Everyone has trouble adjusting to college for so any different reasons. People struggle with a whole range of changes from moving away from home to adapting to the difficulty of the college courses. For me, the hardest part of starting college was making friends.

Bottom line, change is hard for everyone.

So enough of introduction, here’s things I didn’t know about college:

1. Nobody Cares if you go to class

Through my k-12 schooling, I rarely ever missed class unless I was sick. I have always disliked school, but I never ditched because I was paranoid of being shamed by a teacher (nerd status). So the idea that no one really cares if you go to class in college was so strange to me! While teachers don’t care if you go to class, it doesn`t necessarily go away. Some teachers will choose to take attendance through a sign in sheet or an app, but others (most commonly in lecture halls) will not take attendance at all.

2. You will no longer be constantly reminded to get things done

In high school when I was an AP student, I was so bored when teachers would nag on and on about getting an assignment done. I have always been very responsible with my assignments, but I suddenly missed the nagging when I realized reminders were not something teachers or the school were obligated to do. A reminder about an assignment or an email to fill out a form for the school is a blessing!

3. Syllabuses are a huge key to success in college classes!

I have blocked out so many first days of high school because they were all soooo boring! High school syllabuses were always like “This is where the tissue boxes are” and “Please take a pass to go to the bathroom”. These rules are pretty ridiculous when you roll around to your senior year and you`re old enough to vote. Am I right?

ANYWAYS, In college, most syllabuses have a list of all your assignments, homework, and exams for the entire semester. There is also information about where your teacher`s office is and how to contact them. DO NOT THROW YOUR SYLLABUS AWAY!

4. If you don’t actively put yourself out there, you will not magically make friends

If you`re an introvert like myself, I know putting yourself out there is really f*cking hard. I was very unsuccessful at making friends my first semester of college and I know it is something I need to work on in the future. Most lecture halls have anywhere from 100-300 students in them and the entire class time is spent listening to the teacher and there aren’t many chances to talk to your neighbors. I am living at home to save money so I don’t have the dorm outlet to meet people, so admittedly that makes it more difficult for me to make friends.

5. You can go to school whenever you want

I’m not talking about your actual attendance of classes. As a college student, you have the option to take semesters or you can take classes over the summer or winter break (wintermester). Some students take semesters off to travel or work, it’s totally up to you. You can also take anywhere from 3 ½- 5 years of college to get your degree, although most universities encourage finishing in four years. I`m going to school this spring semester, but I haven’t decided if I want to take classes over the summer yet.

6. College is expensiveeee

This one is obvious, but watching the thousands of dollars my family and I had saved since I was a kid disappear to pay first semester was really upsetting. Just know that any scholarship, no matter how small, helps. I didn’t know before college that on top of tuition, I would be paying for textbooks, a parking pass ($500), and other fees to pay for online programs. College is just really expensive.

7. Rent your textbooks

Prior to my first semester, I had only heard of buying electronic textbooks or buying new/used textbooks. I`m so glad I discovered Amazon offers textbook rentals! Renting a textbook is way cheaper than buying a textbook you`re never going to use again after you finish the course. Amazon also offers free two day shipping for college students. As I said before, college is really expensive so saving money any way you can is crucial.

8. There is an overwhelming amount of people on campus

Going from my high school which had about 1,400 students to a college campus with about 20,000 was mind bending for me. This seems like a weird thing to be stressed about, but as an introvert, large amounts of people are very overwhelming to me. I felt like some kind of ant swirling around with the thousands of other students on the ant colony campus. I have gotten good at looking at the unmoving buildings instead of the thousands of students going about their day.

9. No one really knows what they’re doing

While handling college classes might get easier over time, most students are unsure of their career path. I am an undeclared major right now and I would just like to say there is no shame in being undeclared! Most students change their majors a LOT so it’s not that big of a deal to be undeclared.

10. Everything will turn out okay

Before starting college, I saw it as a looming dark cloud of change. Starting college is really hard, but it wasn`t anything I was incapable of adjusting to. College is hard, but it certainly hasn`t been as terrible as I anticipated it to be in the months before school started.