Advice for High School Graduates

Good list.  Getting ready for college for my oldest (16 now).  I think I can paste this and pass it on.  I especially like the ‘call parents’ part.

It’s easier to put the work in at the beginning of your semester/academic career then having to play catch up. I started really strong while some of my best friends started off by having a little too much fun at the start and they’ve had to play catch up on a lot of things the last 4 years.

If you do end up drinking (you don’t have to drink to have a good time at college) you don’t have to get wasted.

You never know where your best friends might come from or what you’ll find out you like. Try meeting lots of different people, be involved with clubs or student organizations to see what’s out there.

These are all college related I guess, another thing to add is that college isn’t for everyone and that’s ok. Sometimes a tech school or community college are better fits for some people right out of high school. There are no rules, do what works for you. 

Depending on your major, I’d say read your textbooks one class meeting ahead, so you know what to expect. Then you can answer questions in class and feel more confident during the lecture. I’m an engineering major and this habit has helped me a ton.

In regards to a job in your first semester, I totally agree. It can be overwhelming. But once you understand how much you can handle in college, get a job. Job and intern experience will give you a big edge over those who graduate with no job experience.
And don’t be ashamed to work your way up! Your first job will probably suck, but you have to start somewhere.

Just graduated from college 2 weeks ago and my (additional) tips are:

Live on campus for at least one year. This is commonly a requirement for freshmen. Helps you get on your feet without having to worry about too much at once. This also helps give you the feel of typical college life.Life off campus for at least one year. This will teach how to run a household – paying utilities and internet, getting groceries, etc… It will also provide you an entirely different college experience. Also, if you crank out the costs of room and board and associated fees, living in an apartment is frequently much cheaper than dorms.

Live with a room mate for at least one year. This usually happens with the dorms, but if it doesn’t, try to get an apartment with one at some point. It will teach you a lot about splitting responsibilities, dealing with conflicts, learning new viewpoints, etc… It also saves money (don’t underestimate the importance of this).

Do the work yourself, and only when stuck, check with friends about how to do a problem.

Figure out what study habits work for you. Not everyone studies the same way: some people prefer the quiet of a library, whereas I prefer the background noise of coffee shops.

Don’t overbook your first or fifth semesters (Fifth is usually when intensive major-specific courses start.). Avoid getting a job if possible, or at least try to get one with flexible hours. Don’t schedule more than 5 classes (14-16 credits).

This last one is sure to be controversial: make sure that in your first semester you do NOT get a 4.0. If you’re an A student, get at least one A-. This will prevent you from getting a perfect GPA, but maintaining that 4.0 throughout college will consume your life and you will feel like you missed out on the “college experience.” Employers don’t really care that you got a 3.9 instead of a 4.0.

I’ll add an item: Memorize this quote and repeat it to yourself at least once a day:

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard
it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious
books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers
and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for
many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that
anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and
all, then accept it and live up to it.” ~~ The Buudha

If an exam question relates to a topic in a lecture you felt like death in, there’s a good chance you’ll remember enough to work out how to work out the answer. At least you’ll get some of the marks. If an exam question relates to a topic in a lecture you skipped because you felt like death, that’s too bad.

— Paraphrased from an Indian lecturer’s instructions on how to be extremely drunk most nights and still graduate.

Re #6: This calculation is even more impressive when you remember that college semesters are shorter than HS semesters. The University I teach at has 15-week semesters, and that’s the longest I’m aware of anywhere in the country. 13 or 14 weeks is the norm.

haha. Wish I had seen this list a few decades ago (my how time flies). You forgot to mention condoms haha. Umm, get a credit card, learn how to use it, build up your credit rating. Study overseas definitely, if you cannot at least a different state. Take a year off, visit India/south east Asia/Africa. And–maybe don’t go to uni, study online, intern, start a startup. Most important HAVE FUN–you only get one life.

 In general, you earn grades.  However, I received plenty of grades that I didn’t “deserve”.  Those were always an “A”.  The classes I learned the most, and often the most useful, were ones in which I didn’t receive an “A”.  That’s because I actually had to more than complete the work.

As an additional piece of advice, do more than is required in class.  You are paying a great deal of money (and time, opportunity cost) so get as much out of the class as you can.

Many of your fellow students aren’t there by choice, they’re only there because their parents are paying, or because they think it’ll be like High School and are hoping it’ll allow them to defer adulthood.  Either way you look at it, many of them won’t be there second year.

When forming a study group be sure it doesn’t contain one of those people, their goal is for you to carry them to keep the gravy train running – they won’t do the required work and if they do it’ll be haphazard and faulty at best.  Find people who *want* to be there as much as you do, who worked *hard* to be there just as much as you did.

Make sure one day a week is for “fun”.  If you don’t take downtime you *will* burn out (I’ve seen it, almost did it).

No matter how badly your parents hover over you, the school will respect you enough to treat you like an adult; there will be no attendance taken and there will be no hounding to get the work done.  You, or your parents, are paying for the privilege of your attendance and you are responsible for your own actions, they will not hold your hand to ensure your success – you’ll have to work hard for it.

Get a part time job in a restaurant not only can you often find flexible hours to fit your schedule, many places offer steep food discounts for staff allowing you to save on food costs and the atmosphere in the kitchen is often fun and relaxed.  At least that was my personal experience.

Apply for summer jobs and internships the second they become available, most people wait until close to the deadlines before submitting their applications and then scramble.  Applications are assessed on a first come first served basis, you *want* your application to be near the top of the pile; working in HR for a year taught me HR managers can often find the candidate they’re looking for in the first ten resumes, even when hundreds are submitted.  Be first!

Relax and take a deep breath.  Take breaks.  Make friends.  Fall in love.  Have your heart broken.  Go to parties.  Most of all, have fun.  The one to four plus years you spend at College / University will be amongst the best parts of your life, stop to enjoy it once in a while.

I would add…don’t take out school loans unless you understand how interest works and just how much money you will have to pay over the next few decades in order to pay the loans off. 
I was lucky – my parents helped a lot with college costs and I earned scholarships. My friend took out $31,000 in loans for her undergrad. She has paid $15,000 on her loans so far, but because of interest, she still owes $30,000. Debt is not a joke. And that part where everyone assumes that they will make more over time is not necessarily true. If you change jobs a few times, you might be making the same thing in ten years that you make when you graduate college. Nobody is going to help you figure out your finances if you don’t care enough to do it for yourself. 

And don’t think of college as a 4-year commitment. Think of it as a 12-year commitment. The first four years are at school, and the next 8 years are usually starting at the bottom and working your way up in jobs that you may not enjoy. College is not a free-pass to your dream job or to decent pay. If you aren’t into a major subject or career for the long-haul, consider how you could better use your time until you know what you want to do.
My friend and I had a long conversation last night, and we both agree that our undergraduate degrees have been worth basically nothing for us. Mine was in business and hers in social sciences. Neither of us knew what we wanted to do back then.  I graduated magna and ended up taking secretary and temp jobs for years until I finally found my niche by volunteering for a non-profit. Now I’m doing something I love and getting paid for it, but my college degree did not help me get here. In fact, the most useful class I’ve ever taken was probably my typing class in high school. And English in high school helped me become a good writer, but I’m not sure that my college classes really got me much farther than my great high school teachers did. College is not for everyone. My plumber makes as much money as I do, if not more. He gets to choose his hours and which projects he will do. He is his own boss. There are a lot of people who would be happier in a situation like that than coming in from 8-5 everyday in a low-paying administrative job. Sadly, that is all that a lot of college graduates can get.

I would amend point 2. *DO* sign up for a credit card. Use it. And FOR THE LOVE OF FSM PAY IT OFF EVERY MONTH. This gives you a bunch of benefits, including:

a) Reward points, cash back, or whatever gimmick that card uses to differentiate itself

b) Flexibility. It can be really hard to, say, pay for stuff online without a credit card.

c) Discipline. If you have a $10,000 credit limit, but know you only have $1000 in the bank, practicing the self control of not spending those $10k you don’t have will benefit you in the future.

d) Paper trail. With a credit card, you get a statement of all the things you spent money on. If you, say, withdraw from the bank and pay cash, you don’t get this. For example, I use the service mint.com to manage/budget my spending. I can tell you, for instance, that in June 2011 I spent $224 on electronics (mostly work related), $12 on convenience stores, $18 on coffee shops, $134 on gym membership, etc. When you need to manage money, having these breakdowns can be invaluable. (And don’t think I’m shilling for mint. Use a CC, go over your statement manually, plug it into a spreadsheet. I’ve three friends who do this and swear by it)

e) Credit Rating. I know this sounds like a kind of bullshit thing that adults tell you to screw you over, but it’s true. Get a credit card. Use it. PAY IT OFF EVERY MONTH. And watch your credit rating soar. I was recently unemployed for 4 months. Due to a mix-up, my EI payments were frozen for almost three months. And, at the end of those 4 months of unemployment, I moved (Can -> USA) for a job, incurring significant debt. Walked into the bank, asked for a line of credit, walked out with $30k (well, $10k with the option to bump that up to $30k at any time). Why? Because I pay my CC bill on time. That is all. 

Credit cards aren’t an evil to be avoided, they’re a tool to be used. And sure, if you’re not _very_ careful, a nailgun (that’s a tool, right) can send you to the hospital. But if you’re careful and don’t do anything dumb, you’ll put that wall up much much faster.

There are pupils and there are students. Pupils want to pass the course. Students want to master the material. Pupils want to do what’s required. Students want to do what’s excellent. Pupils receive knowledge. Students hunt for it. Pupils know knowledge that was discovered. Students also know how that knowledge was discovered.

In your first several semesters, the classrooms will be filled with pupils, and maybe there will be one student. As you reach the last semesters, many of the pupils will have dropped out of school, and there will be a higher ratio of  students.

Be a student. Be rare.

College isn’t the only option in life.  DON’T EVER look down on trades. Back in high school, when I was 16 [1978], the guidance councilor asked us if  we started thinking about careers. I stated that I wanted to be either an electrician or a mechanic but I hadn’t decided for sure. The councilor floored me when he said “You can do MUCH BETTER than THAT”. I was speechless. That attitude still burns me to this day.  Just look at popular culture in the media and observe how many movie and sitcom plots include an anguished parent lamenting their offspring’s choice of a trade over college.  Seems more common in the US than here in Canada. Mechanics, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, machinists, etc. are critical to modern society, which would grind to a complete halt if they didn’t do their jobs…jobs that can pay 6 figures AND have the potential for full independence.

You might not be going to college.  College is (increasingly) not for everyone.  Don’t apologize for not going and don’t treat the first few years after school like wasted time that doesn’t matter if you didn’t go to college.  Work, learn and live your life.

Just a few things, many learned the “hard way”: First, everything that has been said about credit cards, with this exception: Once you’ve built your credit score, stop using the credit card, except for emergencies, or car rental, or the like. Keep a zero balance on it as much as possible. You want an excellent credit score. You -don’t- want to be a debt slave. Secondly, learn what and how it means to plan and execute a monthly budget. Make sure a portion (a large portion) of that budget goes toward savings. Think of savings as a replacement for that credit card, but again, it is only for emergencies or special circumstances. Try to find an account with a good interest rate (they exist, but none are great anymore). Once you have that built up and “running”, start looking into investment vehicles with higher rates (IRAs, CDs, etc). If you have enough savings, and you -think- you can do it (and look at this like a chunk of money lost forever if you pursue it) – try the stock market (etrade, etc); but whatever you do, look at that money as “gone”, but not “lost” – and try to leave things alone and not look at it all the time day to day as it goes up and down in value (the stock market is ultimately a long-term thing, unless you are a excellent day-trader – and most people aren’t). Oh – one other thing: Be satisfied with what you have, and don’t “chase the dollar”. Most of you won’t be rich, won’t even become wealthy. But you can be happy, and that doesn’t take any money at all. Some of the happiest people I have met in my life have been homeless. Finally, figure out and pursue a hobby, something that makes you happy and that you find enjoyable to do. If you can, try to find your career in your hobby – that way, you go to work doing what you love, and not dreading getting up to go to work just to pay the bills. Lastly, never ever stop learning; read, learn, do. Try to amass a library’s worth of books. Always take the time to consider the “other” opinion; you may ultimately find it to be incorrect, but taking the time to consider it is better than dismissing it whole, for you may learn something along the way.

Great advice

That’s true, both ways; four years is not a must, longer can be okay and short can be okay. For me, I finished in 7 semesters and used the last semester to just work on my own thesis instead of taking classes (and recover from the death of my bestfriend). It was a great choice, planning my classes ahead, and not taking all 8 semesters.

Damn is iPad, I can’t even insult without spell check kicking in. That was supped to read PRETENSION not prevention.

As to D, just want to point out that some financial institutions offer a similar category analysis. I know my tiny credit union does. And that’s not for a credit card, it’s for my bank card. I could tell you all those figures by opening my account history. It is a handy tool for trimming the budget, you’re 100% correct on that!

+1  I was confused by the advice to “avoid credit cards”.  That’s the same as saying “pay 1% more on everything you buy ever”.  Don’t ever leave money on the table.  Beat those suckers at their own game.

“Pick some upper limit for how much money you are willing to lose. ($5? $20? $50?) If at any time you engage in a transaction which exceed this amount, even with friends (especially with friends), make sure there’s a record and everyone is clear about the terms.”

“If you go to college, you will get free or cheap access to a lot of stuff for which, after college, you will have to pay separately. Take advantage of it — get flu shots, go to the gym, look at art exhibits, whatever. That way, you’ll know whether it’s worth paying for later.”

“Don’t participate in any group activity if your only reason for doing it is to meet strangers. There’s always something else going on which would hold your interest as well, or where you know someone else well enough to enjoy their company.””If you are using a shared washer and dryer, make absolutely certain to check the washer and dryer really thoroughly before you put your clothes in them. It is unbelievable what kinds of horrible stuff can be in there. (Oh, and make sure to check the pockets of anything you’re putting in the wash. You will regret washing a cheap ballpoint pen, and not because you lose a pen.)””If there is more than one Internet provider available, either change Internet service providers occasionally or call your current one and threaten to do so. The deals they offer for ‘the first six months’ are still inflated pricing, and sometimes they’ll offer you more time at the reduced rate rather than let you go as a customer. (And if they don’t, then it makes sense to switch to a provider who costs less.””If it is hot enough for you to wear short sleeves, then you should consider sunscreen and a water bottle if you’re going to be outside for long.””You don’t have to like everything you eat, but if you can afford it, try lots of different restaurants, especially in a college town. You may discover that you love a cuisine (or just a dish) of which you never even heard before.””Pulling pranks on people, even on April Fools Day, makes you a tiresome asshole and makes you a target for revenge. It’s probably best not to start.”

“Everyone — including you — is stupid now and again. Learn to forgive people’s stupid moments.”

“Unless they’re at your house, chances are that nobody around you wants to listen to your music. Don’t force it on them.”

Oh, one more:

“Banks are not your friends under any circumstances. Always assume that any service offered to you by a bank has a hidden downside, and opt out of anything you can opt out of unless you’re sure you want it.”

I wonder what happened to all the paragraph breaks I put in that comment? Weird.

Consider very strongly what you think will be fulfilling every day for the rest of your life. Some majors are challenging just to see how serious you are and thin the herd. Some majors will welcome you with open arms and easy grades just for showing up. It doesn’t matter that you were “good in” some subject in high school. The latter category can be a loss, but they can be valuable subjects if you apply yourself to learn them and not just show up (disclosure: I ended up with one of these majors and just showed up). What I mean by fulfilling is, some people prioritize making the most money, and some prioritize saving the world, and so on and so on. You might enter college with one priority, but you might change your mind. That’s not a bad thing, it’s a product of being out of your element and discovering yourself without parental or community filters.

If I had one thing I would not do over again, it would be not go to college, at least not where I went, and not right away. I was too bogged down with parameters and other people’s expectations, people who did not themselves go to college. I had high grades in high school without trying very hard, and college was a distinctly upsetting experience for me, inducing a lot of stress, and over the years, not proving itself to be worth it. Waiting is one way to make the most of your college experience. Going to some trade school you see on wee hours tv is probably a scam, so be careful about your “alternatives” to college. As it is, college made a cultural promise to me that it didn’t fulfill. It requires input and the ability to make decisions for yourself without asking your mom and dad if it’s ok. I was not ready for that and should have waited, despite how “smart” I rate on an IQ test. Part of college that is wrong is that high school and parents may be quite ignorant about what is right for you. Per se, math was always my best subject in school, but my mom thought I would make a good teacher. Neither of my parents can comprehend the outcome of taking a major – to them, math was as ambiguous as drama (both of which, to me, were interesting). Aiming for a career, and a major aligned with that career, like: education > teacher, made sense to them, and I didn’t know from shit when I went in. One semester of that, and I decided never to be a teacher. I think it takes a lot of self-reflection to comprehend what a lifetime as a teacher would be like. A lot of college students just take to the track they’ve decided on without reflecting on how that would play out for the rest of their lives! Make sure it’s what you want every semester. Don’t get to your 6th semester and then have a crisis about it. It’s like a wedding – no matter how expensive it was, and how many people came, shut it the fuck down. I had a lot of pressure to finish within 4 years; I also felt like when my mom said “quit” that she was pulling passive-aggressive shit. Oh my god, this is a lot for someone who’s not even a freshman yet.

What other people said about internships – I think the whole time I was in college, until my senior year, I never heard anything about any damn internships. Even if you are fetching coffee and it has nothing to do with your major and you aren’t making as much money as you would selling sundresses at Old Navy all summer, get one. Get an internship if you can, because the virtue of being able to put that shit on your resume will mean more to any future employer than your work history at Auntie Anne’s. If you get an earlier internship, they may hire you next summer too with more relevant responsibilities and better pay. They might not. The real world says: internship in your field even if your duties were toadie and unpaid are more impressive than doing actual work for actual pay for somewhere else.

Spend at least some of your college career learning how not to come off like a complete age-appropriate douchebag according to your elders. This cannot be emphasized enough.

This happens to me all the time.  Type my post it in the comment box, something happens to the window and the comment is lost.  Copy and paste from notepad or word, all the paragraph formatting is lost, even though it looked fine before you posted.

My CC only gives me 0.5% cash back. 🙁

I basically pay for everything (except rent) with my CC though, so it’s nice to get that chunk of change back. Sure, it was only like $50 last year, but that’s $50 more than I’d otherwise have

What was pas supposed to be? pants?

Don’t transfer from a good university to a lower quality one. (President Obama did a smart thing by trading up when he transferred from Occidental to Columbia.) I made that mistake by transferring from Washington University in St. Louis to a dump called the University of Tulsa (TU). TU’s president in the early 1980’s, the late J. Paschal Twyman, treated his school’s academic functions almost as a nuisance, and I wound up with a math degree which didn’t open any doors for me. By the time I turned 30, I wrote off my college education as a waste.

Never buy textbooks. There are always places to find cheap (or free) versions.

That’s a remarkably stupid bit of advice and I’m not just saying that because I’m a textbook author. There aren’t always places to buy cheap copies of a textbook and if there are places where you can get free ones, they are probably illegal.

Some students are actually passionately interested in their course and they want to have the latest, new, pristine, version of the textbook. I was like that as an undergraduate and I still have all my textbooks. I still use them from time to time.

Don’t sign up for a credit card.

Actually, this is bad advice, at least for anyone with self control. You need a credit history in life – this is checked when renting apartments, applying for car or housing loans, even jobs. The easiest way to get a credit history is to get a credit card. Of course you need to use it responsibly, which includes paying it off in full every month. Starting with a low-limit secured credit card is not a bad idea.

When I was in college I too thought the responsible thing would be to not have a credit card, but was fortunate enough to have a friend who worked in the loan industry, and she set me straight.

Take this from a college health educator — Learn how to navigate your own health care, learn how to use insurance, and learn how to take care of yourself. If you’re going to college, the campus will very likely offer free-to-visit-with-no-copay health services; the only fees will be for lab tests, birth control, etc. Establish a relationship with them early and cut the cord with your pediatrician at home. You’re an adult now. 

It pays off in the short and the long run to remain healthy. Make the time to sleep. Consume alcohol in moderation (no, pre-gaming a dozen vodka shots and doing keg stands aren’t included in the definition of moderate). Eat a variety of foods — the campus dining service will be better than you expect. Work in exercise by walking or biking everywhere, joining an intramural sports team and/or avoiding every elevator on campus. 

It’s my impression that for people that don’t qualify as Canadian residents, the costs are often well North of $20,000 a year.

Good list Hemant;  too bad you weren’t my high school counselor.  

At age 42 I still have never had a credit card, and don’t want one! I have only come across a situation where I actually needed one once.

Well, you’re not beating anyone.  You’re sinking a little more slowly.  The fees that the CC companies charge the merchant, which the merchant passes on to you are far higher than the ‘cash back’.  So, the CC companies are screwing all of us.

“Cover yourself.”

Um – do what? ‘Coving your drink’ might stop someone putting something in it, but covering yourself is supposed to do what, exactly?

That echos a friend of mine’s experience with his daughter just finishing at a UC.  Stanford would actually have been cheaper.  They have a lot of endowment money  to cover tuition.  I think he even said that if the family income was under 100K, tuition would be capped at ridiculous rate.  You still have other fees, and books and living of course.

My advice is not to worry too much about following all the advice you’ll be getting at this time in your life. Just for the love of spaghetti, wear a rubber and don’t drive under the influence.

Maybe to prevent skin damage due to over exposure to the sun?  It is a good idea to wear sun screen, but even better to wear a hat and cool but covering clothing in the middle of the day during summer (or winter in the southern hemisphere).  This advice also applies to people with more melanin.  They do have more natural protection, but can still burn.

And I understand people with more melanin need to be more careful about getting enough vitamin D from other sources, which if you drink ‘fortified’ milk should not be an issue.

Another great way to save a lot of money is to not buy a car.  Seriously on many campuses it’s not hard to live car free, and you’ll save a lot of money.  But DO check out local cycling organizations and take an effective cycling course.

It’s been said over and over again by every financial adviser out there there- the power of compound interest.  A dollar that you save or don’t go into debt early in life is many dollars later in life.  Shameless plug for an old friend of mine, school teacher Andrew Hallam http://andrewhallam.com/ who is worth a million by age 40, on his teacher’s salary.  Great book for young AND older.

Condoms.

I’d take out the part about putting your video games away.

Video games are an art form, playing them isn’t just some waste of time. You can learn things.

Load of bullshit. You don’t have to have lots of casual sex, you don’t have to take mind-altering drugs. You decide what you want to do, and be your own person. Don’t feel pressured by others to do uncomfortable things, or doing things just so you can fit in. I’m not so sure having tons of casual sex is going to help you have deep and rewarding relationships, but that’s just me. As to why the suggestion that lots of drugs and drinking should enrich your college experience, well, it leaves me speechless . . .

 Let’s not forget that the American military seems to be very good at teaching Christianity. It’s a good place to get an education if you think you might be having atheist (gasp!) thoughts. 

Okay, but you haven’t given any reasons why casual sex and drugs won’t enhance the college experience.

This is the time for it. Go nuts – double entendre intended – and live. Experiment. Grow. Expand the mind and body. Sex and drugs can and do expand and give new perspectives. Obviously, I am not advocating abuse or addiction, but this is e time to get this out of the system. The time to sew oats, so to speak.

Be careful of course, use common sense, protection etc….but by all means, experiment.

Hmm, there are some assumptions about people’s financial situations and home life that I think could be really alienating to people. I would leave out the stuff about calling parents and not getting a job, if you can. 

If I were going to add something, I would say:”Criticism of your work is not a criticism of you, it’s a professor/employer’s attempt to bring out the potential they see in you.” 

Get your homework done before it’s due, rather than pulling an all-nighter at the last minute. Things that sound like flashes of brilliance when you’re in a panic at 4:00AM rarely seem so great by the harsh light of day.

Well, that’s why you also invest in that CC disrupting startup like Square or something.  But that’s for after your graduate and have spare cash 🙂

Ah, ok, now I get what you meant.

Very tricky, sewing oats. You need really small needles. 

Sowing your wild oats is a different matter . . .

Learn how to take tests. Don’t just learn how to answer questions, but how to determine what sort of answer the instructor is looking for.
Try to clearly express your thoughts, unless your thoughts aren’t clear.
Use complete sentences on all assignments and tests with correct grammar and spelling, including in science and engineering courses. This goes double if your first language is the same as the language of the assignment/test.
If you space on a question during a test, write something funny. The better the TA feels during a painstaking marking session, the more likely they are to be forgiving of other errors (just don’t expect bonus marks for making the joke).
If you are asked whether you did the reading, just answer honestly.
Profs and TAs are not out to get you. Really. Seriously. Most of the time.

Pay attention to what you’re thinking, especially if it seems strange. You’re getting new ideas all the time, and you may hit on something without really considering it.

I say this because the other day I remember thinking back to my freshman year philosophy class and getting into a very passionate argument about why religion is unnecessary for morality and we could decide what was right and wrong based on empathy and concern for community cohesion. No, I wasn’t an atheist at the time. Turns out I had a really good idea and didn’t realize its significance at the time.

 Tattoos make you look like a thug, male or female. Here endeth the lesson.

I think of religion as an extra and artificial way to discriminate.  You’re in ‘our’ group or you’re not.
Seems to me judging someone based on their choice as to how they want to look isn’t any different.

I think a year is a bit much.  I gave myself a one month waiting period, and have never regretted my tattoo.  Anyone who doesn’t like it is free to keep their own bigoted ass ink free.

 Darn, you beat me to it!

I’m 30. Never had a credit card, and never planning to. So far, I haven’t had any problems…

Another option is to get an AA/AS from the community college. That way, transfers are less of a problem, you have a good place to “start over” from if something happens to you after, and you have more of a sense of “making progress” from getting that degree in 2 years. And of course, you still save money.

Note that this is in preparation for a BA/BS, not a substitute for it.

And don’t forget tutoring! Getting help with a course does NOT mean that you are stupid or that there is anything wrong with you.

Being told this a few dozen times a year would have helped me a lot–and now that I’m a professor, I make sure to tell my students that there is NO shame in getting the amount of help that you need.