Incoming Freshman

            Surviving college is very simple.  The first thing that you should know about college is that it is much harder than high school.  You have a lot of free time, which is great, but you have to manage it well with the large amount of studying and homework you have.  General education is completely pointless and its renaissance belief is completely outdated and used as an excuse for universities to suck more money out of you.  However, gen eds are still very important because they make up the start of your GPA and are what determine whether or not you get into your major.   Try as hard as you can to suffer through them and get to your major classes that actually matter.

Another thing you should know is that getting involved is important.  Getting involved makes time management easier because rather than sitting around all day playing halo and then studying right before you go to bed, you will have set times that you have to do your activities and then in your spare time you will be more likely to spend it doing something productive rather than just sitting around doing nothing.  Getting involved also makes it so that you do not go insane from just studying all the time.  It also allows you to meet people with similar interests.

There is also a stigma at ISU and campuses all over the United States that drinking is a huge problem and everyone in college is an alcoholic.  This stigma should be broken because the town of Normal has many laws and law enforcement that keeps parties somewhat under control.  Another thing to consider is that not everyone drinks and there are PLENTY of things to do to stay out of trouble on the weekends. 

Exercise is also very important.  Exercising also gives you something to do in your spare-time and makes up for the unhealthy cafeteria food that is easy to give in to.  Exercise is also important because most people did sports in high school but do not in college.  This makes a big difference in your metabolism.  Exercise also makes you feel better about yourself, sleep better, and essentially get better grades.

There are a lot of things to know before going to college.  Some of these things I was told, and some of them I had to learn on my own.  You too will learn a lot in the first few months.  Good luck.