April 2, 2018 by Stephanie Farid

Being a freshman is hard. Everything is new and important life decisions are needed to be made, one wrong turn and it may feel like the end of the world. Here are some tips from Maria Moussa, a senior at USFSP graduating in May and starting Graduate school and Mena Messiha a very involved junior at USF, to help ease the yearly years of higher education.

1. Use all your resources. Mousa recommends taking advantage of advisors at the University for guidance through classes. The career center is also an awesome resource for those struggling with what they want to do career wise. Sometimes even if an advisor cannot directly help with an issue they certainly know where to direct any and all questions. Also, for the worst case scenarios, find out about backup plans that your school allows and how they work, like grade forgiveness and withdrawals.
2. Check RateMyProfessor. “It may seem trivial at first, but I wish that I had used this in my earlier years, it might have saved me dealing with some not so great professors,” said Mousa. RateMyProffessors.com offers insight about professors at most universities. Previous students write reviews and can use keyword tags like “Get ready to read” “Group projects” and “Extra credit” to give a heads up for future students and rate the difficulty of the course from one to five.
3. Get to know the professor. Besides looking up professors beforehand, get to know them yourself. Go to office hours sometimes even if you don’t have questions, because it’s just as important to build that relationship with your professors and learn more about the subject. That’s also how you get really good recommendation letters and occasionally a heads up about what may be on the exam.
4. Fill out FAFSA early.  This one is simple. No one wants to be the person freaking out about how to pay for college while classes are happening and a million other things are on your mind.
5. Dont take any class before 11. This may not be relevant to everyone but for those people who don’t enjoy waking up early it may better to take a later class. Taking a later class may mean the difference between learning everything that you can while having a clear mind and stumbling into class as a disheveled mess and missing half the information.
6. Take a course load you can handle. (it doesn’t matter if you take a little longer) If four classes is what you’re comfortable with then let it be. If it’s three then so what, take three! That’s not to say take the longest possible time you can take to graduate, but if one semester you feel like you’re just not having it and that taking five or more classes won’t allow you to do the best you can, then do what’s best for you and your mental health.
7. Find what you love and do that. Something that can be agreed on by most people is that it’s difficult to ask 18, 19, and sometimes 17 year olds who just a month ago had to ask permission to use the restroom, what they want to do with the rest of their lives. Most people going into college don’t really know what they want to do. However, the sooner you find something that you really love and want to do, the sooner school starts being fun.
8. Do not procrastinate. Messiha says “I started studying for the MCAT one year in advance, and I learned everything I was supposed to but I didn’t feel rushed which is the best feeling ever.” Doing assignments and studying in advance helps greatly, especially if you struggle with anxiety, not having to worry about assignments last minute is such a stress reliever.
9. Double check if you have to take a class especially if it’s hard. More often than not, there are classes that appear mandatory to take, but this is something seeing your advisor can help with. “Me and my brother, both, were about to take classes that we didn’t need to take, but after seeing our advisors that issue was avoided,” Mousa said. Sometimes the system glitches, the last thing you want to do is take a class that you don’t have to, especially a difficult one. That’s time and money wasted.
10. Make friends and make time to have fun with them.  Messiah’s tip for making friends is to just introduce yourself to people. “If you want to have friends, you have to reach out to others,” he said. “They can be great allies if you miss something in class to talk to them later. Plus, your all going through a really similar situation, trying to figure out your lives.”
11. Don’t just wait for something to happen. College is the land of opportunity. If you want something, go get it.

Bonus tip: Get involved! Both Mousa and Messiha say that their experience would not have been as great as it was if they were not as involved in extracurricular activities which not only serve as a place for fun, but also great experiences that can be listed on your resume.