This is all stuff I wish people had told me, or things people told me and I didn't listen to. It's so badly organized but hopefully it makes sense and helps some of you. 1) Don't buy the books you need for classes until you know for sure you need them. You will save a lot of money this way, you won't even use the books for at least half your classes. If you do have to buy the books for a class, get them online. DO NOT buy them from your schools bookstore, they rip you off. When you're trading back your books at the end of the semester, don't trade them back to your schools bookstore either, sell them online or sell them to Brian's Books if they have one on or near your campus or something similar. 2) Go to class. If you don't study and just go to class you should be able to pull of a 2.0 at the lowest. Studying and stuff is pretty important, but going to class is so much more important than studying. 3) If you're living in a dorm, leave your door open to your room for the first few weeks whenever you're in there. This will help you meet more people. The more people you meet the more fun you will have, trust me. 4) Introduce yourself to everyone when you first see them. Add them on Facebook, comment on their statuses, like their pics they upload, etc. Say hi to them when you see them in the halls. 5) Befriend everyone on your floor, and befriend at least one person on every other floor of your building. Ask people to go eat with you, if you have classes with them work on homework/study together. Help them out, they'll naturally help you in return. 6) Get the smallest meal plan because you will eventually get sick of the school's food, and it's bad for you anyways. Be friends with girls who are worried about their weight and give you their extra food. No joke, I would always go down to these two girls who lived a floor below me and they'd give me food. Once they brought up a huge crate of random cereal, granola bars, etc. because they didn't like them. 7) Wash your sheets every month at the minimum, preferably every 2 weeks. Cleaning your sheets is a good way to prevent acne, and it's disgusting to not wash them. 8) Don't leave your laundry in the washer/dryer. Learn how long it takes for each cycle and make sure you're down there taking care of it. People will get tired of moving your stuff and stacking it on the table (there's usually at least one table in a dorms laundry room). 9) Don't get hung up on girls. Don't put too much effort into relationships or one particular girl. It's cool to try and hook up with chicks, just don't waste your time trying to find your wife, you're 18. I made this mistake once each semester and I missed a lot of opportunities to hang out with my friends because I was too focused on girls. Don't worry about it, just let it happen. Still on the subject of girls, when girls text you or talk to you on Facebook DO NOT text them back immediately. If it's the first time she's ever texted you, wait at least an hour. If you're talking to her on Facebook, wait a minute or two. This shows that you're busy and have a life and will make her enjoy it when you finally do respond to her. If she's waiting a few minutes in between texts/responses, do the same. Wait for her to start responding immediately before you do. It will make it more exciting for her and will make her a little more interested in you. Make sure you use smilies and **** too, but don't over do it. Only use them when you mean it. 10) Don't be afraid to party and to try drugs. 1 time of literally anything won't kill you, just don't do it too much. You can't get addicted to weed, that's bullshit. It's the lifestyle you get addicted to. If you want to smoke weed, only take a hit or two for the first time, especially if you don't know the people you're getting it from very well. Don't do it too much, and don't waste your money on it because it's a waste. Trade food/answers for homework and stuff for hits if you really want to. I haven't personally tried acid or ecstacy but I know people who have and they're normal people. Like I said, just DO NOT let drugs ruin your future. 11) Same goes for alcohol, if you don't drink yet you might as well start, just be careful about it. If it's the first few times drinking, don't drink too much and don't actually get drunk. I've drank too much, too fast, and I've blacked out and passed out naked (lol wut) in the bathroom for hours. It's not fun. The bigger the party you're at, the better chance of it getting busted so keep that in mind. It's not the end of the world, but it can definitely mess up your life for awhile. I got in trouble for smoking weed on campus and now I'm on disciplinary probation. If I screw up again, I'll lose all financial aid and could even get kicked out. Just make sure you're careful. 12) This gets its own number because it's important. Don't drink in your dorm because it's ****ing restarted and a waste of time and it's the easiest way to get caught, I did it once and anytime someone knocked on the door all the girls started screaming and it ruined the whole point of drinking. 13) Don't be afraid to become friends with upperclassman, they will be useful for buying you alcohol. The better friends you are with people who are 21+, the better deals you will get. Be as nice as you can with upperclassmen. Chances are that they think you're a little brat, don't try to be too cool and just be yourself and you should be fine. 14) If you're at a party, ask people what they're drinking and say you've never tried it before even if you have. They'll usually give you some for free. 15) Avoid keeping alcohol/drugs in your room, or your car, or literally anywhere on campus. This is why it's important to be friends with upperclassman. I met some from Halo (lol wtf) so I could always keep stuff at their places and didn't have to worry about getting caught with it. You run the risk of getting kicked out of campus housing if you get caught with it in your dorm so you gotta be careful. 16) Don't be a douche bag to people. Be nice and people will notice, especially the girls that are worthwhile. Have fun and make sure you try everything you can. Join clubs, even if you just go to a meeting once. Do everything, hang out with people you normally wouldn't. You might meet your new best friend.
+Rep Although i must disagree with the first one in relation to girls. IE "Dont spend all of your focus on girls" cus i got some serious good stuff from being friends with all the girls. And then by being super-whipped with one, they all suddenly think you are the best ever and they all want you blah-blah-blah..... And then there is one you actually like who thinks you are a total womanizer lol, which kinda sucks i guess...
I know how you feel, I was friend with girls too. The girls that liked me more than that were the ones I didn't really care about and never replied to texts or signed off when they talked to me on Facebook. I'm just going from my experiences and saying that this type of stuff works. I'm not a player and I don't really care about having a girlfriend, but it's advice that works. What parts?
I don't know about your school but if you're at UT: Knoxville get the top of the line meal plan. Food is awesome. Cuisine from around the world as well as American food. Best part is its a buffet. I literally had salmon with a sliced lemon on top and a marinade the chef's made themselves. I think it had chunks of crab in it. Fantastic.
Seems like your college advice is limited to the college you attend personally. I just finished my freshmen year of college and I'll be the first to disagree with a lot of what you said. And whether or not I chose to form an opinion about you based on your advice, this is what just made me realize that I shouldn't waste my time even thinking about your advice.
This is great, but some of it might be good advice for just students in general, college or not... And maybe just people in general. Oh, and naturally I'd disagree about the drugs thing. Most people, more often than not, will get carried away with that stuff without even realizing.
I respect your opinion and I'm not trying to force things on anyone. It's simply advice that I wish I'd gotten the summer before my freshman year. I feel like I'm in a pretty good position to give advice, I've been there and done that and I know what happens. I got in trouble for things because I wasn't careful, so I'm saying that it's okay to try things, you just need to control yourself. Most importantly, you need to go to class though. That's the key to passing classes and the main reason that most people end up dropping out.
yeah, a lot of those are just life skills. never text a woman back very quickly. if you are ALWAYS available to answer, that shows you have nothing else going on and nothing better to do than to wait for her texts
Some of these are common sense, but a good list none the less. They really won't be applying to me in general though because I'm going in the Air Force after I graduate.
Why is Forgehub so anti drug? And the list just seems corny, and the majority of the feedback is just corny.
+Rep. I've smoked pot before, it was an awesome experience, but I'd rather build a good foundation for my life by being responsible and building character. Neither of which is possible while under the influence of drugs. You can't have both I'm afraid and there are plenty of celebrity and probably friends that you may know that it's true of.
Only the open-minded, intelligent people who research the drugs they'd like to try before actually trying them should be considered anti-stupid. If you believe what everyone told you growing up, such as drugs are bad and god is real, then you're the polar opposite of anti-stupid.
Great advice. This is actually something to look back it when its time for me to go to college. I'm still in high school. But seriously ????
I resent the implication that this statement is the result of 'thinking'. It's possible to hold an opinion and live your own life without being condescending and patronising to others. I'm with Vinny on this one, as I say, live your life how you see fit, I respect the decisions people make and the reasons they make them, but needless hostility is needless. Now this is getting closer, but I'm still somewhat taken aback at the blanket implication that your choice is weed or a worthwhile and productive life. I agree that if you take it too far then it dominates and undermines key aspects of a balanced life, potentially (and, I'll agree, in many cases) to the point at which you can lose all that really matters. But the same is true of any substance, not least alcohol. It really irks me how an arbitrary point of law is somehow translated in to vehement morality. Conversely, many people enjoy alcohol, weed and various other substances as points of recreation in a balanced lifestyle. Horror stories are banded about and harder to ignore, but surely it's not that hard to realise this isn't the same as them being the whole truth? I feel it's much fairer to take this standpoint if you group alcohol alongside other substances (ie. when you say 'drugs', you actually mean drugs and not just those that are illegal), but even then I feel it's just needlessly intolerant and narrow minded to effectively go around telling people they're stupid. As I said, horror stories are hard to ignore, but it's just like looking at reviews of anything on the internet: how many people do you think go around making a big noise about how they occasionally take weed, actually quite enjoy it, but not to the point of it encroaching on day to day life? (And if you wonder why, apart from the fact that people tend to enjoy complaining and criticising rather than saying 'yeah, it's actually pretty good', just look what happened with Michael Phelps) And even if they did, how keen do you think any given media organisation would be to magnify this voice, in comparison to how happy they are to publicise any anti-drug story? Decisions as to how to live your life are your own, you're not even mandated to think before making them. I would, however, ask that you think around the possibilities and finer points of subjects like this before talking down to others, either directly or by implication of picking substance x vs. leading a responsible life. OT: I think your advice is sound in terms of principle, being open and smart about drugs as the specific point of focus in this thread it seems. Though some of what you said seems a little questionable, how focused you are on getting free stuff, making friends with people to get free food, or to get bought alcohol. But in the terms people are criticising here, I don't really see you as pushing people to try something they don't want to (perhaps 'if you haven't started drinking, you might as well start now' could have been better put, feeling obliged to try a substance is not something I'd ever say is good, even though I get this wasn't your intended point), it's about being open and making sure that, if you do try something, you know about it beforehand and make such choices responsibly. I think the most important thing is how you stress that going to classes is the single most important piece of advice. Drugs or not, if you don't abide by that then you're going to find any further education incredibly difficult and likely feel like you wasted a golden opportunity at the end.
In my opinion, it's probably higher here in the states because by then we'll either know better or hopefully have better control over ourselves.