How to Survive Your Freshman Year of College

publication date: Jul 14, 2008

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author/source: Jamie Woodhead / STAFF

By Jamie Woodhead / STAFF

Without an umbrella and boots to weather a storm, you will end up looking like a sopping mess.

In about a month, rising college freshmen will be leaving the familiarity and comfort of their own home for the crazy and unknown world that is college. That’s right, parents. In a month your little babies will be leaving you and venturing to a place where you have little control. But don’t worry, parents; you definitely don’t look old enough to have a college student.

Heads up
With only a few weeks to go before moving in, now is the time to learn to separate your whites from your darks. It’s the time to really get a handle on how that iron works. It’s also the time to finalize with your roommate who is bringing what in terms of the television, microwave, and refrigerator. Living in a room the size of a closet with two microwaves and no television is quite a conundrum.

There are a lot of little things that make your first year away from home a lot easier, and having just finished my freshman year at UGA, I know the ins and outs that you might not think of.

Rain or shine, it’s off to school you go
Most teenagers in North Fulton are used to either driving or being driven wherever they need to go. College, on the other hand, presents students with the rarely used form of transportation that is walking. On most college campuses, students walk to class, the dorm, the dining hall, and the library. They walk in the blazing heat, the frigid cold, and the heaviest rains. Umbrellas and rain jackets are an absolute must in college.

Also, rain boots are highly popular for female students. At first, it may seem like your fellow students have resorted back to the pre-school days of boot-wearing. However, after you have experienced first hand what it is like to walk in a downpour wearing regular sneakers that are now sopping, you realize that rain boots are the way to go. Ladies, look at the boots and rain jacket as a new way to accessorize on a gloomy day.

Don’t let your mug shot grace the front page of your school’s paper
Many students, when greeted with the instant freedom of no parents, go wild in the beginning of college. Students need to realize that the first few weeks of college are often when the campus and local police crack down the hardest on underage drinking and other common college student offenses. There is often a surge of arrests, especially of freshmen, in the first couple of weeks because law enforcement is trying to make examples of the freshmen.

Freshman tend to get caught out in the rain. Don’t let it happen to your first-year college-goer.

Last August, Michael Patterson, a rising sophomore at the University of Georgia, became one of those arrested examples. “Because freshmen are coming straight out of high school, they need to be careful and take it easy,” he said. “They should avoid doing anything stupid.”

Going Greek
Joining a sorority or fraternity can be a difficult decision, and if you do not join it is not the end of the world. Many incoming freshman are worried that if they do not go Greek, then they will not have a social life. They are, however, incorrect. Students do not need to join a sorority or fraternity in order to have a fulfilling college experience by any means. Going Greek is not for everyone, but for those who feel that they would enjoy it, then here is some advice.

First off, going through sorority recruitment (also known as rush) is not always enjoyable. At UGA and other large universities with many different sororities, the girls going through recruitment have to spend hours outside in the sweltering August heat. They must walk to and from different sorority houses and then wait to enter the houses. Attention all girls going through rush:

Bring a small handheld fan! You might think that it seems tacky, but a portable fan that you can hide in your purse when you don’t need it is worth it. I, along with many other girls, dripped in sweat while enviously looking on at the few girls who brought the fans. Also, find out if you are going to be walking a lot during rush. If so, wear cute flip-flops, not heels. Your feet will thank you.

Sarah Jones, who rushed and joined a sorority at Auburn last year, found rush to be at times hard and overwhelming, but she is glad that she toughed it out. After having seen both the positives and the negatives about rush, she shared some advice.

“Don’t worry about all the rumors,” she said. “People say things like if you look sweaty then you will automatically be cut, or if you don’t have the right designer dress you won’t be picked. Just be yourself and let the conversation flow, and you will find yourself in the sorority that is best for you.”

Joining a fraternity is a different process than rushing a sorority. Instead of a week of rush, the boys’ first week is quite different. According to David Powers, a fraternity member and rising sophomore at Georgia Southern, “The first week is a lot of fun. You just go to different parties and meet a lot of guys. If you decide to pledge a fraternity, the pledgeship period is demanding and sometimes difficult, but it is definitely worth it in the end.”

Buy these now
1) A shoe rack to attach to your closet door

2) A large fan for the room and a small fan to attach to your bed

3) A full-length mirror

4) Extra-long twin sheets for your bed

5) Sandals to wear in the shower

6) A shower caddy

7) Slippers

8) A robe or towel wrap (for the ladies)

9) Inexpensive garment bags – Instead of packing all of your clothes in boxes, then having to unpack them on move-in day, just put your clothes on hangers in the bags. All you have to do is take the clothes out of the bags, and you have a finished closet. No unpacking necessary.

On a side note, wait to buy any decorative posters for your room until you get to school. Many colleges have large poster sales that feature nearly every poster you could ever want and more, and the posters are very reasonable.

With all of this planning and preparing for your first year on your own, remember to fully enjoy this summer with all of your friends from high school.