As much as you may want to get away from your family and your hometown, it’s likely that you’ll experience at least some level of homesickness while you’re away. You probably don’t think that now, but things may change after the first few months away. That’s totally fine—everyone feels at least a little homesick every once in a while. And when you do get homesick, there are things that you can do to help alleviate your feelings.

Probably the best thing to do to keep yourself from getting homesick in college is to keep in touch with your family and friends back home (in moderation, of course). Call your parents once a week, email or IM your friends every couple days, and keep up on what’s going on in your hometown. While this may not help immediately, you’ll feel much more reassured if you maintain a connection. Staying in touch is much easier than it used to be, as you’re not limited to the phone and email anymore. You can instant message, use social networking sites and public calendars, and any number of other electronic methods of communication. Take advantage of these different things and you won’t feel nearly as disconnected.

Another effective method of combating homesickness in college is one that you won’t even have to think about—staying busy. Your freshman year, especially the first few months, can become extremely filled with activity. You’ll have classes, orientations, homework, social events, and intramural sports. If you don’t allow yourself the time to think about being away from home, you’ll experience a great deal less homesickness. In fact, you might even find that you forget to think about it at all for a few days!

Making new friends is one of the best things that you can do for yourself, both from a homesickness perspective and in general. Because most colleges realize that it can be difficult to socially integrate yourself into a completely new environment, they provide many opportunities for getting to know others. You’ll have gatherings on your dorm floors, organized freshman activities, and a lot of ice breakers in your first few classes. While it can be tempting to skip out on these, take advantage of the opportunity—you might end up meeting some really cool people that wouldn’t have spoken to otherwise.

There are a lot of things that you can do to ward off homesickness in college. It can be easy, however, to fall into one of the worst things that you can do about homesickness: ignoring it. When you miss your family, friends, and hometown, don’t pretend like you’re not thinking about them at all. This will only make it worse; just address the fact with the suggestions above, and come up with your own ways to deal with it. You’ll be much better off for it. Talking to others about it can be very beneficial for both people, and you may find that a lot of the people you know are experiencing the same things, even if they don’t show it.

Sometimes, things just don’t work out with a college. Maybe you decide to change your major to one that’s not offered at your school. Maybe you want to move closer to (or farther away from) home. Maybe you just desperately need something different. Whatever the reason, you may find transferring between schools. And while this can certainly be a big hassle, there are some things that you can do to ease the process of transferring to a new college.

The first thing that you should do when you’re thinking about transferring is to start sending your applications early. If you can get your transfer applications out well in advance of the semester that you’d like to transfer before, you’ll make the process a lot easier. The earlier you find out where you’ve been accepted and decide where you’re transferring, the earlier you can do the rest of the things on this list, and the less stressful the process will be.

Once you’ve confirmed that you’ll be transferring to a new college, you should speak with an academic counselor there and discuss transferring your credits. Chances are you’ll be able to transfer the vast majority of the classes that you took, but sometimes schools have different requirements and the credits will be lost. If you find out that some of your classes won’t transfer, you can take it up with the dean or the head of the department and try to make a case for transferring the credits so that you don’t have to retake classes.

Upon getting the academic things squared away, you can start focusing on the actual move. If you’re transferring before spring semester, you may find it difficult to get on-campus housing, so you’ll probably have to start apartment hunting. Use sites like Apartments.com and Move.com can be very helpful in determining which options you have. Finding the local Apartment Guide can make things a lot easier as well. Visit several apartments and get your application in early so that you can confirm your move-in before the semester starts.

After you get your accommodations figured out, you’re done with the most pressing things. Now it’s time to focus on preparing for class and getting to know people. To prepare yourself for class at your new college, make sure that you’ve correctly enrolled in the classes that you need. You should also make sure that your student email address or e-services account is functioning properly. After that, attend a new student orientation, and you’re ready to start calling yourself a student of your new college.

Transferring to a new college can be difficult—and frustrating—but if you think ahead and plan it out well, you should have few problems. Good luck!

One of the most common phrases that you’ll hear when you get to college is “thinking critically.” Professors always list that as an object of their classes, and many universities list it in their mission statements. You’ll see it on course descriptions, syllabi, and assignment. If you’re really lucky, one of your professors will explain what they think it means—if not, you’ll be left to figure it out on your own. That’s why I’ve provided the following guide to thinking critically in college.

The first step in thinking critically about an issue is to form your opinion of the issue. You can go with your first reaction on this. For instance, if I asked you, “Is it better to act in the best interest of yourself or in the best interest of a group?” you would probably answer very quickly. You can start with this first answer. The issues presented in college classes are usually more complicated than this, but it will serve as an example.

Once you’ve settled on a view, you can start to ask questions about the issue. Ask yourself why you think the way you do. Is it because of how you were raised? How society has formed your opinions of right and wrong? Is it an issue that becomes less clear when encountered in the real world? Try to think of any situations, questions, or problems that may make the issue more complicated. Write down as many as you can think of.

After you have a long list of complicating questions and problems, you can begin to try to answer them in relation to your original issue. Start applying your opinion to different real-world cases and see if it holds up. You might find that things aren’t as clear as they seem at first. This is what critical thinking is all about—thinking about an issue from every angle that you can come up with. As you analyze the issue, write down other questions that arise, and continue on to complete the same process with these questions.

Thinking critically is a long process of developing complications. The objective of this process is to fully develop an opinion or a stance on an issue that can be effectively defended against questioning. By developing this long list of questions, you can be sure that you’ve thought of as many weak points in your argument as possible and that you’re prepared to address them.

To be as effective as possible, it’s recommended that you write down all of your questions and answers. It will help you remember your thought processes and will give you a reference when you go back and read through the list. Another advantage of documenting this process is for writing papers—once you’ve gone through listing your opinions, questions, complications, answers, and resulting questions, you’ll have a solid outline for your paper already written.

Thinking critically in college is an essential skill, and one that only comes with practice. Taking classes like philosophy and English will hone your critical thinking skills and ensure that you become an expert in the field. Don’t get frustrated with it—be patient and work hard, and you’ll quickly find that you’re a step ahead of the game.

While there are many difficult questions that high school seniors have to answer about college, one of the most challenging is “Should I go to college close to home or far away?” There are many benefits and drawbacks to each answer, some of which are discussed below. When thinking about where to go to college, it’s important to take your personal values into account; no one can give you a better answer than the one that you have to come up with yourself.

If you choose to go to college close to home, you’ll have many distinct advantages. People are more likely to stay closer to home than go farther away, so you’ll probably be closer to your high school friends (not all of them, of course, but most). This makes adjusting to a new social life easier. The same is true with your family; you’ll still be able to see your parents and your siblings on a fairly regular basis. You may think that this is a drawback of going to college close to home, but after a few years, you’ll come to see it as an advantage. If nothing else, you’ll certainly appreciate the fact that you can eat and do laundry for free at home!

The drawbacks to going to college close to home are closely related to the advantages: first, because you’re closer to your friends from high school, it will be more difficult to grow socially. There are many people who don’t meet very many new friends in college because they are too attached to their high school friends (especially if many of them went to the same school). And being close to your family can detract from the feeling of independence that you get from going away to school. This depends largely on your relationship with your family, but it’s something to consider.

If you choose to go to college far away from you home, you’ll realize some important benefits. First and foremost, you’re stepping way out of your comfort zone; this always helps you to learn more about yourself and develop your personality. Living in a new city is always a very socially, academically, and professionally educational experience. Every city has its own personality, and it can be a lot of fun learning about how to live in a new place. In the same way, making a new group of friends can be a very enjoyable and rewarding experience, especially if this is something you feel comfortable with. If it’s not, this can be a great way to learn how to make friends and become more social.

Going to college far away, while it can be a lot of fun, can also be very stressful. Being put in a new situation with a large group of people that you’ve never met can be difficult to adjust to. Most universities do a good job of introducing students to each other and helping to form friend groups, but you’ll still have to put forth effort. Being far away from your family can exacerbate this stress by making you feel slightly isolated. These are feelings that go away, but the first couple weeks can be pretty tough.

What it really comes down to is what you want to do and feel is right. There’s no right answer to the question “Should I go to college close to home or far away?” Give it some time, reflect on what you really want to do, and make your decision. I have every confidence that you’ll make the right one!

If you’re concerned about your social standing, it’s fairly likely that you’ll be very interested in the college party scene and how you can use it to your advantage to gain some social credit. And while figuring out how to do that is up to you, I’ll try to help you keep from losing any social credit. In the interest of making you, the reader, the highest socially-ranked person on campus, here is a list of things not to do at any part—appropriately deemed “party fouls.”

Foul #1 – Spilling a Drink

This has got to be the most common party foul. You drink a little too much, your balance and coordination go out the window, and pretty soon you find yourself holding an empty can of beer while the girl (or guy) next to you is making a terrible facial expression in your direction. Ouch. Just don’t do it.

Foul #2 – Being Ridiculously Loud

Yes, parties are going to get a little rowdy, and it’s going to get loud. But if when the neighbors call the cops, they specifically mention you, and not the party, you’ve committed the second of the party fouls. Keep it to a reasonable level and at least the cops won’t be coming specifically for you.

Foul #3 – Vomiting

Does this really need to be explained?  Don’t do it.

Foul #4 – Starting a Fight

Do you get belligerent when you start drinking? Then make sure that one of your friends stays with you throughout the night to make sure that you don’t start a fight. It’s extremely uncool, and will probably get you banned from future parties. You may also get your ass kicked, which is no fun either. And then not only will you be banned from future college parties, you’ll look like a fool.

Foul #5 – Taking Somebody else’s Drink

This is one that usually happens by accident. If you’re at a house party, offer to grab the person another drink. If you’re at a bar, buy them another one. If it’s not an accident, and the drink does not belong to your best friend or significant other, 1) you’re an asshole, and 2) someday you’re going to take your college’s star linebacker’s drink . . . and you’ll deserve what you get.

Foul #6 – Driving Home

This one should go unsaid, but there are quite a few people that won’t think twice about drinking and driving home. Don’t be stupid. Get someone else to drive or spend the night (many college parties end with a dozen or so people sleeping on various pieces of furniture—try to get the couch before anyone else does!).

While this list is certainly not exhaustive, it should give you an idea of what not to do at college parties. If you commit a small party foul, it’s not a big deal; but if you make a habit of it, you may find yourself without invitations to a lot of parties. And no one wants that. So think about what you’re doing, act your age (or at least somewhat close to it), and don’t commit any major college party fouls.