The woes of post-secondary education

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College can be a liberating time for freshman. You are finally out from under the control of your parents and have a schedule that doesn’t necessarily require you to be stuck in class eight hours straight. You have so much free time to do what you want now.

But really, it’s the opposite.

As a college student you are responsible for you own self. Meaning all the mistakes you make, you’ll have to fix on your own and boy, will there be mistakes.

Worry not, the Interrobang is here to help you be aware of what not to do in college and to give you some advice for the future.

JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE OSAP, DOESN’T MEAN YOU’RE RICH

You might feel like you are and the evidence of a thousand dollars in your bank account says the same, but you would be wrong.

A thousand bucks does not go a long way when you include the fact that you have to pay for monthly bills, food, textbooks, school supplies or any other important necessities. This does not even including any money you use for entertainment.

Evidence of your empty pockets may not even show up until it’s much too late to rectify.

The dilemma really hits in the second term. In the first term, students may receive roughly 60 per cent of their total income to cover tuition, but when the next term comes around, students only receive 40 per cent. You’ll find out pretty quickly that the money will go mainly towards necessary expenses, rather than on play. A thousand bucks will turn into a few hundred dollars in a flash.

The best course of action to avoid causing your own bankruptcy is to have a plan for future expenses. Outline how much expenses you need to use or think you will have to use on necessities and tuition. This way you give yourself a general idea of how much money you should have left over and how much of that you should use or save.

USING YOUR MEAL PLAN IS OKAY, BUT BE MODERATE ON THE MEALS YOU BUY

Meal plans are excellent because you don’t need to cook for yourself nor do you have to spend extensively on groceries. You can get meal plans at Fanshawe College for $50 or more and students in residence have to buy a mandatory plan, costing $1,200 to start.

Having a meal plan is great, but it might not be enough for the whole semester unless you spend it wisely. The plans are only a certain amount of money that should cover the costs of your meals on campus. However, if you end up using it in huge amounts, it probably won’t survive the first term intact and ready to serve for the second term.

Avoid buying meals over $10 a day every week. Try only eating meals like this once in a while since $10 becomes a lot after a while, especially if you eat those meals each day. To save money, try buying some simple foods, like bread, that you can use to make several meals over a period of days in a microwave oven or other appliance. You can save a bit of money if you don’t have to keep on going out to eat for all your meals each day.

MISSING CLASSES IS OKAY… NO IT ISN’T, WHO TOLD YOU THAT?

In college, you are given a lot of freedom to choose if you will attend class or not. Unlike high school, professors are not responsible for making sure you show up for class. Some students take advantage of this fact and purposely miss classes when they just don’t want to g, and some don’t even attend at all except for tests and presentations.

Unless the professor has deemed that attendance is mandatory, you have free range to do what you like.

But is it okay to ditch?

Not really. You are paying a lot of money for the classes. Why shouldn’t you get your money’s worth by actually showing up? You also chose to go to college to learn something so go to class and learn. College is also more practical in their courses and you can only truly experience the hands-on aspects in class.

You have the freedom to decide to attend class or not, but in the end, it is not going to help you at all if you miss out on learning important information for your future career.

DON’T UNDERESTIMATE COLLEGE HOMEWORK

If you thought high school would prepare you for college homework, you would be wrong. There is a vast difference in the quality of acceptance for work. College assignments should not be underestimated. If you haven’t already developed a good sense of time management skills, you’ll be putting them into overdrive now.

I’m exaggerating you say? It can’t be that awful, can it? Yes, yes it can, if you’re not prepared and organized.

Professors are harder judgers on the quality of your work than any of your high school teachers were. The time in which a project is handed in is even more crucial to the quality of your work now too.

Have an essay due in a month? Begin research post-haste to get it out of the way and done. You’ll be giving yourself enough time to find resources and perfect the writing. Never leave big projects or studying for tests to the last minute because as stated before, you are being marked on quality. Your teachers will see the difference between a project started in advance and one thrown together in a week.