Advice to pnms beginning their College/University experience…
 

We give tons of advice about recruitment. What to wear/what not to wear.
But if you are a woman interested in joining a sorority it stands to reason you are a woman of some motivation and energy. Those qualities should not be wasted and there are a myriad of ways to ensure your college experience is the most varied and interesting it can be. I’m not sure if this is the correct forum for this and I know there have been similar threads, however I’m going to try this here and see what happens.
I hope other alumnae and actives will post their tips and recommendations for beginning your experience.


My recommendations for the very beginning of University life are:
A. Get a day planner or calendar. It’s not necessary that it be a blackberry, I still just use the paper kind and this works fine. Start writing down each event, class, lunch, studying. You’ll get a picture of how much work versus free time you have. This is so important in gauging which activities you want to add to your schedule and how much of a commitment you can reasonably give.
B. Find the library. I know that sounds funny, but I’m serious. Go now while it’s filled with only grad students. Figure out how to find it and use it. At larger Universities they offer tutorials on how to use the Library system. Be humble enough to take one, or simply say hello to the staff and ask how their system works. Don’t depend simply on your facility with the internet to do all of your research; books actually have some rather good qualities. Many outside materials for classes can only be found within a library. Also, scope out a good study spot and make appointments with yourself to be there at least 4x a week.
C. You may have received a Student Activities booklet, if not the list of your college’s various clubs and organizations will most likely be on their website. Pick three organizations you are interested in; contact them and make a date to go to their first meeting of the year. Were you president of the French club in High School? Well then go to the French Student Club on your campus. Did you write for the paper, make a date to go to their kick-off meeting. Do it now, as a freshman or sophomore. May people will tell you to wait and see and adjust. But I am saying get out there and get involved now! There is no reason to wait. Use your skills; meet people who have similar interests; this is what college is for. If you wait too long you’ll never go and check it out. Semesters fly by, I promise, and the thing you think you’re going to check out in August seems too hard to try and do in October and not worth it at all come next March. Do the things you are interested right now!
D. Go to office hours. You will find on your syllabus for each class that professors have office hours where students can go and ask questions about the lectures. No one uses them until right before the exam. Go the first or second week. Go in introduce yourself and ask 1 or 2 questions about the lecture and about what the professor’s expectations are. Keep going, at least twice a month. This pays off in ways you cannot imagine. Professors know your name, know you are interested. They see your paper and remember the conversations you have had. And when it comes time to obtain recommendations from a professor (and yes, there will come a time) you will have your choice of men and women who would be happy to write you a recommendation for grad school, a job or for homecoming queen.
E. Do your homework the very first week. Do all the reading. Don’t skip anything. You do not want to have to play catch-up right before the first exam. It is the worst feeling. Give yourself time to understand how much time you need to study and where on campus is the best place. In your room, the library, the local Starbucks. Give yourself some choices.

Okay, I’m sorry I’m so verbose but I get passionate and wordy when I think about all those women who are getting the opportunities of a lifetime and will fritter it away watching Full House repeats in their room. Or women who believe that getting a bid is the end of any effort on their part. There is so much else to do!
Okay I’m slowly climbing off my soap box. Whoo, it’s high up there.

-If possible, buy your books prior to your first week of classes. I was behind from the very first day of school, due to not heeding this advice.
-Get a map of the campus, and have a vague idea of what is where. The larger your school is, the more important that is!
-Even if you're not taking Phys Ed, know where the gym is, and when non-majors are allowed to use the facilities. You can work off a LOT of frustration there!
-Having one pen or pencil is never enough - always have at least one spare. If yours doesn't work, you have a backup. If yours does, the person sitting next to you may need to borrow one. It's well worth the investment!
-Work at NOT becoming the "I'm so drunk!" girl at parties. Seriously.
-If you fall behind, find a tutor. I don't care if you've taken Advance Placement classes all through high school, it's a new ball game. Learn to play it!
-Call your family at least once a week. They won't admit it, but they're probably worried sick that you're homesick, struggling, or partying too much.

Go to class.

If you want to save some extra money you can do so by buying your textbooks online. Some websites where I have saved a decent amount of money include:
half.com, amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com there are probably others too.

If you do your research on textbook prices, you can save yourself a hell of a lot of money.

Good luck! :)

That is the one thing that people asked me in college is, how can you be so involved on campus and SK and still get such great grades?

I FREAKIN' WENT TO CLASS EVERYDAY!! It's just that simple :)

New to Campus?

1) Print out your class schedule and get to campus a few days early to find your classes.
2) Got a car? Don’t speed on campus or park illegally—the campus police will find plenty of other reasons to cite you.
3) Buy your books before classes begin. Books sell out quickly on and off-campus. Better book deals are available online or off-campus than on-campus, usually.
4) Buy school supplies—binders, notebooks, paper, pens, pencils, etc. You do need these.
5) Buy a planner and USE it. It doesn’t have to be a blackberry—paper and pen work well enough for a college student!
6) Cell Phones are turned off when you’re in a classroom. Period.
7) Go to class. Be on time. Be a few minutes early, in fact. Being late is very rude and can mean the difference between pass/fail if you’re on the edge.
8) Don’t cram all your classes over two days so you can have a 5-day weekend. Sounds good in theory, I know...
9) Go to office hours to introduce yourself to your professor. Even if it is just to say, “Hi, I’m Suzy and I’m in your 11:30 Bio 101 class. Just wanted to stop by and say hello and introduce myself!” It can be a 20 second conversation. Just do it. Relationship building is an important part of college and can sometimes mean the difference between pass and fail if you’re on the edge. Get on their good side. Email them relevant articles about their field or clip them and bring them to office hours. It’s called networking and finding a mentor.
10) No make-up tests means no make-up tests. Don’t expect your college professor to make an exception for you. (S/he may if you’ve gone to office hours for help or to say hello a few times and they know you… but don’t count on it.)
11) In a lecture class, there may be a sign-in. Don’t sign-in your friends if they’re not there. AND don’t sign them in if they are there. Let them do it themselves.
12) Plot out your week—social and study time. You’ll get more done.
13) Talk to your adviser about classes to take.
14) Are you on financial aid? Get your FAFSA in as soon as legally possible. The earlier you turn it in, the higher the chance of getting FREE money you don’t have to pay back. The later it is, the less FREE money is available. The early bird catches the worm. Also, make sure your financial aid went through. You may be taking classes that were dropped because the school didn't get paid!
15) Are you a sorority member? Go to your mandatory sorority events and put yourself on a “fun” allowance. DO go to mixers and socials, but you don’t have to go to all of them—after all, you need time to study and time for yourself, too! But DO come around to the chapter house, the occasional intramural football game, etc. It’s a great way to meet your sisters.
16) Have friends outside the sorority.
17) Join at least one non-Greek related campus activity.
18) Internships and school come first.
19) If you have the opportunity to join a pre-professional society, do it. Schedule classes around their meetings during class registration. These clubs can help you network your way into an internship, provide mentors to guide you through grad school selection, and carry weight on your resume to help you land that first job.
20) If you’re not doing well in school, get a tutor and shrink that “fun” allowance.
21) Don’t go home every weekend. You’ll never get settled at college if you’re always going back to high school.
22) The Internet is one research tool of many for your papers and assignments. Use books, newspapers and magazines, too.
23) Go to at least one school football game. Even if you hate football.
24) Learn the Fight Song for your school!
25) If you join a sorority, don’t discuss sorority internal “drama” with anyone who isn’t a member of that chapter, especially on the Internet. Bad new spreads and spirals—making the original problem 10x worse and harder to solve, not to mention the bigger hole you are digging for your chapter’s reputation on campus.
26) Don’t hook up with random guys or go home/bring home random guys. You WILL develop a reputation.
27) If you develop a reputation, it 1- hurts your chances of getting into a sorority, 2- injures your relationship with your sorority or the image of your sorority and its members and 3—hurts you! Don’t act like a hooker and then wonder why you he didn’t call. If you act like a hoochie (do people still use that word?) expect to be treated like one.
28) Safety in numbers. Don’t allow friends to go off with strangers when you’re out on the town, even if they’re a casual acquaintance. This is especially true of Spring Break trips.
29) As a sorority member, your actions, academic performance, personal appearance and treatment of others reflects back on every other woman in your chapter. AND to non-Greeks, this also reflects on the entire Greek System. Act like a lady and help your sisters to do the same, because their words and deeds also reflect back upon you.
30) Be nice to others.
31) Look presentable in your letters. Don’t ever smoke or drink in them.
32) Don’t talk to the press about your sorority, even to the student press.
33) If a sister or group of sisters behave in such a way that you don’t agree with, talk to them. Or talk to the Standards Chairman, the President or your Adviser.
34) If a sister or group of sisters try to coerce you, harass you, hurt you, or do anything that smacks of hazing, SAY NO AND WALK AWAY. Call your new member coordinator, chapter president, or adviser as soon as possible and tell them everything.
35) Think before you act.


Can you tell I’m not in the mood to work today? ;)

Shower (yes I'm serious, and this really goes for people w/co-ed showers) If you aren't comfortable with the showers, find a time of day that you are comfortable using them. If that doesn't work, talk to your RA, but for the love of everything and your roommate SHOWER!!!!!!

Find the laundry room and don't forget to wash your bed sheets. Learn how to do laundry BEFORE you leave.

If you move from Hawaii to Wisconsin they do have stores up here, you can buy winter stuff here. A Hawaiian sweater does not cut it in Wisconsin. Find someone who has been through a winter to help you find the apropriate weight jackets and sweaters. If you go w/others freshman Hawaiians, it is the blind leading the blind (I love my hawaiians though)

Be careful if you are eating snow...

Don't sleep w/the first guy to hit on you. I swear there will be others.

Do NOT, take open drinks from strangers. (well you shouldn't be really drinking underage but if you are going to) If someone is getting a beer or drink for you, watch it get poured and keep you hand over the opening to prevent stuff from being put in.

Don't let others pressure you to drink, sleep around, or do drugs, you have to live with the consequences later.

Say Hi to people,

Enjoy it, college is an amazing four years and you'll never experience anything like it. try new things, figure out what you like and don't like. You'll never have so many things at your fingertips again in your life. Don't letb your friends deter you from doing what you are interested in.
:)

This is sooooo true! I went back home every single, solitary weekend my freshman year (I wasn't a DZ then), even though home was an hour and a half away, and I only had like 3 or 4 friends there. (There were a whole lot of reasons for this, none of which I'm going to get into.) Finally, I came to my senses the summer before my sophomore year and realized that I needed to make some friends in college. That was one reason I decided to rush!

One more thing--if you go to class and try hard (or even if you don't), and you still find yourself doing badly in a class, for the love of God, drop the thing! One class that you can take again with a different professor some other semester is not worth ruining your entire college GPA over. If your grades start out badly, it's very hard to improve them. However, if you're failing all your classes, maybe it's time for some soul-searching....

Take at least one fun class during the semester. Be it a ballroom dance class, self defense class, Rec and Leisure class... whatever. It doesn't matter if it's only one unit and not part of your major requirement... it will keep you SANE! And you will meet lots of people.

Alcohol on a Tuesday night=no sleep=not a good idea... especially if you were a person in high school that would require a minimum of 8 hours of sleep.

Walk everywhere! If you have a compact campus, walking will help with that Freshman 15. I swear... after that dorm food, you WILL gain weight. And it can cut back on gas spending.

And good lord... stay away from the campus advertised credit card scams!

If you are bombing a class DROP IT DURING DROP/ADD. Don't wait too long and muddle through, because then you'll either lose your $$$ or get a terrible grade. Neither are worth it.

*Especially if you have deferred recruitment, meet as many sorority women as you can. We don't bite, and if you mention that you're going through recruitment, most folks are more than happy to talk about their sisterhood, what'll happen at parties, etc., introduce you to other sisters, etc. If we know you, we don't have to start out with "so, what's your major?" at parties or anything lame like that.

*HUGE ditto to "go to class." Study hard, and aim for a 4.0. Even if you don't make it that high, at least you'll have tried and sometimes if all you're expecting from a class is a C, that's what you'll end up with when you could have done better if you tried.

*If you go to parties, go with a group of friends you trust and have at least one person stay sober for the night and make sure that nobody gets too sloppily drunk, does anything too embarrassing, and makes sure that everyone's accounted for and back at home by the end of the night. If you do get a bit tipsy, it helps a lot to eat something either before or after and to drink lots and lots of water, and if you're on a campus that doesn't approve of folks coming back to the dorms after drinking (regardless of being of drinking age or not), make sure folks from the dorms can crash in a friend's off-campus apartment or something. (and never, ever, ever drink or smoke in letters)

*Be open with your roommates and neighbors. Don't wait 'til the end of the year (or before finals) to say that you really didn't like them--if it doesn't work, speak up and maybe you can switch roomies before things get out of hand or at least you'll know that there's a roomie/neighbor problem. One of my biggest regrets from last year was that I didn't complain about noise enough to my noisy neighbors when I was trying to study, and I ended up always staying up late and miserable. Ask nicely and you're not the "homework ogre" of the hall--you just want a little respect, and that usually goes over well.

*If you hate the food, you can't go wrong with cereal. Milk's usually brought in from elsewhere, and cereal? The cafeteria staff never has to touch it.

*Go into classes with an open mind. The most vocal students about profs are usually the ones who either ticked off the prof or got a horrible grade for the class. Sometimes the most disorganized, meanest, worst person on campus according to the prof reviews is the nicest guy you'll take for the semester.

*Don't text message or instant message during class. If you brought a laptop, open up the prof's notes on the lecture during class if they're available (if you don't, print it out and add extra writing space)--then you can add what he left out on the lecture notes, what you find interesting, think might be discussed later, etc.

*Most folks I know use paper planners, but if you have something like a Palm or a Blackberry, use the alarm function! Set it to go off ten minutes before you have to wander to class (fifteen if it's an awful walk), and it's a lifesaver.

*Get to know your profs, TAs, older students, RAs, the "academic support" office, your sorority's academic officer--all those resources are there and can help you do better with schoolwork stuff, and besides, profs are sometimes a lot more interesting out of class than they are in class.

Where were all of you when I was 18? This is great advice, and I could have used it!!!

* If everyone says "Don't take that class with that professor -- he's the worst!" Then DON'T. You will regret it all semester.

* If you are thrilled to realize there is no one making you go to class, get over it quickly. As so many others have already pointed out, going to class is not an option.

* That relationship with the hometown honey from over the summer may or may not last past Thanksgiving. Don't spend Saturday nights in your room talking to him on the phone, when there are other opportunities available.

* Avoid the snack machine. Little Debbie's Fudge Rounds will settle onto your rear end. At least that was my experience!

I remember I tried this during my 1st class my first semester of freshman year. It was math and I already knew the teacher was gonna be a beeyatch before i even talked to her. So after class I went up to her and said, "Hello Dr.---, my name is epchick and I just wanted to come up and introduce myself." She looked at me with this rude blank stare and said "what did you want?" I told her i just wanted to introduce myself and she said "oh...ok whatever. Bye now" And turned around back to the papers she was piling into her briefcase. I realized it might not be a good idea to talk to her again, but when i was in trouble (like the time my car broke down and i missed her class) I actually went to talk to her during her office hours. She wasn't half-bad after that and I actually became her "teacher's pet" lol.

**OFFICE HOURS--i do have to re-iterate what others said. This is probably one of the only times that the professors will wait on YOU. Don't really expect for them to talk to you after class (although some will)....most will say "go to office hours." You'll be surprised how willing they are to help you with the things that you are having problems will, and during office hours they *seem* to be more amiable!

**GO TO CLASS---its just something you should do, you never know what you are missing!!! I remember in one of my classes (art appreciation) there were like 150 people signed up for the class, but only about 25-50 would show up on a regular basis. So the teacher would take that opportunity to give us extra credit quizzes or give us the answers to an upcoming test. You never know what you'll miss!!!

**DO YOUR HOMEWORK DAILY---i had such a hard time doing this last year. I am such a procrastinator! The teacher had all the homework assignments on the syllabus, take advantage of that. If you know the subject (like english or something---something you dont' have to wait to learn), then do the homework early. You never know what might happen and you'll be glad the homework was done!! TRUST ME!!

**GET A PLANNER---again, TRUST ME! It is something you'll need. You dont want to get home or to your dorm room and then say "shat, what was the homework for Math 101?" Don't rely on calling a friend for the homework, because they might not have wrote it down either, or they might not give it to you!

**COME EARLY---if you are at a commuter campus, and parking around campus is scarce. Then come at least 1/2 hour early so that you can find a parking space. Even if it is at 8:00 in the morning, you don't really realize how quickly the parking spaces will go. Especially since you have to pay 40-65 dollars for a parking sticker...use it!! Even if you find a parking spot quickly, that extra time can actually be used to relax during a Final or looking over material for class!

**TEACHER'S PET--unlike the impressions during middle school or high school, being Teacher's pet in high school can be a good thing. Even in a class with 500-600 students, making yourself known by the teacher (i.e. going to office hours regularly) has its benefits. Teacher's do have their favorites and they sometimes really do get more leniency! If the teacher asks for a favor (although it does depend on what it is) then DO IT! You'll never know what that little favor will do for your grade ;) .

**CLASS SCHEDULE--look for your class. This isn't high school, if your late on the first day of class, professor's might not be so lenient on WHY. They'll expect that you already know your way around campus. Like already mentioned, if someone says "DONT TAKE THAT TEACHER" really ask why? Most people really do give sound advice on the teachers---it will be something you'll be grateful for. Same goes for if someone says "TAKE THAT TEACHER!!"

**DROP THE CLASS if your having trouble. There is no point in staying in the class if you are really bombing it! There will always be another time that you can take the class (maybe even with another teacher) Dont give yourself a heart attack trying to study material you don't get!


Just read what everyone has on here...everyone's advice is sound and its only here to help YOU. College can be great, if you take advantage of it. You dont want to be a in college for 3 years and still be considered a freshman because you party too much, don't show up for class, and fail everything!! GET YOUR MONEY'S WORTH!

My miscellaneous advice:

If your professor wrote the book, READ THE BOOK - KNOW THE BOOK - YOU WILL BE TESTED ON IT. If you need to skip a class, skip the one where the prof wrote the textbook him/herself. I used to infuriate friends who attended every class and got a C -- "how did we get Cs and you got an A and hardly ever went to class?" Because the prof wrote the book, and I read every word like it was the Bible, assuming the prof would think each word was sacred.

If the prof didn't write the book, your butt better be in the seat, however.

Check out the opportunities available at your school to take a semester abroad. Many schools offer study at a foreign university for the same tuition as you're already paying at home. All you need is airfare, and money for a Eurail pass (and food on your travels). If you can't afford it, then you'll know to get TWO jobs over the summer so that you can. This is a lot of people's biggest regret about college - they they didn't get the opportunity to broaden their horizons and open their minds on the cheap. It makes for a truly educated person.

Join a professional organization (Marketing Club, etc.) in your major - you'll hear about the internships and jobs before everyone else.

Read up on the stats on STDs. If you heard about a lottery where you had a 40% of winning, you'd buy a ticket, right? Well, assume that you have an even-better chance of picking up a fertility-ruining or really damned annoying STD if you're hooking up without protection. I do a lot of work on herpes meds, and trust me, the stats are JAW-DROPPING.

If you want to be a party girl, be disciplined after dinner. While you're friends are hanging out, watching TV or whatever they do after dinner, hit the books, hit the computer. Do the reading, do the exercises, write the paper. Then go out to the Skeller that night with a clear conscience.

If the gym is a zoo, check out the pool. It's great excercise, and not nearly as mobbed as the weight or cardio machines. It's also very calming, and great for the posture. But don't get chlorine hair - wear a cap.