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8 Networking Tips For College Students

There are all kinds of networking opportunities at universities or colleges, including networking nights or recruiters visiting your campus. Use these opportunities well, and you may land your dream job.

Here are 8 important networking tips that college students need to know.

1. How do I network?

Networking is all about communication. It is an opportunity to engage in conversations, ranging from your interests to professional goals, with recruiters, professionals, and faculty. While networking, you do not want to be aggressive or artificial. It is best to be genuine and relaxed. Building a genuine relationship with a recruiter, faculty, or professional can lead to their connecting you to a job/internship opportunity or with a contact who can lead you to a job/internship opportunity.

2. When should I network?

It is never too early to begin networking. You can follow your college’s career center, subscribe to department emails, or join clubs related to your career interests. As a freshman, you can use networking to help guide your future career path. Networking early in your college career allows you to connect with professionals who may be helpful later when you’re looking for internships or jobs. During your sophomore or junior year, networking can help you land a summer internship. It is better to network early in the fall semester and line up an internship before spring semester. During your senior year, networking is crucial to land a full-time job.

3. What should I wear to a networking event?

Different networking events have different dress codes. Be sure to look at the flier or posting about the networking event. If the event is business casual, men should wear dress pants and a button-down shirt with dress shoes. While ties are not required for business casual, it may help you look more put together. For women, business casual can be a pair of chino pants or dress pants paired with a button-up shirt or blouse. Flats or heels may be worn, but aim for comfort so you are not distracted during the event. Be sure to look put together and well-groomed before you enter a networking environment.

4. What do I do before a networking event?

Before a networking event, be sure to master your elevator pitch and do your research. An elevator pitch is a 30-second speech that summarizes who you are, what you do, and why you would be a perfect candidate. This is a speech that will help recruiters and professionals see how you can present yourself positively in a brief period of time. Many networking events and opportunities are scheduled events, so you have time to do your research. Find out which professionals will be in attendance, which companies are represented, and research the roles of the companies.

5. What should I do at a networking event?

You should talk to professionals, recruiters, and faculty. Seek to engage in quality conversations. You should aim to talk to more than one professional during an entire networking event. The purpose of networking events is to expand your network, so be sure to talk to a handful of people and really try to put yourself out there.

Always introduce yourself and try to make a positive impression. If you’ve done your research, you can discuss recent company news with company representatives. Did a company just engage in a large merger or gain a new client? Be sure to bring up key points about recent company news and ask questions about the company at networking events to demonstrate your knowledge and interest in the company.

Also, listen to the people you meet. Active listening can go a long way at a networking event. You want to remember some key points that you can bring up after the networking event, so the professional or recruiter can remember who you are. At the end of a conversation with a professional or recruiter, ask for their business card so you can thank them for their time. You can also ask if you can connect with them on LinkedIn where your resume can be made available.

6. What shouldn’t I do at a networking event?

You want to make a good impression at networking events, so you should stay away from certain actions. The most important is, don’t be rude. While you are at a networking event to find an internship or a job, you shouldn’t shove your resume into a recruiter’s hand. Instead, make a connection first, so the recruiter is more likely to pass on your resume to the next stage. Also, you should not stick to the people you know already. The whole point of networking is to meet new people, so be sure to leave your comfort zone and engage with people you don’t know.

7. How do I make a good impression?

Networking can be intimidating for college students, as they often view networking as a leap into the professional world. In reality, networking is preparing students for the professional world. To make a good impression while networking, be sure to look neat and well-groomed, demonstrate professionalism, have a great attitude, and express a genuine interest in the conversation.

8. What do I do after a networking event?

After a networking event, be sure to email the people you connected with to thank them for their time. In your email, include details of your discussion to help the recruiters remember you. If possible, connect through LinkedIn, which is the social network for young professionals to join as soon as they enter college as they can expand their professional network much quicker and easier. Be sure to stay in contact with your recruiter, but never harass a recruiter for a position.

Networking may seem daunting for college students, but it is essential. So, take advantage of all networking opportunities at your college and make it a point to enlarge your network.

How to Develop a Strategic Writing Plan

Female hand holding a pen and writing a plan in a planner

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” — Ernest Hemingway

 

I recently read an article where writers’ daily routines were romanticized albeit with useful information. Japanese writer Haruki Murakami spoke to the importance of a routine: “I keep to this routine every day without variation. The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it’s a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind.” I tie this idea of repetition in a routine with a recent graduate student workshop I attended on how to develop a strategic writing plan. Here is a list of the current and developing practices that make up my writing routine.

 

Write every day. The author Anaïs Nin simply stated, “I write every day.” There has been much research conducted on the positive effects of writing every day in academia, including that of psychologist Robert Boice. As a pre-candidate, I aim to develop a strategic writing plan that includes solidly writing every day by the time I start my dissertation. That is why in my first year, I am dedicated to writing every day. I learned to start with 15 minutes and have worked up to 30 minutes every day with an ultimate goal of reaching an hour by the end of the academic year. I like to think broadly of writing to include brainstorming, reading, outlining, and synthesizing, but I have restructured my plan to write every day to focus on word count, so that means I am truly writing. There are many apps (Focus Keeper, Block & Flow, 30/30) that can help with this timed writing session. I also have been exploring more sophisticated options for time and project management such as Rescue Time and Liquid Planner (which is free to .edu emails). Some days I am writing for papers and projects, other days it’s a manuscript I am working on, and often I write for me in what I call my “Spark Files,” where I track ideas and inspiration in my academic career. I am currently writing 300-500 words a day in 30 minutes. By the end of the year, I aim to be writing for a solid hour for twice that amount.

 

Warm up with writing prompts. I start each writing session with a writing prompt for three minutes where I write continuously for the whole duration. I alternate between writing by hand and typing in a saved file of writing prompts. As the writer Natalie Goldberg instructed, keep your hand moving. If there is a moment where I have a blank thought and a pause, I came up with the phrase “Keep writing!” where I write that over and over again until my inspiration comes back. I encourage you to come up with your own filler phrase. I write for the full three minutes. I find my prompts online, through this great book of things to write about, and from an app on my phone, Brainsparker, that includes thought provoking prompts like “What is your soul calling you to do?” and even pictures that are incredibly moving to write about.

 

Broaden your perspective on ways to write. When I get what I call “typing fatigue” and I am not very productive in my writing process, I switch things up. I handwrite sections. I use colorful Post-It notes to organize frameworks and outlines. One new alternative that I have explored and loved this year is dictation. I currently use the Google Docs voice typing tool to transcribe my thoughts. If this method works out, I want to look into investing in options such as Dragon Dictation. Similarly, I pull out my phone and create a voice memo transitioning between meetings and classes when I have a thought that can shape my writing. I also invested in a powerful writing software that allows for more fluidity when I am working on big projects such as a final paper, manuscript, or thesis. There is more than one way to write, so make sure you explore all options and alternate between those that work best for you.

 

Write fast now, edit slow later. In meeting my word count goals, I am also focused on writing fast now, and editing slow later, a concept developed by Sonja K. Foss and William Waters. Writing is capturing ideas on paper. Editing is sculpting to express ideas effectively by scrutinizing, moving, removing, and transforming materials. You maximize your writing time when you separate the writing and editing as two processes. If you don’t believe me, try this quick exercise. Pull out your phone to time yourself as you say the alphabet out loud. Now, time yourself again as you alternate between a letter and a consecutive number (A 1 B 2 C 3). It will take you twice if not three times as long to get to “Z 26.” Separating writing and editing was a tough concept for someone like me to learn who loves to edit as I write (it satisfies the perfectionist in me!). Now, I turn off my spell and grammar checker and am focused only on getting the next word out. When I first started this concept, I taped a blank piece of paper over my screen to focus on writing. This was an excruciating experience, but I learned to write fast. I schedule in time to edit separately. My writing time is much more effective.

 

Protect your writing time. A previous GradHacker post outlined strategies to keep focused while writing your dissertation including identifying your most productive time during the day for writing using heat mapping. A good practice to get into is to schedule your writing time when you are the most productive and protect that time. Do not schedule anything during your writing time. Treat it as an important appointment you cannot miss or reschedule. I am the most productive in the morning. Since I am still taking courses, I enroll for classes in the afternoon or evenings and I schedule meetings during that time as well to protect my mornings. In this practice, an important concept to keep in mind is flexibility. There may be a class that is only offered in the morning, so I have to be prepared that semester to make adjustments. I protect my writing time on the weekends as well. For example, I will wake up earlier to write if I have a Sunday brunch scheduled. Protecting my writing time is a daily practice.

 

And so, I leave you with this quote from Oscar Wilde: “This morning I took out a comma and this afternoon I put it back again.” I have certainly been there. I know how arduous the writing process can be. However, with a steady and consistent routine, I can indeed work myself into a mesmerized state of productivity because I have reached a deeper state of mind through a strategic writing plan.

 

What is your current writing routine? What would you like to incorporate into a strategic writing plan?

How To Make a Good First Impression While Networking

You marked your calendar for the career fair coming up next week. You polished your resumé, you did your homework on the companies that are going to be there, practiced your elevator pitch, and you know your strengths just in case any questions come up.

Great start. Finally, you need to shift your attention to the first impression. The way you come across in that first meeting can set the standard of how someone views all of your work, for better or worse. Make sure your first impression will leave feelings of professionalism and preparedness with any future connection.

Dress to impress

55% of first impressions are based on physical appearance, so if you have all the above ready, it’s time to make sure your look is up to the same level of preparation. A good tip for dressing is to go one “step” above the typical dress code of the industry you’re interested in. For example, if the dress code for most companies is casual, opt for a more business casual look. This shows that you’re in touch with the industry culture and familiar with what your future could look like. Check out specific companies’ social media pages and websites, or even Glassdoor to get a better idea of what you should wear.

It’s important to keep in mind, however, that even if the dress code is casual, it’s always smart to dress professionally while networking. This means wearing conservative, neutral-colored clothing that fits comfortably.

Deal with insecurities

So, your clothes are ironed, and the outfit prepared, but now you need to deal with any cosmetic issues that might distract you. Maybe you struggle with male pattern baldness or yellowing teeth, or maybe you have some deeper issues with self-image. Whatever your insecurities are, if they cause you to lose confidence, it’s important to address them ahead of the event. But, don’t stress; there are often many different ways to treat cosmetic issues. For example, a doctor can prescribe a medication to help you combat receding hairlines and balding or suggest a whitening toothpaste to make sure your pearly whites are shining.

Alternatively, try out some lifestyle changes to manage your issues. Make sure you don’t skip out on styling your hair. If you walk in with bedhead, potential employers may take you as being lazy or not serious. And, avoid drinking beverages that stain your teeth the day before, like red wine, or coffee, the morning of to keep your teeth as clean as possible. Or, if you think your issues are more personal, consider speaking with a counselor about what could be causing your insecurities, and create a plan to develop more self-esteem. Projecting your self-confidence is critical in impressing at events, so it’s important you feel ready to enter every networking opportunity with your head held high.

Be prepared

When networking, it’s always important to be ready to share your information and experience. Your preparedness and organization in these early meetings can go a long way in impressing potential employers. Keep multiple (fresh) copies of your resumé or samples of your work on-hand. A good way to keep your resumés clean is to use a resumé folder. This handy folder is a great spot to have pre-written notes on companies you’re interested in while staying organized and professional-looking.

A folder is also a good spot to store a few personal business cards that you can give to people as a tangible way to remember you. Make sure you also have a pen on-hand in case there’s any notes to take during your conversations.

Utilize the final handshake

After you have your conversation, make sure you sign-off with a firm handshake and eye contact, and say their name: “Thanks for talking to me, Sarah, I loved learning about your company and hope we can be in touch.” This shows you paid attention from the start and adds a personal touch. Remember, these people are likely meeting dozens, if not hundreds of other interested jobseekers, so be as personal as you can to make the best first impression.

You might also want to think of sending out a hand-written note to the people you met just thanking them in more detail. A hand-written note like this makes you stand out even more and can go a long way in developing their lasting impression of you.

Congratulations! You’re all prepped for your big career fair, now go out there and impress!

How to Get an Excellent Grade: Most Successful Tips for Your Assignment

  

 

    

   

 

 

  

    

 

 

    

      

 

 

    

     

   

 

 

       

   

Stress Management For Students

   

  

  

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Business Administration Key Skills You Need to Develop for Your Career Prosperity

Some professions in this world are much more demanding in terms of intrapersonal as well as interpersonal skills. Professionals residing under such posts must be highly competitive and adaptable to stay in the race. Among them, business administration stands forth in the list.

The leading role of a business administrator is to direct the management and supervise the finances of an organization. The products and services department, overseeing the productivity of a workplace and sales report, is also their responsibility. The position of business administrator gives them a chance to collaborate with other staff members to make the project successful. A person working at any of the relevant posts needs excellent skills along with other qualities to ensure the company’s accomplishment in every sector. Business skills are an essential component of a professional workplace environment. These sets of skills can improve the efficiency, output, and performance of the organization at all levels. It is an extensive field, and if you want to grow into a business asset, you need to build some of these essential traits.

Listed below are some essential business administration skills that you can develop for your career’s prosperity:

INTERPERSONAL SKILLS

 

Business and management jobs are more about good interaction with people, and you need to build mutual terms with your colleagues. These skills become a necessity when you are leading a team; useful guidance comes with successful work relationships. Set a professional boundary and know your team better through social activity. In successful organizations, the team leaders demonstrate managerial qualities with a sense of authority, but they also think of themselves as team members. Acknowledge other’s expertise and show interest in their suggestions and feedback. An active listener gives a positive outlook to his team by listening to them with attention. Appreciation gives individual confidence to deliver in a better manner next time. If you are working in a business field and want to improve your managerial skills, you can reach out to an MBA program online. Since by pursuing online education, you don’t need to abandon your job and learn as much as you can from the courses.

 

COMMUNICATION AND ENTHUSIASM

 

A good leader acts as a communication bridge between frontline staff and senior management.  You will liaise with people from within the organization and outside the organization. From employees to officials of higher posts, your interaction with them can be written and verbal. Professional communication is mostly about new information. To cut down the communication gap, have to make your team members comfortable and arrange weekly or monthly meetings to facilitate them.  With a set of excellent communication skills, you will be able to identify and address areas of improvement on an individual and group level very effectively. Be clear in articulating your ideas; this will determine your success. To safeguard the prosperity of your career, focus on reducing conflict, and involve everyone in the projects. These steps expand and motivate team members to deliver their best in achieving the targets. Even when there is no need for verbal communication, you can use your body language to convey a positive message. Seminars are a promising way of improving your business administration skills. Better connectivity means less hassle and more yield.

 

NEGOTIATION SKILLS

 

Every business goes through ups and downs with the right negotiation strategies. You can save any organization from a significant loss. In business, it is about getting the most suitable and valuable deals for the organization. To polish your negotiating skills, try to negotiate as often as possible, whether it be a small business deal or a big one, always remember to keep a smile on your face. As a business administrator, spotting and solving the problems can be a significant part of your job title. Develop the ability to attain patience and think with an open mind. Be innovative in finding the right solutions, and do not put yourself in stressful situations. Be smart in weighing up the pros and cons of a business administration situation to make timely and informed decisions.

 

TEAMWORK

 

In business administration, it’s about working together to achieve common goals. Teamwork has a positive effect on the products and the overall outcome of a project. Think about new strategies that can make your cooperation secure and reliable. It is about aiming for the right opportunities using your knowledge, experience, and skills to deliver profoundly. A business administrator must be a team player and well aware of the organization’s mission and aims. In the business field, the whole team needs to be clear about the company’s competitors to bring a sense of hard work and healthy competition. One way of improving teamwork is to allot tasks to each individual and see how they perform then you can make them work together by appreciating their strengths. Your career prosperity can also take a fast pace when you organize team processes and cultivate open communication. Encourage socializing if you feel like your colleagues and employees are not accessible.

 

LEADERSHIP

 

Here come the most common and essential attributes of a successful and professional business administrator. If you wish to prosper smoothly in your career, leadership skills can act as a ladder. Leadership is about following the principles and believing in the expertise of your team members. Individuals having leadership skills also have the vision to take their plan one step ahead. In a competitive working environment, you can create endless opportunities for the evolution, effectiveness, and productivity of your organization and employees. A great team leader acts as a mentor for his employees and passes his knowledge and skills to other colleagues.

FINAL WORD

Business administration is a field with a substantial impact on any organization. The individuals working in this position have the power to turn small businesses into brands and business giants. You can gain these skills through experience in this field, which requires a lot of time, or you can apply for a degree that can provide you with the needed knowledge. Education is a must-have component of a business person’s profile and it guarantees entrepreneurial principles. With the attributes mentioned above, you can make a successful career in the world’s most challenging field.

The Perfection Expectation

Recently I overheard a couple of faculty members discussing some of the challenges they were facing with their new cohort of doctoral students. The professors had provided them with an abundance of feedback on the first writing assignment and the group had made A’s and B’s overall. However, the professors were shocked at the response to that feedback, and a few students were downright defensive and outraged at earning less than 100%.

Eavesdropping, I could empathize with some of the students’ reactions— as I’m writing this, I just received a B on a paper, and I’m reeling with where I may have “failed.” Graduate students are rightfully held to an incredibly high intellectual standard. Mediocrity isn’t okay. Even before you start your graduate school journey you are exposed to lofty expectations. For admission, many graduate schools expect stellar GRE scores, require well-above average GPA requirements, and some programs even expect you to have a thesis topic or faculty research advisor selected prior to admission.

Perfectionism is on the rise. A recent study found higher levels of perfectionism among students during the 2000s than during the 1990s. One type of perfectionism, known as socially prescribed perfectionism, is based on the expectations of others. This type of perfectionism has seen an incredible spike – 33% based on the study results. Due in part to the influence of social media, society is becoming increasingly competitive, glorifies shameless self promotion, and as a result many people feel the need to constantly seek social acceptance. It is not surprising that people are striving toward the unrealistic goal of perfection as a means of self-validation and also as a way to “fit in” amongst their peers.

Perfectionism places stress on graduate students, impacting not only our wellbeing but also reducing the freedom and space to learn. On the other hand, accepting constructive criticism is key to learning and growth. Stress is real, learning is real, mistakes are real. What’s not real? Perfection. Expecting to make 100% on every assignment is unrealistic and sets you up for low morale earned through a fantasy. I believe perfectionism is a form of self-defense as well. If you hold yourself to high standards and expect perfect grades, you’ll maintain your place in your cohort and preserve your own self image. While striving towards a high goal is necessary for achievement, the idea of perfectionism can be destructive.

I can’t necessarily offer a solution to the issue, as I’m guilty of this too. Am I suggesting more leniency in grading? No. Am I telling grad students to suck it up? I’m not saying that either. We have an interesting situation here: we live in a performance based world that, for high achievers, doesn’t offer much room for mistakes. Every facet of our professional (and to some extent, personal) lives is documented. Academics can never outrun a transcript record or the truth of a curriculum vitae, and we are also under the constant pressure of the publish or perish environment.

For perfectionism-prone graduate students, it’s important to remember that because of the nature of research, science is constantly evolving. Therefore, perfection is not only a figment of one’s imagination but also a moving target. You can never know all that there is to know, or for that matter, know what you do not know! Education is a progression of learning from our mistakes. If you receive strong feedback, communicate with your professors and ask questions. Seek to understand. Accept lessons graciously and with humility. Additionally, find a way to balance allowing yourself the freedom to make mistakes with performing at a graduate student level.

One of the greatest minds of modern times, Albert Einstein said, “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” If you’re a student, you’re surrounded by new ideas. That’s the point of being in school. Keep progressing towards your goals and try to embrace the lessons rather than the mirage of perfection. Progress is never perfect and rarely pretty. Instead of perfection, strive for the attainable – excellence. Try to accept feedback in the form of a grade less than 100% as a learning opportunity.

The First Day!

The start of a new academic year tends to be a highly ritualized affair, from campus-wide “Welcome Week” activities down to the icebreakers and syllabi distributions in individual classrooms. For graduate teaching assistants, this is the time when we introduce ourselves, lay out our expectations, and, hopefully, establish the tone and level of authority that we want to convey throughout the term.

Unfortunately, as my formulaic first paragraph might show, First Days of School tend to be predictable without much conscious deviation. The whole process risks coming off as a little too scripted or dispassionate, particularly in the case of veteran teachers who might have been delivering the same First Day spiel for the same course for several semesters. Undergrads recognize these rote recitations as Syllabus Week: a period of dull, repetitive preambles to actual course content that can be easily skipped, provided you don’t wish to learn the exact number of Jennifers in the class (four) or hear yet another articulation of the university’s plagiarism policy (it’s bad).

There isn’t any reason your class needs to follow this trend, so here are a few ways you could tweak your first-day routine for a more productive, engaging First Day:

Start sooner. What if the first day of class wasn’t actually your class’s First Day? Before you accuse me of going full-on galaxy brain, let me explain. There is not, nor should there be, any hard-and-fast rule requiring that the first day of school also be your first contact with your class. Assuming you gain access to a list of your students’ email addresses before classes start, you have a chance to knock off some of your First Day rituals prior to the actual first day, in a low-stakes interaction that allows students to consume the introductory information about the class at their preferred pace in their preferred setting. I usually find somewhere between 48 and 72 hours before the first day of class is a good time to drop this email, though I increase that number for courses where my First Day involves assigned reading.

By moving your First Day before the first day, you don’t have to cram a syllabus review, your advice on how to succeed in the class, icebreakers, and even some academic material into the first 50-minute discussion section. This approach also creates some practical benefits for students: information like your office hours schedule become readily searchable in their inboxes and anyone still on the fence about dropping the class is reminded of the deadline for that decision.

Once you’re in the classroom, learn the information you actually need to do your job instead of relying on hackneyed icebreakers. No professor of mine has ever had to recall my favorite breakfast cereal, the last movie I saw, or any other tidbit of minutiae that students are typically asked to recite, one by one, on First Days. All of my professors, on the other hand, have had to recall my name. Those that had bizarre obsessions with cereal preferences rarely performed well at this.

Now that I am the teacher, I recognize that compiling lists of who saw Black Panther and who saw Infinity War will not help me tell Michael W. and Michael T. apart. To get around this, in classes of around 30 or fewer students, I ask each student to tell me something about themselves that is so memorable I cannot help but immediately recall their name in class the following week. This gives students the opportunity to distinguish themselves and, most importantly, it works!  I don’t know much biographical information about my student who was missing a fingertip because a horse bit it off, but you can bet your last dollar I will never forget her name. Don’t be afraid to nudge those who try to claim there is nothing memorable about them; the guy who “likes basketball” will remain anonymous well past Veterans’ Day, but the guy who wore Carmelo’s jersey for a week straight in elementary school will quickly have a name.

If you’re teaching a larger class where there simply isn’t time to hear who has been disfigured by which animals, you can still have a model interaction with one or more students. In a bigger class, my First Day involves introducing myself to the class, explaining whatever logistical details I think bear repeating, and then introducing myself again, usually to some unlucky soul who happened to sit in the first row. A handshake, a quick conversation about his or her course schedule or interest in the subject matter at hand, and voilà, I’ve demonstrated to everyone in the room what sort of teacher-student dynamic and classroom atmosphere I’m aiming for. Ideally, this will also demonstrate your approachability to students and you’ll have further opportunities for one-on-one interaction before class, in the hallways, and during office hours.

Finally, teach something! Reviewing her First Day routine, GradHacker Amy Rubens described herself as “dead-set against” any First Day that doesn’t include learning. I concur fully. First Days occur at a special time in the academy’s circadian rhythm: every topic is new, everyone is fresh, and everything is awesome. Your students’ curiosity and energy will be relatively high and unfettered by the frustration and fatigue that tends to set in by the first week of November—take advantage!

The same goes for you. Don’t be afraid to really bring it, in terms of energy and enthusiasm on the First Day. This is a chance for students to see your passion for the curriculum before your own mid-semester weariness creeps in. For example, I have students in my introductory reporting class interview each other on the first day. When the unprepared, untrained reporters inevitably fail to discover their peers’ most interesting characteristics, the stage is set for a conversation about which interview techniques are more successful than, say, the Morrison Method. Whatever your approach, it doesn’t have to be formal, rigorous, or graded so long as it creates a little momentum before the serious academic work begins.

How to Keep from Being Overwhelmed Your First Semester of College

College might be something you’ve looked forward to for years. For many people, it means new adventures, new responsibilities, and a chance to grow and experience things you never have before. While college is all of that and more, it’s easy to feel differently about it when you actually get there.

Is the collegiate experience exciting? Absolutely. Can it be overwhelming at first? Unfortunately, yes. Far too often, graduates go into their first semester of college with certain expectations. When reality starts to hit, those overwhelming feelings can take over. Many students can’t handle the schedule, the pressures, and the responsibilities of college when they go into it unprepared.

As a result, about 30% of college freshmen end up dropping out after their first year. So, what can you do to prepare yourself for your first semester (and beyond), so you can actually enjoy the college experience? Let’s look at a few helpful tips.

Prepare Ahead of Time

One of the best things you can do to keep from being overwhelmed at college is to prepare as much as possible ahead of time. It’s easy to get wrapped up in all of the excitement, but by taking a few extra steps to get ready, the transition will likely be much smoother.

So, what can you do before you even get to campus?

First, do a little research on your campus. Schedule a visit, if possible. The more comfortable you are with the terrain, the less you’ll be overwhelmed when you have to head from class to class. Make sure to check out the dorms as well if you plan to live on campus so you can put together a realistic packing list.

You can also download some helpful apps ahead of time that will keep you on track throughout the semester. Apps like Mint will help you to create and stick to a budget while you’re in school. Other creative apps like Push for Pizza will help you to fuel those late-night study sessions with a single button. Apps can help you to streamline many things and they provide a lot of resources at your fingertips.

Additionally, take some time before you get to school to find out more about your individual learning style. Everyone learns differently. While colleges seem to be more aware of that than ever, you still need to understand it for yourself, too. Some people are auditory learners, while others are visual or tactile. Understanding more about your style will help to prepare you with what you need for your classes. For example, maybe you’re an auditory learner, so you’ll benefit from recording your professor’s lectures and listening to them later. If you’re a visual learner, you might be able to take pictures of slides or notes.

Taking Care of Your Body

When you’re in the midst of a new experience like college, it’s not difficult to ignore your physical health. College often comes with many stereotypes about gaining weight, putting on the “Freshman 15,” and living an unhealthy lifestyle.

Taking care of your body is important for your energy levels, your concentration, memory, and relationships. Most college campuses have fitness centers or gyms that you can go to at no cost. Or, you could join an intramural sports team with some friends.

On top of staying active, your diet needs to stay as healthy as possible, too. College is often synonymous with drinking, but drinking too much can debilitate you, impact your physical and mental health, and may even make things worse if you suffer from a chronic disease, like diabetes. Alcohol can cause dizziness, nausea, poor coordination, and drowsiness.

It can also be tempting to choose convenience foods that are packed with preservatives, sugar, and fat. If you have a microwave in your dorm room, cooking a frozen meal might seem like your best option, but they’re usually laden with sodium. Most fast foods are filled with preservatives and fat.

Don’t be afraid to use the resources given to you on campus. Talk to a health or nutritional expert. They may be able to work out a specific diet plan based on your needs, so you can stay healthy throughout the semester. If you’re living on campus, get on the student meal plan and take full advantage of it.

Taking Care of Your Mind

It’s not just your body that can be overworked and treated poorly during college. Your mental health can take a beating, too. College is filled with new experiences you may have never thought of before. While many of them can be fun and exciting, others can cause a lot of stress.

At the beginning of the semester, taking time to get to know your surroundings, meeting new people, and learning how your classes work can cause brain fog. Not getting enough activity can also cause you to feel mentally fatigued or even depressed. Exercise can help to release endorphins and dopamine in your brain to fight those feelings of sadness.

By the time you think you have everything figured out, the end of the semester rolls around. You might start to feel overwhelmed about all of the packing you have to do to move back home, so be sure to start early, packing little by little each day.

Don’t let yourself get too worked up over final exams, either. Reviewing your notes, studying with others, and taking care of yourself will make your mind clearer and will allow you to stay focused and remember more of the material.

One of the best ways to take care of your mental health is to get enough sleep. Again, college is notorious for “all-nighters” and staying up late all the time. But by making sleep a priority and setting a schedule for yourself, you can wake up each day and enjoy improved memory and a greater ability to stay focused.

If you’re struggling with your mental health, your school likely has a resource you can turn to for help. Many college campuses have counselors or therapists on hand that are experts in dealing with things like depression and/or anxiety. When you’re far from home, college can seem like a lonely place. It’s important to know that you’re not alone, especially when things seem hopeless and scary. A counselor can help to guide you through those feelings.

College will be an unbelievable experience, and it can easily be the best, most memorable time of your life. With a little bit of planning and self-care, you can ke

So, You’re Going to Graduate School

Two weeks from today, I’ll graduate from my PhD program, and it feels surreal to cross that finish line. The journey has not been without its many challenges. Many of which swirled in my mind as I read Marcos S. Gonsalez’s recent Twitter thread about the challenges of humanities PhDs, the job market, and being a first gen academic of color. The conversation that ensued reveals the thick fog around purpose, outcomes, and expectations for pursuing graduate studies that applies to the students and faculty involved in the situation. The handwringing I noticed from faculty was particularly distressing and it reiterated for me why, broadly, the U.S. public undervalues the humanities as much as it does. But, I’m not here to rehash the argument on whether people should go to graduate school (especially in the humanities).

Rather, since the Council of Graduate School’s April 15 Resolution deadline has just passed and a new cohort of students begin preparing for the start of their new programs, I posed two questions: what did you do the summer before graduate school and who advised you on it? Nearly 30 people replied and most of them were current PhD students or people with a graduate degree working in academic and alt-ac contexts. Their responses cohered around three critical points: how to navigate finances; burn out or lack of transition time; and a severe lack of mentorship about the role of a graduate degree in their career paths.

1. Figuring Out Finances
The majority of people who responded to my call (30 in all) worked full time, or more, through that summer. Some, like Payal, a molecular immunologist, and Marwa, a historian, were working in fields that aligned closely with their respective degree programs, but most others worked further afield from their scholarly interests. Having banked a great deal of vacation time, Payal was able to give herself a six week buffer period between the end of her work commitments and the start of the fall semester, but it also meant that she had to finish all her projects in progress within the six month period from acceptance notification to starting her program.

Several people prioritized the need for more information on two major financial aspects: cost of living in the area and typical expenses for graduate students; and how many students complete the degree program within the guaranteed years of funding.

Graduate Programs: Include information about the financial health of the department in your Graduate Student Handbook. Such data (assistantship amount, tuition waivers and benefits, and non-departmental funding sources at the institution) should be collected and updated annually because it can be used in multiple reporting venues (to incoming graduate students, for any departmental or institutional reviews).

Graduate Students: Reach out to your colleagues. As soon as you’re admitted, you should ask the department to arrange a visit (and see if they can fund it), or, at the very least, how you might be able to connect with current students. If there is a graduate organization in the department or on campus, those are great venues for asking such questions, too.

2. Finding Mentorship
Even those who had strong mentorship regarding the academic aspect of graduate school through the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program and/or the McNair Scholars Program felt under-prepared for how to navigate the professional expectations and norms of their fields. Jamiella noted that, as a graduate student of color, she struggled to find mentorship and learn about her rights as a graduate student and that, in her efforts to build those relationships, when she strayed away from her own department, she was criticized for not being more present. Luckily, for Markeysha, her department of Afro-American studies happened to be more welcoming socially. She reached out to several graduate students before she started via social media and while not everyone responded, those who did said they wanted to help her ward off the isolation that they encountered in their first year.

Only two people received significant guidance from their departments for the summer: Mary, a neurobiologist and, currently, a graduate dean, told me that when she went to Columbia in the late ‘80s, they had to take entrance exams based on reading list prepared by department faculty. She said “the prep set [her] up with a solid foundation … and communicate[d] the expectations for a) assumed prior foundational knowledge, b) students’ self-learning ability, c) accountability.”

Similarly, Marwa’s program circulated a reading list, sans exams, that included materials on how historians do their work, foundational texts in the program’s strengths, and recent books by faculty in the department. She said the latter was especially important for being able to assess immediately what kind of research and teaching were happening in the department and who might be on a shortlist for exams committees, which could then help select courses, allowing the student to build meaningful relationships with faculty of interest from the beginning.

The lack of such guidance led Kate P, a global modernist, to sign up for a course simply because it actually listed the required readings in the course description. That choice allowed her to get some sense of what a graduate seminar in her department would look like.

Graduate Programs: Have faculty in the program, by sub-field, identify 1-3 texts that incoming graduate students should have read and update this list annually ideally. Faculty with administrative roles like chair, graduate director, and job officer should similarly identify 1-3 texts that speak to writing, researching, teaching, and other aspects of the profession so that students get a full picture of what graduate school entails as well as the careers for people #withaPhD. If you assign faculty and peer mentors to new students — and you should — connect them in May rather than waiting until the new term begins.

Graduate Students: Become familiar with our trade publications like the Chronicle of Higher Ed and Inside Higher Ed. Check out social media resources like @TrynaGrad or @IamSciComm and engage with your professional organizations. Get the inside scoop from a graduate student point of a view at GradHacker and Conditionally Accepted for insight into the navigating profession as as person on the margins . Ask your colleagues about assistantship responsibilities such as teaching or working in labs.

3. Mitigating Burnout
There was a chorus of agreement around preparing oneself psychologically. Sid, a cell and developmental biologist, and Evelyn, an MA student in public health, stressed the importance of listening to one’s body and figuring out where to put energies and when to conserve them. Fellow GradHacker Megan put it well when she advised, “You can’t compare yourself to others … You don’t need to work 24/7 … Work hard, but smart … And finally, your work does not define your worth.”

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