The Ultimate Freshman Guide

Worried about how to navigate your way through your freshman year of college? Don't worry. This ultimate guide has your back.

Your first year at university can be stressful. You’re trying to figure out all of your academic responsibilities while juggling your social life. So, here is the ultimate freshman guide to help you feel on-top of your first year of classes and campus life!

1. Take Time to Relax

First of all, it is so important to make time for yourself. Don’t let yourself drown under piles of assignments and readings! Spend time on your hobbies, go outside and enjoy the fresh air. Taking care of your mental health is extremely important for your emotional wellbeing and your academic performance.

2. Join Clubs and Societies

If you’re struggling to make friends during your first year, then you should join some university clubs and societies! Usually, these groups are formed by like-minded people and are a great way to discuss your interests with others. You might make such good friends here that you spend more time with them outside of your clubs, too! Joining these societies might also motivate you to become more involved with campus life.

3. Research

You will most likely be given readings for all of your classes. These are additional academic sources for you to develop your knowledge about a subject. This freshman guide suggests that you read as many of these as you possibly can! Although time-consuming, research is vital to creating a great piece of work. It will expand your ideas and also teach you how to write!

4. Plan and Annotate

This next step might be a little boring, but planning your essays out before you write them is a vital step to achieving a great grade. This technique allows you to sift through your ideas and hone in on your best concepts. You should also try to highlight and annotate your class texts to make finding quotes an easier process!

5. Eat Healthily

Another freshman guide is to take care of your physical health! We get it—students are often limited when it comes to financial resources. Don’t harm your mind and body by eating unhealthily all of the time, though. A great way to stay on track of your health is by making a meal-plan every week, and by budgeting the amount of money you spend on groceries. Look out for deals! Eat plenty of fruits, vegetables and sources of protein to keep your body active and your mind, aware!

6. Keep a Diary

Maybe you’ve been looking forward to a party all week just to remember that you have an essay due on that exact night. A freshman guide tip here is to keep a diary! Enter in all of your social plans and academic due dates to keep a healthy work-life balance. If you struggle to write entries, try to create a bullet journal. This scrapbooking-like task will keep your creativity flowing and might even help you to look forward to mundane tasks like organising your week!

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7. Make Time for Friends

Although university can be demanding, this freshman guide suggests that you should make time for your friends and family. You need to keep up your social life to feel happy! Being surrounded by the people you love will really boost your morale. It will also get you away from your desk and allow you to return to your work with fresh eyes!

8. Consult Your Tutors

After your assignments have been graded, you should always speak with your tutors! Though this might seem a little daunting, it is a great way to understand how you can improve your work. This approach might even make you work harder, and can help you to achieve a greater grade later in the semester. The most important thing is to try your absolute best, and to only try harder once you are given feedback!

9. Sleep

This might be the freshman guide that everyone has been looking for. It might sound funny, but sleep is super important for your mental and physical health! You need time to relax and unwind, and sleep is the perfect way to do this. You might be stressing about an assignment that is due really soon, and think that staying up late is the only way to complete it. This will most likely have the opposite effect, though, and make your work sloppier! You can also lose motivation and interest if you don’t sleep enough at night. So, set a schedule and try to stick to it for the best results!