The world enjoys no shortage of advice, both good and bad, about how students can get into college. But for all the investments that families make in schools, college counselors, test preparation, extracurricular activities, and the like, all of that support vanishes once students actually enroll in college. Fortunately, some of the best advice about how to survive, and thrive, in college is free for the taking.
The most important people at college are not roommates, coaches, drinking buddies, pledge sisters, bosses, boyfriends, or girlfriends. They aren’t parents, either. All of those people matter, but those relationships aren’t uniquely related to college. Professors are what separate college from the rest of the world. They are the people who have the most to give students, and who demand the most in return.
I can’t fathom the mindset of someone who completes seven-plus years of rigorous schooling and then lands a job at a reputable college. Their expectations, standards, and approach to academics are far different from those of the typical high school teacher. I am, however, fortunate to have many friends who know firsthand what it’s like to stand in front of a college classroom.
I asked a few of my professor friends for advice that they would give incoming college students. I told them that I did not want them to lament the shortcomings of high school education or to grumble about “kids these days.” I wanted them to offer kids real insights into the demands of college, and to help smart, eager kids be as successful as possible.
The following responses come from professors in a good cross-section of academia. They are all regular people who care deeply about their students’ success. (And not a single one of them defines “success” in terms of salaries or career advancement.) But, their advice isn’t limited to their own students—it’s worth heeding, no matter where a student goes and what he or she studies. I thank all of them for their contributions.
Advice for Classes
“Pick your classes based not just on the topic but also on the professor. Don’t use Rate my Professor but rather your university’s internal student evaluation system (which there should be) to find the best professors. A good professor can make almost any topic interesting and even for courses that aren’t so interesting (e.g. calculus), they can make it a lot less painful.”
– Alison Coil
Astrophysics & Space Sciences, University of California, San Diego
“Try for curiosity. At this stage, you get to choose your interests and invest your time/energy where you want, so do it! You also have more free time than ever before and more than you’ll ever have again. Read. See plays. Learn new skills. Grow.
Don’t play it safe. Take courses in disciplines that are new to you and maybe even super-difficult. Court failure and incomprehension—and see if you can overcome them.”
– Rachel Franklin
Population Studies, Brown University
“The world belongs to those who read the syllabus.”
– Kent McIntosh
Psychology, University of Oregon
Advice About Teachers
“Learn basic email etiquette (e.g.: Dear Professor X, [body of email] Sincerely, Student X). Do not write to your professors and TAs as if you were texting your friends. Use the words ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ when appropriate.
Make an effort to go to office hours. Get to know your professor and TAs, both because they can offer you valuable advice and help, and because it will be helpful for when you need letters of recommendation.”
– Name Withheld
Department of English, University of California, Los Angeles
“Make use of your professors’ office hours. Go with questions about class material, career questions, life questions. Get to know at least a few faculty while you are in college. They’re just people, and not so scary once you talk with them.”
– Alison Coil
“Be proactive. If you find that you’re not understanding material in a course or not doing well on assignments and exams, talk to the professor right away. Don’t put this off—they can often help steer you in the right direction, but the earlier the better.
Some professors won’t have the time of day for you, but the more you interact with them, the easier it will be to find the ones you click with. These will be the people who do practical, necessary stuff like write letters of recommendation. They are also sources of advice and even friendship.”
– Rachel Franklin
Advice for Learning
“Don’t approach college like it’s supposed to prepare you for anything. Take classes because they interest you, not because they’ll check off some box in a future employer’s job readiness assessment.
Those ‘skills’ you need in the workplace will take care of themselves. Don’t be afraid to study liberal arts while you have the chance, not because there are jobs for art historians/classicists/ philosophers in the “real world,” but because studying those subjects is a chance to view the world as something bigger and more meaningful than the TPS reports you’ll be writing after graduation.
For most undergrads, this is their last and only chance to pursue learning for learning’s sake, and the shame is they view it as some kind of job training.”
– Andrew B. Gallia
History, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
“Going to college is a privilege, not a chore. I know that sometimes it doesn’t feel that way, but it’s important to look at every class and every assignment as a learning experience, not something that you should try to rush through with the minimum amount of effort and time required. Someone—your parents, other relatives, you, the university, the state, etc.—is paying for you to be there. Don’t throw that money away.”
– Name Withheld
Department of English, University of California, Los Angeles
“Focus not only on doing well in class, but on learning. You have the opportunity to take classes on just about any subject from world-class researchers, and you can leave college with an education that you’ll never have another chance to get. Find a subject you love to study and find peers who are excited about what they are studying. In four years and in forty years, you’ll be glad that you did.”
– Name Withheld
McGill University
“Critical Thinking is crucial. Students need to make that key switch from ‘What do I need to know for the test?’ to ‘Does that make sense? How does that argument work exactly? Are there other ways of thinking about that question? Other ways of even framing it? How does that help me think differently, more complexly about something?’
It’s a subtle but profound shift, and I’m not even sure when it happened for me. I resented that, in my own home, the emphasis was so much on ‘do well’ that it all too often precluded a more creative approach to being in the world.”
– Aimee Bahng
English, Dartmouth College
“In courses where it makes sense and is allowed, work with other students on assignments and when studying. This can be very useful in lower division math and science courses, for example. Peer education is extremely valuable and underutilized.”
– Alison Coil
“Groupthink is dangerous; the cool people and places are going to be those that run contrary to your beliefs and force you to see the world differently. Just because someone sees the world differently than you doesn’t make them wrong, dumb, or evil.”
– Rachel Franklin
Advice for Life
“On a serious note, I’d like to say something about not assuming you’re in a safe space. I reflect with gratitude on a fairly regular basis that I was never sexually assaulted (in college), despite not always being smart about alcohol consumption and having a false sense of security based on the bubble-like nature of my school.”
– Name Withheld
UCLA
“Try to find some balance between academics and life—and I don’t mean partying, but being part of something larger than yourself.”
– Alison Coil
“It’s not a race. There will be no reward in the end for overloading oneself with too many obligations or for neglecting to break away from the herd when it comes to study abroad, or taking time off during the summer or before graduate school.
I wish my students could slow down just a bit to see what an awesome time of life college is. Instead, they are more anxious than any group I’ve ever before encountered. I’m not advocating taking it easy, just maybe making one’s choices with deliberation. Do fewer things and only do what you really care about.
Some days I’m a bit jaded about ‘kids these days’ (such as any time I read about sexual assault on campus) but most of the time I’m so excited to see them grow and to think about how they have their whole lives in front of them.”
– Rachel Franklin
“I have students who don’t know about Sandy Hook, Trayvon Martin, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, or other significant events that took place in their high-school years, probably because they were too busy trying to do well in school and get into a good college so they could secure their position on Wall Street. They never bothered to read the news, fall down a productive internet research rabbit hole pursuing something that struck a nerve with them, or pause to consider what ‘the good life’ might even mean for themselves, or better yet, for the world.
Then again, some of these students actively pursue a version of individual success that breeds well under sheltered conditions. Other students can’t help but be attuned to life’s vicissitudes, injustices, exigencies because they live these struggles daily. And I wonder to what extent some colleges, as they turn towards more securitized models of ‘success’ and away from riskier, more potentially contentious practices of learning, might be participating in an idea of education that encourages moving through the world with blinders on rather than taking four years of one’s life to consider things beyond the normative track or path to success.”
– Aimee Bahng
