Not a dork… just “special” 
DO NOT let that nursing student use your arm for learning the correct technique for drawing blood, no matter how cute she may be.
I still have nightmares.
Bad Advice: Drink and party all night long! Play loud music even if it keeps other residents of your dorm awake all night! After all, college is about having fun and when it’s time for the final you can always whine to the professor and maybe he’ll be nice and give you a C-. If not, consider suing.
Get a credit card immediately. Buy tons of stuff you don’t need. When the bill comes in, whine to parental units in hopes that they will pay it off.
Oh, you actually wanted good advice. Okay, then–Good Advice: College is not an extension of High School and acting the way you did in High School will be considered immature rather than cool.
When you have trouble in a class, remember that the professor has office hours. Talk to him/her/it. Many professors operate on the mercy and justice principal–those who ask for help when they have trouble get mercy and those who don’t get justice.
Start to analyze the things you are learning rather than just spouting back a bunch of facts you’ve memorized. It will make a difference in your grades.
Remember that your professors are not infallible; they can get their facts wrong. Do some research on your own and be willing to seek out differing opinions on a subject. You ultimately learn more that way.
Take everything in the editorial section of the student newspaper with a grain of salt.
Within your first week on campus, you should find and get an in with the wrong crowd.
There is a party somewhere every night, either on or off campus. Find it.
You should be on a first name basis with the local bartenders by the end of your 2nd week at the latest.
Find out who the student drug dealer is and buy as much GHB off of him as you can, then work your “dating magic” at one of the fraternity/sorority mixers.
if you aren’t streaking through the main quad on campus at noon at least twice a week, you aren’t trying hard enough.
Screw buying textbooks, these days they have Cliffs Notes and DUMMIES books for everything.
If a professor say that they take attendance every class and that it counts for 10% of your grade, they are lying. Call them on it.
When looking for a group to model your college experience after, there is only one answer: Delta Tau Omega, aka: Animal House.
Run for student body President on a platform of 1) keggers every day 2)Kegs mandatory in every classroom. 3) Change from a letter grade system to a pass/pass grading system. 4) mandatory everyone is nude Fridays on campus.
Those my friend, are your surefire keys to success.
I agree with most of what’s been said, but let me mention video games. I know ten people in my class who dropped out of college. For nine of them, video games were the root of the problem. They can take up a lot more time than some people realize and they also encourage people to stay cooped up in their rooms rather than going out and making new friends.
Stuff to bring:
Ear plugs. In theory, your RA is supposed to stop people from playing loud music in the dorms at unreasonable hours. In practice, he/she won’t.
Duct tape. In useful in all sorts of funny pranks.
WD 40. Because all door hinges in dormitories squeek. It’s a fact of life.
I highly recommmend retaking classes in college that you already had in high school. Unless you are really in a rush to get through college (which, by the way, you should not be…it truly is the greatest four years of your life, so take time to love it), just retake the classes. My Freshamn year was a breeze because I had already taken Calculus and College chemistry in high school.
Resist the sometimes tempting proposition of having girflriends/boyfriends "stay over" at night. At least not a regular basis. You give in once, though, and there they are all the time. And I don't think one sex is worse than the other. This is the one mistake I made in college.
I must disagree about going to class all the time. Most classes, yes. There are definetly going to be classes, though, where you just get nothing out of them. Don't feel bad about not going if you can spend the time doing something more useful and get nothing out of lecture.
Go to the gym. You will never have more time to get in shape. And learn to play cards.
Gameboy Tetris is the most mindless, addictive game every created and can eat up 10 hours of your time, or even a whole semester, before you even know it.
I rarely went to a professor's office hours. I did fine. However, you have to make a few professor friends because you are going to need letters of recommendation one day.
Always use the same brand of condom. That way, if you find a different brand somewhere in your significant others room, you know something is up. They may be smart enough to cover this up, but its one more step to make it all that much harder to cheat.
Dorm rooms offer very little privacy. You can't hide things from most people in your hall, let alone your roommate.A few other ideas:
Wait a year to go Greek if that’s your thing. Your first year of college should be about studying and establishing a good GPA: so when you do go Greek, you can party and not have to worry about your grades so much.
Someone above said don’t be in a hurry to graduate. This is good advice if you aren’t getting Pell Grants. If you are, know that Uncle Sam will only pay for a certain # of hours and after that he wants to know why you still don’t have a degree, and if you don’t have a good excuse he will cut you off and you’ll have to finish on student loans. My husband’s going through this as we speak.
The students from other countries usually have the best parties. Party with the Russians.
Great advice, all. Just one little nugget of wisdom of my own from my own extensive college experience (roughly the best five and worst two years of my life).
There will come a time when one of your required courses has you confused, dispirited, or frustrated beyond belief. When this happens, tough it out; make that extra effort to learn the material and get the work done. If it’s impossible to understand or do everything, just do your best.
I was in the Accounting program at the University of Hawaii, and I don’t know how many times this has flat-out saved my butt. Some of the required material would’ve driven Alan Greenspan insane. I completely stumbled out of the gate on my Senior Project, could only find a fraction of the research material I wanted, had to rush to finish up a semblance of an oral presentation, and still managed to escape with a passing grade. Sometimes, if your score is borderline, a professor may be kind enough to bump it up if you’re really trying hard.
Don’t ever give up. Don’t ever quit. Take the pain, but don’t ever be overwhelmed by it. Undoubted the #1 reason I’m a graduate and not a dropout.
Don’t skip class. Not ONCE!!!
It isn’t that one time is bad, but rather that you skip once, then after you’ve broken the rules, you will skip ALL THE TIME!
All the advice up there? Good. Go to class. Don’t get a credit card. Don’t put partying over studying, but DO party when necessary.
A few random thoughts:
Wherever you’re going, whether it’s Harvard or Cal State Dominguez Hills (love ya Toros), go and check out your campus. Chances are it’s going to have some interesting history behind it, and there are going to be lots of little study spots/hanging-out areas/gorgeous little hidden gardens. Go find 'em and enjoy.
Libraries are great spots. Someone said to befriend certain folks; I’d add a librarian to this list. Not just because it’s a great academic resource, but heck-- there also have good fluffy reading, tons of magazines, and it’s place to go when you’re dead bored. Just browsing the stacks finds you all sorts of hidden treasures.
Campuses are filled with researchers. Researchers like to do research on students, especially ones with medical schools. Keep an eye out on research studies that pay. Great way to make a little pocket change.
If you are driving to the school, take less than one car load. This way next June, when it comes time to move home for the summer, you have some hope of getting all your stuff home.
Check the climate where you are going. If you live in LA and are going to Montana to college, you will need new clothes.
Call your new roomate and go over what each of you are bringing.
You don’t need 2 fridges in the same cell er room.
Don’t take anything that you can’t afford to have broken, stolen, or puked on. Trust me.
Get to know the cleaning ladies, groundskeepers, maintence people and secretaries your department of study. These groups combined can assist you with almost anything if you’re nice to them.
If the Dean of Student Life doesn’t know your name, so much the better. Nothing good ever comes from a meeting with this hell-spawned individual.
Take a couple of classes that just sound ‘fun’, especially if they’re completely unrelated to your major. I took a Photography class my senior year, worked harder in it then I did in any of my other classes, and loved every minute of it. Well, maybe not spending 3 hours in the darkroom around all those chemicals whilst hungover…
Don’t worry if you don’t like your roommate right away. Hell, I went through 5 roommates in my first 6 semesters of college. It happens.
Do not even consider registering for the 7:30 or 8 a.m. class. If you do, you will sleep through at least half of the classes, and will not be awake and functioning for the other half. Plus it’s really cold out that early in the morning.
That’s nothing, though. My schedule for the upcoming semester should be really interesting - I have a three-hour lab at 8 in the morning. I figure I’ll be hung over and disoriented for the first hour, asleep for the second, and spend the third at the eye rinse/emergency shower station. Every monday! yay!