asdfjkl1

I'd love the feedback of current students/grads/parents on what you should know for college in terms of skills. And....if possible, how to attain them (if it's not obvious). Thanks! =]

I want to be ready for September!

jack4640

You need to be able to down an entire beer in 3 seconds via a plastic tube without getting any of it on your cargo shorts while high-fiving it up with your homeboy. Everything else will come naturally.

edit: also the ability to maintain a sustained "WHOOO!!!" for several minutes

edit2: also the skill of rocking out, as hard as possible no questions asked, to Oasis, at any moment in the day

swifty27

Learn to not procrastinate. If you can't do that, force yourself not to procastinate. If you really can't do that, then you'd better learn to like coffee and caffeine gum

burgler09

Procrastinating is probably one of the best ways to get bad grades.

BusinessGuy

If you don't already have it, you'll either pick it up in college as necessary or there's no hope for you. Either way it's nothing that you need to prepare for. Enjoy your last summer of freedom. One thing that I would suggest: research any department/major that sounds remotely interesting, you don't want to find out when you're a senior that you really should have majored in *insert amazing major* instead of what you began with.

Research your professors on ratemyprofessor or pickaprof when you're signing up for classes. While not all professors are represented, and while sometimes the feedback is rather worthless, I've found it to be quite useful and have not been led astray at all by the suggestions -- assuming you are able to tell which people are telling the truth and which are lying (hint: if someone says "X teacher blows! He's so ****ing hard, not an easy A!" it's safe to say that the class is not an easy A, but besides that you should look elsewhere for information or pick a class based upon the time it's offered).

Pick classes first for the quality of professor, then for the time it's offered, and lastly for it's location (having classes reasonably close together is always a good thing). Some create schedules around not having class on certain days, or never having class before 11 or 12 -- it's not worth sacrificing a potentially amazing learning experience just to sleep a bit longer.

GoldShadow

Time management time management time management time management.

Oh and time management.

FordGT

Time management, motivation, resilience, and focus

pugfug90

note taking
writing essays
keeping on time
not wasting time

smdur1970

Time management is certainly #1. Be sure to make time to keep track of finances, eat well, and if possible, exercise.

wraider2006

Life skills, such as showering consistently, communicating with other human beings, not seeking solace/holding conversations with furry inanimate objects such as teddy bears, not spilling food and milk on your lap while eating, putting on deodorant and leaving the toilet seat down (and always flushing and washing your hands).

idic5

this is an absolutely great and timely thread. Please keep it going with serious contributions. --from a dad of a soon to be 08-09 freshman. wife and I were just talking about this verysubject yesterday.

kenf1234

It's very simple if you want to be ready for September. Figure out what the textbooks are going to be for the classes you are going to take and read them ahead of time. Show up knowing the material. You will learn way more, do way better, and be under way less stress. I can't understand why more students don't realize this.

Kash_Money

1) Unless you have unlimited funds from mommy and daddy (And depending on what school you go to - you may very well encounter many students like this, or you yourself may be one) - learn how to manage your money. I've been fortunate that my parents have been rather liberal with me in terms of spending, but even then I've had to watch it. It's easy to get carried away, especially if you're going to school in an urban area.

2) Be outgoing and get involved. I kind of just sat around the first week or two, being a room hermit. I quickly realized life would suck if I did that. So I got involved with a few groups and my roommate and I started playing intramural sports.

3) Leave your door open the first few weeks. It's the best way to get to know people in your hall.

4) Don't pick early classes if you're not a morning person. Trust me. I know that an 8 AM class seems like a blessing after years of high school, but you'll quickly realize that you stay up a lot later in college than you did in high school and you'll start to hate yourself for choosing that 8 AM.

4) Time management. It's very, very easy to get distracted in college. I have people who come ask if I want to "smoke" at 4 PM on Monday afternoons. This is not smart. Work hard, THEN play hard. And don't don't don't put off reading. It'll pile up. Trust me.

5) Read this summer. Newspapers, books, whatever. That way it won't be so foreign to you when you're reading 100 pgs + a night.

Hope that helps.

Ricebunny

My sister(who is now a grad student) says the only thing she ever used in college that she learned in high school was how to write well.

idic5

one of the things that came out of the conversation I had with my wife on this subject the other day is that we wondered whether d got all she needed in hs - the time mgt skills and other 'soft skills', for example. we wondered whether college will be a 2nd chance 'to do hs right'. this might be one reason, we wondered, that the choice of the small lac similar in size to hs might be right, at least for us.