There are two things wide-eyed freshmen can't seem to get enough of during NSO: drinking and advice.
The former will be concentrated in periodic outbursts of debauchery, but the latter will be unforgivingly relentless, largely unhelpful and almost uniformly corny.
At Convocation, President Amy Gutmann will likely instruct you, the wide-eyed freshmen, to spread your wings and "soar." Your school dean will sagely counsel you to "broaden your horizons," and the editorial on the left-hand side of this page will almost certainly plead with you to "explore Philadelphia!"
By the time the cliche-fest is over, you might be wondering if you accidently stumbled onto the set of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 3, rather than the crime-infested ghetto you'd been promised.
In light of that, here's some advice - mostly drawn from my own mistakes - that you actually might find useful:
1. Pick a major and stick with it
One thing you'll hear a lot of this week is that freshman year is a time for exploring - and it is. But that exploring should be done with the purpose of making tough decisions between competing interests and setting a coherent academic plan for your undergraduate career. Switching majors is certainly possible (I did it twice last year), but changing that horse midstream is a surefire way to make your coursework seem haphazardly chosen to employers and grad schools, rather than carefully considered.
2. Live on campus
Sounds crazy, but by November-ish you're going to have to start thinking about where you want to live next year. All the cool kids live off campus, right? Not quite. There are perks to living on-campus (no utility costs, shorter walks, fewer safety concerns, nice views) and it's probably beneficial to keep your housing worries to a minimum as you continue to find your place at Penn during your sophomore year. Hold off a year; you won't regret it.
3. Requirements can wait
Twenty bucks says that you're enrolled in at least one class you don't have much interest in. I know, I know, you want to start getting requirements out of the way. But again, freshman year is an absolutely crucial time to narrow your academic focus. You'll be much better off if you explore as many genuine interests as you can and put off the requirements for a year. If someone had explained this to me, I may have realized I didn't want to be an International Relations major a year before I actually did.
4. Man (or woman) up
Though I was an editor at my high-school newspaper and always enjoyed writing, it took me until mid-way through my sophomore year before I steeled up the courage to apply to be a columnist for The Daily Pennsylvanian. The DP seemed so professional (it is!), and despite my experience, I felt inexperienced. By my junior year I was editing this page - something I had never even considered when applying. Don't waste time wondering if you're good enough or you might leave closed doors you never realized could be opened.
5. Pick up that arbitrarily placed orange thing
Looking for something to do besides see an a cappella show? The single best resource I've found is a colored, oversized sheet of paper put out monthly by the Penn Almanac that you can find in your hall's lobby or information center. It'll list a remarkable number of events, athletic games, lectures and exhibits that you would have never heard about otherwise. which is how I ended up covering a lecture called "How to Find the Perfect Black Man" at the Penn Bookstore.
6. Ditch class . when you've got a good reason
To paraphrase Mark Twain, don't let your schooling interfere with your education. In March of my sophomore year, I was faced with an extraordinary dilemma: watch Penn in the NCAA basketball playoffs with hundreds of other die-hard Quaker fans at Cav's or go to class. Inexplicably, I chose to miss the game and follow it via text messages. I may never have that opportunity again, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to go to class about 300 more times.
7. Think ahead
The last thing on your radar is post-college life, but you'd be wise to walk into Career Services sometime this semester and establish a letters of recommendation file - you never know when you might need one. Don't delude yourself into thinking college will last forever or you could end up like me, applying to grad school, wishing you had gotten recommendations from professors who probably don't even remember your name now.
Heed my advice and you will scale the highest mountains, while simultaneously reaching for the stars and making all your dreams come true. (That is, if you're sober enough to remember any of this.) Godspeed.
Adam Goodman is a College senior and former editorial page editor from San Diego. His e-mail is goodman@dailypennsylvanian.com.
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