Posts Tagged ‘college dorms’

College Welcome Week: Welcome Freshmen

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

Heading off to college? There are a lot of changes in store for you – and your college of choice not only understands – they want to help you through the process!  Colleges want your transition to be as pain-free as possible — which is one of the many reasons behind “Welcome Week.”

One of many possible games you might play at your college's Welcome Week!

IndieNate / Nate Buchman

Welcome week is a week-long period filled with events for new freshmen students – and sometimes even their families.  It’s a way for a college or university to get their new freshmen class to interact, get to know one another, create a few friendships, and receive a healthy dose of that good old school spirit!

Sure, some incoming students may have connected early to college classmates via Facebook or Twitter but you can be sure that there are plenty of others who don’t know a soul: and that’s okay too. Everyone who is there actually wants to be there!

Everyone chose that particular college for a reason  and everyone is just as excited and nervous about moving away from home as you are — which is why colleges created Welcome Week a great way to get comfortable and settled in at college (before the rush of class begins)!

Welcome home!  Get boxes unpacked and get your dorm room ready for the busy year ahead!

Sikachu! / Prem Sichanugrist

There’s a lot of ground to cover before you trudge bleary-eyed to your very first college class.  You need a student id, to buy college textbooks, register your car (if any) or even your cat, and move in to your dorm or off-campus housing!  You need to learn your way around campus, where to go and what to expect (part of which you may already know if you read My College Guide at all – and you should!).

There will be a lot of activities, free food, and plenty of ways to get involved!  Some of the activities may seem a little silly but that’s part of the funCollege isn’t all philosophical talks and deep class discussions.

Relax, participate, and get to know these people around you – you will be sharing classes, the cafeteria, library, and dormitory with them, you might as well get to know them (and maybe even befriend a few) sooner rather than later.

On-campus Living: Home Away from Home Trials, Tribulations and Fun

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

Michael Sarver

As a college freshman, it’s probably the first time you’ll be living away from home. It’s the first time you’ll be responsible for your own curfew, doing your own laundry and preparing your own meals. It’s a very exciting time for most, but college life can be a scary one at the same time. Finding ways to deal with the change in your environment can make the difference from a successful college transition and a bombed attempt.

5 Ways to Deal with Campus Living

Be open with your roomie. Your college roommate may be the complete opposite of you, but this doesn’t mean you can’t live together in harmony. Be sure to always talk openly with your roommate, setting ground rules and expectations with each other from day one.

Be open-minded. College is about meeting new people and experiencing new things. Be open-minded so that you’ll have a chance to mix and mingle with people that may have different backgrounds from you. Join new groups on campus and participate in activities that allow you to expand your horizons.

Don’t forget to study. The primary reason you’re at college is to learn, so it is important to schedule time to study and do your homework. Dorm living may not present the ideal environment for hunkering down for quiet time, so find a spot on or off campus that allows you to put in quality homework and study time.

Learn from your mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes and college freshmen are definitely not exceptions to this rule. The important thing is to learn from your mistakes and move on from it. If you don’t score as high on a test or paper as you expected because you went to a party instead, you know you need to skip the social activities and put more time into your school work. If you accidentally mix a red sock in with your white clothes and now everything is pink, you know to better sort your laundry next time.

Eat, Sleep and Decrease Stress. There are a lot of stress factors that come with being away at college. The important thing is to try to eat and sleep as properly as you can. These two factors can help you to deal with the stress of it all a lot more effectively than if you’re tackling stress without proper nutrition and enough sleep.

Heading off to college is fun and exciting but it has some trials and tribulations that come along with it. Finding ways to effectively manage and deal with the transition of living away from home for the first time is the key to a smooth transition.