10 Tips For All College Students

The first lesson is “Don’t take Societies too Seriously.”

Whenever students enter a new college within the first year, they feel strongly that they should give auditions for college societies or clubs. Participate in them. We feel like going to drama, sometimes to debate, or to join some dance or music society. In such a situation, societies provide a perfect platform for students. To network with people, interact with seniors, interact with new people, and learn new things. Still, suppose you as a student ever feel that a college society or club is stopping you, hampering your academics, future career opportunities, internship, or job placement. In that case, you should not be ashamed to quit these societies as a student. Because many times we join the society, and there are maximum things that the student enjoys, but after a point, the society starts getting their work done. The student should be careful about such things.

The second lesson, which is very important in college life, is to “work on our communication skills.”

The ability to communicate effectively can be described as an essential life skill in the 21st century, and the better we are at it, the higher our quality of life will be. Parents and school activists should realize the importance of communication skills in children’s developmental phases, begin teaching their kids basic communication skills during their childhood, and go on to hone their skills as they grow. Kids will learn communication skills better with the guidance of parents and school teachers. And, if students want to practice in any regional language, then every student has to get used to presenting their ideas confidently and in the best way.

Moonpreneur’s College Prep Program helps students rise above other applicants. The program thoroughly addresses the need to give your child an edge in their early life stages. A child who enrolls at Moonpreneur in 8th-grade proceeds to learn Product Design and entrepreneurship throughout the years, only to develop their own idea or passion project by the time they are in 12th grade! Students should share the experience they gained while working on their passion project and how it shaped their perspectives in their college essays to gain an edge in the admissions process.

The third lesson, and probably the most significant lesson, is “College doesn’t Limit You.”

It may mean that the student worked hard, and even after that, he may not have gotten admission to IVY College. And suppose admission is made to a college where placement and internship opportunities could be better. In that case, if the student keeps working on his skills in college life and keeps his entire input focused on his career, he can get his dream company, job, or internship. If the college cannot provide any such help to the student necessary for his career, then in such a situation, the student should go one step ahead and focus on improving himself according to industry standards. Work hard on it. And after that, you can reach even more opportunities than in college. 

So that’s why, as a college student, it is essential to keep such a mindset from building up in your mind that college is giving us opportunities and resources, and our lives are limited to those only. It is not like this at all; our lives depend on our hard work, and if we work on it, then in today’s world, a degree is considered a fundamental thing in the industry. In today’s world, good companies always prefer that the candidates there are skilled, irrespective of whether they are from any college.

Fourth Lesson “We Are a Sum of Our Surroundings.”

That is, the people with whom the students hang out inside the college, such as their friends, are their classmates; in the end, students go to the forest like them. In such a situation, the student should hang out with friends or classmates who can provide them with growth and contribute to their growth journey. It is no longer necessary that growth be a career. One of your friends can teach you good communication skills, or maybe your other friends can teach you something new, and in such a situation, you should also try to positively impact your friends’ lives. You also teach them something or other. So in this way, a good community is built, and in this way, all the people inside the group learn together. So what we do inside the college influences us to a great extent, which is why we should build our friendships mindfully.

Fifth lesson is “Build your network.”

All the people we meet within the college for three to four years, in the end, become part of our alum network; that is, they are such people we can contact professionally within the college and five or ten years after leaving the college. You may have a classmate who works in government services or a classmate who has done a master’s or an MBA; after that, you may need to seek help from such people. That’s why we should build a positive relationship with everyone in college so that people can remember us for positive reasons after college. So that’s why, inside the college, avoid quarrels or fights without explanation. We only spoil our relationships with others. Stay away from all such elements. 

Along with this, there are some complex realities in life.

The person who does good in life has all his friends and brothers; society sees him as the best person, and everyone wants to meet him- Chanakya. 

Sixth lesson is “Don’t fall into bad influences.”

Most students will not fall into this category, but a minimal percentage will. You will observe yourself inside your college; some such people may come under the influence of a senior or your classmate and batch mates, and then maybe we get involved in such activities that have serious consequences. Because of this, a police complaint or report should also be filed against them. So this is a dire situation for us. Seriousness is also essential for another reason: it can affect our careers. Because when the big companies visit campus to hire interns for placement, they do background checks. The companies check if there is any police case against the candidate or if they were not involved in any other illegal activity. That’s why we should never put ourselves in such a situation by coming under the destructive influence of anyone inside the college, where we have to face severe consequences for this method.

Seventh lesson is “self-learning is most important.”

We cannot depend on anyone in college because college is about something other than relying on others. In college, we have to learn most things by ourselves. We also have to find resources ourselves. We have to explore good books, videos, tutorials, and courses by ourselves, and only then can we make good decisions. There are enough possibilities for those who are into self-learning in college or have learned to learn things by themselves. We have to take the path of self-learning by putting effort into ourselves and exploring opportunities. If we need help, then we have to help first. We can ask our seniors; we can ask our classmates. So we will solve that problem whenever we get stuck somewhere. Whenever we want to learn something, we try to understand it when we ask for help. Only then will the self-learning attitude can be cultivated, and only then will we know essential things in our lives, skill-wise, career-wise, and life-wise.

Eighth lesson is from college life: “Don’t sacrifice big opportunities for small ones.”

Our mindset during the first year of college is to start earning. Whatever the students know, whether it is content writing, writing video captions, etc. They are ready to accept any work. Their goal is to earn a small amount as soon as possible. But we should dedicate the first year to building skills. Once you have the skills, you can fully use those skills in the second, third, and fourth years for earning opportunities. So first, we have to become skilled, and in our second or third year, when we can utilize our internship opportunities, which will be better than those opportunities that came to us when we were not skilled. 

In the initial college phase, the focus should be on building your skills, not running towards earning. Once you are skilled, you will get much better opportunities to earn. Now, there can be many exceptions to this too. Every student has a different path. For instance, many students do not wait for traditional placements or internships. They have to do something different. Like someone who wants to start a startup, someone else may want to do something else. Working on those things in the first year will be more beneficial for such students. There, you get a chance to learn by doing things. But let’s talk about traditional placements or traditional internships. The student should have skills first and then apply for internship placements, which will be more beneficial for the student. 

So this student-to-student comparison can be your case, and you must analyze it according to your case.

Recommended Reading: Expert Opinion: Why School Curriculum Should Have Entrepreneurship Education

Ninth lesson is “Don’t find Escape Routes.”

Sometimes, when a problematic exam is approaching, students may experience worry, anxiety, and tension. In such cases, they grab hold of other things to divert attention away from the first item, and when the second thing becomes problematic, they move on to something else. If we want to be successful in any career, there is no escape route. We have to put in hard work. 

This happens with many students. They get nervous during internship season/ placement season. How do they tackle this situation? They try to find an escape route. For instance, they will think, okay, instead of preparing for placement interviews, what should I do? Let me prepare for the government exams. When the government exams approach, they shift to their studies. 

Studies are not easy either, and they start looking for another escape route in such a scenario. 

However, this type of escape route does not have to restrict us. We have to remember there is no substitute for hard work. Only hard work can help us succeed in our careers, achieve our goals, or fulfill our dreams. 

The best approach is to have clear goals. And whatever we want to achieve, we must first put in the effort; we should not try to dodge hard work from there.

Tenth lesson is that “Career should be a top priority for students in their 20s.

If, as college students, we treat our career as our priority, everything else automatically aligns. 

We have many goals during student life, such as buying a house or a car or going on a trip once we get a job. If you are established in your career, the chances increase that you will be able to realize the goals and dreams you had as a college student, and you will also be able to fulfill the dreams and goals of your parents.

We hope that you find these ten learnings useful. Apart from this, if this was your favorite lesson or you want to add something else, an important task you learned during college, you can share it with us by commenting below. 

Moonpreneur is on a mission to disrupt traditional education and future-proof the next generation with holistic learning solutions. Its Innovator Program is building tomorrow’s workforce by training students in AI/ML, Robotics, Coding, IoT, and Apps, enabling entrepreneurship through experiential learning.