommate before move in day, it will make things a little less awkward for both of you. This is the person you’re going to live with for almost a year- build good communication from the start!