10 Things Freshman Year of College Teaches You & 10 You'll Only Understand After You Graduate
10 Things Freshman Year of College Teaches You & 10 You'll Only Understand After You Graduate
From Freshman Year to Adult Life
College, for the most part, is memorable in a good way. And in freshman year, you'll be hit with as many firsts as you'll be taught lessons: how to take advantage of office hours, how you're your own responsibility, how your grades are harder to maintain. Some things, though, you won't fully understand until after you toss your cap into the air. From the frenzy of first year to stepping into the real world, here are 10 things freshman year of college teaches you and 10 you'll only understand after you graduate.
1. Friendships Can't Be Forced
Making new friends in college is generally relatively easy, especially in freshman year. After all, this is when everything is new to everyone, and for those who have moved away from home, it doesn't hurt to befriend a pal or two. One thing you'll learn in the process, though? As easy as it might be to make friends, you can't force them, either. With different courses, majors, and huge lecture halls, it's not always possible to sit next to the person you talked to in the last class.
2. Office Hours Are Free Tutoring
Office hours, as you'll learn in your freshman year (or maybe even later down the line), are basically free tutoring. You have your professors' and your TAs' (teaching assistants) office hours to take advantage of, so anything you don't understand right away in class? Visit office hours to sort it out.
3. 8AM Classes Are Brutal
Morning classes will always be brutal because you'll be attending class when you're still barely awake. Tack on any commute you'll have to do to that, and you'll probably be waking up at an ungodly hour. The only good thing about starting early is that, if you schedule your classes right, you might be able to head home early.
4. Freshman 15 Is Real
You probably heard about "freshman 15" before even setting foot into college, and in your mind, you thought it wouldn't happen as long as you were careful. Alas: you'll learn in your first year that the stress really does take over, and it's not always easy to eat healthy when you're pressed for time and have no money.
5. Skipping Classes Isn't the Solution
As you'll learn the hard way during freshman year, it might be easy to skip classes to avoid responsibility, but it is not the solution. Pretty soon after you'll realize that you're lessons behind, a midterm is coming up, and you have no clue what's going on in your lecture slides.
6. You're Your Own Responsibility
You'll realize fairly quickly that no one is really looking out for you in college other than yourself. Sure, you may have your new group of friends and classmates you chat with, but they all have their own classes and lives to worry about. You're your own responsibility, and if you don't care, you'll fail.
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7. You Can Reinvent Yourself
College isn't high school. And who you were in high school doesn't have to be the you who enters college. It's easy to reinvent yourself and flip a new leaf, especially if you don't know anyone at your new school. You can be anything you want to be—but it's still important to be yourself.
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8. Your GPA Isn't as Easy to Maintain
Unlike high school, you'll quickly learn that it isn't as easy to maintain your grades in college. Classes are hard, and the exams even more so. If you don't study, don't go to your classes, and don't visit office hours, you're only setting yourself up for failure and your GPA will plummet.
9. Your Professors Don't Care If You Don't
Your college professors, especially in freshman year, don't know you. You're only one student in a huge class they have to teach, and there are probably many other courses they're instructing, too. If you don't care to go to classes or don't attend office hours, they won't know you and they won't care if you fail. You have to care first and make them aware that you want to succeed.
10. You Will Struggle
There's no easy way around it: you will struggle in college. You might think it'd be like the movies where it's all fun and games, but it's going to be tough, and it won't always be pretty. But that's okay—these challenges will help you learn and grow as a person, and you'll come out of it much wiser than before.
These are just some of the things you'll learn in your freshman year, but what about things you won't know until you graduate? Let's jump into that next.
1. Time Will Fly By
Four years might sound like a long time, but once you finish college, you'll realize that time really flies. Before you know it, you're no longer a student—you're an alumnus. You're watching all these other young kids enter college, freshman year, and it'll boggle you how that was once you.
2. It's Okay to Not Have Things Figured Out
College is tough, and even though it's technically supposed to set you up for the career or field you want to pursue, you don't always end up with what you expect. And that's okay; it's normal not to have things immediately figured out. You'll realize once you graduate that many people are just wandering, too, and discovering themselves and their passions anew as they go.
3. You Might Outgrow Old Friendships
The friends you stuck with before college might not be the friends you're still close to after graduating. You'll meet new people, be part of new groups, and you may drift from the friendships you once cherished in high school. It won't always feel nice, but it'll help to think of it as you expanding your social circle.
4. The Real World Is Scary
In college, you're in a bubble protected from the real world. You have a set schedule, a structure to each day. Once you graduate? You're no longer in that safety net, and you'll need to find your own way to survive. You'll realize pretty quickly that going to school might actually be better than going to work.
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5. Network, Network, Network
Something you probably won't understand the importance of until after you graduate is how crucial networking is. Forging professional connections before you even step into the workforce means you already have your foot in the door. But doing it when you've already graduated? It's much harder (and more awkward) to reach out.
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6. Your Major Doesn't Have to Be Your Career
You might have gone to college for four or more years to obtain a degree in the major you chose, but you don't need to pursue that field if it's not your calling. In fact, you'll realize after you graduate that the world is your oyster if you want to expand your horizons and explore a little more. Most people don't have their lives figured out, anyway, so don't box yourself in.
7. You'll Experience Imposter Syndrome
In the first professional role you're hired in, you'll probably experience imposter syndrome—the feeling that you're not supposed to be there and that your skills are inadequate. But don't worry; almost everyone goes through the same experience in those initial years.
8. Making New Friends Only Gets Harder
Making friends in college was easy; you could sit next to someone in class, say hi, and be best friends with them by the end of the semester. Outside of college, though? It's not only making new friends that's hard—meeting new people is hard. Plus, with all the responsibilities you'll have as an adult, it's tough to maintain friendships, too.
9. Being an Adult Isn't How You Thought It'd Be
When you were young, you might have fantasized what your adult life would look like: a big house, a sleek car, everything figured out. But then you grow up and reality hits you, and you realize that being an adult is tiring. Honestly, on most days, you wish you were a kid again.
10. You'll Miss College Life
Once you graduate from college, the thrill of finishing school might absorb you for a while. But then the feeling will fade, and you'll wish you were a student again. Being an adult is hard. Going to work every day is hard. Taking care of yourself is hard. At least in college, you were still in that little bubble, and the most you ever had to worry about was what would be on your final exams.
