Since you have gotten an insane amount of Congratulations, I'm going to attempt to be different. But first...CONGRATULATIONS! I'm really, really happy for you! Yaaay!

Now..to be different.

We have a trend on Hubski of people dropping out / thinking about dropping out of college of college. I dropped out. thenewgreen dropped out.. BLOB_CASLTE. and more. I know I've missed heaps of posts and comments.

DON'T DROP OUT.

One of the reasons I think a lot of Hubskiers have dropped out or contemplate dropping out is because we are too damn smart for our own good. We look at the world, we see the world, we know the world, we are innately curious about the world, we are constantly trying to figure out our place in the world and be better and all sorts of stuff. We are acutely aware of money wasters and time wasters and resent that waste. These personality traits are not always the most conducive to a college learning environment, especially when coupled with the insanely high cost of college today.

My recommendation is to put 150% effort into everything you do there. The classes, the social life, the clubs, etc. Experience new things. Step outside your comfort zone. Try not to always be over-analytical and self conscious and hesitant. But, be very careful to not overwhelm yourself with the number of activities and classes you take part in. It's really about quality, not quantity. You can easily make yourself crazy if you take on too much and you will end up getting far less out of the experience, and be overly stressed the entire time there. Choose wisely what you do, and dedicate yourself fully to it. There are going to be some shit classes with a shit professors with a shit group of peers, but try to learn something from the experience and situation. You really do only get as much as you put in.

One of the reasons I dropped out was because I was getting far more out of my experiences working outside of class than I was with class. I found some of my classes to be a monstrous waste of time which only caused those classes to be an even greater waste of time. However, when I began taking classes a couple years ago at the local community college, I got so much more out of it. This time around, I was there to learn rather than get a grade or do what I was supposed to be doing. I put so much more energy and effort into it and my entire attitude was remarkably different.

While I haven't yet regretted my decision to drop out, I do regret not putting the same amount of effort I put into the $20/semester community college class as I did to the $500/hour NYU tuition.

Lastly, don't attend college wishing you were older or counting down to graduation and entering the real world. Seriously. I've always counted the days until I was older and lied about being older and done things that I should have waited to do until I was actually older. I wish so often that I was back in college full time and I had enjoyed and appreciated that period of my life more. It's such a cliche thing to say, but you have all your life to be older. You only have a select period of time to be a broke college kid and eat ramen and eggs 3x a day while meeting new people every day, learning new things every day, and getting horribly shitcanned. Oh yeah...that too. Enjoy getting shittcanned at least once. At some point you won't be able to do it anymore because the hangovers are so monstrous. Plus, falling asleep on the bathroom floor after puking up those 6 shots of Jager is not social acceptable after college. ;)

/ insom's life advice