Ask HN: Advice for freshmen entering college

For example, I did actual research! By the time I was finished with my undergraduate programme, I had enough "real" research experience to gain entry to a very good PhD programme in another country. This was coming from a small university with no particular research reputation outside of a few select areas.

So skipping classes worked for me. Just don't do it to the point where you think you know what is going on in the class, when you really don't.

You may have inflated expectations of college women, assuming that intelligence and good behavior, decent tastes in men, etc. are correlated. I sure did. In fact, this is what I told myself to expect throughout high school: when I get to college, things will be more civilized. Wrong. You'll be unpleasantly surprised if you go in to most collegs with high expectations. Expect a continuation of high school behavior on the dating front. In fact, college can be worse, because you now face competition from men ages 22-26, which you didn't in high school (one should hope). This makes the market tighter.

If you meet a woman you really dig, and if you're both mature enough to pursue a relationship, go for it. I wouldn't expect this, however; it seems to happen only for about 10-20% of men at this stage of life. Don't take it personally, at all, if this aspect of life is miserable and dry for you; it's that way for most (decent) men in college.

For a man who cares more than he should about womens' approval, ages 16-21 are pretty damn miserable; it becomes fun after that, however, as the balance of power tends to switch around age 25. Most college women are chasing bad boys whose IQs are 2/3 of yours. Just focus on school and your career, rather than sacrificing time, mental health, and energy on a pursuit that will enervate and confuse you. Enjoy life and work hard instead. Then, in your mid- to late 20s, women will begin pursuing you.

(If you're a woman or gay, my advice probably still applies, but I don't have any personal experience that would apply.)

Find the professors and academic staff who are doing worthwhile research that interests you, and talk to them! Not in an irritating sycophantic way, just have a conversation if you genuinely want to know more.

A big adaptation going from high school to university for me was the fact that academic staff are not like teachers at school. Most of them will actually treat you like an adult and will just have a conversation with you. The clear demarcation between "teacher" and "student" kinda goes away.

This probably varies hugely between institutions, but I found that by the end of my undergraduate career, I had made really good friends with some of my lecturers. Just last week I went to a pub with one of my old professors because he was passing through London. There are three major benefits to this: 1) You'll see the other side! If you are planning a research career after grad school, it's a really good way to learn how to be a professional researcher! 2) You are more likely to get a good-quality recommendation for grad school if the person writing it knows who the hell you are. 3) Academics are generally really nice people! They became academics because they were good at something that you want to become good at. You have a shared interest - it'll probably be very rewarding for you (and hopefully for them too).

So, in short, don't view your lecturers as faceless drones who stand up in front of a class and drone on for an hour. That's a tiny part of what they do - and the rest of what they do is usually much more interesting! And finally, just don't be sycophantic about it. Nobody likes a suck-up :-p