Become Best Friends With Your Professors

Ok, perhaps best friends may be a bit much, but opening the lines of communication can only benefit you. Quite possibly, this can be done with a simple self-introduction. Some students (like me when I was a freshman) find approaching professors intimidating, especially in large classes. However, after talking with your professor you may find it to be a much more comfortable experience than you had envisioned.

Contrary to what many students believe, most professors want to help students succeed. When a question arises concerning class material, it is not a bad idea to go your professor during his or her office hours. This also creates a great opportunity for that “self-introduction” motioned above.

From my experience, I have found that asking questions in class not only shows the instructor I am paying attention and interested in the topic, but allows him or her to become familiar with my face. That way, when I introduce myself, I give him or her a chance to connect my face with my name.

Social Media

Believe it or not, all students will be forced to move out into the “real world” at some point in their lives. This realization may come across as harsh to some, but we cannot (or should not) live the college life forever. As the “real world” coincides with a “real job,” coming across as employable might not be a bad goal to set. A good place to start (assuming ‘showering daily’ is obvious) is online. Controlling how you are displayed online could possibly be the determining factor on whether you get a sought-after job or not.

Just the other day, a friend of mine told me that when he sat down with a corporate job recruiter for an interview, the recruiter had him open his Facebook page. The two discussed what was on the page, but, fortunately, just before the interview, he went through and "cleaned" the page up by "untagging" photos and removing comments from his wall.

Bottom line: Control what you say and do on social media platforms because you never know who may be viewing.

Choose the Right Crowd

While in college you will be forced to make many decisions (to put it casually). These decisions may seem small at the time, but they add up. The sum of these decisions will ultimately define the outcome of the rest of your life.

One important thing all young professionals should do is surround themselves with people that share similar career goals.

We have all heard stories of someone that has gotten caught up with the “wrong crowd.” Do NOT be that someone. The people you surround yourself with will be the people that help you excel to where or what you want to be. Choose your friends wisely. It is okay to befriend people that went to different high schools. In fact, by the time you are finishing your college career most of your closest friends will be those you meet in college, not your high school friends.

Customize Your Studying

I was asked to give some pointers on studying while in college, however, it is difficult to give straightforward advice. I believe to be successful in college everyone should customize the way they study to cater to their personal needs.

My roommate during my freshman year found it easiest to get up bright and early the day of an exam and cram at the last minute. He had success doing this, I did not. I tried the “cram method” once and realized while taking the exam that I needed to prepare much differently. I also realized, when I got the graded exam back from the professor (with a frowning face by my score) that everyone needs to have a customized study plan. As a student you should find out what works best for you.


I now start three days before the test by making flashcards with important terms or concepts, reading the textbook while highlighting important parts and continuously writing out acronyms that I have made up if there is a list of words I need to remember. I also need to study in an atmosphere that is very quiet. While I was living in the dorms I usually used the lounge area to study, but now that I no longer live in the dorms I use the library because I know nothing will distract me. However, some students are able to study in their dorm room or apartment and have much success.

My last tip for customizing your own study habits is to ask questions.The material you are studying may be foreign and hard to understand, so questions are inevitable. Professors and teachers are more then willing to help you by addressing your questions (most of the time) as long as they can see that you tried to answer the question yourself by reading the textbook or attending class.

Whatever method you decide works best, follow that method strictly and be careful not to start slacking as the semester comes to a close. Click here for additional studying tips from the Virginia Tech website.

Go to Class

Fact: Nothing can be more annoying than an earsplitting alarm clock’s screaming attempt to wake you up for an early morning class. Oh how good it feels to hit the snooze button a couple of times as you try to rationalize the reasons why not attending class is acceptable.

To fill you in, the college attendance policy is not at all as it was in high school. Most teachers don’t take attendance. Their reason, which I agree with wholeheartedly, is that those who are present in class will perform better on exams, which will result in a better grade. Conversely, I suppose it is fair to say you are getting graded on attendance in an indirect way.

Going to class, regardless of what you or your classmates may think, will never hurt. It is not unusual for a professor to change an assignment’s due date and announce such change in class, surprise the class with a quiz, explain and review for an approaching exam or even tell the class what to study for and what to skip over. All are strong possibilities of what you will get if you attend class and what you will miss if you let the snooze button get the best of you.

Not long before the start of the spring semester of my junior year in college, I set a goal for myself: I was not going to skip a single class throughout the entire semester. To make a long story short, I successfully completed the goal and my grades were higher than ever before.

Regardless of what it seems class attendance is beneficial and will better you in the long run.

Live in the Dorms

This is by far the easiest way to meet new people.

Often times freshman students apply for dorm living and request they live with someone they already know. This is great if you are a person that needs the security of someone you are familiar with, and to be honest, you will still meet new people and have a lot of fun in the process. Ultimately, however, your friends will not be by your side throughout your life. My advice: live with a random roommate.

As young professionals, as I call anyone studying to become a professional, the skill to be independent is vital. If you possess this individualism you will not be pushed or pulled down a path that you are not comfortable with. Rather, you will walk freely (metaphorically) down any path you choose.

Become familiar with the people on your floor. These are folks, after all, that you will be seeing in the halls, restrooms and lounges throughout the school year. Getting to know other people will extend your social network, help your interpersonal and social skills and ultimately promote a more comfortable living environment.

As a new member of the dorm community, I encourage you to be as active and involved within that dorm as your schedule will allow. Committees such as ‘Student Senate’ or groups like intramural teams are easy ways to become closer and more familiar to others.

Get to know your Resident Assistant (RA). RA’s are students as well, often juniors or seniors, and are there to help. What makes them so valuable to new students? They were once freshmen themselves! They understand what the transition is like, moving away for the first time, and will be able to help. They will also have many ideas for you to become involved, which, as mentioned above, is very beneficial.

Declare a Major

Declare a major when you register for your first semester. Contrary to popular belief, declaring a major will not prolong your college career, in the event you switch majors later (as long as you do not change too late in your college career). It will help you determine what it is you would like to do in life. See, I truly believe that everyone can list at least one thing that interests them. I encourage those who cannot decide on a major to really think about what makes them happy. Use that train of thought to decide what career might correspond. Notice I said career, not job. The two are extremely different, but I will not get into that now. That is a topic I will save for a later blog.

In high school, I was absolutely certain I wanted to pursue a career in marketing. The fact that I had little idea of what a career in marketing actually entailed was beside the point. When I arrived at college, and sat in on my first marketing class, I quickly realized I was cut out for something different. Not entirely different, but, nonetheless, something was not right. After I talked with my peers and professors, I was directed toward the communications department. There, they offered a major in public relations. PR is very similar to marketing but is focused more on the messaging side (hence communications). This, as it turned out, was exactly the right fit for me, but I would have never found PR if I did not jump right into a major.

The bottom line is, do not come to college without some sort of an idea. Have a plan. Even if your plan is the wrong plan, which is most often the case at first, you will be able to adapt your plan for a better fit. You may end up adapting several times before you are comfortable, but so be it. In the end, you will be aiming down a more pleasant path.

Welcome to the Blogosphere!

First and foremost, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome myself to the “Blogosphere.” I realize I am somewhat behind the times and I also realize that it is not nearly as cool as it once was to blog. However, the way I see it, it is better late than never.

So here I am, in my cell –I mean room, writing about what I hope to be of interest to someone else. Here’s why: Every single day, and multiple times per day, I resort to other people to answer my various questions that arise.

Growing up, we Millennials have access to more information than any other generation did combined. To further that, what is even more accommodating, all that information is at our fingertips. The information is on our cell phones, for crying out loud! We have the ability to check the score of the Packers game while sitting in church (though this is merely hypothetical, such would never cross my mind). Conversely, we have the ability to watch a live stream video of a Catholic mass while at a Packers game. We can measure analytics while we wait for a tire change. I hope I am getting the point across. If I have not, the point is, we have a lot of information available to us. Moreover, to put it frankly, it would be silly if we did not make use of it.

Here is where I use the previous, long-winded, section to tie in the purpose of my blog: Why not learn from what others have already experienced? With this blog, I hope to force you, the readers, to look at the everyday occurrences an ordinary college student faces and gather insight from those experiences. I hope that after you witness, or at least read about, the difficulties, you can learn from them.

As I add to this blog I will share tips I wish for underclassmen to know. In addition, I will ask other “experienced” students to share their tips and suggestions to ensure this blog has a diverse perspective.

I hope this helps. Enjoy!