Make College Life Easier With These Hacks

For many people, going to college is a part of growing up, it’s the next logical step after leaving school. However, it goes without saying that college life isn’t always easy. On top of your high workload, you’ve also got to adjust to living away from home for the first time. (An adjustment for some that comes easily but for others takes time.)

There is plenty that needs to be adjusted to when you start college. But the hardest areas tend to be your new home, budgeting and keeping up with your studies. Ask any student what they struggled with when first starting university, and no doubt about it, they’ll say one of these three things. That being said, the good news is that there are simple things that you can do to make college life a little easier to cope with.

Homesickness:

Homesickness is no fun; it can leave you feeling sad, scared and isolated from your peers. If you want to help to keep your homesickness to a minimum when you start college, there are a couple of simple things that you can do.

By personalizing your dorm room with posters and photographs, you can give the space a more intimate feel. To get some inspiration, have a look on Pinterest for ideas before you go. Any ideas that you like the look of, find ways to recreate. You’ll find that the more personal your space is, the less likely you are to feel homesick.

To make your room feel more like home, it’s a good idea to take as many of your home comforts to college with you as possible. If you can’t fit everything that you want to take in the car, it could be a good idea to use a student shipping service to get your belongings to your new home. Here are some other ideas on how to combat homesickness in your first few months of college.

Budgeting:

When you first start college, budgeting can be a nightmare. This is especially true if you’ve never had to budget before, and have always been able to spend money on whatever you like. It might be hard at first, but if you’re savvy about your money, budgeting is possible.

Instead of keeping all your money in one bank account, split it into two. In one account keep your rent and bill money and in the other your day-to-day life money. That way, no matter what, you’ll always have your money for rent and bills kept safe and won’t be able to mistakenly spend it.

Books can be expensive, especially course books. Instead of buying them brand new, save money and buy them second-hand from other students or have a look on eBay or Amazon to see if you can get them cheap.

Our friends at OneClass have published a very helpful college student budget template. Here’s the guide on how to use it – hope you find it helpful!

Studying:

Unlike school, at college, you are on your own when it comes to studying. If you don’t bother to do the homework or don’t hand in an assignment, you won’t get in trouble. Your lecturers are there to guide you not to spoon feed you, and it’s important to realize that.

Instead of struggling to write down all the notes from the lecture – lecturers speak so fast, use your smartphone to record the class. That way, once you get home, you can replay it and use that to write notes. Instead of keeping your notes in a notebook, type them up on your computer. That way, you’ll have a spare copy of your notes should you lose your notepad.

Harvard Referencing is required in essays at many colleges and universities, but is a nightmare to get right. Instead of struggling to do your referencing yourself, why not use Neil’s Toolbox to do it for you? This site is free to use and makes sourcing quotes and box ten times quicker and easier to do.

Want to make college life a little easier for yourself? Take note of these handy hacks, and you can do.

Image courtesy of FreeStockPhotos.biz.