Hello everyone. Long time no read, huh? Sorry I have been away for almost a year but as you might know last year was my first year in college and with COVID-19 it was crazy. As you all also know, I am now a Senior in college since I received my associates last August so reflecting on the year that just past I wanted to give you some advice.
So here is a list of mistakes I made in my first year of college and how you can do better!
1. Apply to scholarships year round. So something I was not expecting at all was how little scholarships I was going to be eligible for once I no longer was in high school. It seriously went from thousands to a couple dozen. Scholarships for college students in my experience have way more requirements such as major, concentration, career interest and even more. Out of the 200 some scholarships on my college's scholarship board I was literally eligible for 2... and one of them I couldn't apply for because I needed work experience in the PR field to reflect on in the essay and well the scholarship was due a month before I started my PR internship. The other scholarship I was eligible for was for only $900. Of course that is better than nothing but it's not as much as you'd hope for. With such a narrow pool of scholarships it is important to apply year round and always keep your eye open for opportunities. Thankfully, I ended up getting an internship with a stipend of about $3,500 and I still have my academic scholarship so I will be fine, but if you depend on scholarships and financial aid to go to school, you need to seriously consider taking an hour each week to apply or try and find scholarships for college students.
2. Work experience. I made a minor mistake when it came to work experience and college so I want to share it with you so you can learn from me. College obviously is expensive and many of us work to pay for it or for our living expenses. I did too and I still do. My big mistake was that I was more focused on working and my cost of living than on my resume. So now, I am a communication major with a concentration in PR who has 2 years of relevant work experience in teaching and childcare but only one internship in PR. Instead of keeping on looking for jobs that suit my career goals and plans after graduating, I went for a guaranteed teaching job as an early childhood teacher. Personally, I don't regret it because I love my students but if you have the ability and luxury to be able to shop around for jobs and wait for one that will actually build your resume for your future careers, I would. I am a senior now, and luckily I have had wonderful internships which taught me many skills but if I didn't have these it would be a major back set and I'd have to start from the bottom once I graduate.
3. Don't listen to other people's methods of doing things unless it helps you. My first semester was hard, I am not going to lie about this. I am going to say though that it was only hard because I was trying to follow everyone's advice on planners, time management, schedules, reading books, taking notes and anything else you can think of. After awhile I realized that I was fine but what was actually not working was the methods people were giving me. So big takeaway here is that no one really knows what they're doing and the only real challenge is finding the right thing to do for you. You don't need to force yourself to have a planner if it's only going to stress you more. You don't need to write notes for every chapter if you don't think you do. You need to follow your intuition and then everything will work out.
4. Don't live checklist to checklist. With the feeling of being overwhelmed I often hang on to the only way I know to control things which are checklists. My first few months of college I made a big mistake by living checklist to checklist. I literally did not give myself the time to enjoy college. College is an experience and while GPA and studying matters, please don't forget the exciting things like walking around campus or going to a coffee shop. Personally, I found the cutest little Boba shop to do some of my readings at and even though COVID-19 ruined traveling during Spring Break I still got to go to a river to go hiking near SA. Don't forget to actually experience college, because I almost did in my first semester.
~~~Alright, I know that was a lot but I hope it helps. I also have some exciting news! I am creating a new resource list to include both high school and college level scholarships! I will post it soon so keep an eye out for that! Lastly, HAPPY SUMMER AND STAY SAFE FROM COVID!
