20 Mistakes Every University of North Carolina At Chapel Hill Freshman Makes
The first semester of college is an exciting time. It’s a intoxicating rush of freedom: no curfews! No rules! Cute guys literally everywhere! But being thrown into a completely new environment means you’re bound to screw up a few times. That’s where this list comes in: read carefully and avoid these common freshman year pitfalls. And as for upperclassmen, read and reminisce on how young and foolish you were. Here are 20 mistakes every University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill freshman makes.
1. Thinking you can take an 8 AM class.
I know you’re sitting there, registering for your first round of college classes, thinking you can totally take an 8 AM class because you woke up that early in high school. And I’m here to tell you: You can’t. You just can’t. You’re a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill freshman if you’ve attempted to do this – we all have.
2. Packing your schedule with a million clubs and other commitments
You’re having fun walking around Fallfest and signing up for every club you find remotely interesting, and it’s all fun and games until you check your email the next morning and remember you signed up for 7 organizations and another 3 listservs for clubs you literally don’t even care about (UNC Lettuce Club? Actually, if you do sign up for this one, let me know how it is. Heard it’s pretty fun.).
3. Dressing up on the first day of school
This isn’t Gossip Girl, and (unfortunately) none of us are Blair Waldorf. Welcome to land of yoga pants and oversized t-shirts.
4. Buying an unlimited meal plan
This probably happened because Mom and Dad didn’t want you to “starve” or something along those lines, and it sounded like a fine idea until you got to week three and realized you’re sick of the same old salad bar and dough pizza. By week six, you’ll be like me and realize the only dining food you don’t get sick of is the breakfast potatoes at Rams, aka the ultimate hangover cure.
5. Trying to eat healthy at the dining hall
Take it from a sophomore who lives off of white pasta and Rams potatoes (again, see above), your little love affair with the salad bar won’t last. As a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill freshman you go in thinking you’ve got it – that chances relatively fast.
6. Not trying to eat healthy at the dining hall
Call me Walt Whitman, ‘cus I contradict myself. But just because I willingly live off of hashbrowns and noodles doesn’t mean this diet is necessarily cutting me a lovely figure.
7. Spending way too much money
It’s very tempting to order takeout every night and sip a Frappuccino every morning, but indulge too freely and that savings account you so painstakingly piled up in high school will be gone in one semester flat. Every University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill freshman makes this mistake and we quickly learn.
8. Not knowing your limits
When it comes to drinking, that is. We’ve all been at a party and seen “that messy freshman”. Please, for the love of god, at least TRY not to be that messy freshman (and do as I say, not as I do).
9. Going out without a coat
Look, I don’t care what our beloved Cardi B said, hoes sometimes do get cold. I recommend wearing a coat you wouldn’t mind losing and finding a ~secret place~ to keep it in the frat house. Good way to explore and will often lead to interesting adventures like finding cute bathroom nooks or realizing that some fraternities actually have coat closets (who the hell knew?).
10. Entering as a major thinking you’ll graduate as that major
I came in my first semester as a Bio Major. Cut to me wanting to punch myself in the face literally every time I walked into the lab building and realizing that maybe being a women in STEM wasn’t for me.
11. Thinking you can not go to class and get a good grade
Technically, this mistake isn’t limited to just freshmen, but now you’ve been warned. Don’t sleep through every lecture and then be ~surprised~ that you failed the midterm. Grab a cup of shitty dining hall coffee and get your ass to Genome.
12. Thinking you can sit in the back of the class and still get an A
To the untrained eye, there may not be a difference between the kids sitting in the front or back of the lecture hall, but look closer and you’ll see the front-sitters are dutifully taking notes and actually listening to the lecture while the kids near the door are sending texts and mindlessly scrolling through Reddit. If you’re the Reddit kid, more power to you, but wouldn’t you have been better off just sitting in your dorm (see above)?
13. Expecting to bring home all As
This is for all you high school overachievers out there. Expecting an A in Math 232 ‘cus you aced Calc AB senior year? University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill freshman are usually disappointed when they are no longer a straight A student.
14. Adding literally every known piece of information about a subject into the google doc group study guide
It’s about the main ideas, people!! No way is Professor Bapat going to ask for the specific list of the top five refugee-hosting countries worldwide… well shit, that’s the fifth question on this midterm. You win this one, first-years. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill freshman, you’ll quickly learn this one too.
15. Not being a basketball fan.
Oh, you played football in high school and it’s your favorite sport? WRONG. You’re at UNC now. This is a basketball school. Our football team is sponsored by Jordan, and if that’s not UNC sports in a nutshell, idk what is.
16. Riding home drunk on the P2P
Okay, so this isn’t as much a mistake as it is a rite of passage. Just don’t be that girl that started loudly serenading the entire bus with an opera aria. Or maybe be that girl. Yeah, actually scrap this one. Ride that late night bus as drunk as you’d like, and record the experience while you’re at it. All University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill freshman are guilty of it!
17. Not cleaning your dorm
Guys are the worst offenders when it comes to disgusting dorm rooms. Heads up, guys: just because your mom can’t nag you to clean your room anymore doesn’t mean you should let the pizza boxes stack up to the ceiling. Also, no girl is going to be in to the fact that at any second a rodent might crawl out from underneath your futon.
18. Staying in the dorm too much
College is an entirely new environment, and you won’t make any new friends sitting in your bed on your laptop, as comfortable as you may be. Get out there and experience things! If you don’t, you’ll forever remain a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill freshman.
19. Thinking you have to be the same person you were in high school
Chances are, your perceptions of who you are will change during your time in college. A new environment, new friends, and new challenges will shape you into a different version of yourself! High school you wouldn’t even recognize college you—in a good way.
20. Thinking college is anything like high school
It’s a whole new world, baby. A world where like, literally NONE of us know what the hell we’re doing at any point in time. That’s the fun of it though. They don’t call it the best four years of your life for nothing. You’re a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill freshman if you don’t grasp how awesome your next four years are going to be.
