Sparky

don't do too much shit or they will kick you out. You will have to pay back all your loans immediately.

If this does happen(im pretty sure your not that dumb)but if so make sure to get your official transcript printed and stamped before you leave or else it will say that you got kicked out of said school which doesn't look good.

Burning Down

I still find it so funny that in the US, university is called college. But I digress.

You'll certainly learn more about yourself more than anything, I think. It's a time for self-discovery.

duga

I definitely agree with anticipation. It's hard to imagine how drastic a change it really is once you are done with college, but if I had known things would get this complicated I would have tried to enjoy myself more during my university years.

I won't give you advice one way or the other about your girlfriend, but I came to college under similar circumstances. If you are going to stay together, give each other space. Go out and meet your own friends. This is ESSENTIAL. I was in school for a year before she started, so I had a ****ing BLAST my freshman year. Then she came, it was cool for a while, but she ALWAYS wanted to be around me. She didn't want to make her own friends and I ended up feeling a bit resentful. I didn't break up with her for a while because I also felt like she came to my school for me and I felt obligated to be with her. It wasn't much fun.

As for everything else...you will feel out your own college experience. Just be open and have fun. I smoked bud every day and still got a degree in genetics, so a school/life balance is definitely possible. I went to Purdue and I partied at IU a few times, so I feel like you will probably have a similar experience to me.

I'm still at Purdue for graduate school and it's orientation week for all the freshman. It's always entertaining to see all of them running around lost and intimidated, huddling together in their little orientation groups. Oh, if they only knew what was in store...

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Confusion will be my epitaph...

FETCHER.

Duga, you are now my MB role model. I never knew you done genetics, when I left school it was always what I wanted to do but I don't think it'll ever happen. I don't have the brains for **** like that anymore.

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My Journal.
Last.Fm if your interested...

duga

Haha, well I love setting a good example. Genetics is a tough subject, but I love it.

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Confusion will be my epitaph...

mr dave

I went to College three times, but in Canada that's the equivalent of going through University once.

First time was terrifying and I dropped out after Christmas, I was way too young and just following expectations rather than figuring myself out first.

2nd time was lame. Government make work program to re-educate laypeople.

3rd time was freaking awesome. Here's my one tip. If you're living in a dorm leave your door open as much as possible, at least for the first week. You'll meet FAR more people by just saying hello and pointing them to the nearest vending machine / bathroom than you will sitting at your computer or whatever.

Also, if you have rich parents, do you own a car? Even if it's just a beat up old Civic, if you show up to school with your own car you will become THE MAN.

One last tip, your first few months will be absolute jokes, DO NOT let all the work pile up for December though. Best tip I can give in that regard is do the opposite of cramming, rather than try to squeeze out a paper the night before its due, act like the first night its assigned is that deadline, squeeze it out and let it rest until you need to hand it in. If you've got time to revise it, GREAT, if not, at least you've got something.

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i am the universe

Janszoon

You people are crazy. The biggest life change for me after college was suddenly I had way more money and way more free time. Now that I'm in my mid-thirties with a mortgage and a marriage and a shitload of obligations, life is complicated, but when I was in my early to mid twenties with nothing to do but hang out and spend money, it was serious party time. College is fun, Yorke Daddy, but what comes right after college is even better.

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A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man

Time & Place

25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die

last.fm

duga

Well, I did decide on grad school so maybe I'm not the best source for that experience. Basically, it went from study here and there, stress for finals, get some cash from the parents, and party hard to study all the time, stress all the time, make indentured servant wages, and get drunk on the occasional Saturday when I'm not in lab.

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Confusion will be my epitaph...

YorkeDaddy

Coincidentally, my best friend (the one that's going to another college away from me), is going to Purdue. He's one of those crazy applied dudes that's going into Engineering and he's part of the Honors Engineering program. You probably won't be meeting him at any parties >_> He doesn't even know I smoke pot. He'd probably disown me.

Anyway, my only primary worry at this point is if I'll be able to balance school and fun. I mean, I have a nice scholarship that I'd really like to keep and I'd even more like to get a scholarship when I move up to grad school (my dad did this...he's got a Ph.D and graduated Suma *** Laude...expectations for me are high). At the same time though, I love to have fun. Drinking is pretty meh for me overall, I mean it's fun and I'll do it but I never plan on being a heavy drinker. But I just love to get stoned...and that plus school work usually doesn't work. I just hope I can balance these things.

My girlfriend is an interesting subject. I've had my fair amount of relationships before her, but she's the only girl I've ever had sex with. I fully believe (and I promise I'm not just some naive kid) that I can be with her for good and I would really like to. There's just no one quite like her (and I went to a huge ass high school...ever heard of Carroll High School in Fort Wayne, duga?) I feel like we can make it work here though, so I'm going to try and see how it goes. I don't think, at least, that I'll have the problem you experienced, duga. There's never been problems between us when I want to go out with my friends or something. We'll see though, I guess!

anticipation

I guess it depends on your career field. I went from renting a huge house with a nice backyard to a small apartment. I went from a 40 hour work week with 3 days off from school to a 60-70 hour work week and one day off. In my experience, college was a time when I could meet loads of new people every day who were all as interested in partying and sex as I was just by walking around campus. Now I live in the "real world" and I don't have that kind of connection with my age group anymore, unless I frequent the same bars that drunken idiots occupy on a nightly basis. Everyone I know is living the same way, but I suppose it's just a hazard of having your job be your life.