50 Things to do before you Graduate College:
Article from MIT Admissions. Written by Ben Jones.Â
As you begin your college experience, and I prepare for my 10-year college reunion, I thought Iâd leave you with the things that, in retrospect, I think are important as you navigate the next four years. I hope that some of them are helpful.
Your friends will change a lot over the next four years. Let them.
Call someone you love back home a few times a week, even if just for a few minutes.
In college more than ever before, songs will attach themselves to memories. Every month or two, make a mix cd, mp3 folder, whatever - just make sure you keep copies of these songs. Ten years out, theyâll be as effective as a journal in taking you back to your favorite moments.
Take naps in the middle of the afternoon with reckless abandon.
Adjust your schedule around when you are most productive and creative. If youâre nocturnal and do your best work late at night, embrace that. It may be the only time in your life when you can.
If you write your best papers the night before they are due, donât let people tell you that you âshould be more organizedâ or that you âshould plan better.â Different things work for different people. Personally, I worked best under pressure - so I always procrastinated⌠and always kicked ass (which annoyed my friends to no end). ;-) Use the freedom that comes with not having grades first semester to experiment and see what works best for you.
At least a few times in your college career, do something fun and irresponsible when you should be studying. The night before my freshman year psych final, my roommate somehow scored front row seats to the Indigo Girls at a venue 2 hours away. I didnât do so well on the final, but I havenât thought about psych since 1993. Iâve thought about the experience of going to that show (with the guy who is now my sonâs godfather) at least once a month ever since.
Become friends with your favorite professors. Recognize that they can learn from you too - in fact, thatâs part of the reason they chose to be professors.
Carve out an hour every single day to be alone. (Sleeping doesnât count.)
Go on dates. Donât feel like every date has to turn into a relationship.
Donât date someone your roommate has been in a relationship with.
When your friendsâ parents visit, include them. Youâll get free food, etc., and youâll help them to feel like theyâre cool, hanginâ with the hip college kids.
In the first month of college, send a hand-written letter to someone who made college possible for you and describe your adventures thus far. It will mean a lot to him/her now, and it will mean a lot to you in ten years when he/she shows it to you.
Embrace the differences between you and your classmates. Always be asking yourself, âwhat can I learn from this person?â More of your education will come from this than from any classroom.
All-nighters are entirely overrated.
For those of you who have come to college in a long-distance relationship with someone from high school: despite what many will tell you, it can work. The key is to not let your relationship interfere with your college experience. If you donât want to date anyone else, thatâs totally fine! What's not fine, however, is missing out on a lot of defining experiences because youâre on the phone with your boyfriend/girlfriend for three hours every day.
Working things out between friends is best done in person, not over email. (IM does not count as âin person.â) Often someoneâs facial expressions will tell you more than his/her words.
Donât be afraid of (or excited by) the co-ed bathrooms. The thrill is over in about 2 seconds.
Wednesday is the middle of the week; therefore on wednesday night the week is more than half over. You should celebrate accordingly. (It makes thursday and friday a lot more fun.)
Welcome failure into your lives. Itâs how we grow. What matters is not that you failed, but that you recovered.
Take some classes that have nothing to do with your major(s), purely for the fun of it.
Itâs important to think about the future, but itâs more important to be present in the now. You wonât get the most out of college if you think of it as a stepping stone.
When youâre living on a college campus with 400 things going on every second of every day, watching TV is pretty much a waste of your time and a waste of your parentsâ money. If youâre going to watch, watch with friends so at least you can call it a âvaluable social experience.â
Donât be afraid to fall in love. When it happens, donât take it for granted. Celebrate it, but donât let it define your college experience.
Much of the time you once had for pleasure reading is going to disappear. Keep a list of the books you would have read had you had the time, so that you can start reading them when you graduate.
Things that seem like the end of the world really do become funny with a little time and distance. Knowing this, forget the embarassment and skip to the good part.
Every once in awhile, there will come an especially powerful moment when you can actually feel that an experience has changed who you are. Embrace these, even if they are painful.
No matter what your political or religious beliefs, be open-minded. Youâre going to be challenged over the next four years in ways you canât imagine, across all fronts. You canât learn if youâre closed off.
If you need to get a job, find something that you actually enjoy. Just because itâs work doesnât mean it has to suck.
Donât always lead. Itâs good to follow sometimes.
Take a lot of pictures. One of my major regrets in life is that I didnât take more pictures in college. My excuse was the cost of film and processing. Digital cameras are cheap and you have plenty of hard drive space, so you have no excuse.
Your health and safety are more important than anything.
Half of you will be in the bottom half of your class at any given moment. Way more than half of you will be in the bottom half of your class at some point in the next four years. Get used to it.
In ten years very few of you will look as good as you do right now, so secretly revel in how hot you are before itâs too late.
In the long run, where you go to college doesnât matter as much as what you do with the opportunities youâre given there. The MIT name on your resume wonât mean much if thatâs the only thing on your resume. As a student here, you will have access to a variety of unique opportunities that no one else will ever have - donât waste them.
On the flip side, donât try to do everything. Balance = well-being.
Make perspective a priority. If youâre too close to something to have good perspective, rely on your friends to help you.
Eat badly sometimes. Itâs the last time in your life when you can do this without feeling guilty about it.
Make a complete ass of yourself at least once, preferably more. It builds character.
Wash your sheets more than once a year. Trust me on this one.
If you are in a relationship and none of your friends want to hang out with you and your significant other, pay attention. They usually know better than you do.
Donât be afraid of the weird pizza topping combinations that your new friend from across the country loves. Some of the truly awful ones actually taste pretty good. Expand your horizons.
Explore the campus thoroughly. Donât get caught.
Life is too short to stick with a course of study that youâre no longer excited about. Switch, even if it complicates things.
Tattoos are permanent. Be very certain.
Donât make fun of prefrosh. That was you like 2 hours ago.
Enjoy every second of the next four years. It is impossible to describe how quickly they pass.
This is the only time in your lives when your only real responsibility is to learn. Try to remember how lucky you are every day.
Be yourself. Create. Inspire, and be inspired. Grow. Laugh. Learn. Love.
Welcome to some of the best years of your lives.
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