40 things I learned in University
I started university almost 12 years ago. It makes me feel so old to realize that those days of staying out all night, making new friends, laughing through new experiencing and epically failing. University is this amazing experience, especially living on res, and its such a great supported, first-taste of freedom that you get. I put this together years ago, but here are 40 Things that I learned throughout university, inspired by a list I read before I started university be Ben at MIT Admissions.
Your friends will change a lot over the next four years. Let them.
Keep in touch with family. It may seem like you want a clean slate, but they’ll keep you grounded.
I’m a nostalgia person, and songs and smells remind me of certain points in time. I changed my room pray and perfume throughout the 4 years, and now whenever I smell white tea, or hear anything LMFAO, I’m transported back to my dorm room in first year university. Keep note of these throughout your time.
Be realistic with your schedule. Years of booking 8:30 AM classes to ‘force myself to wake up early' was never successful and I ended up just missing a lot of my early classes.
Be realistic with your course load. It sounds great to take that extra class, maybe another lab, but what is going to make you productive, but not burnt out. Remember that these years are also to have fun, so that 7 PM, 3-hour lab on Friday nights is not going to be a good choice.
Try a couple all-nighters with your friends to finish papers, study for exams, but never make this the rule. I can promise you, take it from someone who didn’t sleep for 30 hours, and just studied for accounting midterms, it does not make you better at recall.
Go to the concert. Book the flight. Take the road trip. Go for 3 AM McDonald ice creams the night before a test. This time in your life you have immense freedom, and now is the time to follow your heart.
Especially if you have a roommate, make sure to take time to yourself. If you’re in first year, there is this need to be around people, and make new friends all the time, but its important to take some time to yourself to recharge, EVEN if you’re an introvert.
Try and read a book or two for fun. I can attest I stopped reading for enjoyment and it took me until the age of 25 to start again. Make it low investment non-fiction, and keep it by your bedside when you need a textbook break.
Things happen. Like 8 AM walks of shame through campus wearing a dress you wore the night before in front of a high school tour group. Laugh it off, it happens, and you’ll laugh about it for years to come.
Be open to new things and change. You are constantly changing and growing through university and its a great time to go with the flow.
Use office hours that your professors offer you. Especially if you need extra help in the class.
Co-ed bathrooms aren’t scary. Invest in shower flip flops though.
It’s okay to fail. Classes, friendships, relationships. Now is a great time to do so and learn.
Take a class or two that is purely for fun, like African Drumming, or a Film analysis class.
Say yes to the guy (or girl) that asks you out.
Don’t date someone your roommate has been in a relationship with. I had a friend that did this and it didn’t end well for the friend group. There are a lot of people on campus. Find someone else.
Journal once and awhile to reflect on what you’ve learned and some highlights. It will be great to be able to look back and remind yourself all that you did and learned from Year One to graduation.
Make friends with people that you may not have been friends with in high school. You can learn a lot from these people, and some of your closest friends can be the opposite of you.
If you come to university in a relationship, make sure to make the effort to still get out and meet people. Don’t spend your nights in your dorm Skyping your significant other every weekend. Get out and make memories for yourself. You’ll regret it if you don’t.
Living with a roommate is the first time you’ll experience living with a complete stranger, and also the first time you’ll have to have difficult conversations, and still manage to remain friends/civil throughout the year.
Chances are your metabolism is still going strong. Have junk food, eat too much chocolate, too much candy, and get the late night chicken caesar sandwich. You have years ahead of you to worry about it when your metabolism slows.
Don’t forget your laundry. Wash your clothes and sheet more often than you want to, and crack a window. For some reason in university you don’t mind being smelly, but its still gross.
If you are in a relationship and none of your friends want to hang out with you and your significant other, pay attention. They usually know better than you do, and can often be good metrics on what your significant other is REALLY like.
Don’t sit in your dorm alone, go out and find another person to make it a movie night, or grab dinner with a floor mate. There are a million things going on on campus and you have plenty of time to do that when you are in second and third year and living off campus.
Fall in love, with people, classes, the outdoors, hobbies. Keep falling in love with your life.
If you need to get a job, find something that you actually enjoy. I became a nanny for awhile to get extra money, but didn’t really enjoy it, and it became just another thing that I had to do each week.
If you are a type A person, try to be type B sometimes and let someone else make the plans.
Take a lot of pictures. And I mean 1 million pictures. I love being able to trace back through my university experience through the millions of photos I took of my friends and everything we did. Everything has a story, and if you are nostalgic, this is a no brainer.
Your safety is incredibly important. If you feel unsafe, don’t walk alone to your car at 11 PM. Make sure you’re up to date with campus safety initiatives.
Your health is #1. Just because your friend is on a 10-day bender doesn’t mean you have to be. Our immune systems are different, and just because ‘Amy’ can handle that amount of alcohol with no sleep doesn’t mean you can (or should).
Ask for help. Often.
Its okay not to be in the top 10 of your class. The reality is you are going to be taking a lot of classes in your degree and its important to learn (and pass), but don’t let it get you down.
Appreciate how great you look. You have years ahead to cringe at the hemline of your dresses, but appreciate it in the moment.
Explore your campus thoroughly. Open every door, check out all the buildings. You never know what you might find. In second year we found a teachers lounge that wasn’t used on the weekends and we had a great supply of coffee and comfy couches to study in.
Change your mind. If you aren’t happy with engineering, try business, or psychology, or biology, or film! Now is the best time to try out these different things. I get made fun of having changed my degree four times, but I am happy to have the computer science, anthropology and psychology experience now post-business degree. It all helps shape you.
Tattoos are permanent. Be very certain you want to get your university motto on your back, or those cute matching heart tattoo’s with your best friends forever in first year. When in doubt, get a piercing, dye your hair. These are all relatively reversible when you enviably change your mind.
Don’t make fun of first years. That was you looking like an idiot, talking to loud and wearing too short of skirts. Just smile and remember what you used to be like.
Enjoy every second of the next four years. It is impossible to describe how quickly they pass and how badly you wish you had more time, freedom and flexibility (and less bills).
This is the only time in your lives when you are free from responsibility, and you have the freedom to do whatever you choose. Take advantage of this every day and be grateful for all the experiences you are going through. You’ll be grateful to look back at this one day as the most amazing experience of your life.
I hope this list is something you can either relate to, or reference as you start university. I know it’s going to be a different experience now than it may have been for you before, but I hope that you can still find fun and excitement as you go through some of the most exciting years of your life.
Love, E.
