Wow, you’re really quite grown up now, aren’t you? You’ve moved out of the house and into your dorm, you’re meeting tons of new people and making a bunch of new friends, and now classes are starting. There’s not a doubt in my mind that you are going to have an amazing time in college and accomplish so much. I can’t really offer much at this point except for some advice.

1. Go to class

I know some days you’ll wake up and feel absolutely no motivation to go to class. Trust me, you may not think it will happen, but I promise you it will. Especially once winter starts and there’s a ton of snow and wind. But you should always go to class and take good notes because your professor might give some extra information that will be useful later and you’re going to want that.

2. Take good notes

This relates to my last point, but it’s just as important. Take good notes! Don’t assume that you will remember some random little tidbit of information that your professor said, write it down. Because at the end of the semester when you’re studying for finals, there’s no way you’re going to remember all of the little tidbits. And yeah, some of them might not be 100% useful, but they’ll almost definitely be interesting.

3. Rent your textbooks

I usually use Amazon and rent all of my textbooks for two reasons. One, it’s so much cheaper than buying them (especially from the campus bookstore) and two, you’re not going to need all of those textbooks again so there’s no need to keep them. They’ll just take up space that you’ll need later. So once you establish that you’ll definitely need them, shop around online a little bit and find the cheapest way to get them.

4. Sleep

Some nights you’re going to feel like you just need to stay up all night or there’s no way you’ll do well on your exam or finish your essay/project/whatever in time. But let me tell you now, it’s not worth it. You need sleep or you’ll end up falling asleep during your exam and staying up all night to study will ultimately have been useless. At the very least, if you have to pull an all-nighter for whatever reason, try to avoid doing it again for at least a few weeks because that’s really bad for your body.

5. Eat good food

Choices in the dining hall can be overwhelming at first. With so many options all the time, you might be drawn to the less healthy things. Which is fine for a little while, but don’t forget to eat some fruits and vegetables every once in a while. Your body will thank you for it. Plus, who doesn’t love nice fresh fruit after a hearty dinner or with some cereal at breakfast time? Basically, just don’t eat crap all the time. Oh! And keep some snacks in your room for when it’s late and you’re hungry or you’re running late and won’t have time to grab breakfast before class.

6. Call your family

This may seem kind of obvious, but when everything starts getting really busy in the middle of the semester, you may not realize that you haven’t talked to your parents in a while. Trust me, they appreciate hearing from you regularly so they know that you’re okay and that everything is going well. Might as well call your grandparents or aunts and uncles as well. Everyone likes to hear that you’re doing well. I’ve found that calling while you’re walking to class is good because you can essentially kill two birds with one stone. You can give a quick update and talk for a little bit and you can have someone to talk to while you’re walking.

These are really just the basic things to help you out a bit. Let me know if you’ve ever got any questions about anything or if you ever need help. College can be a little bit overwhelming sometimes, but always remember that you’ve got a lot of people who are cheering you on and willing to help you however they can. You don’t have to do everything alone. Good luck with your first semester, I know you’ll be amazing!