College Life: Expectations vs. The Reality

Published on 08/01/2019
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College Life

College Life

One day you’ll look back at your college years with a hint of nostalgia and think, these really were the best years of your life. However even if you have a plan and certain expectations of what your Freshman year will be like, you’ll soon realize that the reality is very different from the movies. College is actually a life-changing experience and you’ll learn so much about yourself and about life. So we’re here to tell you what they didn’t mention on the college brochure.

Rolling Up To Class

Expectation: You’re going to be a model student. Even if you party the night away, you’re still invisible and can do everything. You might even calculate how much sleep you’ll get before class and think you’ll be totally refreshed in the morning. Every time you roll up to class, you’ll also arrive on time, looking like a super star in your cutest outfits.

Reality: As the sound of the alarm drills through your head, you might remember that it’s Tuesday and you have a 4 hour lecture. So slither into class late. You might also look like Frankenstein’s twin sister and hide in your coffee for the rest of the day. And any hopes of looking great every day for class in your cutest outfits, Forget it! Your new college uniform will be big sunglasses, your fave hoodie and jeans.

Studying

Expectation: Now that you have no set homework or structure, you can be completely free! Finally! You might have a research paper due in 3 weeks, but that’s no sweat. This time is chill time.
Reality: You leave your research paper until the day before it’s due, while you enjoyed your chill time. Then as the panic sets in, you head to the library and pull an epic last minute ‘all nighter’. As you run on Red Bull,  you manage to submit your assignment five minutes before it’s due. Yass! Then just as you think you can relax… you realize about another paper due tomorrow! So, the best tip for college is to try to manage your own time, so you can still have time to chill and have fun and still fit in some studying before the assignment’s due.

Free Time

Expectation: Now that you’re finally out of high school and away from your family, you might think you’ll have so much free time. You can have time to catch up on all your fave shows, explore the city and party with your new dorm room besties. All you have to do is make sure you attend a couple of lectures a week.

Reality: While this might be true in fresher’s week and it’s very tempting, you do have to still make sure you pass or scrape through the year. So you might want to still some attend lectures and you still have to study. Nevertheless, if you strike the right balance and manage your time well, you can still make time for a lot of fun. After all, you are at college for a reason!

Dating

Expectation: You might think college is the perfect time to meet interesting people, go on real life dates with grown up men and find deep connections.

Reality: The guy you met at a frat party or student bar asked if you might wanna maybe hang-out sometime soon.

Planning

Expectation: You’ve spent your whole life planning your career path, and by the time you arrive at college, you will know your major. After all, you’ve wanted to be a doctor since you were 12.
Reality: You might start out taking Chemistry, before having a change of heart and trying out Art History. Before long you might change your life plan again and decide you want to major in Dance.

Eating

Expectation: You are going to avoid the “freshman fifteen”, where freshman end up gaining weight at college. That’s not gonna be you because your’re super healthy. You will get enough sleep every night, ensure you go to the gym and always eat three balanced meals a day.

Reality: As you stay up late cramming for your latest exam, you realize that you forgot to grab dinner. So you could either eat last night’s takeaway leftovers or eat the Oreo cookies on the kitchen counter. Still, there’s always time for gym tomorrow!

Although the reality might be a little different than you expected, you can still look forward to the best moments of your life, so get ready to enjoy every minute!

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