5 Lessons I Learned My Freshman Year of College

May 1, 2020 • Rachel F.

College is full of ups and downs but I can truly say it has been the biggest learning experience for me. When I started college my freshman year, I truly didn’t know what to expect but I can definitely tell you sometimes I feel like I learned more life lessons than I did academic lessons. College teaches you so much but one of the most important things it teaches you is independence and responsibility. Here are five lessons I learned my freshman year that I think all incoming freshman should be prepared to learn!

1. Time management skills are a must

Time management for college students can be difficult. From wanting to maintain a social life, get good grades, and get involved on campus, there’s a lot of pressure to do it all. The reality is –you can’t! I realized my freshman year that if I wanted to succeed in college, I needed to learn time management skills, and that looks different for everybody. For me, that meant saying yes but also saying no when I had to and investing in a good planner to stay on top of it. Once you get into a routine your freshman year, find where you struggle when it comes to time management and work on it.

2. College is completely different from high school

My teacher in high school often reiterated the same point that so much of what you do in high school will prepare you for college. And don’t get me wrong, there is a lot academically that prepared me but college isn’t anywhere close to what high school is like. It’s a huge adjustment and it’s important to understand that. While it is a huge adjustment, it’s a huge adjustment in a good way. The biggest different from college and high school is your independence. From how you spend your time to the people you hang out with to the food you eat, there’s a lot more opportunity to choose for yourself than someone else choosing for you. Just remember, that also comes with a lot of personal responsibility!

3. Prioritizing is key

I am a yes person. When asked to do something, whether it’s extracurricular or social, I always want to say yes but my freshman year of college taught me how to say no. There is no way you’ll be able to do everything you want to do in college so you’ll have to prioritize what’s most important. This means evaluating your academics, social life, extracurriculars, etc. By doing this, you’ll not only be eliminating a lot of stress for yourself but it will also help you manage your time well.

4. How to budget

When I got to college, there were so many unanticipated expenses I wasn’t prepared for like simple things such as buying my own toilet paper or soap. While I’d like to say budgeting was the first thing I learned in college, it was more of a process. Over time, you learn the difference between needs and wants. From there, you can budget out the necessities, when to get them and determine what you really need. This definitely teaches you a lot of responsibility!

5. Nobody has it all together

No matter how much you think someone has it all together, they probably don’t. We’re all struggling to figure out what we want to do in life, and it’s okay not to know what you want to do. That’s okay because college gives you the space to be yourself, to find what you love, so don’t stress if you go into college undecided on your major or what you want to do in life. At the end of the day, while the goal is a college degree, your learning experience at college goes beyond that. There are so many life lessons learned to be thankful for as well.