College Crunch

Making your first day of college better only requires a bit of planning, and so here are some tips to make your first day of school better.

1.) Research Parking
One of the worst aspects of starting your first day can be parking.

Fighting for a spot only to realize you are on the wrong side of the building. Bringing cash to pay the meter, only to realize you need to go to the resource center to load the cash onto your student card to pay for parking or even worse, that you needed to buy a parking pass.

There are so many things that can go wrong, and it only takes a few minutes of research to find out what you need to know to make the process go smoothly.

At my college, there are areas where no one parks at certain times of the day, making it easier to find a spot, despite it being in an inconvenient area of the building. What I realized though is that the time it took me to find a spot in the more crowded areas was just as much time as it took me to walk to my class and back from the less crowded spots. I didn’t really save any time, but I had a lot less frustration, and a bit more exercise.

Contact the office and ask them about parking permits. They should have all the information you need regarding parking, and might even have a few tips on where you should go to get a spot quickly. Talk to the Student Association and see if they have any details on parking. Since they are students as well, they might have some of the best advice.

2.) Campus Map
On my first day, I walked into a classroom that wasn’t my own, and waited for ten minutes before realizing that I was in the wrong spot. Don’t let this happen to you. Get a campus map to use until you get the layout of the school memorized.

It might look a little silly, but it is less embarrassing than sitting in the wrong class.

One way to do this without looking silly is to go before school starts and walk around with the map. That way when the first day of classes begin, you already have the lay of the land, and don’t need the map any longer.

3.) Best Route to School
There is nothing worse than entering your class after it has already begun thanks to the congestion that occurs when everyone is going to school.

There are almost always alternative routes that are less congested, meaning you get to school on time.

It can be hard to tell which route will be the best before school begins, so plan some alternatives and switch between them until you have found the optimal routes.

4.) First Day Supplies
Everyone expects that the first day will be easy, but there is always one professor that wants to push students hard on their first day. Be prepared with a good grouping of school supplies that will allow you to keep up with what the professor wants to teach you.

There is nothing worse than having a lecture and not being able to make the proper notes.

Conclusion
The first few days of school are always the most stressful, but there are ways you can reduce that stress by being prepared. Take those extra steps so your first day goes well.