Your first day of college can be extremely exciting, but it can also be quite intimidating. You will be roaming a large campus that is likely still very foreign to you, meeting professors for the first time, and you won’t know many – if any – people in your classes. If you want to make the most of it all, here are 5 tips to help you survive your first day in college.
1. Get Plenty of Sleep 
On your first day of college, you want to feel wide awake, alert, and ready to absorb a lot of information. You are going to be spending a lot of time in each of your classes learning all about the expectations of your professors and the overall curriculum you will be learning. It may not sound like a serious day, but the better you listen, the better your understanding of each course will be.
2. Wake Up Early
Not only do you want to get a full night’s rest, but you also want to be sure that you get up early enough to eat a good, balanced breakfast and make your way to campus. If you don’t get up early enough to eat a full breakfast and get to school well before your first lecture starts, then you are going to feel panicked and anxious when you walk into your first class and it will be hard for you to focus and feel relaxed throughout the day.
3. Find Your Classes a Day Early
If you don’t want to spend the entire day feeling flustered and lost, then you will need to do a quick tour of campus the day before classes start and locate all of the classrooms you will need to go to. Of course, this won’t be the case if you’re studying with UIC Online, but for the majority of college students, there will be a huge campus to roam and you don’t want to get lost on your first day.
4. Make Plans for Your Lunch Break
Running around campus on your first day will take a lot out of you, so you want to be sure that you can really relax and enjoy yourself during your lunch break. Try to make plans with a friend or two to meet for lunch and share stories about your first class or two. This will give you the opportunity to get a lot of thoughts off your mind and not feel so isolated on your first day. Such a new experience can be overwhelming, so it can really help to have someone to share it with.
5. Bring Your Planner
You definitely don’t want to forget your planner on your first day of class. There’s a good chance that you will have homework assignments on your first day and there will be all kinds of notes that you will want to write down. From holiday breaks to your midterms schedule, to reading assignments, you want to be sure that you get it all down before you forget. Plus, you want to be sure that you start the first day with good habits so that you don’t set a bad tone for the rest of the semester.
