College Success Tip – Stay On Campus

Especially during your freshman year, you will most likely be homesick at some point.  You might miss your parents, your friends from high school or a significant other; there is nothing wrong with this at all.  You should try to get home for a weekend during each semester, but no more than once or twice.

By leaving campus every weekend, you are missing out on a great opportunity to meet new people, get involved in new activities and experience stuff you never imagined.  Many students transfer after a semester because they left every weekend and never even gave the school a fair shot.

Even though the temptation to leave may be great, you have to give your school a fair shot and this means staying on campus for the majority of the weekends for an entire year.  You cannot go back and forth for one semester and decide that a place isn’t right for you, it takes longer than that to make an educated decision.

By leaving campus frequently, you are robbing yourself of friends and experiences that you could be having on campus.

The Bottom Line:  Like so many things in life, there is an easy thing to do and a more difficult thing to do.  The “easy thing” in this situation is to leave campus every weekend to be back in your comfort zone.  The difficult thing, which is also the right thing, is to give yourself every chance to succeed in your new environment.  By leaving all the time you could be missing out on the time of your life!

College Success Tip – Take Care Of Yourself Physically

You have probably heard of the “Freshman 15” – this is where you gain 15 pounds your freshman year from eating junk food, not working out and crashing one too many parties.  Everyone knows about it, but somehow most people are unable to avoid it.  There is a happy medium between having fun and taking care of yourself, so just like everything else, make sure that you have balance.

A couple easy rules to follow so that you can take good care of yourself:

• Workout at least 3 days a week (this could include running outside, going to the gym or playing an intramural sport)
• Eat healthy (its OK to cheat once in awhile, but educate yourself on proper eating habits so that you know the types of foods to avoid)
• Get into a routine (have a diet, workout regularly, go to bed and wake up at the same times)
• Don’t do drugs (they are a waste of money and brain cells)

If you are in good physical shape you will feel better about yourself, be more active, get more done and feel better mentally.  Your physical health will also have an impact on your classroom performance as well.

The Bottom Line:  It might be tempting to get into some poor habits with your new found freedom, but make sure you are staying balanced.  Getting out of shape is much easier than it is to get back in shape, so create a good routine that balances having fun and taking care of yourself.

College Success Tip – Have Great People Skills

Having great people skills simply means that you can communicate well with a variety of people, understand what they are saying to you and have them understand what you are saying to them.  Make it a goal of yours to get along and communicate with everyone that you interact with.  It will benefit you for the rest of your life to develop this skill.

People always want to help and work with people who they like and trust.  Someone’s likeability is much more important than the way he dresses or how smart he is.  Everyone just wants to be around “people like them” who they can relate to and have a conversation with.  Be likeable and you’ll be just fine.

The Bottom Line:  Regardless of what activities you are involved with in school and what career you get into after you gradate, you will be around people for the rest of your life.  The better your people skills are, the better relationships that you will be able to build with others.

College Success Tip – Study At The Library

Some people claim that they get more out of studying when the television is on in front of them – they may feel like they are retaining the information, but it is very difficult to have a quality study session with distractions.  Throw in phone calls, text messages, emails, people and all kinds of other distractions, and it becomes pretty much impossible to be productive.  You will end up spending hours of your time getting nothing done, which is a complete waste of time.  If you just go to the library, put your cell phone on silent and find a quiet room you’ll get more done in one hour than you would sitting in your dorm room for five hours trying to study.

Studying at the library is an efficient and effective way to get significantly more accomplished in much less time.  You will survive for an hour without a text message, phone call or email, even if it is hard to believe.

The Bottom Line:  When you need to study, find a quiet spot in the library, put the phone on silent and get it finished.  Don’t waste hours on end thinking you are being productive while you are really not getting anything done.  One hour of focused studying is quicker and more effective than hours of putting forth a minimal effort with constant distractions.

College Success Tip – Turn In Work You Are Proud To Put Your Name On

Make sure that any assignment, project or exam you turn in is something you are always proud to put your name on it.  This doesn’t mean that you need to pull an all-nighter studying for a quiz that is 1% of your grade, but make sure you are always doing quality work you are proud of.

Just make sure to do the little things like following the instructions, checking for mistakes, turning in a clean copy and putting forth a strong effort.  Also make sure not to plagiarize and steal other peoples ideas.

The Bottom Line:  Never turn in work you are embarrassed to put your name on and know you didn’t give an appropriate amount of effort into completing.  That one poor assignment may stick in your professor’s head for the rest of the semester and could affect your grades on other assignments.

College Success Tip – Determine The Right Major For You

Before you spend 4 years in college studying something and then 100,000+ hours in the “real world” working in a certain field, don’t you think it would be wise to spend some time determining the proper major?  It is easy to say, “Lots of people do something that has nothing to do with their major after college,” but that isn’t an excuse to waste four years of classes and tuition doing something you either don’t enjoy or have no desire to do after college.

If you are unsure of what to major in, spend some time meeting with academic advisors in various departments throughout the university.  Also seek out professionals in those areas and see if you can take them out to lunch, shadow them at their offices for the day or even do an internship.  You’ll have a much better idea of what you like and don’t like once you go through this process – it’s better to spend a little bit of time figuring out what you don’t like now versus figuring it out after you studied it in college and spend your first couple years doing it after you graduate.

Also, don’t be afraid to switch majors while you are in school.  Again, it is better to figure this stuff out early in the game than to wait until a year or two after you graduate to figure it out.  Your parents might be picking up the tab on your first degree, but I bet they will be a lot less willing the second time around.

Many times, majors are chosen for the wrong reasons.  A few examples of the wrong ways to choose a major include:

• “I’m doing it because both of my parents were (major)’s”
• “(major)’s make way more money than (major)’s”
• “Only (characteristic) can be (major)’s”
• “Being a (major) is way too much work”

If you aren’t sure what you would like to major in, here is the biggest word you need to know:  passion.  Figure out what you love to do, study it in college and then do it in the “real world.”  Don’t worry about what fields hire more frequently, who makes more money during their first year out of college, or any of the other irrelevant items that too many people will lead you to believe are important.  At the end of the day you will be happier and more successful if you simply major in something that you enjoy.

The Bottom Line:  Pick the right major for yourself, not the best one for your parents or the one that you think will make you the most money.  In the long run, life is too short to not be happy and enjoy yourself.  If you are able to find something you enjoy and learn about it on your campus, you’ll be off to a great start!

College Success Tip – Surround Yourself Well

It is crucial for your college success that you surround yourself with the right people.  Their characteristics could include being intelligent, responsible, dependable, loyal and ambitious.  Of these people, make sure that you develop a core support group that will be there for you during the best of times and the worst of times; you’ll have lots of both while you are in college.

It is also important to have multiple groups of friends, not just one group.  For instance, if you are in a fraternity, those can be your closest and best group of friends, but make sure you have friends in other fraternities, outside of the Greek system and through other organizations.
If you are having difficulty meeting people then certainly get involved in different organizations and also make sure that you are being outgoing, likeable and introducing yourself to people.  This may feel uncomfortable but you have to put yourself out there sometimes.

Finally, surround yourself with a diverse group of people.  This will build character and teach you more about yourself if you have friends that come from different types of families, have different majors and different levels of intelligence.  The more diverse and different they are, the better it will be for you.

The Bottom Line:  The company you choose to surround yourself with will have a huge impact on your personal development, so make sure to choose wisely.  College is a great time to meet lots of new people, so take advantage of this and surround yourself with positive people who will make you a better person.

College Success Tip – Don't Procrastinate On Anything

It is always easier to put off doing the studying, reading, writing and assignments that you don’t want to do.  The problem with procrastinating is that it is just delaying the inevitable and increasing your frustration level when you actually sit down to do it.  Procrastination can lead to:

• Anxiety
• Stress
• Poor grades because you didn’t have enough time to do a decent job
• Getting in the way of your social life because you need to stay in on a Thursday night instead of going out
• Ending up having to do more work because you don’t have time to ask your professor for help and need to figure it out on your own, which will always take longer

This is easy to avoid; just make time on your calendar to complete what needs to be done well in advance of the due date.  You’ll feel much better and be happier by getting things done and out of the way.

The Bottom Line:  Nothing good comes out of procrastinating, so get things done quickly and well in advance.  It will make for a much more enjoyable college experience than if you were the one who waits until the last second and constantly feels behind and overwhelmed.

College Success Tip – Research Your Professors

Before enrolling in any class, you need to do some research on the various professors – no two professors are the same and it’s important to learn more about each one before you decide to spend a semester out of your life with them.  Some things to consider are:

• Who will I learn the most from?
• What times are classes offered?
• Is this professor an adviser to an organization I am part of or may want to join?
• Have they worked in an industry or for a company that I am interested in being connected to?
• How tough of a grader are they?  (A great resource to figure this out is www.PickaProf.com)

Decide what is most important to you, do your research and then pick a professor.  You can figure out all of the above information for each professor in about 5 minutes – don’t you think it would be wise to spend 5 minutes up front to potentially save you a ton of time, effort and unhappiness in the near future or all semester long?

You may decide that you are willing to take a class from 6-8pm two nights a week because the professor gives out significantly better grades than the other professor who teaches the course.  Another scenario is that you have your heart set on being admitted to a certain organization on campus and you believe that building a relationship with the advisor by taking his class will get you in for sure.

The Bottom Line:  By spending a few minutes of your time to do research, you will be able to find the perfect match for yourself.  This could make you happier, save you time, get you into an organization, get you a better grade or teach you a lot more.  Take the time to do the research, it will be time well spent!

College Success Tip – Start Building Your Network

Building your network means that you are forming relationships with key individuals who can help you either personally or professionally.  These individuals will help you get to where you want to be in your life and career faster, due to their knowledge, connections and experiences.  You will leverage the relationships you have with these individuals to accomplish things more quickly than you could ever do on your own.

How do you find these individuals?  They could be successful people who are friends of your family, parents of your friends, alumni of your high school or college, people you have heard speak and introduced yourself to, or anyone else whom you believe is successful and you can form a relationship with.  You may even seek these people out of the blue and simply introduce yourself because you admire something they have done either personally or professionally.

If you start building these relationships as a freshman and meet two new people each semester, that would mean that by the end of your senior year you would have at least 16 people in your network who could potentially help you.  Do you think that would be beneficial?  Do you think it would be easier to meet two new people each semester than meeting 16 people while you are searching for a career?  Do you think that a relationship built over a few years would be deeper and more meaningful than one that is built over a few weeks?  Visualize the power of having a large network that you build over a few years and then get started now!

Connecting with alumni of your school has never been easier – you can either obtain a free directory from your school or simply look for them online and then introduce yourself to those who you would like to get to know (set up a profile immediately at www.LinkedIn.com).  You can even attend alumni events in your area while you are home on breaks.

Finally, you should have at least one mentor.  This is someone you deeply respect and who is willing to look over you.  Mentors are there to answer your questions and you can share with them absolutely anything that is on your mind.  You won’t form this relationship over night, but by surrounding yourself with successful people you will certainly form a relationship like this eventually.  Mentors have already experienced everything that you are about to embark on and are able to see things much differently than you.  They will be able to guide you and help you to do what is in your best interest.

The Bottom Line:  Building a network will take you time, but this network will ultimately serve you for a lifetime.  By getting started now, you will have a tremendous advantage over everyone else your age.  Think of what you can accomplish if you have a strong network built of successful people in your corner who want to see you succeed.  Even if you only meet two new people each semester, you will have 16 people who have your best interest at heart – and you’ll have all of the people they know and all of their experiences on your side also.  This takes work up front, but will make your life a million times easier in the future.