I will be going into my sophomore year of college in the fall so I know what it was like in the first year.
Depends on your major, depends on your workload. Im a biology/pre-med major and honestly, there was only one class that gave me trouble. That class was engineering calc something I didnt need to take as a biology major and shouldnt have taken it. My science classes were really easy. You would think you would write a lot of papers but honestly I didnt. The only class I wrote papers for was English and was 4 papers per semester.
First year really isn't that bad. I dont know how your school works but at my school you get to choose your roommate and post basically full bios about yourself so you know what your roommate is like. Its not a must but if you can choose your roommate I would choose one that will be in similar classes or same major. I spent a lot of time with the engineers with a group of 6 or 7 of us working on calc work. My roommate was a criminal justice major and his schedule and mine were completely different as well as our work.
I dont know if you will be involved in athletics in college but it honestly helped me. Im on the football team and there are so many people there that are there to help you whether it be teammates, coaches, and there are so many other options to help out. The biggest thing imo is having older teammates that have been through it and are able to help by giving advice or helping with your work by pointing in the right direction. Get involved in as many things as you can while you are on campus whether it be athletics or clubs. I myself am also apart of the pre-med club and it helps with my major a lot with a lot of people in the club that can help me as they have already taken classes that I have taken. Every school has a club for each major and I highly advise you join the club that is for your major.
When you pick your classes do not overload your schedule. Make sure it is nicely balanced and have some easy and hard courses. I had and will have 8 AMs every day and honestly those are probably the worst classes. You will be up late at night doing work and having to get up early in the morning so I would avoid them if you can. A lot of people do take naps during the day so if you give some time between classes it will further help or give you time to study before a class. Also when you pick classes, go to the site
ratemyprofessors.com. Students who have had a professor write what the teacher was like and what the class is like. Very helpful to get a easier teacher and say how boring or interesting the class is.
Like mentioned above make sure you do stay on top of your work and do not procrastinate. I was still adjusting my first semester and it didnt go as well as I had hoped. First semester I learned you have to stay on top of the work or you do fall behind especially teachers like to give big projects or papers at the same time so make sure you plan yourself out well. You will most likely have a online classroom base where professors post homework and other things. If they post online quizzes to practice for a exam, do them over and over as they will help and a lot of the questions in those quizzes professors use for their exams.
College is fun and its a new experience. Dont do anything dumb during the week such as drinking as it does cause a distraction even on the "Thirsty Thursday" and a lot of professors assign exams on Friday. Save the party activities for Saturday and honestly its a good idea to only party on Saturday.
