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In large first-year classes, there might not be anyone taking attendance, which means that you won’t get in trouble the same way you may have in high school. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go to class, though, and some teachers will have an attendance policy. More importantly, skipping class means missing out on valuable learning. Don’t make your life more difficult by forcing yourself to cram come exam time. College is also expensive, and not going to class means that you are wasting a lot of your and/or your parents’ money—anywhere from $50 to $150 per one hour of class.  Do the readings, taking notes as you do so. You’ll retain much more if you read actively, and your notes will help you out a ton when exam time rolls around.  Participate if the class calls for it. Many college students hate or are afraid of speaking in front of groups, but you will get so much more out of your classes—and will enjoy them so much more—if you can get past this. Don’t be afraid of being wrong—your professor just wants you to try, and probably wasn’t asking a question with a “right” or “wrong” answer to being with. You should spend the same amount of time on your schoolwork as you would on a full-time job—at least forty hours a week. Bank on spending an average of two hours outside of class for every hour you spend in class. The balance will vary by subject (labs, for instance, will tilt more toward in-class time), but your library or dorm room is where a lot of the really hard work will take place. Some people plagiarize because they think they can get away with it; others do so because they honestly don’t know what it means. Either way, you are responsible, and you will get caught. Many schools have very harsh penalties for this behavior, including automatically failing the class and/or including a special note on your transcript.  Obvious plagiarism includes copying someone else's work and presenting it as your own and using someone else's words or ideas without citing her. Not using quotation marks around quotations is also plagiarism, as is giving inaccurate or incorrect information about a source. (It's especially bad if you fabricate a source.)  Bad paraphrasing is also plagiarism. A paraphrase condenses the "gist" of an idea into your own words. However, you may be plagiarizing if you retain most of the original's words, especially if you use the same basic sentence structure or the passages are substantially similar in length or style.  Academic dishonesty more generally can include asking people to help you when you have been told to do all your own work, working together on a project if collaboration hasn't been assigned, and paying others to do work for you. Dirty little secret: many professors sit at their desks during office hours, waiting and hoping for someone, anyone to stop by. They will appreciate you so much if you are that person. If you have a question, this is a great way to ask it because it will help your professor put a name to your face. But consider stopping by early in the semester just to say hi and introduce yourself. Be reasonable about your expectations. Your professors won't proofread papers for you or give you essay topics. However, they're usually very happy to talk about your ideas with you to help you figure them out. For many college students, texting comes more naturally than emailing, but you can't expect your professors to give you their cell phone numbers. If you want to stay on top of your academics, you will need to check your email regularly. This is where you will see announcements from your teachers, department, etc. If your courses use online course management, such as Blackboard, check these regularly too. Often, assignments and grades will only be posted here--if you don't check them regularly, you miss out. This goes for both the physical location and online databases. Your professors will assign a lot of these, especially at the beginning, but you will also need to learn how to do research on your own. Consider scheduling an orientation with a librarian, especially if you have never used a brick-and-mortar library before. You are sure not to be the only one, so don’t be embarrassed. Most libraries have reference librarians for specific areas, such as hard sciences, music, or English. If you have a big project, it's a good idea to ask for a consultation with the reference librarian in your subject. She stays up to date with all the latest research and can guide you to the best sources. No matter who you are, you will probably read things that you don’t agree with. This is intentional—your professors aim to assign readings from many different perspectives, so they are assigning things that they don’t agree with, either. You don’t have to agree with the writers who challenge your beliefs, but do try to figure out where they are coming from and what makes them tick—that’s probably part of why they were assigned, anyway. Colleges and universities will require that you fulfill a certain number of credits in several different areas: general education (possibly broken down by subject matter), classes for your major, and electives. Meet with your advisor regularly to make sure you are staying on track—otherwise you might find yourself having to pay for a summer session or an extra semester that you weren’t planning on. If you are an engineering major, take a literature course. Poets, try biology. (These are just examples.) Either way, you will be exposed to new people, new ideas, and perhaps a new subject that you didn’t know you were interested in. Employers are often more interested in candidates who can do a wide range of things, such as write a coherent sentence and analyze formulas, rather than people whose focus was so specialized that they can't handle the wide-ranging demands of the modern job market.
Go to class. Be prepared to devote a lot of time to your schoolwork. Understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. Get to know your professors. Check your email. Learn to use the library. Be open to new ideas. Keep track of your progress to degree. Think outside your major.