This post by Santa Ono, former president of The University of Cincinnati, originally appeared on Quora as an answer to the question, "What are some good pieces of advice that most college students are not ever likely to hear?"
Although these are tips I provided as president of The University of Cincinnati to our entering freshman class, the advice is generally applicable to freshmen at other colleges.
1. Remain focused on the reason that you're here as you prepare to go to school and to graduate.
2. College is a little bit different from high school. It's less structured. I think a lot of students get into trouble because they get to college, they're excited, and they take on more than they can actually deal with. They are over-ambitious.
Sometimes they take classes that might be a little bit of a stretch for them. They might take too many classes and — on top of that — try to become involved in four or five organizations, play intramural sports, and make hundreds of friends all at once.
Be sensible, think about what your bandwidth is, and ease yourself into the activities that present here at UC. Don't be afraid to ask for help from your professors or the students' success office on the ground floor of University Pavilion.
They are there for you, and I find that a lot of college students — especially freshmen — sometimes hesitate to ask for help. That's the last thing they should do. They should really be comfortable talking to professors or advisers, asking for any advice well before they get into any kind of trouble academically or otherwise.
3. A lot of people think UC is a large school, and we do have over 30,000 students on this campus alone. That's a lot of people, and that's a lot larger than most public high schools.
One of the reasons why I find some freshmen get homesick or don't get integrated well right away is that they don't really make an effort to find a community within this larger community.
It's actually pretty easy to find a home, to build a micro-community within the community, because there are between 300 and 400 clubs and organizations any given year.
If you get involved in any activity, whether it's student government or a sports related club, usually those are a lot smaller. These programs usually have anywhere between 20 and 100 students, and that can become — very rapidly — your family.
So I really encourage students to go to the activities early on, look through the website at all the different organizations that exist, and find one that they're excited about. Spend some time early on to get to know students in those organizations.
Then, commit to really being part of that organization because it will become home in the larger community.
4. UC is an unusual place to go to college because you have a pretty full portfolio of NCAA sports, and that goes well beyond football and basketball.
There are sporting events almost every single day here at UC. Beyond that, we have musical theatre, ballet, two orchestras, jazz and electronic media, and about 1,000 performances going on in a single year.
It's the largest site for performing arts and fine arts in the state of Ohio. So every day there are two or three performances here, along with sporting events.
What really disappoints me is that there are some students, not many, but some students that graduate from UC not having been involved in any of those activities or taking advantage of any of those sporting or musical events.
I really encourage students to get involved, and that is really part of the college experience here at UC.
5. This is one moment in your life where you're surrounded by a lot of cool, intelligent people that are around your age.
There are about 5,000 to 6,000 students coming in together with you, and it's a great opportunity to make friends. And the friends that you make in college really are the friends that will be your friends lifelong.
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