John Mark Reynolds has a helpful column here offering 10 tips for college students getting ready for Fall.
What follows is the barebones outline, but if the topic is of interest, you'll want to read the whole thing.
1. Ignore advice to “remake” yourself the first day you get to college.
2. Do something each week that puts you in contact with people older and younger than your peer group.
3. If you have a decent relationship with your parents keep it up.
4. If you are going to college, then go. You are in college to learn. In America, education often includes getting a job skill, but should also be about becoming a good, civilized citizen.
5. Find a faculty mentor during your first year.
6. Take classes that are hard from full-time professors that love to teach.
7. Secretaries and support staff are overworked, underpaid, and very powerful. You should be good to them out of virtue, but you must do it to thrive. The friendship you make with the department secretary now will pay dividends over the years. (One way I judge the character of a student is by how they treat the support staff.)8. Books are not yet antiques. Go to the library. Talk to librarians. They are faculty members that are often under-utilized.
9. Don’t be too quick to pick a major, but try to do so by the end of the first year.10. Live like an adult in college which includes moderating your passions.
