The Bluelight College Mentor Thread

[Tommyboy]

College graduates (or those of you who went to college long enough to know a thing or two about it), what is the best advice you can give any current or soon-to-be college students? The advice can range from academic, to dorm life, to anything in between. The main purpose of this thread is to help some fellow bluelighters get the most out of their college experiences.

Academic

• Maintain a good relationship with at least one professor, preferably one that teaches in the department that you major in. Having someone who can write a letter of recommendation for you, or be one of your professional references is very important come graduation when you are either looking for a job, or to get into grad school. Also a lot of professors will go the extra mile to help a few of their favorite students get a job, so I can't recommend having a close professional relationship with a few professors enough.
• Take your GPA seriously, and don't just do enough to get by. If you are going to get into grad school you will need a good GPA, and it also looks very good on your resume if you can list your GPA considering it is above a 3.0.
• Become familiar with the required courses for your degree, and make sure that you get your prerequisites out of the way so that you aren't stuck wasting a semester because you didn't have the prerequisites needed to take the next chunk of courses for your degree. It can be the difference of graduating in 4 years or taking almost 6 years to graduate.
• The summer and winter interim semesters often play a large role in finishing up on time, and they can be a saving grace if you need to take one of those prerequisites I just mentioned.

Social

• Wherever you are living, if you don't like your living situation, change it. There is no need to stay in a living situation that you are not happy with if you can easily change it. If you are living in dorms this is usually pretty easy to do, so instead of needlessly suffering if you don't like your roommate, request a change through 'Residence Life.' If you are living off-campus it will probably be more difficult to change your living situation, but it's better than being unhappy in the place where you spend a lot of time.
• Club sports are always a good time.
• Befriending foreign exchange students is usually beneficial to both parties, and it's good to know that if you ever visit a number of countries you may have a place to crash.

So if you can give one (or two, or three, etc) piece of advice to college students on here, what would it be?

 

[double ewe]

choosing a major - find out early on what your options will be after graduating. i'm not saying it has to be a high-powered, high-paying career to be worthwhile, but make sure the road you're taking leads somewhere that you want to go.

grades - get good grades. seriously. it's really not that much more effort than getting mediocre grades, and it will make a WORLD of difference in the control you have over your future.

social life - don't smoke too much pot.

 

[Jerry Atrick]

This is a cool idea for a thread....thanks.

* Maintain a good relationship with at least one professor, preferably one that teaches in the department that you major in. Having someone who can write a letter of recommendation for you, or be one of your professional references is very important come graduation when you are either looking for a job, or to get into grad school. Also a lot of professors will go the extra mile to help a few of their favorite students get a job, so I can't recommend having a close professional relationship with a few professors.

This seemed bullet point ^ seemed a bit ambiguous to me. Are you saying a young student should only befriend one professor? While I agree that an undergraduate should find a prof in his or her department to be his or her mentor, grad school applications want 3 faculty references. So, yes, find a good mentor but also keep working relationships with a couple of more profs so you can get all three references for grad school.

Here's a couple of my own:

1) Force yourself to study well in advance of exams so that you are not cramming. There are essentially two study methods - cramming (what everybody does) or starting a week in advance (what the A students do).

2) In undergrad, I had success drinking beer every night and smoking weed occasionally. The secret is to only drink/smoke AFTER you are done studying for the day....kind of like rewarding yourself for a day's worth of accomplishments.

3) When writing papers, ALWAYS have a friend proofread your rough drafts before you turn them in for a grade. An asshole proofreader will say, "Good paper." A great proofreader will bleed all over it and find tons of things you can improve upon. If you can't take constructive criticism from friends on papers, maybe making A's isn't for you.

4) Your freshman year does count towards your cumulative GPA.....just sayin. I had a terrible GPA my freshman year of undergrad and spent the next four years bringing it up to an acceptable level.

5) This may sound a little controversial, but you should consider early on if you want to go to grad school and take measures to ensure that you can earn the highest GPA possible even if it means taking out loans instead of working full-time as a full-time student. I worked and went to school my entire undergraduate career, but it was always part-time work. The people who work full-time tend to have GPAs that suffer. Why be so hard on yourself when it is unneccessary. You can pay your loans back but you can't go back and raise your GPA on account of working too many hours to be able to study, read, write, and sleep. ymmv.

 

[Tommyboy]

^ I meant to say I couldn't recommend it [having professional relationships with professors] enough, but forgot the word 'enough' in my original post. I have edited it since then.

I didn't mean it to come across as only having a close relationship with one professor, which is why I said at least one. I figured that if I said 3, some people will get overwhelmed instead of working on one at a time.

 

[muvolution]

Have as much sex as physically possible. With protection.
Treat alcohol like the strong drug it is.
NEVER smoke weed on campus. Find a park and go for a walk with a joint - it isn't worth getting caught.

Always show up to class on time.
Always sit in the first two rows.
Participate. The process is the product.

 

[Tripman]

Always show up to class on time.

Better late than never no?

 

[double ewe]

Always show up to class

this cannot be over-stated. i don't care if your professor posts the lectures on-line, you already learned most of this last semester, or you'll just end up doing the crossword and day-dreaming - it will save you so much trouble in the future if you just show up. you'll likely have to do a bit more to make an A, but just being there for every class will be a huge head start. likewise, it will help you avoid a lot of typical slacker fuck-ups (walking into a midterm you thought was next week, going half a semester before you realize the class also had a lab section), and make your professors more forgiving if you do.

 

[revolve]

Making friends is very fucking important... you help each other out when one and other misses classes etc.. this has been the most imporant thing for me. I didn't have friends in first year because i was overseas for the first three weeks. I struggled big time. Second year came round and I started seeing the same faces and talking to people and it's gotten a shitload easier.

 

[buffalosoldier]

Have as much sex as physically possible. With protection.
Treat alcohol like the strong drug it is.
NEVER smoke weed on campus. Find a park and go for a walk with a joint - it isn't worth getting caught.

Always show up to class on time.
Always sit in the first two rows.
Participate. The process is the product.

500% agree

 

[MoosejawSanders]

social life - don't smoke too much pot.

I believe you, I just have to ask what is the rationale behind this?

 

[Tommyboy]

I believe you, I just have to ask what is the rationale behind this?

Even though I wasn't the one who posted it, I will give some answers since I agree with double ewe.

Some people get way too caught up in being potheads that they miss out on a lot of things that they will never get the opportunity to do. Also, some of them will just stay in on weekends smoking the whole time instead of going out with other people and socializing.

The next issue is that people like to talk, so some people that you wouldn't want knowing about you pot smoking may end up finding out. If your professors find out it may hurt your chances of them helping you get an internship, job, research project, etc, because they may not want to vouch for you. Also if you have a borderline grade it's not going to help your case if they think that it might be because you didn't do your best since you get high.

If you have a group of pothead friends then it's unlikely that your schedules will match up, which means that there will be a lot of times when they are done with class for the day and about to spark up, and you are just getting ready to head to class. I'm sure you see the obvious dilemma here, but plenty of people give in. There are some classes that you can do well in even when going there high, but others not so much. I know that I couldn't have gotten through my upper division classes if I had gone high, but I did fine showing up to some gen eds high when I was a freshman.

Get your work done first, and then get high if you want. The high is so much more enjoyable when you can just relax after finishing your work. Bowls and one-hitters helped keep me in check compared to people smoking blunts whenever they got high.

 

[Thanatos]

If anyone in the medical field could take me up as a project or pm me it would be awesome. I'm a high school drop out looking to at least get a masters in physical therapy or md in sports medicine. I subscribed to this thread, but any extra help would be golden.

 

[double ewe]

I believe you, I just have to ask what is the rationale behind this?

i agree with everything Tommyboy said. really nailed it with how easy it is to get sucked into smoking more than you plan on. there will always be somebody who wants to smoke with you - don't fool yourself into thinking it's a special occasion.

generally, pot tends to make boredom less boring. so if you smoke a lot, you'll spend a lot of your time doing stuff that might otherwise not be that interesting. likewise, habitual use also tends to lead to laziness and mild social anxiety, which will make you less likely to do things that might be more interesting/productive/fun. there's a lot of cool shit going on in college, and you can take better advantage of it if you're not constantly stoned. there's nothing inherently wrong with the substance, IMO - just make sure it's always on the periphery of your college experience, not a central focus.

 

[Belisarius]

Don't get gamed by college bookstores...find out what books you need as early as possible, and find them used online or in a nearby used bookstore (you wouldn't believe how many people offload their textbooks in local HPBs, no doubt because the college bookstore wouldn't take them back); chances are you can skate by with an slightly earlier edition, as well. Either way, ordering them online can save you a bundle when you total up how many you'll need in an average semester.

And, to add to what others already said: don't cram. Give yourself time, *especially* with semester projects. I still get a warm glow of pride thinking of how all I had to do for a semester paper at exam time was proof it, while everyone else in my class was sweating bullets trying to do all the research and writing at once.

 

[1394]

Don't take yourself too seriously, there are tons of people who attend university.

Don't get sucked up by the hard drug culture. It may seem cool at first, but trust me it isn't.

Do your work daily, don't end up pulling all-nighters a week before your finals.

One of the best life lessons I got in college was that people are not trustworthy. You will eventually understand what I'm trying to say here. It's almost funny to see some people trying to fuck over others for laughable things.

Have pleny of sex.

Make lots of friends.

"Your freshman year does count towards your cumulative GPA.....just sayin. I had a terrible GPA my freshman year of undergrad and spent the next four years bringing it up to an acceptable level"

^ This is solid advice lol

 

[slimvictor]

Study what you love.
If you don't know what you love yet, try everything you think you might love.
It doesn't matter one flying rat's ass if your major has career option X or Y or Z, I would say.
I started with math, but soon found out that I didn't love it.
Changed 3 times, and found something I loved - Buddhist philosophy.
Something with absolutely no clear link to any profession.
But I enjoyed it.
You get one chance at college. It seems best to enjoy it.
Because I followed my interests and was passionate about my studies, doors opened up for me.
I got scholarships, spent two years abroad in China studying Buddhism and Chinese, and then several years in Japan (working, this time), and then found a graduate program in something else I loved (slightly related), and now have a PhD in a subject I truly love (linguistics). I get to teach linguistics now, at a university, and my job involves constantly reading more about what I love and then sharing it with people who are (nearly all) interested. I get a reasonable salary and several months off each year, which is nice, but the point is that I am doing what I love. If I had studied something in college that I thought might get me a better job, I would never have this wonderful job now.
So, my advice is to follow your passion.
Don't be so pragmatic that you only worry about money, or job opportunities.
Do what you love, and doors will open for you.

 

[Jerry Atrick]

Study what you love.
If you don't know what you love yet, try everything you think you might love.
It doesn't matter one flying rat's ass if your major has career option X or Y or Z, I would say.
I started with math, but soon found out that I didn't love it.
Changed 3 times, and found something I loved - Buddhist philosophy.
Something with absolutely no clear link to any profession.
But I enjoyed it.
You get one chance at college. It seems best to enjoy it.
Because I followed my interests and was passionate about my studies, doors opened up for me.
I got scholarships, spent two years abroad in China studying Buddhism and Chinese, and then several years in Japan (working, this time), and then found a graduate program in something else I loved (slightly related), and now have a PhD in a subject I truly love (linguistics). I get to teach linguistics now, at a university, and my job involves constantly reading more about what I love and then sharing it with people who are (nearly all) interested. I get a reasonable salary and several months off each year, which is nice, but the point is that I am doing what I love. If I had studied something in college that I thought might get me a better job, I would never have this wonderful job now.
So, my advice is to follow your passion.
Don't be so pragmatic that you only worry about money, or job opportunities.
Do what you love, and doors will open for you.

Great advice, thanks!

I've said similar things in here but wasn't sure what other people thought about it.

 

[rangrz]

Have lots of meaningless sex with different people.
Take some maths no matter your major, it teaches you think with rigor.

Always do things for the lulz.

Talk to other students a lot, you wil learn little things that come together later.

Don't cram for hours on end. It's ineffective.

 

[Apostacious]

I have found that if you are pursuing a highly technical, detail-oriented degree program, then you are better off avoiding psychedelics, cannibas, and depressants. If you feel that you MUST imbibe in something, stimulants and opiates are ideal. I'm about to start graduate school for a "pure" mathematics emphasis in 2 semesters, and have found that having a minimal social life outside of class is key (well, I'm married, so that's a given). You may get to the point where you enjoy constructing a rigorous proof, finishing a semester-long research paper, or even simply learning something new in class more than you would have enjoyed playing games after smoking a bowl, or bullshitting with friends. If you do get to said point, then you will not have any problems getting onto the honor roll, or even the deans list if you have a touch of OCD in you.

Additionally, never procrastinate. If you habitually procrastinate, you will only increase the likelihood that you will not be adequately prepared for an exam. Sure, the first couple of years are full of easy classes. Freshman to even Junior level coursework isn't anything too challenging. You may even find that you do not need to study if you are in a relatively simple degree program (or your University is a degree-mill). However, when the time comes, and you finally take the most challenging undergraduate class required for your degree (for me it was Real Analysis I), you will be ill-prepared, with poor study skills. However, if you made a point to always do homework or begin researching for a paper the moment you get home from class, making sure you finish your assignments at least a day in advance (this is helpful if you want to "polish" what you hand in) and that you start studying for an exam AT LEAST a week in advance, it will not take much to get an A in the class. Finally, talk with other students about what you are learning in class. You will find that what you learn will become much more cohesive. The above is (one way) how can you prepare yourself for graduate level coursework. Good luck, and try to enjoy yourself in the process.

 

[double ewe]

I have found that if you are pursuing a highly technical, detail-oriented degree program, then you are better off avoiding psychedelics, cannibas, and depressants. If you feel that you MUST imbibe in something, stimulants and opiates are ideal. I'm about to start graduate school for a "pure" mathematics emphasis in 2 semesters, and have found that having a minimal social life outside of class is key (well, I'm married, so that's a given).

i actually just finished a master's in applied math, and i have mixed feelings about this advice. i've known people with strong predilections for psychedelics and pot who have succeeded in highly technical programs (medicine, math, engineering, etc), and i felt like my social life is what kept me sane during graduate school. i wasn't partying til dawn on weeknights or anything, but knowing i'd be going out on thurs/fri/sat meant i had to get my work done during the week. most of my best ideas come to me when i'm doing something else, so the escapes from my work were just as important as the work itself.

i have no doubt that what you describe could work well for some people - i just wanted to point out that there a lot of folks who have gone in the opposite direction and done just as well.

Additionally, never procrastinate. If you habitually procrastinate, you will only increase the likelihood that you will not be adequately prepared for an exam. Sure, the first couple of years are full of easy classes. Freshman to even Junior level coursework isn't anything too challenging. You may even find that you do not need to study if you are in a relatively simple degree program (or your University is a degree-mill). However, when the time comes, and you finally take the most challenging undergraduate class required for your degree (for me it was Real Analysis I), you will be ill-prepared, with poor study skills. However, if you made a point to always do homework or begin researching for a paper the moment you get home from class, making sure you finish your assignments at least a day in advance (this is helpful if you want to "polish" what you hand in) and that you start studying for an exam AT LEAST a week in advance, it will not take much to get an A in the class. Finally, talk with other students about what you are learning in class. You will find that what you learn will become much more cohesive. The above is (one way) how can you prepare yourself for graduate level coursework. Good luck, and try to enjoy yourself in the process.

couldn't agree more with this part. analysis is actually where shit got real for me too. ended up liking/respecting it so much that i did five semesters and a thesis worth of the stuff.