The off to college thread - General

Well as many of you know, college is about to start for many of us. As for me, it will be my first year of college and I created this thread more or less for people to ask questions about college as well as to share your personal stories and anything related to studies etc. To start off the thread I have a few questions. 1. What is college like to an incoming freshman? I am pretty scared and pessimistic about it right now :(. 2. Is it bad to live off campus? I am going to live in a small house with my brother and sister who attend the university which is about a 10 minute walk. 3. Is it a good choice to live off campus as opposed to dorms, as I am unsure if you get the full experience and if it makes it harder to make friends. 4. Any good tips ^^? Cheers!

1. It's great. Pure freedom, tons of new people everywhere, there's absolutely nothing to be afraid of. It's an opportunity to start off with a fresh slate somewhere new. Also, people aren't judgmental like they are in high school and nobody gives a shit about anything, they just want to have a good time like everyone else. 2. It's bad in some ways, good in others. Bad because you miss out on how easy dorms make socializing, dormmates go to parties and everything together, they're just a great tool for meeting people. However, being in a house makes you the go-to guy for parties. Throw a few parties and you'll be big man on campus in no time. 3. See above. 4. Relax. Stay on top of your schoolwork but make sure to have fun as well. College is just as much about the experience of meeting new people as it is getting a formal education. Understand that nobody cares who you are or what you did in high school. Don't be afraid to be yourself, because no matter how strange you are, there's going to be plenty of kids just like you for you to be friends with.

Anxiety is a normal thing for your first year of being anywhere. Hell, I'm going into my fifth year of college, but at a different university in a different state and I'm feeling some amount of nervousness. The key to having a good time and meeting cool new people is to try everything that interests you. Otherwise, just do what Mav said and don't be so petrified about being somewhere new.

Thanks for the advice. I just moved down to Tucson today and it's been alright so far. I'll be sure to keep this thread updated from time to time, but I would still like to hear what other people have to say about college and such. On another note, is anyone here attending the University of Arizona?

I attended ASU for 4 years. You'll soon find U of A to be a dump.

[QUOTE=MaverickIB;31737918]1. It's great. Pure freedom, tons of new people everywhere, there's absolutely nothing to be afraid of. It's an opportunity to start off with a fresh slate somewhere new. Also, people aren't judgmental like they are in high school and nobody gives a shit about anything, they just want to have a good time like everyone else. 2. It's bad in some ways, good in others. Bad because you miss out on how easy dorms make socializing, dormmates go to parties and everything together, they're just a great tool for meeting people. However, being in a house makes you the go-to guy for parties. Throw a few parties and you'll be big man on campus in no time. 3. See above. 4. Relax. Stay on top of your schoolwork but make sure to have fun as well. College is just as much about the experience of meeting new people as it is getting a formal education. Understand that nobody cares who you are or what you did in high school. Don't be afraid to be yourself, because no matter how strange you are, there's going to be plenty of kids just like you for you to be friends with.[/QUOTE] Basically all of this. It was weird seeing how vast a difference there was between my last year of high school and then the start of uni. All of the concepts of popularity and social groups just seemed to vanish immediately. Everybody is friendly and nobody has anything against anyone else. It's strange (but definitely pleasantly welcome).

[QUOTE=Evilan;31804007]I attended ASU for 4 years. You'll soon find U of A to be a dump.[/QUOTE] Holy shit, an ASU alumni! The fall semester JUST started, I'm in Palo Verde Main! Which dorm were you in?

Well this is about the end of the first week and I'm going to to my first college party. I'm not sure what to Expect except for the little advice from other students. I'll update you later, and I hope I make some new friends ^^.

Should I expect the first week of college to be easy or do they generally pile shit on you till you fold? First day tomorrow.

Same situation. I have classes tomorrow. They said that the most teachers usually give are reading assignments, but I have heard from other colleges that the students already have 3-5 papers to write. That is the only part I am dreading. I can do the schoolwork easy. I like doing regular schoolwork. Essays however are the most hated part. I can not stand essays.

Professors tend to just go over the syllabus on the first day. The workload in college, unless you're taking some ultra advanced medical shit or whatever, is no more than high school. Hell, it's actually a lot less in most cases. The only classes with a lot of work are the basics like Math and whatnot. It's too late now, but for the next semester use ratemyprofessor to look up professors and read what their class is like. I prefer professors who give out no daily work and your entire grade rests on 4-5 tests. Sure, if you tank one or two tests you're fucked, but I prefer that gamble over having daily shit to do. It all sounds really simple on paper but the freedom really fucks you. My logic was "I used to go to school 8 hours every day, now I only have class mon-wed-fri and it's only for a handful of hours, this is gonna be easy." But it's totally different. In college, you get to choose to go to class. There's no parents to make you and the professors sure as shit don't care, they already have your money. The freedom really makes it difficult to go to class and do your work, even though it's all a lot less than high school.

I figure in engineering most of the work is going to be building crap or drawing crap. My math is ok so I am good on that but engish is going to kill me.

Basic English is piss easy. It's a different story if you're going for English major type of classes but the English courses everyone takes are easy. Think of it this way, those frat asshats who do nothing but drink all day passed all the basic classes you're going to take. You'll be fine.

Got a point, but I have a hard time creating an essay without using one of my mad lib copy and paste bullshit essays.

Your college should have a writing center with students who can tutor and help you for free.

It is a good thing It is only one class this term. On the other hand, I am finally going to start doing what I have been wanting. It has been a dream of mine to be an engineer and I am glad I can finally learn my trade.

[QUOTE=ewitwins;31805131]Holy shit, an ASU alumni! The fall semester JUST started, I'm in Palo Verde Main! Which dorm were you in?[/QUOTE] I was also in PV. Hell, most freshman get locked up in PV their freshman year. Although, I didn't get a dorm until my second semester. More precisely West.

[QUOTE=General Omega;31873175]I figure in engineering most of the work is going to be building crap or drawing crap. My math is ok so I am good on that but engish is going to kill me.[/QUOTE] english wasnt even a requirement on my engineering course

[QUOTE=rampageturke 2;31878596]english wasnt even a requirement on my engineering course[/QUOTE] Gen. Ed. Prereq

Ok to update, Saturday night was my first college kick back and it ended well. At first it was awkward for me since I didn't really know anyone except the few I knew met while going to it. The only people that were at it where Juniors or seniors so as you might know it would be odd but I began to talking to a few and had some pretty good conversations with them especially one with a scout in the army. Today was the first official day of college and it wasn't bad at all. Going to classes was fine but the only 2 problems where that 2 of my classes have a lot of students 500 and 800 and that many people seemed overly shy but that was expected. I made a few acquaintances many of which were sophomores but it was overall good. Sorry for not being specific but if anyone has questions I'll be glad to answer them ^^.

If anything, the older kids will be the easiest to talk to. Generally, college creates a very open mindset. Having been there, the older students will be very open and willing to talk to you as a stranger. You can just walk up to somebody in college, say "Hi," and if they aren't in a hurry they'll stop and talk to you. Definitely one of the hardest things to do when first starting college is throwing everything you ever learned about social interaction in high school out the window. You don't need to have mutual friends or interests with people to talk to them, you don't need to let them know you're cool or whatever before they'll talk to you. The big classes take some getting used to. As strange as it sounds, I've always had a harder time talking to people in big classes. In smaller ones you develop more of a connection with the other students as the semester progresses, making it easier to talk to them. With larger classes, there's a huge number of overly stressed out kids who refuse to stop taking notes to talk and even larger numbers of kids who just want to sleep. The odds you'll end up sitting next to someone who's willing to talk are pretty slim. I really suggest staying on top of different events going on at the school and go to them. They had laser tag in our big auditorium one time, for example. Going to stuff like that really gives you great opportunities to meet people you'd otherwise never come into contact with.

As expected, engineering only totals up to one girl in two of my classes so far. No other classes besides that today. As far as that, I have homework on drawing letters. It is like kindergarten only if we fuck up with drawing an A in the wrong direction the teacher won't think its cute.

I don't like it. In fact I dislike it. Really the more I sit here the less I like it. No yeah the rest of my life is going to be shit.

I like it so far, just fuckload of reading and a few papers and my 4:00 soccer everyday. It pretty swell. I noticed unless ur a total weird ass geek, socializing is so fucking easy with everyone to be honest everyone is so chill. never been to a single party during high school and before college even starts im going to parties like it nothin. College = school it a bitch, social life = easy and chill bro

i'm off to leeds college to study software development and english! CANNOT WAIT

I love the social aspect so much more than high school but damn it's a workload. In high school I didn't do shit after I came home and didn't worry about school until school the next morning. In college, I have so much homework and stuff to study that I can't keep it out of my mind and it stresses me a lot.

lmao studying Just relax. You don't need to study all hardcore to do fine, sure as hell don't need to pull all-nighters. Trust me. All-nighters will hurt you a lot more than they'll help you. It's much better to study a little bit and get a good night's worth of sleep than to study a bunch and throw sleep out the window.

[QUOTE=MaverickIB;32102061]lmao studying Just relax. You don't need to study all hardcore to do fine, sure as hell don't need to pull all-nighters. Trust me. All-nighters will hurt you a lot more than they'll help you. It's much better to study a little bit and get a good night's worth of sleep than to study a bunch and throw sleep out the window.[/QUOTE] Well it's not really studying as much as it is that I have tons of assignments Like I have a class where I have to draw random crap an hour every day and my Comp 101 class has me reading out of 3 different books and working on an essay

Well it has been 2 weeks since I started college and my current opinion is that it is pretty good. Socializing as said above is incredibly easy though most of my acquaintances friends are juniors and seniors so it's a bit odd. Last night I went to my first football game which we won and went to a awesome party with a few people I met at the game. The only things I dislike about college is that your better off learning by yourself because the teachers do not care and some cannot even teach which is really frustrating. Oh and by the way, party hard but study harder, it is your future your working for. That was the advice I was given by someone last night but his was more of a speech.

[QUOTE=tesher07;32116543]Well it has been 2 weeks since I started college and my current opinion is that it is pretty good. Socializing as said above is incredibly easy though most of my acquaintances friends are juniors and seniors so it's a bit odd. Last night I went to my first football game which we won and went to a awesome party with a few people I met at the game. [b]The only things I dislike about college is that your better off learning by yourself because the teachers do not care and some cannot even teach which is really frustrating[/b]. Oh and by the way, party hard but study harder, it is your future your working for. That was the advice I was given by someone last night but his was more of a speech.[/QUOTE] I'd say that's specific to your college. I've had great professors. Sure, their classes might have been really boring to me, but they've all seemed really passionate about what they were teaching. I really suggest going to ratemyprofessor before signing up for classes. It can save your life.