College can either make you or break you. For most kids around the whole college is the first time they have been without the supervision of their parents. College has security and faculty but this is different. No one is constantly telling what and what not to do. Even though college is about studying is a big social scene as well. Balancing studies, priorities, and social life can be hard in college. I have five tips to survive college.

First set your alarm an hour earlier than your class time. By doing this, this give a person time to get dressed, bathed, and pack the school bag. Some teachers don’t care if you are a minute late you will be lectured in front of the whole class. That could be embarrassing, trust me I been there. Setting your alarm is important but remember to set the ringtone to play something so loud and annoying that you won’t be able to sleep through it. I like to set three alarms back to back to back that way I know I won’t even have the option to sleep in. I remember being late to the first day of class freshman year at mercy. It was hard for me to find my class and I was new to the campus. The teacher did not care it was the first day and made an example out of me. Being on time is important so set your alarms.

To get through college you’re going to need a planner. Yeah planners are old fashioned and most people take them for granted but they work. Plenty of times I told myself I’m going to remember all my homework without writing it down. Times goes by I do some homework and I’m happy to go to class and hand it in, not realizing I forgot to do another assignment. I thought I could remember all my homework for all my classes. Some classes even gave more than one assignment. Agenda planners are made to track what needs to be done and by when it needs to done by. This is very important in preventing missing and late homework assignments. Mercy even sells some in the book store with the Mercy Maverick logos on them

Don’t sit in the back of the class. There are so many students in this world with big heads blocking the board. If you are going to pay top dollar to sit in a class I learn then wouldn’t you want the best seat? All the action and information is in the front of the classroom. If you think by sitting in the back your hiding from the teacher, your wrong! Teachers love to call on the kids in the back. It’s not the 1990s anymore teachers been caught on the that trick. It’s better to sit in the front and hide in plain sight.

Don’t skip breakfast! Breakfast in the most important meal of the day. It helps you to function and gives your body the energy it needs to make it through the rest of the day. Without breakfast you might fall back to sleep in class or fighting sleep. It’s the worst feeling when your stomach is growling and its getting hard for you to focus. While your mind is on that its being distracted from learning the tasks at hand.

Last but not least is time management. During your day you should put some time a side for studies, social interaction, and time to rest because thats important too. If you plan your day out or have a routine then college will be simple. You make a list of everything that you need to get done and chose how much time will be spent on what.  After a while it will be a second nature to you and you will be used to it.  Time management is very important because some people spend too much time on one thing that they don’t have time to work on other assignments or complete specific tasks.

College is hard but manageable. I created five way to survive college including setting alarms, having a planner, sitting in the front of the class, eating breakfast, and time management. All of these are very essential to surviving college. These five suggestions will make a big difference in your college experience and set you up for success. We all go to college to make something of ourselves and these suggestions will set you up for success.