News Detail
Surviving Your First Semester in College
Special thanks to our 2025 Alumni Networking Day panel for orienting our juniors and seniors to how to manage in college: Meghan Dooley ’25 (Bridgewater State University, Flight Training Center), Dillon Fondren ’25 (Fairfield University), Adele Francis ’24 (St. John’s College), Ethan Plotkin ’25 (University of Vermont). Here is their advice on how to discover your college self.
Tips on Finding Your People
How to Make a Good Schedule
Working with Professors
Kudos to FA
Back
Tips on Finding Your People
- Be accommodating and learn how to share your space.
- Try to have clear boundaries.
- The entire first week of my time at school was all events, meeting people, talking to new people, getting phone numbers.
- Just keep going to things. Try to go to as many as you can.
- Join activities, clubs, classes, etc.
- It’s fun to meet new people because everyone there is breaking out and wants to make new friends.
- I met a lot of people on my floor by going around knocking on doors. Don’t be afraid to do that. Some people will just be sitting there playing music in the hall. Just feel free to talk to people.
- Try and be a part of the school's culture. Remember what made it special to you and find other people who care about the same things.
- Go to college events, go meet with alumni or guest speakers or things that will better you.
How to Make a Good Schedule
- You don't have a My FA app where you conveniently go and you see all your assignments for the day, week, month, whatever. You have to really plan it out yourself.
- Set aside time to get stuff done (i.e. laundry, eating, going to the gym).
- I went to all my classrooms the week before classes started to make sure I knew where I was going.
- At FA you had a schedule made for you from 8:15 to 2:40 every single day, and then you usually had something after. But in college, you may have a class at 8 a.m. and then nothing until 5 in the evening. You have to figure out what you can do with those hours in between.
- Don't just sleep all day or doom scroll. It's not going to help.
- I found myself more productive in the mornings at college rather than less. That might just be me.
- Commit to activities but remember they do add a lot to your plate. Find balance.
- Mr. Barnes always tried to hammer time management into our heads. It works.
- I unconsciously call on time management skills when I plan out my week beforehand.
- Take 30 minutes on a Sunday and go through your whole week.
Working with Professors
- Schedule time to meet with your teachers.
- Go to office hours with your teachers at least once each semester just so they know who you are.
- Mr. Deasy was always saying when your professor is grading a paper with your name on it, you want them to be able to picture you in their head. You want to be known.
- If you have a question, odds are other people do too. So ask it. The professor is not going to be mad at you for asking a question, especially if it's related to the material.
Kudos to FA
- We are so very lucky at FA that our teachers know us, care about us, want us to do well.
- Learning time management at FA is a really big thing that's been helping me in school and getting me through everything.
- Every time we had to do a paper, people would ask me, "Oh, how do I do this?"
- In seventh grade we made flashcards and I ended up making flashcards in college. It was insanely helpful, way more than I thought it would be.
- At FA, you are in a really good spot for writing papers, history papers, English papers. You know how to do it. You know how all of it works.
- You will have better study skills than other kids in college.
- You don't have to be friends with everybody. You will meet people. You will hang out with them for a bit. You will drift away from that. You will see them in the halls. Feel free to nod and say hi, but you don't need to be friends with everybody. You will find people.
- Take time to relax. You will have free time. But don't waste it.
- You spend so much time around other people but find time to be alone with yourself too.
- Manage your time well.
- Get sleep. It’s really important.
- You don't have your mom or your dad telling you to do your homework, go to bed, make sure you eat this meal. It’s easy to forget.
- Blocking out time for meals is good.
- Talk to your parents and your grandparents and siblings, friends. Maintain out of school relationships as well as in school relationships. That's a very important balance to have.
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