When in high school, you are taught the basic skills and tools you will need to succeed in college. Sort of.

Schools and teachers alike do not prepare students for what college will be like, both in the classroom and out. As a junior at Rowan, I have experienced many obstacles, life lessons, and teaching moments, which were thrown at me as gently as a brick. If I had a time machine and could tell a younger me the advice for my future, I would do things differently. 

Making connections. Networking is huge at Rowan, and any college, for that matter, and the biggest mistake new college students make is going in with the mindset of expecting them to reach out to you. A common misconception with college is that the teachers will be involved more. These professors have hundreds of students, and you are not their main priority. So the job of getting to know them and making that connection will fall to you. You have to make an effort because in the future, jobs will require you to build relationships, and college is where you need to learn this. Professors are here to help students navigate their future, and building connections with them and having them as contacts can greatly help you in your career.

How important getting to know your peers and classmates really is. This goes for any class, but especially in major-specific courses. When I first started college, I was extremely nervous and would never go out of my way to talk to anyone. In my head, I told myself I didn’t need anyone and could do it all on my own. And for that, I nearly failed. I was too scared to ask for help or to talk to the people in my class, and as a result, I learned the hard way. You can’t succeed in this world alone. Sooner or later, you will need to rely on someone because life is a group project, which is why it is vital that new students talk to each other. Make friends and build these relationships early, and when the time comes when you need them, you can help each other. 

Study groups are something I wish I had taken more seriously. I can’t express enough how important and helpful study groups can be. You are all in the same boat, and you are all in this together. Studying together will help strengthen not only your knowledge in the classroom but also create a shared bond with students you will probably see again in future courses. After initially bombing most of my initial quizzes and exams in my Media Law class, I was terrified that I would not last the semester and was doubting that I could even pass the class. I was told to start getting to know more of the people in my class who seemed to get the material, which I was not excited about. I struggled with getting to know new people and always stuck to myself, but I realized that if I was going to pass this class, I needed a change. So one day at an after-school club, I ran into someone from my class and introduced myself, something I never would go out of my way to do. From there, we started meeting up, and other people began to notice, and our little group started to grow. By the end of the semester, we had more than half the class in our study group. Every person brought something new and caught something different that someone didn’t see, and our grades reflected this. A few semesters later, I still study and work together with these people, and they are now good friends that I can’t imagine my college career without. 

In an age where we have the ability to speak with anyone, anywhere around the world, lots of people find themselves unable to talk to the people sitting next to them. You can’t expect the other person to make an effort; you have to take the initiative. I don’t have a lot of regrets when it comes to college; the only things I wish I did differently were doing everything earlier, instead of waiting so long to build the connections I have in the latter half of my college career. 

College is a place where you can meet people you will know for the rest of your life, and where you can build your future from the ground up, so why do it alone?