Starting your college life is a major life event that marks the beginning of a new chapter in your life.
It sets you on a new journey that will prepare you for your professional career and bring many new lessons and experiences!
As we cherish the onset of this new learning experience, your first day of college plays a major role in setting the tone for a lot of things.
In this detailed guide, we will talk about all such major concerns that a student faces while starting college.
We will also take you through some helpful tips you can consider to prepare yourself for the big day!
How should I prepare myself mentally?
So, your first day of college is around the corner, and there are tons of things bothering you?
If you are about to face such situations, please know that you are not alone.
There are around 19+ million students all across the United States starting college each year, we are sure many of them have similar questions like yourself.
We all have been there, feeling the anxiety and wondering if it is normal to feel that way. While it may not be a big deal for many of us to acknowledge that it is quite normal, it is equally essential to note that it is okay to be worried about it.
Not everyone is great at dealing with big events, and that’s fine. Getting yourself ready for the first day of college can be a hard process. So, how do we deal with all these? Is it all manageable?
Well, we advise you to take notes of everything you need to remember for your first day and write it on paper. Go through it multiple times to feel confident about everything you know at the moment.
Once you have done it quite a few times, you’ll have a compilation of things you feel are important. A lot of times we tend to forget the most important things at the last moment.
Hence, it is always better to plan things so that you do not have to deal with the last-minute chaos leaving you perpetually perplexed on your very first day of college!
What challenges can I expect on my first day of college? How to deal with it?
Just like we prepare for our exams before finding them almost around the corner, it is also essential to understand any possible problem you may face on your first day of college.
If you are about to start college and feel perplexed about how to manage everything, we have got you covered!
Let us take a look at the three most common confusions/problems you may face on your first day at college and how to deal with them!
Woke up late?
Sounds like a nightmare for your first day of college, right?
No matter if it is school, college, or workplace, we all know how important it is to make things on time.
Everything ultimately depends on what time you wake up and how long it takes you to complete your morning tasks. If it is your first day of college and somehow you have not been able to wake up on time, please note that it is alright and perfectly normal. We all have been there!
But how do you deal with it? Well, you can take some measures the night before your first day at college to cut some time from your morning routine in case you run late. To prepare yourself for your first day, make sure you arrange all your essentials such as outfit, backpack, and stationaries in advance.
Also, make sure you have already placed your accessories and toiletries in their place to avoid any chaos in the morning. These little things can help you to prepare yourself for your morning routine on the first day of college, just in case you run late than planned!
Forgot your essential supplies for the class?
If it is your first day of college, there may be a chance that you miss out on essential supplies. A lot of students face the same issue when they are preparing themselves for their first day at school or college. If you have ever been there or feel like you may face the same situation, we have a few tips that can help!
First of all, it is not the end of the world. If you accidentally missed any important accessory, try to reach out to help from other students. Please try to keep yourself calm and understand that it’s alright not to have everything in place on your first day.
Ask them if they can help you out by sharing the accessories until you can get your supplies directly after the class. We understand your first day of college can get a little bit hard for you if things don’t go as planned.
However, there is always a way to deal with these unprecedented situations if we adopt the correct approach!
Can’t find a way to your class?
When you are a new admission at a school or college, it is quite normal to feel confused about the directions. Imagine, you are entering your college building, filled with excitement and nervousness but somehow got lost on the way to your class?
It is a very common problem whenever we are new to an environment. It takes time to understand the new place and get used to it. But if you feel confused on your very first day of college, you can still do a few things to ensure that you don’t have to face these situations.
Firstly, try to visit your campus a day before your first day. You can visit your classes and other important places on your campus so that you don’t get lost on your way to your class on the main day.
Try spending at least 30 minutes working around your college building and evaluating the environment just to make sure you know where to go.
Just like we discussed how planning your morning routine can help you with your first day, the same thing applies here. Just make sure that you take enough time for yourself to understand the directions and environment to prepare for the main day.
Anything else to keep in mind?
Apart from the things we discussed above, we would also like to share a few more things that can help you prepare for your first day of college.
It is equally essential to focus on how you will conduct yourself on your first day at college.
Preparing yourself for any important event is not just about arrangements but also thinking of how you would conduct and present yourself as an individual. Here are our two cents on this –
- First of all, if it is your first day of college, we would highly recommend you to try interacting with your classmates. Having a good social network at your college is important to be an active member. Interacting with your batchmates and getting to know them better can immensely help you to build a network and also get good know-how of the social environment.
- You must also try to know your professors and initiate conversations to build a good relationship with them. Although it is not possible to do this on your first day of college, building a good social network is something you would do overtime. It is equally important to have a good network among your teachers and professors and build your image as a student. Reach out to them, talk about your subject, your feedback for them, what interests you in your course and how they add value to your development as a student. Doing so will make them feel important and help them see through your values and interests as a student.
- The next tip we would like to share with you is to look for a balance. It is essential to understand that your college life will be full of social and academic events. As you indulge yourself in these processes, ensure that you don’t navigate your balance too far in a single direction.
Your first day of college can be a major deciding factor for everything that will come to you in the next couple of years.
As much as essential it is to build a social network, ensure that you don’t indulge in over socializing. It comes with its pros and cons.
Do not let it take a beating on your academic performance when you are too busy to give all your time to social commitments.
Remember, it is equally necessary to set boundaries and respect them equally.
Also, in case you are taking any subjects online, here are some tips to manage your online learning expectations.
Conclusion
As we saw in our discussion, getting yourself ready for the first day of college goes far beyond basic preparation and arrangements.
For many of us, it takes extra effort to prepare ourselves mentally for it.
While taking care of all the basic arrangements is necessary, it is equally essential to focus on these aspects as well.
We hope you find this guide helpful in getting yourself college-ready as you walk yourself through the preparations and brace yourself for the experiences about to come ahead!
All the best on your first day of college!
