As the school year comes to an end, I’ve been reflecting on my freshman year experience at UMass Amherst. Although it was a great year for me, there were still some things I wish I knew about earlier or some things I would have liked to do differently. Here’s a list of things I would’ve done differently if I had the chance.
- AVOID THE 8 A.M. CLASSES!!!!!!
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I’ve gotten warnings to not take early classes since my senior year in high school, and how college 8 a.m.’s are really different from the high school ones. But, I didn’t listen to it because I thought if I could wake up at 5:00 a.m. for high school I can definitely do the same for college. I was very wrong, and please any upcoming freshmen going to college take this advice! I used to be an early bird, and waking up early for school was a breeze. But in college, I could barely get up and didn’t have the motivation to go to my 8:30 a.m. calculus class.
- Don’t Try To Fit Into A Friend Group That’s Not Meant For You
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At the beginning of college, I dreamt of having a friend group of maybe four to five people. But, in my experience, I felt like it was hard to find a friend group of that many people to really hang out with or click with. It was definitely much easier to connect with one or two people separately than trying all together.
- DON’T SKIP LECTURES EVEN IF IT’S NOT MANDATORY
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It was very tempting to sleep in and miss my classes, and I admit I have given in more times than I should. Although I do catch up and do my assignments, I feel like I was putting more work into myself when I could’ve just watched the lectures and written my notes when it was actually happening. It was also really stressful when an exam was coming up because it felt like I wasn’t fully caught up on the topics.
- Spend More Time By Myself
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I feel like I was so caught up in making new friends, joining clubs, and going out on weekends that I didn’t have time to do the stuff I used to do. For example, I would watch Netflix a lot but now it was hard to find time to lay down and actually finish a show. It just felt like I was prioritizing a lot of college activities and I forgot to take a breather, relax, and just do my own things.
- Go To The Gym More
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I kept telling myself I would go to the gym, but I would just go for a week and then completely stop. But, recently I’ve been going to the gym more frequently. However, I wished I went more often earlier in the year because it would be nice to see the gains I could’ve gotten at this time if I did go. Plus, the gym is easy to access and it’s right on campus so it would’ve been nice to take the opportunity a lot sooner.
- Bring More Medicine
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I cannot stress this enough, but in college, you really do get sick more often. I didn’t believe it because I would always have a strong immune system, and would get a cold once a year. But, immediately after the first few weeks of school I got Covid-19, and I was definitely unprepared for it. Then, eventually, I would get more colds than I usually do. Therefore, I wished I had brought more proper medicine for myself so I wouldn’t feel icky all the time.
Overall, I love going to college at UMass Amherst! I met great people, I experienced a new world of independence and freedom, I had great food, joined fun clubs, and I passed all my classes. But, now I know what I can do differently for my upcoming sophomore year!
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