Establishing a Routine in College

When you’re in college, you’re a lot more independent. You’re doing laundry on your own, possibly cooking on your own, and you have to get up and go to class without help. When you were in high school, you may not have had to worry about a routine as much. Your guidance counselor arranged your schedule and you didn’t have to do much work or planning for it. Your family made you dinner and possibly even lunch and breakfast. Your parents were there to drag you out of bed when you hit the snooze alarm one too many times. They held you accountable in a way and made sure you went to your classes even though you may have begged not to. When you’re in college, you’re going to have a lot of independence and you’re going to be doing all of these things for yourself. Having this much independence can make it easy to drift and not do things. When you’re in college, you’re going to need to establish a routine in order to get through college living with your grades intact.

First of all is your college course schedule. You’re going to be making it on your own and ensuring there are no conflicts. You’re going to meet with your advisor, but quite a large part of the planning is all up to you. You may not be able to avoid a night class or a morning class because that may be the only time the class is offered. Once you have your college course schedule planned out, you’re going to need to set up a routine for making it to class on time. There’s no one holding you accountable in college to ensure you’re out of bed or away from the TV and sitting in your college class. Make sure your alarms are set and do whatever will help you get motivated to go to class. Whether it is having your clothes out and ready the night before or to have the coffee maker programmed for when you wake up, find what helps you and establish that routine.

The college café is going to have a breakfast, lunch, and dinner schedule. If you plan on eating meals in the café, learn that schedule. Going last minute before class won’t do. Allow plenty of time to walk to the café, wait in line, get your food, and eat. Mostly allow yourself plenty of time to wait in line. If you find breakfast is a really busy time in the café, make sure you have options like oatmeal or cereal in your dorm room in case you do oversleep or don’t want to get up as early as you would have to in order to eat breakfast in the college café.

You may have had study halls built into your high school schedule in order to get your homework done or your teachers would allow you to work on homework in free time. You may have even got lucky and had both! The problem? You may have gotten used to that and you won’t have that same built in time in college. That means you need to set aside certain blocks of time to do your homework. If you don’t make time and set a certain block of hours just for studying and homework, you will find it hard to do your homework. Just like there’s no one making sure you get out of bed for your classes, there’s no one making sure that you are doing your homework. Whether you set aside time for homework in the free periods between your college classes or you wait until you’re completely done with classes for the day, set aside that time to make sure you get everything done.

College Grades

College can be tough. You’re living away from home for the first time and maybe even far away from home in a different state or different country. On top of that, you’re going to be trying to make a new set of friends which can be stressful. After all, you may not have had to make new friends since you started elementary school and that can make you feel lost. On top of all of that, you have pressure in college to do your best.

You may have had really good grades in High School and been at the top of your class. You may think college is going to be the same and you’ll have stunning grades just like in High School. This may turn out to be true, but it may also turn out that you’re grades aren’t as great and you find yourself struggling. This can be quite frustrating and disheartening. After all, you were looking forward to college a lot and had a picture in your head of how it would be and the reality isn’t matching up.  It may be sad at first, but don’t stay sad for long because it will affect your grades even more. The fact is, college is tougher than High School. You have a larger work load, you’re learning new concepts at a faster pace, and it can be quite overwhelming. In High School, you may have been able to get away with short one sentence answers to homework questions and your essays may have only had to be one page. In college, even your essays are harder. They are going to be longer and you have to write even more in depth than you did in High School. It will be something you get used to. Your first essay may not be so great, but as you write more of them, you will find out the amount of information you need to put in and how to bring your writing to a college level. Your first semester at college is going to be quite overwhelming because there are a lot of different things you have to get used to at once. However, if you find yourself struggling with your college courses, you can’t dwell on the fact that you’re struggling for too long because there are resources out there to help you. If you find yourself doing great in your other subjects but the essays you used to be so great at writing aren’t cutting it anymore, seek out a tutor. It can be a new friend that is really good at writing essays or it can be a tutor in your college’s tutoring center. The most important thing to remember is to not get frustrated. It isn’t that you don’t know the subject, it’s that college is going to be tougher than what you’re used to and there are different expectations. Don’t let some beginning frustration and bad grades make you think that college just isn’t for you. If you’re having a lot of trouble with a new concept, reach out to people who can help you and yes, even study more. Once you have a routine down and you feel more comfortable and have reached out for help if you needed it, you will become used to how to write and what you need to do in order to succeed. The key is to never give up, reach out for help, and know that you’re not the only one struggling at the beginning of college.

How to Save Money in College

College will give you a lot of freedom and teach you about living independently, even if it’s only for August to May. You’re going to be doing laundry on your own - yes, you need to learn how to do that! You’re going to be cooking a little, even if it’s only with your microwave or toaster and learning how to get your toast done the perfect amount without setting off the fire alarm. You’re also going to be on your own financially. When you lived at home with your parents, you probably didn’t go out and spend money on clothes or even a coffee shop drink as often. When you’re in college, you’re on your own and it’s easier to splurge on a new shirt or a coffee on campus every day. So how can you save money in college beyond having a budget?

It may sound weird to think that by spending a little more money at one time, you can save overall. However, it’s true – invest in things like water pitchers with filters so you can drink the tap water in your college dorm room. You’ll always have cool water in your mini-fridge that you can fill your reusable water bottle with and save money on bottled water. Similarly, if you find yourself heading toward a coffee shop on campus to buy an expensive coffee every day, you can save a lot of money by investing in a coffee maker to keep in your college dorm room. The cost of the coffee maker will be much less than what would spend in a whole year or even just a semester of getting coffee in the coffee shop every day. When you get takeout, you may eat some of it and then throw the leftovers away. Leftovers are going to be one of your best friends in college. Invest in small containers to keep your leftovers in so you can have lunch or dinner the next day. Another way to save some money is actually with your student ID. Some stores whether on campus or even in the mall may offer student discounts with a Student ID. Not sure if they offer a discount? Simply ask! And if you want to go to a museum, art exhibit, or zoo with your friends, those places may have discounts or even certain days you can get in free with a student ID.

Dorming – It’s About More Than Your Roommate

When you think about dorming, you probably think about living with a roommate. It’s understandable – one of the two things that come to anyone’s mind about living in a dorm room is a roommate and that you don’t have much room for your dorm necessities. You don’t really think about the area outside of your college dorm room. When you think about it, you live with one or two dorm roommates that you have to be considerate of but then you have everyone else on your college dorm floor and in your residence hall to be considerate of.

Loud Music – You may have had your music really loud when you were at home and your parents wouldn’t say anything. However, when you’re in college, there are a lot more people around you who have different schedules than you do. The college student in the room right next to yours may have a full schedule and are trying to study during the only free time they have. If you can hear your music outside of your dorm room with your dorm door closed, then your music is too loud. Plus if your music is too loud even if it isn’t quiet hours, your RA will be knocking on your door for you to turn down your music. Avoid getting on the bad side of the RA and be considerate in regards to your music from the start.

Laundry – There are a lot of college students living in the same residence hall. For all of those college students, there are surprisingly few washers and dryers in the dorm laundry room. When you do get the chance to wash and dry your clothes, be considerate of others in the residence hall and remove your clothes promptly. You don’t want to leave your clothes sitting in the washer or dryer for a long time after they are done. If you do happen to do that, you’re going to be preventing someone else from washing or drying their laundry or you could even end up with someone else taking your laundry out and placing either gently or not so gently on a table or floor nearby.

Common Rooms – Your residence hall may have a common room on each floor that you can watch TV, hang out with friends, and possibly even cook. These common rooms are great but you want to be considerate of others and not take over the common room too much. You don’t want to spend all day watching TV in the common room and prevent other college students from using it. You also don’t want to leave a mess in the kitchen area or anywhere in the common room. A good rule of thumb is to leave it looking like you were never there.