Starting out in college is a tough and sometimes scary experience. Your young and in most cases have not developed the best of common sense and now you have to figure out what it is your going to do with your life. Well don’t be misled by colleges telling you that they are there to help you, because in reality the truth is they get paid more if you choose to go to their school. Because we live in a money driven world finding a good counselor to help you choose your career path can be tough and it will be up to you to be assertive, ask question and rely on the expertise of others to help guide you through your first few steps into the rest of your life.
Go into the college experience with at least some knowledge of how the process works. Know what papers to have with you in order to sign up for certain courses, and understand the policies regarding personal information. Also be sure that when you go to sign up for college and or classes you have your most important documents such as transcripts from high school, or other colleges you have attended, a birth certificate, social security number, any forms of identifications that you may need like a drivers license or other form of photo ID.
Make copies of everything you give to the administration, including receipts. Paper tends to get lost or confused many times and a college, or university will have plenty on their hands to deal with in terms of paper work, especially at the beginning and end of each semester. Keeping copies of important documents can be vital to you at any given time when the college claims that your missing paper work or registrations, and receipts are great to keep because they rove that you have purchased or paid for something the college may deny. Graduation fees are among the most common pieces of paper to be misfiled or misplaced.
When you confront a counselors remember that you’re the one in charge. You are paying this college to take their classes and so you should be the one making decisions on what classes to take, however you would be well advised to take advice. Counselors will help you pick classes that will assist in your goal, but don’t be fooled into taking classes that you don’t want or need in order to finish your course.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions to your professors or the college administration. Most of the time the information your looking for can be found be just simply asking someone. “Where is this building?” “Where do I go to sign up for this class?” “Who do I contact about this or that?” all these questions have simple answers, you just have to ask!
Pamphlets are distributed all around every floor of every building of a college campus, so feel free to take a few and check them out. They have valuable information pertaining to a specific field of interest you may want to check out. Many times these pamphlets will be of more help to you then almost anything else that the college has to offer, so be sure to pick up a few.
College life is great, and once you get settled in you’ll be on your way. Be sure to talk to other students too, that may have attended the college for quite some time prior to your arrival. These guys are the troops who have been through the hassles of college life and signing up before, and in many cases are more then willing to help out new students.
