When August hits and it is time to go back to school advice comes flying. Some of this advice stems from information most think is true, but happens to be the exact opposite.
The biggest assumption about college is that it is SO much harder than high school. If you make it a priority to have good studying habits and organizational skills you will do just as well as you did in high school. The most difficult transition is time management, but as you learn the time commitment that each college assignment takes you will learn how to schedule time quickly.
The thing heard most around college campuses is that college is all naps and cheating. Professors know if students turn in the same paper as someone they have previously taught, even if they turned it in 5 years ago. Classes also use programing such as Turnitin.com to combat plagiarism. Also, napping through class every day for the entire semester except for the final is not recommended. Attendance is counted into grading often, and being asleep means not absorbing information, which normally leads to a lot of low grades.
Another often heard myth is that shopping in class is how most students spend their time. Lecture professors will ban laptops for this reason exactly. Smaller class professors will walk around and make sure your open tabs are notes and if not they will ban that person from using their laptop in class. Shopping is actually very hard to do while in class.
So many say freshman will eat like they’ve never seen food before. Yes the food at college is unhealthy, no that does not make you want to eat it. It actually does the opposite for some. What is eaten at school does lean more towards the unhealthy range, but it’s not eaten in as much excess as most make it out.
Which brings me to the freshman 15. Yes it does happen to some. Yes you can prevent it. No you should not try to prevent it by not eating. Maybe choose a salad instead of a cheeseburger at the dinning hall, eat fruit for breakfast instead of pancakes, and maybe walk to class instead of taking the bus. It’s when eating gets excessive that the freshman 15 creeps in.