6 College Tips From a Graduate

Six years ago I came to the university. Knowing about life and higher education practically nothing, with no money, and no connections, I started to explore the world around me.

What did I lack back then? An experienced mentor who would help me find answers to many questions and make important decisions. I was in need of some kind of authority, a person who already achieved everything I wanted to.

But, unfortunately, the destiny decided to deprive me of that kind of person. And even parents who should be an example for every one of us, couldn’t be of any help to me because they hardly had the necessary experience in the field of the higher education.

Several years passed, there had been many events that lead to a lot of mistakes. I will never be able to fix some of them. There were some achievements as well of course, but we aren’t talking about them.
I would simply like to share my student experience and give some tips to all the students and soon-to-be students so that they would be able to avoid making the same mistakes.

Tip 1. Learn to communicate and always be able to connect with people

University is an amazing place. It is doubtful that later in life you will find yourself under similar circumstances with the most diverse, exciting and interesting young people, gathered in one place. Here you can master the skill of communication. Learn to connect with them and build friendly relationships. This is likely to be a very important skill fro your future adult life.
Communicate more! Never forget a simple truth: friends are the easiest to acquire at school and university. Doing so will become incomparably harder after the graduation.

Tip 2. Concentrate on what is important

Set goals and achieve them. Enjoy even the small victories. Repeat this process again and again. Learn to focus on the most important training courses and other events. Focus and make plans for the future but never lose the sense of the present moment. But please don’t lose the control of everything else.

Tip 3. Do not get a job during the studying

It might be a controversial tip but very important tip. Never ever work while studying at a university! Especially when it comes to the full-time job. You won’t have any time to study and all of the efforts will be spent in vain.
Why? You’re wasting your time. You might argue that a job will bring you invaluable experience. But it is not always helpful. You might change the career orientation in the future and all this experience will be a total waste.
Just think about it. While you were investing your time and knowledge in someone else’s business, your peers were investing it in themselves developing their intellectual abilities and multiple skills. And if the job you have is so important to you that you don’t want to quit, think about the reasons why you need a diploma anyway. Maybe studying is in your case a waste of time?

Tip 4. Learn, learn, learn

Work on yourself constantly. Constant improvement is your primary goal. Read, write, and solve problems. Don’t be afraid to express your thoughts and take part in everything you find to be interesting: competitions, contests, grants, traveling, etc.
The information you get in the classroom should not be enough for you. Remember that it is only a necessary minimum. Strive for more. Not every student succeeds, so you need to always be a step ahead of everyone else.
Don’t be afraid your knowledge will not be useful in the future. You will be rewarded fro the hard work! Do not think that your case is an exception to this rule.

Tip 5. Pay attention to your grades

You all know of those famous rich people who never finished a college but managed to succeed in life. There is a big “But” to it.
First, they are not proud of this fact and were not able to live this lifestyle. Do they give hiring priority to people without education now? No!
Secondly, if you declare yourself a Trinitarian, and you will not worry about your GPA, it is unlikely that this will help you to establish your company and get the global recognition.
How important is academic performance and your GPA? What do your parents and friends think about this? Or maybe their opinion is not of great importance to you? Here’s another example: one of the founders of Google believes that nothing better characterizes a human intelligence as the average score of their diploma, namely grades in Math and English language. Other evaluations, in his opinion, reflect a person’s ability to implement this knowledge in all other areas. You need to know about it. Think about it now, because it won’t be possible to fix the average score of your diploma later.

Tip 6. Be epic

Now this phrase is often used to finish a presentation at some conference. For me, its meaning consists of the following components.

  • To be different from all the rest
  • To be well-known and recognizable
  • To earn credibility
  • To be better at least at something

If 6 years ago, or at least, a little earlier I found a man who would tell me these obvious things, I think I would build my training in the university and relationships with people in a very different way. Most likely, it would change my life and I’d be a different person now.

Please address all of the above as my personal experience. In no way was I trying to impose my opinion on you and do not think it is absolutely correct. But I hope that it will be useful and interesting at least for some of you.

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