5 Things to do Your First Semester as a College Freshman
I know for most students at Elon, Fall semester is a bit more manageable than Spring semester, which seems to not want to give your schedule a break. Because you might have a bit more time on your hands Fall semester, it's important to capitalize on that time and do things that will help you in the future. I'm collaborating with Lucy from Daily Dose of Prep to put together a list of things we did our first semester of college that we found extremely beneficial, which I hope will be of help to any of you starting college this year! Be sure to check out Lucy's tips on her blog, she posts nearly every day so she has plenty of content I know y'all will love!
One thing I am so glad I did early on is develop a relationship with the career advising staff at school and create and refine my resume. I didn't have the greatest looking resume going into college (just a random unorganized list), so it was so helpful to have an advisor look at it and help transform it into something that represented my skills and accomplishments better. Doing this early on was really beneficial for me because come second semester, applications for officer positions in clubs and summer jobs/internships are released, you will already have your resume ready to go! Going along with this I would highly recommend getting started making a digital resume on LinkedIn and connecting with people you know (I honestly think updating my LinkedIn and connecting with people is so fun).
Test Out Different Organizations
I can guarantee you're going to end up signing up for more organizations than you have time for at the org fair. You don't want to miss out on any awesome organizations or waste your time committing to ones you aren't passionate about so I recommend tagging along with a friend to their club meetings and attending interest meetings for numerous organizations to see what they're all about. It may seem overwhelming at first, but your freshman year is the time to determine what organizations reflect your interests and which ones are a good use of your time (and which ones aren't).
Interview Practice
Having never done an interview before, doing a mock interview with a career advisor boosted my confidence going into an interview for an on campus position. If you don't have mock interviews available at your school, consider doing an informational interview by grabbing coffee with a business professional. Because you aren't actually being interviewed for a job, it is less stressful and you can practice talking in a more professional setting and learn from people in the industry. I had one of these this summer and it was so interesting to chat with someone in the field I am interested in and see if that is somewhere I can picture myself after graduation. Both of these helped me prepare for interviews and feel more confident talking about different aspects of my resume and experiences.
Start Building Credit
Before I left for college I got a credit card specifically for college students so I could start building credit. College students are clearly on a budget, so keep your expenses low and at a rate you know you can pay off in time. I limited mine to gas and grocery store costs and made sure I paid my bills on time. This not only builds credit so you can lease an apartment or buy a car in the future, but it makes the idea of paying bills and handling money a little less daunting in the future.
Read the Newspaper
For my communications class we were required to read the newspaper every day. I was already in the habit of watching the evening news most nights so I had a general idea of what was going on in the world, but I found that reading the newspaper (not the whole thing, just the first page of each section!) made me so much more aware of current events. Having this basic understanding of world news not only helped me in my com classes but in most all of my classes because I was able to relate what we were learning to what is going on in the world. Most digital newspapers (like NYT and WSJ) offer student discounts to access articles on their sites, so take advantage of them!
Be sure to read Lucy's blog post sharing her tips for college freshmen!
Are you are getting ready to start your freshman year of college?
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