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What is College Dorm Life Like - Tips for Surviving University Dorm Living

What is College Dorm Life Like


Are you trying to make the decision of whether or not to live in a college dorm during your first year in college? If your college campus gives you an option for living on or off campus, you might be thinking that dorm life isn’t for you. It’s filled with giggling girls and show off boys, has too many rules and means sharing space that you don’t want to share. But life in dorms is more than just these basic stereotypes, and it might be more like what you need right now than you could possibly imagine. Following are some myths about life in dorms and the realities behind them.


Life in Dorms, Myth #1: Sharing a room is awful.

If you’ve always had your own room at your parents’ house, the idea of sharing a room with someone else can seem terrible. But it’s usually not as awful as most students think. You can divide the room in half so that you have an area which is your personal space and you can work out a schedule with your roommate so you have some alone time in your room. Life is all about compromise and you may find that the compromises are worth the benefits of having a roommate around to talk with and rely on during the first year of college.


Life in Dorms, Myth #2: There are too many rules.

Yes, there are rules in dorms. How strict they are depends on the school and is something that you might want to look into as you consider colleges. But you probably had rules in your parents’ home and the rules of the dorm are probably less strict than those at home. And the rules are there for your own good, whether you like it or not. The transition to college can be tough and sometimes having some boundaries in place can really help you to make that transition.


Life in Dorms, Myth #3: Every night is a party.

Often, when you first move into your dorm, there is a lot of socializing going on. This may intimidate you if you aren’t used to be very social or you are concerned about your study time. But it usually tapers off after the first few weeks as people settle into their social groups and get used to being around each other on campus. Besides, your room is your space and you get to have a say in how it’s used. If you don’t want a party in your room all of the time and you’re able to communicate your needs to your dorm mate, you shouldn’t have any real problems. Besides, you might like those midnight slumber sessions once in awhile.


Life in Dorms, Myth #4: It’s always noisy.


This is one that is sometimes true and sometimes not. You have a lot of people living in a small space with thin walls so you’re going to hear some noise. But most of your roommates in the dorm are going to be a lot like you – noisy sometimes and not so noisy at other times. A good pair of ear plugs, a great mp3 player and strong communication skills with your neighbors go a long way towards making this myth a minimal problem.


Life in Dorms, Myth #5: You won’t like anyone you live with.


College dorm life in reality isn’t a lot like what you see portrayed on TV. In other words, there aren’t cookie cutter people who all live in the dorm together. Instead, there are a diverse group of people who come from a range of backgrounds and who have a variety of beliefs and habits. You’re sure to find someone that you can get along with. Be open to liking your dorm mates and dorm life should go smoothly for you.

How to Make the Transition from High School to College Life Easier

How to Make the Transition from High School to College Life Easier



The transition to college is often difficult for students to make. Frequently, it means moving to a new home which might not be in the same city – or even the same part of the country – as your high school home. The transition to college also requires you to take on new responsibilities in life, learn new skills and essentially to “grow up”. But college life is designed to make this transition as easy as possible, providing you with resources on campus to help you through the difficulties of making the transition.


The biggest difficulty that comes with the transition to college is the difficulty of moving away from home. Sure, you’re thrilled about it. But you’re probably also scared. You have to learn how to pay your bills on your own, set your own schedule, and handle your own household responsibilities. Living in a dorm can greatly help with your transition to college for this reason. It gives you some regulations and guidelines to keep you from getting too crazy while allowing you some of the freedoms of living on your own. It’s the perfect medium between living at home with your parents and living in an apartment and can be the transition that you need in terms of housing.


Other than housing, the general responsibilities of life that you’ll have to manage are the major part of your transition to college. Your credit card and cell phone bills will likely be coming to your new home and you’re going to need to figure out how to pay them in a timely manner. You’re not going to have anyone to tell you when to go to bed, so you’ll need to figure out when you need some sleep. These are things that you’ll learn with time. The most important thing is to stay tuned in to yourself. If you’re getting sick often, feeling stressed all the time or feel unusually depressed and scared, you might need to get some help as you make these transitions.


Help is something that you should have at your disposal anyway, because the transition to college isn’t always easy even in the best of circumstances. Help can come in many forms. Maybe you just need to know that you can call your best friend from back home in the middle of the night to tell her that all of your roommates are mean and you don’t like anyone in your classes. Perhaps you need the security of knowing that you can go back home for a year if you can’t make the transition to college work for you. Or maybe you need regular contact with a school counselor to give you guidance about making choices as you transition to college. Make use of all of the human resources at your disposal to make the transition go more smoothly.


You’re hardly the first … or the last … person to make the transition to college. Others have done it successfully year after year and you’ll be able to do it as well. Trust your own abilities, be willing to make and learn from your mistakes and surround yourself with people who will help you transition to college. It’s an exciting time of life and you should do your best to make the most of it!

Learning How To Study In Universities or College

We all know that it can be difficult to study in college. There are simply so many distractions. There are club meetings to attend, parties to plan, lunches to enjoy. For some, there are outside commitments to work and family. And for everyone, there is already the over-committed schedule of attending classes and making sure that the daily assignments are met. It can be harrowing to try and balance it all. But if you learn early on how to study in college, you can make the most of your college career with little stress and lots of great experiences.


Make studying a daily habit


Yes, there is a lot going on, but you have more daily time than you think that you do. If you can maximize this time to get studying in on a regular, daily basis, then you won’t be overwhelmed when big exams and papers are coming up on you. You’ll already be prepared so the big push won’t seem so big at all. So how do you fit studying in every day?


Attend class. It isn’t always fun, it isn’t always exciting, and it doesn’t always feel like you can make it there one time. But if you do, you learn what the professor wants you to learn without adding any new study time to your day. Pay attention while you’re there, take notes, ask questions and make sure that you understand the material the first time that it’s presented. That way, you don’t have to re-learn what you have already been taught.

Plan actual study time in to your week. Consider it a job. From 2-3 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, you are committed to being at your desk, reading your books. Don’t let anything interfere with the time you set. That way, when you leave the desk, you feel like you’ve accomplished something and can better enjoy the fun times.

Incorporate discussions about class material into your conversations with classmates. This reinforces your learning and makes you remember the material without seeming like work at all.

Learn to be organized


One of the main reasons that many students feel like it’s hard to find time to do all of the studying necessary to do well in college is that they are disorganized. The time it takes to find your notes, figure out what your assignments are and re-read material you’ve already read contributes to the difficult of studying in college. By being organized, you save yourself a lot of time, energy and stress.


Use a calendar. Spend time at the beginning of each semester going through your syllabus, identifying what needs to be done for each class when and writing it on to a calendar. Now, get a new calendar, re-write all of those deadlines so that they are due several days before they actually are which helps account for unexpected delays caused by your real life. Hang the calendar up, look at it daily and commit to meeting your commitments.

Keep notes. Class notes, book notes and research notes for each class should be kept in a single place. A computer file for each class, a file folder for each subject … whatever it takes so that you know exactly where your class materials are when you need to use them to study.

Make use of all resources

To study well in college, you should take advantage of the different resources available to you for studying. Realize that you can study alone, in small groups, with your class as a whole and one-to-one with the professor during office hours. Incorporate all of these methods of study into your daily life and you will soon find that you are studying for college without actually feeling like you are studying at all. The studying will just be a part of what you do and will begin to feel natural. This is where studying becomes learning and is really what college life is all about!

Read More Articles About Studying in College.

How To Handle Family And Manage College At The Same Time

Tips for Handling Going to College and Manage Family Life


Is it possible to manage a family and attend college at the same time? Of course it is! But the combination of responsibilities necessary to do both of these things and still maintain a stable emotional self requires that you take a proactive approach to planning your education. You need to determine, in advance, what your priorities are, what responsibilities you can realistically handle and what kind of help you’ll need to meet all of your home and school responsibilities.


The first thing that you need to do is to take a look at all of the things that are going on in your life and identify what your priorities are. This way, if something unforeseeable happens, you’ll be able to prioritize to keep on track. For example, if putting food on the table for your family is your number one priority and an emergency comes up during the semester that makes it impossible for you to both work and attend school, you’ll know that you either need to work on getting loan money or you’ll need to reassess handling college at that time. This doesn’t mean that you need to make decisions right now about how you’re going to handle every little issue that arises as you try to handle family and manage college, but rather that you need to identify a list of priorities so you can cope as changes come up.


Secondly, you need to look realistically at what you can manage on a daily basis for the duration of time it’ll take you to get through college. If your spouse has a job that requires you to be the parent taking the kids to school and appointments, you may not realistically be able to manage a full time school schedule or you may need to look into online classes and distance learning as options for your education. It doesn’t matter how you handle college, as long as your own needs are met while you’re meeting the needs of your family. Talk through concerns with your spouse – and children that are old enough to handle some responsibilities around the house – and put a plan in place for managing the home while you’re in school.

That leads right into the final thing that you need to do in order to get a good grasp on managing family while you’re in college and that thing is figuring out what kind of help you’ll need to get it all taken care of. You can’t do everything on your own and you shouldn’t expect yourself to. Figure out what kind of assistance you need in terms of financial and emotional support. Perhaps you’ll need your spouse to take over some responsibilities at home in terms of care of the children and domestic chores or maybe you’ll need to hire a nanny or maid to assist around the home. Be realistic about what you need and what you can afford and figure out a way to make it happen.

Lastly , don’t forget to identify who in your life is going to be there for you on the days when it feels like you simply can’t manage college and a family at the same time. Those days will happen. A mentor, a great friend or even a counselor can be critical to helping you over those humps. By setting up your support system before there are problems, you’ll be able to more easily manage the responsibilities that come with being in college while maintaining a family of your own.

Here are some of the things that you need to know about applying to graduate school: