i'm going full time back to school in august. i dropped out at 18 due to mental health reasons. i'm 22 now and getting back into the game, but i'm nervous about going back. i feel like i won't be able to get into the swing of things, or that i've been out for so long that i've forgotten everything i used to know. i've already started taking summer prerequisite classes, but it's online for now, so i havent gotten a schedule yet at the actual university.

any college kids (past or present) here that could give advice to a scared freshman? anything will help. thank you~

Hi :3 So! Stopped by this neck of the woods for another reason but saw your post and it speaks to me. Ok that's too flowery, but you get the point. Brace for wall of text D:

Best things I've learned by being a on-again-off-again student:

1. Students are people. Go with me here. Think of some of the weird people in your life (my lovely self for instance) and then reckon that the people around you have at least one facet of their personality that is weird by some standard or another. There is not a single normal, average, or all around annoyingly perfect student. Just like any group of people, we're openly or secretly a bunch of misfits. :P If you're worried about peers being judgey butts, then chance is there's a bunch of your peers worrying about the same thing. Thinking "Hell, this syllabus...." Yeah there's going to be someone having a silent (or audible) meltdown across the room. Point is, you're not alone in the lost and scared feels. With some courage and luck some of those fellow nervous people may just become friends <3

2. When you're feeling awkward/nervous/unsure admit it. I'm serious. Admit it with a self-depricating(I can't spell) smile and you'd be surprised how many people will grin back and admit they feel the same way. By admitting it, you're telling them it's ok to be honest I suppose. Anyhow it also can ease off some of the stress in "What do I do here?" situations. You don't know. Odds are they don't know. Once you both stop pretending to know, you can really start communicating in my experience. :3

1. Your professor is sometimes tempted to burn the syllabus too. Sometimes classwork just sucks. If you're having trouble keeping up, encountering health issues (mental or otherwise) send the prof a email sooner rather than later. Professors were overwhelmed students too once, and they're still overwhelmed as professors. Even when they made the damn schedule D: Some deadlines can't be moved, but the sooner you speak up the more likely you are to be able to find some wiggle room.

2. Write it down, put it in your phone or both. My organizational skills are 0 on a fluctuating basis. Speaking from that POV. The thing I do when I get back from the first class/class day? (aside from that moment of "I'm never leaving this room again") is taking the syllabus and writing down the dates and what's due. With some kind of reminder a few days ahead. Saved me so many times.

3. Exchange contact information with someone from class that was for sure listening the first day In case you have to miss class, it's always good to have someone to fill in the blanks of what was missed. Offer the same. With luck it won't be needed for either of you but yeah always a nice backup.

I guess just try to remember that lots of people are in the same boat. Majority of first years are completely lost and clueless, and it kind of helps to know that other people have no idea what they're doing either haha!

Having some kind of calendar, or organizational notebook/etc. is key to remembering assignments and tests. I had a big corkboard thing on my wall in my room, and I put up the papers which told me when all my labs/exams were. I would have been screwed without it.

Your professors are people too, and majority of the time they'll be willing to work with you if you're struggling or need an extension or something. I mean, obviously you have the professors that are just assholes, but a lot of them are usually pretty sympathetic, and willing to lend a hand.

Things may seem scary at first, but I'm sure you'll get the hang of it in no time! I know it can be intimidating starting something so new, but you'll be fine :)

• like dot said, just about everyone will be nervous, at least initially. but you're all on the same page and generally you're all motivated to do well, especially as you move out of prerequisites and into major courses -- my major was pretty impacted, but as you moved through the courses everyone got to know everyone else, even if it was just recognizing faces on test days. if you're in a major that requires lab courses, even better! i found that labs helped me get to know people the best, since you were working together on lots of short projects instead of stressing on one big group thing :)

• figure out what note-taking style works best for you, and stick with it. i kept trying to abandon paper notes for googledocs and it never worked for me, hah. lots of people i know liked recording lectures, too.

• visit your advisor(s) often if you can, esp if you have questions (generally i checked in at least once before the end of the semester/quarter, to make sure my schedule for the next semester was right & i was on track for units and all that).

• if there's more than one instructor available for a class, look them up on sites like ratemyprofessor. take those ratings with a grain of salt (i've definitely had good profs that had bad reviews and vice versa; sometimes it really depends on if you click with their teaching style or even them as a person), but if you can avoid someone with all-around bad reviews, you might as well, y'know?

• if you have required electives, consider looking for classes that are genuinely interesting to you instead of just easy (i was required to take "explorations units," which meant i had to take electives unrelated to my major in addition to my general education units. i took a women's health course everyone took bc it was an easy A as well as a women's studies course and if i could do it over again i would've taken more health/math classes instead*)

• look into student orgs. i was a transfer student, and a commuting student, so the concept of clubs/student orgs/honor societies... i wasn't into it. but there was one heavily emphasized for my major, and it turned out to be a good way to network with fellow classmates and find volunteer activities and it exposed me to various careers in the field since they brought in guest speakers (and it's still a good resource now, since people post job openings and such on the facebook page).

• if you look through your course catalogue and see a bunch of related courses that look interesting, it might be worth seeing if you can take on a minor, though depending on how your school handles things you might not be able to count those classes as both your electives -- assuming you're required to take any -- and your minor classes. (i ended up with a minor after some shenanigans, and while it won't be listed on my diploma, the exposure to an additional health field has been helpful to me in terms of figuring out what i want to do with my life, as it were)

sounds good to me. i'm already self-deprecating! as far as missing class goes, that will probably happen often since i'm sick all of the time. but i'm good with making friends. for some reason i didnt even think about that. o.O maybe making a friend should be my first course of action?

oh my gosh i'm an actual walking hurricane i'm so disorganized. a wall sized organizer doesnt sound too shabby. i have a big white board in my apartment, i could use that. see, i didn't even think about that. bless you.

as you all have mentioned about professors working with me, that's one of the main things stressing me out. i've heard horror stories about professors being inflexible or unfair. i looked up ratemyprofessor and i didnt even know that was a thing. i'm so glad it is, but i will keep in mind that not all of the reviews are something i should seriously consider. i'm scheduling classes really soon, i'm definitely going to look into electives that i find interesting. and with any luck, i could find a student org that suits me. (another thing i didnt even think about, wow. 😂 wasn't kidding about being clueless)

thanks for replying to me. ;u; i really appreciate it!!! you have no idea. i'm so lost lol. i'm grabbing at any ounce of advice i can get. speaking of scheduling classes, i'm also working through school (night shift) so should i go for morning classes or afternoon classes? (another thing i've been stressing out about)

You've got a good amount of advice but I'll go ahead and give my two cents as well. I'm a graduate now but I was in college for five years. And I'm so sorry that this post is long but feel free to skim.

Try not to make it a habit to be lazy and skip classes. I know people do it from time to time, some more than others, but you really could miss out on a lot of information. I've had classes where they give pop quizzes or really important information for an exam that you don't want to miss. If you have to miss, try to catch up from one of your classmates. Asking the professor "what did I miss?" isn't the same as it was in high school/secondary school.

I was going to suggest ratemyprofessor as well, but don't rely on it either. Also, ask classmates about professors. "Have you had Mr. So-and-so?" People can give you some really good tips, because for the most part, professors will remain consistent with each passing semester. In college, the professor literally makes or breaks the class. Some professors are great, others are mediocre. This especially applies once you start taking your major requirement courses. Gen-eds are one thing, but major classes are another. I've had crappy major-specific professors and it makes a painful semester. Also, professors usually have office hours when you can meet them outside of class. But some are awesome and will set up a special appointment with you if it doesn't work well with your school schedule.

Definitely take note of any assignment, quiz, exam, project, paper, etc. and its due date. Believe me, you will forget some. One thing I regret is not giving myself a "head's up" of when a due date was creeping up. For me, I did have an agenda, but I'm awful with those things. I sometimes remember to write down dates while in class but I never checked it later on. I personally like to type my notes, so since I have my laptop with me, I usually put one of those sticky notes on my desktop with any upcoming due dates. I even had separate sticky notes per course just so I wouldn't overlook anything.

Finals week is HELL I'm not even joking. The week prior to finals week (which was deemed 'Dead Week' at my school) is exhausting with all the studying/finishing up projects and then studying for the final exams the following week. It depends on the professor on how horrible your final exams could be. Some are cumulative, from the very first day of the semester. Others cover from the material right after your previous exam to current. It just depends on the subject.

This post is probably running long, but one last thing I wanted to mention: advisers. Idk if this is the same for every school, but for my college, it was required to meet with the adviser to plan out your schedule for the next semester until you had 60 credit hours (which was a junior/third year standing), then you could do it on your own. However, from my experience...don't rely on their advice. Consider it, but make your own decisions as well. For example, I transferred schools and was required to take a speech class. I took what was considered an accelerated speech class at the previous school, but the school I transferred to required me to take a basic speech class for my major. I tried fighting it because it was completely pointless to take an accelerated and then basic course. I even presented my syllabus from the prior school. Well, I lost the battle. Two months later, they changed up course requirements/transfer credits and lo-and-behold, the same issue I was fighting got changed to my favor. But this was after the period you could drop a course for 100% refund and I had no choice but to just suck it up and finish it out. I've had a couple crappy advisers and some decent ones.

my roommates are both in college, and they skip class all the time. i always thought it didn't matter in college, but you definitely corrected that. the whole skipping class never sat right with me anyway. glad you told me that, now that i think about it, emphasis on attendance is probably super important.

one thing I'm so worried about is professors! I've seen my friends struggling so hard because their professors are crappy so i was wondering if anyone knows of any good online resources in case i have a bad professor but need to pass a class? would you by any chance have an idea about that? (its okay if not!)

you know what? funny you mention dead week because at the university i'm going to, they had therapy dog teams come into the library, and they had adult coloring stations, and relaxing music playing... thats really nice of them to do but at the same time...how stressed are these students that they need therapy? gives me shivers to think about. high school finals were bad enough.

you're right about the advisors!!! i've only met with mine twice and she seems a bit...uninterested? like she couldn't care less about what she was talking to me about. guess i could ask for a new advisor. maybe do some research on the core requirement classes on my own time? (also THANK YOU FOR YOUR INPUT. you're super helpful right now! I'm quaking in my boots lol)

You'll notice those students that constantly skip class and then wonder why they don't do well on their assignments and exams lol. From both universities I attended, we used something called "Blackboard" which professors post powerpoint slides, info to turn in assignments (often times I had assignments due at 11:59 p.m. on a certain day online), discussions, etc. It's very possible that they are fine with skipping because they can simply print off the powerpoints online. It's easier to get away with some classes but not others. Actually, that's something I recommend as well. Only if it's not a financial issue with printing, I eventually started to print out the powerpoint slides and take them to class. That way I already have the notes and I can listen to the professor. Often times I was too distracted writing (when I hand-write) the notes that I missed something the professor said that wasn't included on the slide. It helped me write down important notes directly on the powerpoint slides I printed.

As for the online resources, it sort of depends on your class and what material is required by your professor. No lie, when I was in Calculus at one of the universities, Yahoo Answers saved me LOL. I usually just relied on the powerpoint slides/notes and textbook but sometimes I'll just do a simple google search if I'm stuck on something. Some professors may require you to get a book with an access code, which will grant you access to an online resource for that course.

^^Which reminds me. Shop around when it comes to purchasing your textbooks. Buying on campus is dang expensive! I used Chegg to rent my books. They'd ship the books I need and usually you have 2-4 weeks to ship them back. I held onto the orange box they sent the books in for when I had to ship them back, but any box will do. When it's time to ship them back, you can go online and print out a free UPS label through Chegg's website. Some people liked using Amazon. If a book requires an access code, do not buy a book/access code combo used! You risk getting an access code that had been used previously. There were also off-campus bookstores that usually sold the books a little cheaper. I literally priced books among the on- and off-campus bookstores and Chegg and chose the cheapest options per book, even if it meant them all coming from different locations. But I've literally saved hundreds of dollars in one semester using Chegg.

I've heard about sending out puppies and whatnot for that! Truthfully finals week is just exhausting. If you aren't in class, you're studying for class or finishing up final projects and presentations. It's stressful because you have to juggle all your courses at once. Truthfully, midterms are stressful as well, since everything happens at once (but not as bad as finals week typically). You feel like you don't have a social life for a week or two and little free-time. That's why it's important not to procrastinate too much! I know, easier said than done. I still procrastinated even when I told myself not to. It's a huge relief once your finals are over. Finals week for my gen-ed courses was a completely different story than finals week with my major requirement courses lol. Your major classes can get tough.

You could shop around with advisers as well. Are you going in undeclared or have a major picked out? Once I chose a major that I ended up sticking with, there were like 4-5 different advisers for that same major. You could also ask around about advisers and figure out who may be a good match for you!

College can be tough, but it's manageable. You just have to keep on it. I know it's scary transitioning from a high school to college, regardless if you attend right after high school or took a few years off, but you'll get the hang of it! You'll figure out how to get into the swing of things just from experience. The first two or three weeks of college is usually more laidback where you feel like you have more free-time, but it really depends on your course load for that semester. But you do get to leave class right after you finish an exam and sometimes the professor cancels class/lets class go early so that's pretty nice!

- I've been going to college on and off for 8 years now. I've only been to community colleges, so my advice reflects that.

To answer your question about when you should take classes, I would suggest afternoon/evening. That way, you can sleep in the morning and be fresh for classes. Working all day and then going to school can affect how well you take in information (this is based on my experiences). Also, the afternoon/evening crowd tends to be more "mature" (as in they actually pay attention), have jobs, and easier to talk to. Though, no matter what with your first general ed classes, you're going to end up with a bunch of people who'll be on their phones the whole time or constantly talk over the lecture.

The first year with the gen ed classes is the worst. Once you get past that, college gets much better.

Online classes are a good option if you're self motivated and organized. I wouldn't take online classes for your first semester, but taking one or two later might be worth a try. It can also be a lifesaver if you get sick constantly. (I was sick for about 1/3 of last semester, but I didn't get points deducted or kicked out because of being unable to make it to physical classes.) But, going fully online can get lonely, since you don't really talk to anyone outside of required discussions.

Finding how you learn is essential. You might learn that you fall asleep at lectures and are much better when you read the material yourself. You might learn best when you have a recorded lecture to listen to whenever you want. You might need to write every single thing down. Try different things!

Don't be afraid of changing your major. College is a learning experience and you might learn that you don't like what you're studying. Your college should have a career center that can help you figure out a career path that's more fitting for you. On that note, take advantage of all of the resources your school has to offer. They're there to help you with school and beyond.

Bangs pots and pans AyyYYYY welcome to hell where it's toasty but wooorthy. I'm so so sorry

I've been in college since 2011 so at this point I don't even feel anything about college anymore. (I dropped out once and got diagnosed. No regret) Ofc, I'd say that if you are easily stressed, try to limit procrastination. I know it's hard but it's something somewhat important (the key is to learn how you ... learn and study). My only advices are these: o1. You can do it. o2. Your!! mental health is important!! o3. Don't be afraid to reach out. o4. I cannot stress this enough but pls have some chill time. o5. A grade will never define you nor your intelligence. That's all I had.

i'm going to second everyone talking about going to class and using big calendars and things -- i knew people who skipped class and did alright (i.e., passed with at least a c/c+) but personally that's not something i could do/recommend since it depends on your learning style/motivation and i needed to physically be there and listen to the lecture p:

i'm also going to second using services like chegg - personally, i like bigwords since it'll show you the lowest price possible for all your books on multiple sales platforms (amazon, ebay, etc). i'd also wait on buying books unless the syllabus says you absolutely need it first day/first week; about half the time i didn't use the required books at all. sometimes i had professors who even outright said they were required to list a book so they did, but they don't use it at all :y

in re/advisors - in my case there was the general advising office, and then my specific college's undergrad advisor and her assistant (and then the undergrad advisor for my minor, later on), so i had basically no choice as to who to go to and the line was always long since those two were the only option for like 300 people lmao. if you have more than one option, definitely try asking around for advice/opinions on the advisors. if all else fails, see if your student web portal will give you an unofficial degree evaluation -- i know a lot of people that skipped the advisor in favor of using that & the major academic plan (looks like it's called MyMap at a lot of places) to plot out their classes, especially if they were only doing the major and no extras.

your schedule at this point depends on what works best for you -- in my experience, the lower level courses (your general ed classes, your early prereqs) had enough sections available that you could pick whatever schedule you wanted, really. if you need the morning off after work, take evening classes, if you don't, try a morning class and see if it works for you. i liked morning classes within reason (i.e., past 8am lmao. i had a 7:30a lecture that was ok but like... nah). one semester i knew people with a 5:30am lab -- i would've cried tbh, but they had no choice since it was a required prerequisite course and that was the only lab section left. which brings me to my next point -- for me, once i got to my 300 + 400 level classes, there was often only one lecture section and maybe two or three labs to choose from -- once you hit that point, your course load decides your schedule most of the time. you're just starting out though, so i wouldn't worry about it yet.

as for finals week & the therapy dogs -- my school had a dedicated office for counseling and psych services that put on fun activities for midterms and finals like yoga out on the athletic field or yes, groups of therapy dogs in the student union (and the asb often put on movies in the library, too). it's important to relax, especially during test time! the director for counseling and psych even had her own therapy dog come to her office (as in, her personal doggo who was a registered therapy dog), and you could make appointments to sit with him if you wanted cuddle time outside of when the other dogs showed up for hell week.

which brings me to yet another thing -- you probably payed a health fee, so take advantage of what you payed for! scope out your student health center early on, see what's useful to you. ours had a dietician, a full nursing clinic, a dentist; they did free flu vaccines at one point and most of the fees for things like basic physicals were pretty affordable. one of the student orgs i was involved with was basically a sounding board for the health center for things like marketing the vaccines, and it turns out ours' was super underutilized, even by students who lived on campus. counseling and psych was in the same building, and they had a small lounge that was basically empty at all times, even when the library was packed during finals/midterms, which was fantastic when i needed a quiet place to study.

i didn't even think about the powerpoint thing. my university has a blackboard as well online. thats such good advice, especially because i handwrite my notes as well. thank you! i never heard of chegg either, but i was wondering about books and whatnot. you were one step ahead of me and answered that question. thats awesome! i've also declared computer science as a major, but thought first to get my core classes out of the way in case i decide to transfer schools once i delve deeper into my major.

i'll be working through school as i mentioned earlier so i have been thinking a lot about which classes would better suit me and its good that you mentioned afternoon/evening classes. i was leaning more towards that anyway, and it makes sense that it would be my best option since i'll be working night shift. my education comes first, so i don't really care if I'm tired at work. i have been taking my summer classes online, i really like doing it because i can work on my own schedule. with work its hard to have a schedule honestly. but i'll definitely take my classes at school for the first semester. i feel like that way i can make friends and maybe get an alliance going for sharing notes and things. u right u right. :D

your post honestly relaxed me so much you have no idea. I'm schizophrenic (started showing symptoms at 18, that's why i dropped out) and i'm already trying so hard to control my stress levels even with online summer classes. i got a diagnosis and got on medication, that's why i'm giving this another shot. thank you for being encouraging. ;u; its great that someone also knows what i'm going through. <3

bigwords? i'll write that down. never even heard of it but it sounds like a great tool to use. i also didn't know about the health thing, that's awesome. the only thing i know about in my school so far is free tutoring which is amazing imo. i'll definitely be using my student web portal for things. haven't gotten around to really exploring the site, but if it worked for you, it may very well work for me. i'm also going to make an appointment with a doggo immediately. 10/10 relaxing and fluff.yo

thank you all! <3 i'm reading all of this and taking notes i super appreciate all the things i'm being told. most of this stuff i haven't even thought about ;u;

Yea it helped me a lot! I had always had my laptop with the powerpoint slides pulled up and then a word document to the side...but then I had trouble matching up what info on my doc notes lined up with which slides. There's an option to print like, three slides per page and then lines to the side of them for notes. That's what I typically did. Overall you'll find the way that works best for you when it comes to remembering the info. I was just horrible at exams. I get stressed/feel pressured too easily. I literally studied all the time and just did okay on exams which was a BUMMER.

I hadn't heard of Chegg until my third year of school, I believe it was (maybe second) and I wish I had known of it my first year! Of course there are other services. I hadn't heard bigwords like mentioned, for example. But I agree, I honestly didn't purchase books until after the first day of class or two. Sometimes they have a textbook listed on their syllabus but then the professor would be like "it's not mandatory, just an optional tool" which usually translates to "you'll never use this book save your money." There were plenty of times I ordered a book and never touched it once. Granted, if it's a course you're sure it will help you, feel free to get it sooner. The downfall with waiting until the first week of classes is that you'll have to wait for it to ship to you.

Yea don't do what I did. I majored in music education only because I had a scholarship (which required me to do so) but regretted my decision 2-3 weeks into school, dropped all the music classes and changed to undeclared. I transferred schools my second year. Even though I liked the second school, it was more expensive and I missed being home so I transferred back to the first school I attended my first year for the remainder of school. I had a lot of overlapping credits and some didn't transfer into appropriate core classes. Lol. I was a hot mess my first two years xD

Hi there :D super good advice from everyone! I guess theres only a few things I could add if nobody has yet!

Your Major - Don't be nervous about trying to quickly find a major or stressing about anything concerning your major. Honestly, people switch their majors all the time because it's hard to figure out what you want to do for the rest of your life. I ended up switching my major sophomore year and although I had to re-figure out all my classes it was definitely worth it. So if you don't feel right with your major than definitely talk to an advisor and think about switching it. Better to do something you like even if it might take you a little longer

pesky college events - We all know those freshman year events the school does in order for freshman to become involved, meet people etc. I would say to definitely attend some! Whether it's a club, a group of some sort, or even a club sport. I would definitely recommend getting involved as much as you can. I know you will probably be busy with work, homework, etc. but meeting people and making friends is also a huge aspect of college! It will make your college experience so much more enjoyable by being involved with other students on campus.

Don't stress yourself out - seriously don't. College is a whole different environment than high school and it's not as scary as you would think. I was a student at a large school (30,000 students) and a small school (2000 students). For both I can honestly say the professors were extremely helpful and understanding. You aren't just a "number" to them and believe it or not they will know your name the more you participate etc. Get to know your professors because that helped me out so much. Whether I went in for help, participated in class, or just talked to them after. You want them to know who you are because they will help you I promise that. I can't tell you the amount of times professors rose my grades at the end of the semester because they liked me and knew I put in the work. I had B-s and got a few A-s just from professors raising my grades. So don't be afraid to sit in the front of the class because that will help you learn better and will show the professors you are serious

Most importantly have fun! - college is an amazing experience and I'm so sad my four years are over. It was truthfully the best four years of my life. Live it to the max, enjoy the freedom and most of all experience it all!

Good luck with everything I hope it all works out for you and I hope I could of helped in anyway :)

wow so you REALLY have some experience under your belt. i applaud you. you give great advice! i was scrolling through some textbooks a few days ago and i was just amazed by how expensive they were. thank god there are alternative methods of getting my textbooks. mwah! super appreciate you giving me that awesome insight.

thank you so much! i definitely want to attend some events. i'm trying to collect alliances in college. i feel like it would be much more enjoyable and probably easier to have some friends i could rely on, especially because i'm not from this city and hardly know anyone outside of work. rip. i will try not to stress out, but i'm a natural disaster. always stressing. but i will try very hard to take your advice. as im a bit older than i was when i first started, i think i've decided on a major, but who knows? it could change really quickly. usually people say DONT change your major bc then you just rack up student debt higher than you would have if you would have just stuck to a major. interesting insight. thanks! :*

no problem! I would say typically by sophomore year you can change it by because you are still technically doing gen ed classes which are general classes that every student has to take. The big portion of your major credits will come junior and senior year. But good luck with everything!