Top Ten Pieces of College Advice

We wish we had $100,000 so we could award every applicant with a scholarship as we can tell that you will do amazing things. Sadly, we do not have $100,000 yet, but we don't want to leave you empty-handed!

We remember getting a million pieces of advice from people as we prepared to go to college, sometimes from people who didn't even go to college! We have weeded through all the college advice we received and narrowed it down to 10 of the best.

Below are our top 10 pieces of higher education advice as two college graduates who graduated with 3.9+ GPAs, no debt, and full-time job offers.

1. Meet with your academic advisor every semester: Your academic advisor will be your best friend throughout your higher education experience. They know all of the best teachers, the hardest classes, and other tips and tricks for your specific program. They will keep you on track to graduate when you want to and make sure you are taking the right classes for your program at the right time. They may even keep you from overwhelming yourself by taking too many hard classes at once.

2. Get involved: This is probably the piece of advice you'll get the most often when talking about higher education, and for good reason. Studies have shown that students who get involved have better grades, drop out less, graduate faster, and maintain higher levels of happiness. Most higher education institutions have a plethora of opportunities to get involved and make friends. The best part? Many of the opportunities come with scholarships, so you get paid to get involved! Look for sports clubs, leadership programs, event planning committees, honors programs, and even major-specific clubs (I joined PRSSA and Rylee joined SSHRM) to help you build your resume and meet people in your same program.

3. Buy a planner: Before I moved into my dorm room, my mom gave me the best higher education advice I ever got. She said, "Justine, make sure you set aside specific time for the three S's: School, Social, and Spiritual. And don't let them bleed into each other." For me, this looked like setting aside 7 - 8 a.m. for prayer, meditation, and scripture study; 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. for classes and homework, and 4-10 p.m. for social activities, ambassador responsibilities, and hanging out with my roommates. I had a set time I woke up (6:30 a.m.) and went to bed (10:30 p.m.) and only stayed out late on weekends and special occasions. I bought a planner and made sure that I sectioned off time for the three S's every weekday. This helped me to strengthen my spirituality while I was on my own, maintain a 4.0 GPA, and have a thriving social life.

4. If you are unsure what to go into, take a lot of intro classes your first semester: During the three years I gave tours to prospective students at Utah Valley University, I realized that about 75% were unsure of what they wanted to go into, and I gave them all the same advice. The wonderful thing about most higher education institutions is that you can take a couple different "Intro" classes your first couple semesters and it won't deter your graduation because almost all programs require elective credits. Maybe you're interested in journalism, coding, and dance, so you take "Intro to Journalism", "Intro to Computer Science", and "Intro to Dance" to see which one you like best. Which leads me to the next point:

5. You know you are in the right program when you enjoy your homework: Enjoying homework?? Sounds crazy right? But once you are taking classes about subjects you actually find interesting, homework becomes an opportunity to learn instead of just a hoop to jump through. I remember one day walking between classes and wishing my classes were over so I could get back to my apartment and start my homework because I was so excited to learn more about PR! It was at that moment that I realized I was in the right major.

6. Frontload and prioritize your homework: I never believed people when they told me "College is so much harder than high school." I assumed I would have time to do my assignments in class and only have a couple of small homework assignments per week. I was very wrong. Many professors say that for each credit hour, you will have three hours of homework per week, which comes to nine hours of homework for a three-credit class. I would say depending on the class, a more realistic number is one hour of homework per credit hour, but it will vary greatly depending on your professors. Either way, expect to have a couple of hours of homework per day if you are taking a full course load. As you can probably imagine, procrastinating all of that homework is a very bad idea. So how do you prioritize it? Get a planner and track all of your assignment and project due dates. Split up the big projects into smaller chunks and work on them a little bit per day. So if you have a 10-page paper due in two weeks, write one page a day each weekday. For classes with a lot of smaller assignments that repeat, set a schedule that you repeat every week. Example: Monday - Read chapter, Tuesday - Do quiz, Thursday - Write a reflection paper.

7. Use Rate My Professor: Any college student will tell you that the professor makes or breaks a class. ratemyprofessor.com allows students to go in and rate professors based on a multitude of different criteria such as difficulty, quality, homework, and grading. They even let you know if you have to buy the textbook or not (ALWAYS wait until a week or two into the semester to buy your textbooks, many professors don't even use them. Also, use Chegg or Amazon to rent the books instead of buying them to save a ton of money). This website allows you to customize your education to best fit your learning style.

8. Work on-campus: Most higher education institutions will hire student employees for different jobs around campus. These are ideal for students because it shortens your commute and provides more time for other aspects of your life. Most student positions are also very flexible because they understand you are a student first, and an employee second. When I worked on campus, I gave my supervisor my class schedule and he set my work hours around my classes so I came into work multiple times throughout the day in between classes.

9. Take at least one fun class per semester: Nobody wants to go to school and hate all of their classes. It is a good idea to try and fit in one "fun" class per semester (if your schedule permits) to help you want to go to school. This can include some of your more fun program-specific classes as well as other elective classes such as tennis, drawing, social dance, or weight lifting.

10. Remember that most people end up working in a different field than they get their degrees in: While this time of life is incredibly stressful and it can be overwhelming to make decisions, remember that while the decisions you make now will impact the rest of your life, they do not determine the rest of your life. Many people pivot careers at least once in their life. I majored in Public Relations and work in Human Resources, and in fact, I never plan on working in PR. My dad got a nursing degree and now does IT Sales. More important than what program you go into, are the skills you learn in through higher education and internships that will translate into any career: time management, leadership, being proactive, accountability, critical thinking, writing skills, customer service, etc.