Moshe's Advice for Success at College

1. Don’t procrastinate (Do as much work as you can Thursday night for Friday night; try to anticipate what will need to be done and get it done in advance). 

2. Don’t isolate (Studying with and around people can many times be easier than doing it alone).

3. Find a great place to study (Studying in your room might degenerate to watching TV or surfing the web or social media).

4. If you find yourself feeling low in the morning, or you’ve woken up late, don’t give up on the day (dress whether you intend to leave the house or not, and start doing simple things to get yourself started like washing dishes while listening to upbeat music).

5. Make the things you need to get done into habits and games (Try attaching the things that you want to do to things that you already get done to form a habit; try to pay attention to time; you can make a game of how fast you do something.)

6. Learn how to take good care of yourself; make sure you know how to get proper nutritious food, adequate sleep, medical care, proper hygiene (Learn where laundry rooms are, where supermarkets or food courts are, problem solve if you have noisy neighbors by using ear plugs, asking them to be quiet in a polite way, make sure that your learning space is organized because you feel more motivated and less anxious when you are not surrounded by clutter.)

7.  Don’t make your schedule too jam packed.  You are not a robot who can be productive 24 hours a day.  Sleeping 8 hours a night may sound like a luxury but think about how much more effective you are when you are well rested and able to focus on your tasks at hand.  You will need to orient yourself in a new environment that has many distractions.  You will need time before and after every class to review and summarize your notes.

8. Take brain breaks.  Don’t assume that you can sit down and be effective for more than an hour at a time. A break can be as simple as taking a short walk, having a glass of water, going to the bathroom, or looking up for a few minutes.

9. Form a study group; you will meet many new people and if you are lucky some of them will be study partners, avoid argumentative study partners or those who don’t help you study, exchange numbers with classmates, determine whether you want to be study partners with them based on how they manage their time and stress.

10. Take good notes.  Some classes are mostly text based so it might be helpful to know how to type quickly and take notes on a mobile device.  Others might involve diagrams and preferred notetaking can be done with a tablet and stylus or a spiral bound notebook.

11. Read your notes before and after class, color coding and highlighting topics of relevance. Often times without reviewing very specific vocabulary before and after class a lecture can be nearly impossible to follow, to keep yourself involved in your learning process study and review vocabulary.

12. Ask questions.  If you don’t understand something, chances are others don’t understand it either.  When you ask clarifying questions where you paraphrase what you think was communicated to you, you can build confidence in what you think you know and prevent the feelings of avoidance that a student has when they are completely lost. (Have you ever had an experience that you thought something was really difficult, but later you found out that it was really easy?)

13. Find people to ask questions of.  Professors often have office hours; you should attend and ask questions, this is a great place to network because other similarly motivated students will be there.  Find upper-classman who share your major; they will be able to tell you what to avoid and share difficulties they had and solutions to many problems, and they might be able to forward you their old textbooks.  Know where the counseling office, the department chair, and your undergraduate advisor are.  Find professionals who share the career that you aspire to have, ask to shadow them when they are available.

14. Apply for scholarships and internships.  You most probably will only be able to work during your summers or your second and third year in college, but the deadline for most of these opportunities, similar to your college application, is a full 6 months before they will take place so make sure to look out for application deadlines in November and December.

15.  Honor your feelings.  If you are Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired or Sad (HALTS).  Take the necessary action to deal with these problems: Eating Healthy and safely expressing your feelings, finding companionship, taking a nap, crying or talking to someone about your sadness.

16. Become an optimist.  When you notice yourself focusing on the negative or feeling upset or agitated, deal with your feelings so that you can have a calm and focused mind.  Focus on 3 perspectives: Your problems are temporary, your assets are permanent. Your problems are external, your assets are internal.  Your problems are specific, your assets are general.

17. Avoid negative people: People who are dramatic and take away your ability to focus on school, people who are too needy, people who always complain about their life.  You are responsible for yourself; if someone you know makes you feel uncomfortable it is best for you to establish firm and respectful boundaries verbally, emotionally, or physically by what means you find necessary.  You are responsible to yourself first and are not at school to solve other peoples’ problems.

18.  Seek help when you need it.  Be realistic about your time management, if you find that you have taken on too many classes, determine the drop deadlines, know the minimum requirements that you need to satisfy in order to maintain your financial aid (Sometimes people take on additional classes just in case they need to drop one.).  If you find that you are experiencing emotional duress seek help because you are not alone; the transition to college is very stressful.  When you go from high school to college you lose your support system, you lose your status as one of the best students in your former school, and the rigor can be more stressful, because we are accustomed to excelling in high school this might not translate to college, at least not immediately.

19.  Manage your course load.  Not all units were created equally.  Lab classes for instance are notoriously time consuming. Try not taking multiple extremely dense classes in one quarter or semester.

20. Manage your money wisely and get all the federally subsidized student loans that you qualify for as rainy day funds (Do not publicize this because people might want to borrow your money, this is for emergencies only) Examples of emergencies: Your laptop fell down a flight of stairs and you need a new one (BTW: back up everything on google drive, the cloud, an external hard drive and save everything in real time (see computer settings… there is no greater pain that having several hours’ worth of work disappear in a blink of an eye… see blue screen of death, power failure and critical disk error; be redundant in your backups.)

21.  Be safe: do not share your passwords, bank card pin number, social security number unless necessary.  Learn your student ID number and get a campus ID as soon as possible.  Do not carry around your social security card; keep all valuables in secure locations.  Don’t leave your laptop unattended and make sure to log off all accounts as you leave public computer labs.  Do not go out late at night; walk in group when you don’t feel safe to campus parking lots, don’t take rides from strangers.

22. Learn how to read college level textbooks; use appropriate tools to help you with your deficiencies.  Some students spend hours re-reading the same texts; although each textbook is unique many textbooks share common features.  Some classes may not require textbooks or reading (listen to your professors’ recommendations).  Most textbooks are divided into chapters and at the end of most chapters there are summaries, read them first, if there is a set of questions at the end of the chapter read them as well and keep them in mind.  When done, flip through the chapter and look for section headings, examples, diagrams, definitions, figures, captions and bolded texts; try to understand these first.  Try to actively read with a highlighter or pen; if you are concerned about the resale value of the textbook you can use post it’s and pencils.  Finally, you can tackle the primary text of the chapter already with the critical idea in mind; while doing so take frequent breaks to summarize your critical understanding, using visualization techniques to remember critical concepts.  To review, don’t re-read the text; rather rely on the notes you have taken on the text.

23. Don’t be a perfectionist.  If you don’t procrastinate you can generate a thoughtful outline and a horrible first draft.  Go to the writing center to improve your first draft; have other students that you know who write well critique your writing.  Make sure that you can identify your thesis / topic sentence for each essay (hopefully eventually each paragraph).

24. Learn MLA or APA format.  Learn how to write in an acceptable format so that you can properly attribute credit to any sources that you may have referenced.  Take a writing class, and get a writing format reference.  Make sure that when you are writing you are doing what the assignment requires.  It can be helpful to reference your own work against the rubric of your professor.  Make sure not to plagiarize anything; even unintentionally omitting a reference can lead to severe consequences.

25. It’s ok to change your mind about your major, but don’t get a degree without a profession in mind.  Many 18 year olds don’t know what they want to do with the rest of their lives.  Some people who are in their 40’s decide to change their careers in midlife.  It is becoming more and more frequent that people change their profession multiple times in a lifetime.  Unless you are going to school recreationally, the major that you choose should assist you in maintaining gainful employment in the career of your choice.  

26. Minimize your unproductive time.  If you are commuting in your own car make sure you have access to park on campus and the appropriate parking permit.  There is nothing like wasting hours a week looking for a parking spot, or getting towed or ticketed for not parking appropriately.  If you are driving consider a finding those to carpool with; this can minimize cost of transportation and allow you time to catch a nap.  If you are taking public transportation find out whether you can read onboard without getting nauseous.  Try to construct your class schedule so as to minimize your commute time.  Keep in mind that commuting during heavy traffic can multiply your commute time, whether you are using public transportation or a personal vehicle. 

27. Make your own plans (both short term and long term), while keeping in mind that your happiness and health are most important in the long term.  If you don’t have your own plans the universe will generate plans for you.  Sometimes friends and family will make plans for you when you really need to be working on your term paper.  Keep in mind it makes more sense to decline an invitation when you already have plans.

28.  Learn from mistakes.  If you find yourself constantly saying that you are stressed out be a problem solver and try adapting various solutions to minimize your stress.

29.  Create structure for yourself in the form of good habits and a schedule.  In high school everything is structured in the form of a multi-period school day.  With college there is less structure.  In many classes attendance is not mandatory and one is not required to ask the professor to go to the restroom.  Skipping class can be a big mistake.  Some students don’t have the proper discipline to keep themselves on task.

30. Be prepared for your midterms.  The credit for the entirety of college class can be in a singular midterm and final; failing a midterm may result in a C, even if you ace the final.

31.  If you live on campus participate in social gatherings, find other students that you identify with, find safe and quiet places to study, find out where the athletic facilities, and enjoy all the campus amenities that are available to you.

32.  Avoid destructive behaviors such as emotional eating, recreational use of substances, watching Netflix / TV, and playing video games.  Remove distractions whenever possible… If you find yourself unable to stop these behaviors ‘just one more… episode… game…’ avoid them at all cost.

33. Build your own self-esteem and sense of independence.  Even if you don’t have a car, try to get your license, learn to shop, cook, and do your own laundry.  Find an emotional support system on campus that might be different from your study group.  If you have time and the inclination to work, save your money and experience life during your vacation time.  Taking risks and gaining experience can improve your marketability when you leave college.  It would be great to build a resume while you are still attending school.

34. If you are attending school and require further education such as a Masters or Doctorate to achieve your goals, don’t be afraid to acquire loans because going back to school after you have left is very difficult.  Many people find that when they leave school their life commitments grow faster than they anticipate.  

35. If you have an opportunity to grow out of your comfort zone, rise to the challenge because the opportunity might not come again.  Some examples: taking internships, speaking publically, and learning a broader range of skills that will help you later in life.

36.  Have compassion for yourself; sometimes you will do really well and other times you will struggle, it doesn’t help to demean yourself by living in your regret, so focus on what you can do to improve your situation now.

37. Whenever you have an opportunity learn from the experience of others, and if people try to give you advice consider whether they have ulterior motives in giving you advice or assistance before you decide to take their advice or assistance.