In addition to my role as a Marketing Coordinator here at HBX, I am a freshman academic adviser at Harvard College. With the new school year upon us, I wanted to share some of the most common advice I give incoming students each year. I hope you find this helpful, and please feel free to add your own advice in the comments!
Talk to people.
More specifically, talk to people who are different from you. Socializing with and learning from new people is a huge part of the college experience. Don’t look back four years from now and wish you’d allowed yourself more time to get to know a broad group of your peers. New people offer diverse perspectives and backgrounds that you can learn from. Get out of your comfort zone and broaden your horizons!
Say yes…and then say no.
College is the time to try new things and to meet new people. So when you arrive on campus, sign up for new clubs and attend all sorts of events. You may find that you enjoy something you’d never considered before. The next part is the most important, though. Once you’ve tried all these clubs and activities, take a step back and be honest with yourself about which ones give you the most joy or you find that you care most about, and drop the rest. You don’t want to overload yourself.
Build your schedule wisely.
Balance your classes! Try to avoid taking courses that are all essay-based or classes that all have problem sets. Everyone has a different learning style, so give yourself space in your schedule to experiment a bit and figure out what types of courses you perform best in and learn the most from.
If you are entering college with a specific major in mind, that’s awesome. I’d recommend taking an introductory course early on to make sure it’s a good fit, but please don’t limit yourself to the required courses for that major. Explore classes in other areas you find interesting – they can always be used to fill distribution requirements later on and you may even stumble upon a new path that is a better fit for you.
It’s okay to hate things.
If you try a new class or club and you love it, great! But if you hate it, that’s valuable information too. Don’t just write off the experience as a waste of time. Give yourself time to think through exactly what it is that you didn’t like. Maybe you prefer a smaller class size or you hate problem sets or the content just wasn’t interesting to you. You’ll come to realize that in most aspects of your life, it’s just as useful to understand what you DON’T like as what you DO like.
Give yourself a break.
Between classes, homework, and everything else, there are plenty of things you have to do every day (or should do – please shower and remember to eat something vaguely nutritious). But you need to always make time to do at least one thing that brings you joy.
Whether that’s vegging out and playing video games, going on a run, or catching up with your best friend, you need to have that one thing you can look forward to during an otherwise hectic day. Give yourself some regular, unstructured time for these things - schedule it if you have to!
Keep two calendars. Trust me.
This might sound like overkill, but keep separate daily and monthly calendars. It’s fine to use a day planner or your phone to keep track of daily activities, but be sure to purchase a monthly desk or wall calendar and post it in a prominent location where you’ll see it every day. Add big due dates such as midterms and finals along with other items such as sports, extracurriculars, and breaks.
Why? When you’re so focused on what’s scheduled for the day, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s on the horizon for later that week or the rest of the month. Having a consistent visual reminder is crucial to avoid letting important tasks and major deadlines sneak up on you.
Look up.
Everyone struggles during their freshman year. I met a good friend of mine the first week of school, and I admired how friendly and put together she seemed when I was so homesick and miserable. We had a heart-to-heart at the end of senior year and realized that when we’d met four years earlier, we each thought that the other person was so happy while we ourselves felt lost and lonely.
Remember, people often put on a brave front, but you never really know what all they are going through. The more you are friendly to the people around you, the better you’ll feel. More importantly, you may help someone else get through a rough day or feel a little less alone.
