I am having lots of fun making these! I keep coming up with things I haven’t seen on tumblr and most of them have to do with College! There is a lot about note-taking and a lot about studying blah blah blah but not a lot about just COLLEGE in general. College is a lot different than high school in that there is MUCH MORE to college than just school. Campus is a huge part of this. So I made this guide.
Some Tips on Figuring our your campus
1. Do not be afraid to do things alone. You will not always have friends who want to be following you around campus to comedy shows, concerts, and yoga classes so don’t be afraid to try new things alone. That’s how you make friends in college.
2. Be open-minded. Know your limits but don’t be afraid to try and push them.
3. Follow your gut. Don’t do things that make you feel uncomfortable or travel on paths that you think feel dangerous. I don’t recommend travelling around campus alone at night unless you absolutely have to.
1. Pick a building and orient yourself. You don’t need to know cardinal directions, you just need to have a basic left-right-up-down orientation. I don’t care if its your dorm, your student union, your major building, the health center. Anywhere. You should be able to see routes in your head for every building your need to be at from that building.
2. Practice makes perfect: walk campus. Start with your building of orientation and walk to your dorm, your dining hall, your student union, and your library. Then walk from your dorm to all of your classes. You should know how to get to your dorm, student union, library, dining hall, and most visited classroom building from the main road. You will get better at this with practice but as you become more comfortable with your routes, switch them up.
If you plan on riding a bike around campus, walk a lot of campus first and take note of places where there are bike racks. Walking gives you the freedom to find new places to park your bike, walk with friends, and take different exits. You might even be able to find a better bike spot if you spend the first few weeks at school walking.
2. Follow people you see on a regular basis. That sounds creepy but if you see one girl in a class and then in the dining hall later and don’t know how she got there follow her at a safe but not creepy distance to see what routes she takes. If you always see people going down a certain corridor coming from the library, follow them. Don’t be creepy about it and don’t openly stalk people because that will get you in a lot of trouble and isn’t cute. But you should
3. Look for study spaces! If your campus has more than one library try to visit at least three of them. You may find that one of them is closer to you than the main library. Go to your student union (or equivalent multipurpose building) and explore. Eat there, walk around. Try to take all of the entrances and exists and sit once on every floor. When you go to both of these places, ask for a map of the campus and a map of the building if they have one.
4. There’s probably an app for that! Ask around. This is a great way to be lost without looking lost!
Super Important Aspects of Your Campus
* Make sure to follow your campus as well as all the following buildings on social media to stay up to date on what is going on on your campus. This is the easiest way to find out about local campus-run activities and events. *
This place has all kinds of stuff. Club offices and information centers, ticketing for events, maps, food, greek life offices, offices for diversity (usually there are several different offices), off-campus housing offices, etc. Take time looking for bathrooms in this building on the different floors. This is the easiest way to spot new offices and hidden things. Student Unions can also be home to free art exhibits and other events for students. Student Unions may also be the hub for post offices and student bookstores which will be super important for textbook rental, sending letters, and buying stamps. Go to your student union at least once a week to see what is up. They might have events that they aren’t advertising, symposiums that no one told you about, and art hidden in the corners. Every student union is different so when you go there, try and sit in different places. Buy food and eat on a different floor from where you got it or take some time to study in there.
I made an entire post on that here so read that if you haven’t already. Everything I could have put here will be there. The library will have study spaces as well as tons of resources for research. I updated it recently . Your campus probably has more than one library and they probably all have slightly different services so make sure you check them all out.
The Health Center/Clinic Thing
University Health Centers tend to operate like clinics with terrible hours. They do everything from check ups to illness visits. They usually have a pharmacy where you can get generic medicine for less money than your local CVS. Health Centers also usually offer de-stress services like exercise, therapy dog sessions, and sometimes even acupuncture. If you’re a new student who needs to regularly have mental health checks or receives allergy shots, visit your school’s health center, call ahead, or find their website to get more information.
Be kind to the doctors and nurses at this clinic. If you’re someone like me who goes to the doctor for every little thing, it’s good to know you can have someone you trust to slide you into appointments or prescribe you medicine if you really need it.
This building is sometimes separate from the Health Center or regular health services buildings. Find out their walk-in hours and usual walk-in appointment durations. Chances are if they keep you longer than a regular walk-in session, you may need to find an actual therapist or make regular counseling center appointments. They are willing to talk to you about anything from majors to your mental health problems and beyond so if you ever have an issue, you should go here. College will inevitably get very stressful so you should make sure you know where this is and when you can just walk-in.
These are just like High School Guidance Counselors. However the quality of your advising can sometimes vary by major/school. I switched my major from Business to Japanese partially because I found the Arts & Humanities Advising to be more helpful than business. Check out their walk-in hours and try to meet with your advisor at least once every semester before you register for classes even if your school doesn’t require it. They often offer career and internship services specific to your major and school so make sure you check that out. If you are considering changing your major, talk to the major advisor for your current major and your prospective one about your idea to change because your current major advisor may be able to offer your some information regarding passing benchmarks if you decide to switch back. There are a lot of things to consider when changing your major (see @vera-studies masterpost here because it’s pretty good), but you have to go through the motions to do it so make sure you familiarize yourself with advising early on. If you keep a bullet journal, save the cards of your advising office inside in case you ever need them.
