It’s your sophomore year at the university of your choice:

You’re no longer a naïve freshman discovering your way around campus. Instead, you have a year under your belt—you’ve learned your way around the majority of campus and have formed, or beginning to form bonds with professors, hoping to get some insight on what classes to take, what minor to add.

This can be extremely hectic, but…. What should you do? How do you go about the next two years?

1. Figure out what drives you
2. Internships, Internships, and Internships
3. A campus…. Job? (Optional)
4. Make the final two years count…. Have fun!

1. Chances are, there’s still so much more you want to do with your life, or try different classes that have piqued your interest beyond the intro level classes. By all means, consider taking more classes in what has interested you—just because you’ve declared your major, doesn’t mean there isn’t more you can do with it, explore minors and take risks to do what makes you happy.

2. Internships are what can be a wonderful or horrendous learning opportunity for your choice of field, yet they give you an idea of what exactly you’re getting into. Granted, just the act of looking into them, from professors or just asking around your hometown. Even if it’s just a small opportunity, it’s an opportunity that can further you into places you couldn’t see yourself at before.

3. The thought of adding a job onto classes sounds as nauseating as it can be, and it most likely is. Yet, it gives a young, needing college student a small amount of cash to spend, for textbooks or smaller expenses. It’s a lot to handle, yet it can also allow you to socialize with people you might’ve never socialized with before, and even form friendships you never could’ve imagined.

4. With everything looming overhead, and adulthood being even more in demand, it’s hard to find time to just be a young college student…. So please, go to those parties, but be safe about it. Or, stay inside with a small group of friends and watch movies until your heart is content. Do what makes you happy, and enjoy college for what it is, an experience that is defined by you and your perceptions.