1.When it comes to choosing the right college to attend you must be totally honest with yourself. Don’t think that you’re going to become a different person in college because while you may change it could be in a different way than you were expecting. I thought that I would become an extrovert and enjoy college parties so I attended a school with about 25,000 students. I come from a small town with an attendance of 300–400 students in my high school yearly. Students that I graduated from high school with that attend the same university I went to do love it so it just wasn’t for me personally. I didn’t like seeing people always out and about, sounds weird I know. Also, the college parties just weren’t the type of parties I was used to. I was used to getting dressed up and going to parties with friends and family while at that college the goal seemed to be to get as drunk as possible and make out with as many guys as possible then laugh about it in the morning. Not to say that there’s anything wrong with that because you can do you but as for me I would rather do other things.
2.Take into account the size of the campus because it does matter! At the university, I attended it took half an hour to walk from one side of campus to the other. I happened to live in the center of the campus so I would have to walk about 15 minutes to class which isn’t horrible. However, for me not being someone who is efficient at time management it really felt time-consuming to me and took a lot of time out of day; in my opinion. Also, keep in mind the distance you would have to walk to get food because you don’t want to have to walk far just to get something to eat. Doesn’t sound like a big deal but when the weather is bad outside, it matters.
3.Class size is another factor to be wary of when researching colleges. At my school, I did well in class size of 200 to 300 students in my Chemistry and English class. With that said Chemistry would have been so much easier if the class was smaller like 30 students. I literally spent 7–8 hours a week in office hours to get an A. There will be classes that are tough and that you’ll need extra help with so would you rather take that class with 200 people or 20? I felt in large classes that it was hard to make friends due to the fact that there’s no time to get to know each other and everyone goes to class and then leaves right after. Another downside was that my professors literally didn’t care what my name was. Sounds cliche but it’s true. The good thing about large classes is that they give multiple choice tests.
4.Do NOT I repeat do NOT let a friend pick your roommate. Also, if you’re talking to a potential roommate and you get a bad feeling be weary. Over the summer before move in my roommate said some iffy things that rubbed me the wrong way and I should have acted on my gut feeling.Additionally, going random isn’t that bad. ⅔ roommates that I was around often, that were randomly selected to room together ended up getting along great. While I chose someone and she turned out to be different than I had expected. Choosing someone and not liking them makes you feel beat yourself up because you chose them but going random allows you to have no expectations for your roommate. Roommate agreements are a very important component of being roommates. I ended up agreeing to a rule where when one of us goes to sleep the other would have to go to sleep as well or leave the room. At first, I was okay with it but I ended up hating that rule and seeing it as unreasonable. Needless, to say just be careful to what you agree to.
Keep in mind that there’s always community college. Community college is a good way to get gen-eds out of the way and prerequisites or to get an Associates Degree. If your GPA isn’t the best this route would be great to boost your GPA so you can transfer to a 4-year college. One thing to check out is the guaranteed admission agreements that community colleges often have with universities in the same state as them.
All of these tips are based on my own experience of choosing the wrong school for myself. I lost sight of who I am from who I thought I wanted to be. However, I found myself even more by attending the wrong school. Do not be afraid, if you’re not happy at your college then transfer. College isn’t cheap and life is short to not be happy. I wish you guys the best of luck and hope that you get it right on the first try with or without my tips.
V.R.M.
