There’s an old saying that goes something like this: “An idiot repeats his own mistakes. A wise man learns from his own mistakes. A genius learns from the mistakes of others.” In the spirit of that anonymous quote, I’d like to give you the opportunity to learn from some of my freshman (and sophomore and junior) mistakes at the University of Wisconsin, as well as a few of my better decisions.
Without further ado:
Do NOT choose freshman classes at random.
Freshman me didn’t know this. Freshman me picked my fall classes at Student Orientation, Advising and Registration without once looking at the catalog, checking degree requirements or speculating as to what my major would be – I thought my major would eventually choose me (that only happens in Soviet Russia). So, I chose my classes essentially at random, consulting once with a SOAR staff member who asked me, “Do you really think you need to take general chemistry? That’s pretty challenging if you just want a science credit.”
Anyway, I ended up with a grab bag of Spanish, Arabic, anthropology and economics classes, that (aside from the anthropology) I definitely enjoyed. I have no regrets about this. However, these credits didn’t really do anything to help me graduate, a fact I realized at some point during that semester. If you’re like I was, and you have no idea what you want to major in, try to at least take care of some liberal arts requirements this fall. You’ll thank yourself come senior year.
Don’t let your friends get in fights with fraternity bros – even if your friends are fraternity bros, too.
When I was your age, I wasn’t even on the lookout for this potential hazard, especially not when I was in line with my friends at a food cart on State Street in the wee hours of the weekend morning. Next thing I knew, I was trying to pull frat guys off my friend and his younger brother (who chose an unfortunate weekend to come visit UW) by the collars of their Hollister polos. Of course, they assumed I was trying to get involved in the brawl as well and started trying to fight me, and I had to hold some bros back – I felt like I needed some sort of United Nations neutrality logo, or at least a Red Cross, on my T-shirt.
This situation is pretty avoidable. In retrospect, I could have headed that confrontation off when my friends, who just happened to be members of a fraternity, and their enemy frat bros were just starting to exchange words. Hell, we didn’t even need to be getting chicken sandwiches at JD’s food cart in the first place, and I could have pointed that out. Freshman me could have been much more aware of his surroundings and much more proactive about watching out for his friends. Don’t be like freshman me.
Don’t spend too much money on textbooks.
A quick preview of what’s in store for you when you get to Madison in August: You’re going to need textbooks. You’re going to find yourself in the basement of the UW Bookstore; it will be crowded, and it will be chaotic. Your first classes will be days away, you will be excited about everything, and everyone around you will be buying their books.
And the books will be outrageously expensive, and, to a greater or lesser degree, “required.”
You can guess what I did as an impressionable incoming freshman. I was shocked at the price of my textbooks, but I chalked it up as part of the cost of higher education and put that thought aside as I paid for my books and left. But after three years of being asked to pay hundreds of dollars for textbooks by professors who either don’t realize or don’t care how inconvenient this is for students and textbook companies looking to make a profit on students who are “required” to buy their book, I’ve realized that paying too much for textbooks is both unreasonable and to some extent avoidable.
Out of the many ways to save money on books, I’ll list a few. One of the more enlightened ideas from our beloved student government, the Associated Students of Madison, has had in recent history is to organize a textbook swap each semester. You can show up, sell your textbooks for more money than you would get at the bookstores and buy used textbooks at lower prices than they charge at the bookstores. You can also look online. While you can look for books at obvious places such as Amazon, you can often find better deals if you are willing to get more creative in your Google searching. Finally, you can ask around. Why shop for a textbook if you can make a deal with someone you know?
I remember enough of my freshman year to know that you are at this point probably drowning in lists with the theme “what to do and what not to do in your first year of college.” You’re also probably up to your neck in lists of “the super happy fun things you can do for fun in Madison.” I hope I haven’t added to that pile. I don’t mean in any way to tell you what to do – please, please, please do whatever you want. And I’m not here advertising for anyone, least of all the university. If nothing else, I hope this has been a true confession of the things I got right and the things I got way wrong.
Have way too much fun.
Charles Godfrey ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in math and physics.
