I was incredibly unprepared for dorm life. I freely admit it. I thought I was organized...but I wasn't. Life quickly devolved into chaos.
I was an outstanding student in high school...in college I received a huge wake up call academically. The College Prepster (http://www.thecollegeprepster.com) has a lot of great tips and advice.
It's hard learning to do stuff on your own if you're not used to it. I wish I had known a lot more about life before I went off to college. Little things like dealing with roommates, ( I was an only child at that point) or doing laundry regularly were challenges.
We had a communal shower in our dorm. I didn't know about wearing flip flops, until I got a nasty infection. Lesson learned.
Time management and study habits were two things I thought I got. I was wrong. I really struggled with being organized. I also struggled with studying, getting papers written and more. I also got overly involved with activities, which looking back, added more challenges to my course load. Being better organized would have helped.
Budgeting would have been a big help too. I wish I had not opened a credit card my freshman year. (Free money! Yeah!) I didn't really understand it, and I paid a steep price financially for a long time afterwards.
I also wished I had thought about my course load more. I took a lot of classes at the same time that really required me to write a lot of papers, do a lot of homework and outside studying. If I had to do it all over again, I would have lightened the load more.
I also was not prepared for the partying. I didn't drink in high school. The fact that I, as an 18 year old, could go drink whenever I wanted to, was something that no one told me about. I'm not a drinker. I don't like beer. I don't really like wine. I like fruity drinks where I don't taste alcohol. I also am a control freak, so I don't like being drunk. It took some trial & error (and thankfully no awful consequences) to figure out that the party scene wasn't for me.
