TEEN CENTER :: COLLEGE CENTER :: FRESHMAN JOURNAL

April 2003

The Top Ten Things I Wish I Knew Before My Freshman Year

10. My parents weren't as bad as I thought they were. While I was in high school, I complained that my parents were strict and overly paranoid. After getting to college, I realized a lot of their fears weren't completely unfounded. I missed them more then I thought was possible.

9. Shower shoes are a necessity. Community bathrooms aren't that bad, but they certainly aren't the cleanest places on campus. Also, I wish I had brought more socks and underwear to school. I definitely was forced to wear bathing suit bottoms because I had put off doing laundry for so long.

8. Don't expect a lot out of dining services. The food isn't as good as they told you when you took the campus tour. Moreover, no matter what you do, the university's meal plan will probably rob you blind. Just accept this and move on.

7. Make use of campus services like academic help groups, the health center, and computer labs. After all, you've already paid for them. It took me the entire first semester to discover the computer labs. I had been using my friends' paper and ink the whole time, and I could've been printing my papers for free.

6. Avoid typically hard classes first semester. Biology, Physics, and Chemistry have ruined many freshmen's grade point averages. My friends spent countless Saturday nights tearing out their hair over difficult formulas and complex molecules. The first semester is stressful enough. Don't make it worse by taking intense courses.

5. Go to parties and have fun, but make sure you know your limit. You don't want to be the random person puking in the bathroom because they had too much to drink. Trust me on this one.

4. Never borrow anything from your roommate without asking. Roommate relations can quickly sour if you don't respect personal boundaries.

3. Don't even try to study in your dorm room. There are too many distractions like television, the internet, and the friends next door. Try the library. Not only is it quieter, but you'll get more work done in less time.

2. Yes, college is really expensive. You'll spend more on books then you ever believed possible. However, if you have the chance to study abroad, take out a loan and do it. In the end, a couple extra thousand dollars of debt won't make that big of a difference, and the experience will be worth it.

1. Savor each moment because it will be over before you know it. Freshman year goes incredibly fast, and I truly believe the experience can never be repeated. Enjoy every moment, but don't forget to study in between all the fun stuff.

Caitlin Noris, originally from Miami, Fla., is a freshman at the University of Pittsburgh. This is her final entry in Freshman Journal, but she will return next school year as a special contributor, writing the On Campus column for The Wall Street Journal Classroom Edition.