Have you just graduated and are about to start a new chapter of your life called college? We congratulate you on completing such a challenging task as successfully graduating from school. But bad news – the college will be even harder. For you not to fall into complete anxiety, we’ve created a survival guide to college in 2021.
Vital Steps for Your Survival
Follow these simple steps to make your student life easier!
Step 1.
Think about your life goals, what do you want to achieve, and what do you need to do in particular. This is the first and probably the most important step for your survival. You need to have at least plan outlines to keep yourself focused and goal-oriented.
Step 2.
Be ready to work in a team, cause studying in college is all about teamwork. You will definitely have to perform team projects for some of the subjects, and you need to be ready to cooperate with other students. It might be difficult at first, but this is one of the keys to your future success.
Even when you’ll have to prepare individual assignments, you might need the help or advice of your fellow students. Therefore, take an active position in your class community, and it will be much easier to deal with the upcoming workload.
Step 3.
The next tip for your happy and balanced college life is pretty obvious – good sleep. Let’s take a look at Leonardo da Vinci. He was a genius person and slept for 2 hours a day; thus, he managed to create tons of marvelous inventions.
As you are a student with enormous work scope and the amount of information you need to process daily, balanced sleep is simply vital for you not to go mad. During sleep hours, your nervous system rests, and your brain has the opportunity to process today’s information. If you sleep not enough, your efficiency will drop drastically.
Step 4.
Try to read books or watch educational videos during lunch or while commuting. And here, we don’t mean the educational materials you’ll have to read one way or another, but something that interests you personally. You have to give yourself breaks and shift your focus from time to time to other stuff.
Step 5.
Do you sometimes envy other students, maybe because they are in charge of the team project or just got the highest test score? Don’t concentrate on the feeling of envy itself, but better analyze why this feeling has appeared. It might help you understand your true wishes, and maybe next time, it will encourage you to take charge of the project or prepare better for the test, etc.
Step 6.
Form habits. It is a known fact that habits are formed in 21 days. So, if something is hard for you, like getting up at 7 a.m. to get in time for your first class, make yourself for 21 days in a row to do that, and on the 22nd, your habit will be formed.
Step 7.
Be organized. The optimal solution would be to buy a notebook and keep track of all the important information. Every day, many things will be happening to you in college, and you could easily lose something. And you definitely don’t want to miss a deadline on your assignment or a meeting with your group for project preparation.
You could also keep your everyday schedule in a calendar online. It is very useful as you can receive notifications about important events in your life and adjust the calendar in general to your needs.
Step 8.
Social networks are an integral part of students’ lives; it is a great source for self-improvement and information exchange. However, most of the students might just waste their precious time spacing out on Facebook or Instagram. That’s why we recommend you limit the time you are spending on social media because it might highly influence your performance. Just in case you didn’t use our advice, and now you’re late with your essay, use this college essay editing resource to finish your essay faster.
Step 9.
Learn something new every day. Your main goal in college is studying; however, college years are also the best for exploring and discovering new things in this world. So, we encourage you to gain something new every day, whether it’s new knowledge or a new acquaintance.
Step 10.
Take an active position. Studying in college might be very challenging, but it shouldn’t break you but only make you stronger. That’s why you need to take an active position, participate in community life, be in charge of interesting projects. Yes, it’ll take lots of your energy, but it might bring you closer to the goals you want to achieve.
Apply positive thinking in everything you do, and you’ll be amazed at how well you are doing in college and how successful you are becoming.
Studying During Global Pandemic
If you follow the useful tips gathered above, your survival in college is guaranteed. However, you must be wondering if the tips will help you if you are starting your college studies right now, in the period of a global pandemic. The answer is yes. Though the COVID-19 consequences might make your experience a bit harder, you should still follow the mentioned steps to make your transition into a student life painless and become a successful student after all.
Additionally, students of 2021 have to be ready that most of their classes will take place online, which has cons and pros. To make it through your first year in college, you have to be aware of both of them.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Distant Learning
Some of the advantages of distant learning are:
- Saving time for the commute. Now you don’t need to spend time on a daily commute. It might seem like a not significant benefit, but it will save you an hour or even two, giving you additional time to study, relax, or sleep.
- The studying process can occur anywhere you want; you just need to have access to the internet.
- You can create a peaceful and quiet space for your daily studies, which could increase your efficiency.
However, some students might find the disadvantages rather significant. You might experience:
- The lack of personal communication and socialization in general.
- The lack of extracurricular college activities. Colleges are now making the online equivalents of all the activities they usually arrange on campus, but the experience for you might not be as great.
- Depression or boredom. Many students will experience slight depression or boredom because of constant sitting at home and communication with their laptops.
For sure, it will take every student some time to get used to the remote learning process. You have to be ready that your college experience will differ from the college life references you might have seen in the movies. But stay positive and remember that you have a unique opportunity to change the whole educational process. After the COVID-19 pandemic, the education system will never be the same, it will take the new online direction, and the student needs to start adjusting now to be successful later.
Practical Recommendations for Surviving During COVID-19
It is quite easy to get lost in the everyday fuss about COVID-19 and in the new life conditions we have. That’s why your guide on surviving in college in 2021 also contains some general tips on how to deal with the pandemic.
- Critical thinking. Don’t believe everything you hear on TV or social media. Use the information concerning the pandemic only from official sources.
- Creating your daily ritual. If you are constantly staying at home, it can become quite unbearable. To not lose your mind completely, you need to create a daily routine. For someone, it can be having a cup of coffee at a certain time, doing yoga in the evening, etc.
- Stay in a positive mood. If you are feeling a bit down, don’t let this feeling overtake you. Create a positive mood by doing things that please you and make you happy. This is extremely important for your mental health.
- Communicate with other people. It may be your relative, close students, or people you just met in college. Don’t avoid communication just because you can’t have it in person. Use other channels for it, like social media.
Conclusion
The challenging times are lying ahead for students who start college in 2021. But with our survival guide, you will definitely overcome all the obstacles on your way. But, most importantly, don’t be afraid of your new college experience because you already have all the tools to achieve your goals and become a top student in your college.