Leaving home and heading to college, is a major turning point in your life. If you are attending college in a different state, chances are there will be much more to take into account.
Let’s look at some key issues about navigating this major life change.
Planning your personal finances
It’s never too early to get ready to pay for college. For most this starts in their sophomore or junior year of high school. It is not simply the cost of schooling, but also having spending money while in college. If possible, work a part-time job in your final years of high school and save as much money as you can. In college, the adjustment can be difficult for some students and it would be best if you could focus on your studies that first year.
When considering part time jobs, research those that fit best with your schedule and might even allow you to study while you are working e.g. freelancing or babysitting.
Once at school, make a monthly budget. It will be more expensive in the first few months as you fill out your dorm room or apartment, but you will need to settle down into a strict pattern with your budget as it’s easy to burn through you hard earned dollars.
Things for Your Living Accommodation
Whatever type of student accommodation you choose, you will need to spend some of those saved funds for bedding, if you are living in your own apartment possibly some furnishing and outfitting your kitchen and bath area, etc. Buy these ahead of time to save money .
If you are tight on funds, you can look for summer garage sales or thrift stores for cheap furniture and your kitchen accessories. Also, consider asking family for these items if they have old ones they are looking to replace or as a graduation gift.
Electronics Considerations
For the vast majority of students, you will be better off with a laptop than a desktop as you will be able to take the laptop anywhere. Some technical courses might even require you to bring it to class and it will be easier to coordinate for group projects, work from the library, etc. Preferably you will have Microsoft Office, though an increasing number of students also use google docs. Student version of the latest virus software are often free and should be installed. Make sure your work is backed up to the cloud. Google drive, dropbox or Microsoft Onedrive all offer free storage in smaller sizes.
How will you get online? In dorms, that will be easy. At an off-campus apartment, you will need to research this before you end up spending $50 a month or $600 a year on internet access.
Research the School and its Neighborhood Ahead of Time
Naturally, you will want to see your dorm or apartment ahead of time. It will help to realize how much space you really will have. If you have been assigned a roommate, divide up what each of you will need to bring. Get to know where your resources are on campus. Spend a few days, even if you need to splurge on a motel. Also, find out where the good restaurants are in the area and go to the stores and get a feel for prices.
What are the transportation options? If it’s a commuter school, how much is on campus parking and are there cheaper off-campus options. How will you move about campus? Is there a bus system? Does the school allow electric scooters or bicycles? Are there companies offering sharing options for them. Also, get a good laptop backpack to keep your expensive electronics safe. Some days you will be out all day and won’t get back home until late.
Get to Know the State
The vibe, weather, and laws vary from state to state. For example, in California, you can use a cell phone in hands-free mode while driving. When you drive over the state line to Nevada, the phone must be turned off.
In some states, coffee shops abound, and students can even count on going to many supermarkets and finding Starbucks or Peet’s Cafe inside where they can sit and plug in for a while to work on class. In other states, finding study spaces is harder and a diner might be the only nearby option.
Do not underestimate weather differences. Students moving North for college are often caught unprepared for how cold winter can be when you need to walk across campus in the chilly season.
Two important issues are taxes and motor vehicle rules. What are tax rules if you take a job locally. If you are bringing a vehicle, will it need to be re-registered in your state or are out of state license plates okay. In some state schools, in state tuition is much lower and you can qualify in later years of college. But you will need to follow those rules carefully to qualify,
Packing
You can go to Home Depot and buy boxes and bubble wrap to help you pack, but you can get the boxes for free if you ask your local stores for any used boxes that they were going to throw out in any case. Newspaper crumpled makes great packing.
Study Resources
Go online ahead of time to your college’s website and find all of the study resources that they provide for students. Likely, you will have an online library that you can access for the journal articles you will need for writing research papers. Visit the online library ahead of time and scour the site for study tips and rules on how the school wants your papers formatted. This will save a great deal of time during exam and paper crunch time. Textbooks are expensive and you will want to see what class materials are accessible online via the library.
When you get stuck on anything having to do with writing, the best source on the web is Purdue Owl. The university has created resources for college students who need to write correctly-formatted, grammatically correct papers for class.
A really great resource to help you with foreign language classes is Anki. This is a free application that will allow you to quickly create electronic study cards for anything. Its best use, though, is for building your vocabulary of foreign language words. You can quickly study your new words for your foreign language class on Anki in minutes.
It takes a lot of planning to successfully make one of the most important transitions in your life when going to college. All of that work ahead of time will make the first few weeks go more smoothly and insure that your time in college is fun, satisfying and successful.
