I still remember the day when I got my acceptance letter from Washington State University, I was jumping all over the place and was super close to spraining my ankle. After the excitement period had lapsed and the rationale mind had set in, it got me a bit nervous. We all have seen mean girls right? Would my roommate be mean to me? Would people give me a hard time? Will I be the Fez from That 70s Show? My super imaginative thinking had taken a toll on my mind, even the most preposterous kind of scenarios were seeming viable.

Hey, guys!! I’m Yatin and I’ll be your Peer Mentor for this semester. Before I share the heart of this article I would like to take a moment to congratulate all of you guys on getting into the college of your dreams. It’s a huge accomplishment in itself! Now, You might be wondering what exactly is a peer mentor? Peer Mentor to me means a person who is someone of my age group but unquestionably has more experience than I do. According to Wiki, a peer mentor is, “Peer mentoring is a form of mentorship that usually takes place between a person who has lived through a specific experience (peer mentor) and a person who is new to that experience (the peer mentee). An example would be an experienced student being a peer mentor to a new student, the peer mentee, in a particular subject, or in a new school”. This mentorship can help one make a smoother transition into the new phase of their life and adapting it a lot quicker. I’ve made a list of things that I’d like to share with you guys. The things from my personal experience, when I was in my first semester of college. I think sharing these things with you guys will surely help you in one way or the other.

1. Since most of my target audience is from Middle East Asia or South East Asia, therefore, I’d like to talk about the differences in appliances used by the people in the US and Asia (let’s combine Middle East Asia and South East Asia for the sake of discussion). One common misconception is that all electronic devices made by major brands such as Apple, Samsung, HP or any other manufacturer for that matter, manufacture devices with universal hardware, which is not true. Usually, in Asia, the output power is at 220V~240V which is almost twice the power output used by the people in the US which is at 110V. This difference in power suggests that not all devices can be plugged into the wall and are ready to use. First, make sure that you read the power rating of the device. If the devices uses 110V for optimal functioning it is not wise to plug the same device into an outlet with a power output of 220V as this excess power can burn your appliance and if the device is not earthed it might even jolt a fire. Apart from the power difference, the wall outlets are also different. So make sure that your device charger or device can get into the wall outlet in the first place before using all those muscles of yours. If you need to then buy an adapter.

2.There are quite a few miscellaneous things I’d like to talk about. I’ll be putting them under one umbrella as “Walmart”. I suggest you buy all the things in this point your first trip to the Walmart. Things such as Comforters, food, laundry stuff, silverware etc. On the first come first serve basis w’ll be talking about comforters first. Your bed in the dorm will be super uncomfortable to sleep on because all they provide you with is a mattress, thinnest bed sheet ever made, and a pillow which under no circumstances will ensure a good nights rest before that exam on the following day. Which is why you would need to buy yourself a comforter and trust me on this sleeping on comforters is worth the expenditure. Next item on the list is food. Food is a necessity. I need food in my fridge late at night when I’m studying because I can’t think on an empty stomach. Also, every now and then I crave for something delicious so it’s better that I have a granola bar on me instead of spending $6 on a high calorie, sugary drink from Starbucks. Food is something that you wouldn’t really need to keep in your fridge when you’ve got places like Flix and Einsteins which are open till 1 am in the morning. Let me tell you a secret. Your snacks are mysteriously going to disappear! And the culprit is…………………your roommate. You would have to confront them, there’s no way around it. They will try to deny it but nothing in this world should hold you back from looking them dead into their eyes and making them spill the beans. Coming back to the main topic, laundry stuff, you would need to buy things like pods, dryer sheets, fabric softener, basket etc. Pod is basically your detergent which saves you the trouble of measuring the detergent before dumping it in the washing machine. Dryer sheets are like napkins that you put in the dryer along with your clothes that make your clothes smell nice and fresh. Fabric softener isn’t necessary but something you might want to check out in the laundry department. A basket that you need to dump all your dirty clothes in and then carrying it to the machines. Silverware is another thing that isn’t super necessary but I tend to use it quite a lot and by silverware, I mean inclusive of plates, spoons, knives, forks etc stuff that is related to cooking in general. Since I get hungry a lot late at night, I make myself something and this is where all these things come into play. As I have talked about Flixs and Einsteins earlier with these options available you really don’t need to buy all the things I mentioned under silverware. But if you plan on buying reusable silverware instead of disposal one (disposal plates, cups) I would suggest buying a dishwashing soap and dishwashing sponge as well.

3.Transportation. There are so many ways of getting from point A to point B here on campus such as green bikes, buses, and even by foot since everything is not super far. Carpool, bus, taxi can be means to get to places which are located off campus. With all these options available there is hardly a need to buy a vehicle for transportation. All the means that I’ve mentioned to get from one point to the another on campus are totally free of charge. WSU lets you rent green bikes for free of cost. I haven’t really got my hands on them personally, therefore, I don’t know the terms on which they let you have the bike but I’ve seen many people on them. And if you feel like riding a bike isn’t the best means of transport especially on Pullman hills, the bus is also free for WSU students. In order to ride for free, you have to show the bus driver some sort of identification (like cougar card) which tells them that you’re a university student and you can ride for free. If you want to go the grocery store to buy some stuff you can always share a ride or plan your groceries together with a friend. Therefore, in my opinion, you don’t have to buy a vehicle for transportation purposes here in Pullman. But if I were to buy one for myself I would go for a bicycle just to get me active and get some sort of workout done.

4.It is super important for you guys to attend ALIVE, the orientation. Orientation is where you will get to know most of the stuff about WSU. Your Orientation Counsellor is going to walk you through everything that you would need for the semester. During Orientation, you will get to meet people make new friends, get to know about resources, classrooms, buildings and all, which is why it becomes super important to attend the orientation. During my Orientation, I got know about the free printing that the international students can have from the lower level of the CUB. So you will get to know about cool stuff such as this during your orientation, which is why I highly recommend that you attend the orientation. If I’m not mistaken then on the first day you will have to take two exams, ALEKS and English written test (don’t take my word for it) and on the second of the orientation, you will get to sign up for your classes. When registering for your classes you will get hands on experience of the online system. My.WSU is your friend and I suggest that you practice using it and get comfortable using because everything literally everything that you need to find regarding WSU you can find it on My.WSU. My.WSU is where you will find the schedule of your classes, your dues, parking information, RDA balance, tech store which offers paid softwares free of cost to WSU students, blackboard where all your assignments are posted, and so on so forth. I would suggest messing with My.WSU so that you get to know where to find what, to this point, I haven’t been fully used to using My.WSU. Also, I feel somewhat obliged to tell you guys that it’s better to attend your orientation right now before you start college because if you don’t attend it this semester just to save $200 I hate to break it to you that if you don’t attend it this semester WSU is going to make you attend it the next semester or otherwise they are going to put a hold on your account and then you won’t be able to register for your classes for the next semester, so basically there is no point in not attending because you’re going to attend it next semester anyway. Additionally, before getting to know WSU you will feel like the orientation was seriously beneficial but if you attend it next semester it will be a total waste of your time as you would know everything your orientation counselor has to offer, hopefully.

5.My absolute advice for all incoming freshman would be, don’t take classes before 10 am. You might think that he’s talking bullshit because I’ve been attending classes starting much earlier than 10 in high school and I will be able to pull off the same now. But let me tell you this in college you’ll experience freedom and your parents won’t be on your tail anymore to tell you it’s time to wake up for a class and probably your professors won’t even care as well. All the things fed to you about college professors from Ms.Sheila in high school was a lie. Your professors in high don’t even care if you don’t show up at least most of the professors don’t. I know you might be tempted to sign up for a class which starts before 10 because it’s the start of the semester and you’re all pumped to ace every class start early get done by noon and all but think rationally for a bit. This is the best case scenario or let us say “the fairy tale scenario” because as the semester goes on life is going to happen. You will be assigned exorbitant amounts of homework for which you would have to stay up late at night and then your decision of taking that 8 o clock class wouldn’t seem wise at al…….right? Or consider this on Sunday night you are having fun with your friends and lose track of time, it gets late and then you’re going to regret taking that early class on a Monday morning. Let’s imagine that even if you wake up and make it to class you’re going to be that kid who shows up 5 mins before the class ends without taking a shower and in their pjs. Don’t be that one, please I beg of you. Basically, you wish you would have stayed in your bed instead of rushing to the class that you don’t even care about. Think about it this you have to wake up super early to get ready for the class while your roommate sleeps in, won’t that suck? Totally it would. Nothing sucks more when you exert yourself to the limit while you watch your roommate sleep in like a baby in their cozy bed. Personal story, I had all my classes after 10 or 10:30 my first semester and I was still able to manage to sleep in and skip 3 classes, the first week of college which is super bad since you are allowed only 2 unexcused absence per class.

Now let us talk about how the first two weeks of your college life are going to look like. The first week is known as the “Week of Welcome (WOW)”, “Week of Introduction”, or “the Dead Week” by some. It’s a super laid back week where all the professors introduce themselves and the TAs, hand-out the course schedule and the syllabus along with the office hours. During this week usually, no homework is assigned. I utilized this week by planning out my schedule, adding a few classes, dropping a few just trying to make everything fit. Basically just taking more than 18 credits this week and seeing for myself which class am I ready for or which classes should I take up this semester and then leave the rest for the next semester. Also in the first-week professors recommend a few books for the course. A work of caution that comes along with it is that hold your horses and don’t go buying every book as soon as the professor recommends in the heat of the moment. I know you are all fired up to ace the class but most of the time you don’t need to go through the books to ace the test and the professors don’t even use the book in the class ever and you end up wasting 100s of dollars on a book which was totally worthless because you never read it. I advise you to wait for a good solid two to three weeks. Professors do understand that the books might be out of stock and they cut you some slack for not bringing the book first 2 to 3 weeks. Which gives you ample of time to analyze if the professor uses the book in the class or not, whether you need to buy it for yourself or not. I also suggest doing the same for every class because I didn’t require a single book my entire first semester and ended up buying 3 of them which was a total waste since I never even touched them.

Week two begins. In this week you’re going to ride a train which will be going at a speed of 500miles per hour and the college is going to hit you so hard that even your ancestor would feel the pain. To be honest I wasn’t ready for how fast the college picked up the pace. Eventually, I got used to it and so will you. Just a heads up!!

So these are all the things that I wish someone might have told me about when I was starting college. I hope that you don’t commit the same mistakes I did and this article was helpful somehow.

Here are a few tips from fellow “Sophomore”.

WARNING: The advice is for the light hearted only. Please do not take it seriously. View the pictures at your own discretion.

P.S: HBO Go and Philo is free for WSU students, thank me later. Can’t wait to see all your smiling faces on the day of orientation.

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