» By Raven Brown
–Staff Writer

Most of you made it through this past year of college without spontaneously combusting into a fiery ball of stress, and the rest and relaxation that comes with summer break has ended all of your worries about tests, grades, and GPAs.

But those two and a half months of freedom seem to fly by because, we get to do it all over again, starting Monday, Aug 26th. The classes may be different, and we get a brand new set of professors we’ll have to impress.

We get to resume all of those joyful nights cramming for exams and writing papers that we probably should have started a couple of weeks prior, when there just always seemed to be something more fun and interesting to do.

Procrastination may be a problem for lots of students, including myself. But after a year of college, I have learned from a few of my mistakes.
One of the most important things students have to worry about is something that could make or break their college career: their GPAs. A valuable lesson to remember is that once you mess up your GPA, it takes an unbelievable amount of effort and late nights to get it back up.
There were a few things that contributed to my less than admirable GPA.

One was, my reluctance to accept the fact that most of the professors at Apsu actually want you to show up to class.

There was also my perpetual need to put off assignments until the last minute and my unfortunate lack of organization that seemed to lead to late assignments.

I am sure I am not the only person to have any of these issues, because they pretty much characterize the college life of the unprepared.

Fortunately, I got a much needed wakeup call when final grades came out, and let’s just say they were definitely not up to my standards.

So I buckled down the next semester and started attending class. I began putting all my assignments and their due dates in the same place, and actually starting assignments sooner than the night before they were due.

Advice to live by: Don’t aim for the minimum, reach for the maximum. Future employers look for those who put in the most effort and who don’t just get by.
While your GPA is extremely important, there is no harm in having some fun in college.

Not only are you supposed to learn all of the academic essentials for your degree, but also havethe life experiences of being an adult.

So it is perfectly fine to go to a few parties and not hole yourself in your room with your nose stuffed in a book all day.

If every college student did that, we would all go insane.
I will use myself as an example, and the fact that I am willing to expose this much about me should let you know how much I don’t want you to make the same mistake.

I did not go to my first legitimate party until my freshman year of college. In high school, all I ever did was study, and I did not really enjoy high school all that much.

In the end it turned out I did not really like parties all that much either, because the wrong kinds of parties just end up turning out to be trouble, and for the most part, people act really stupid.

However, there are plenty of fun things to do on campus because posters are posted everywhere.

Trust me, there are enough activities with enough variety to keep everyone entertained.

Another way to shake up the routine of studying is to get involved. It may sound cliché, but there are plenty of clubs, sororities and fraternities to occupy any free time you may have.
If none of those interests you, you could always get a job, because having money to spend is always a good thing.

Speaking of money, it is also very important to be financially responsible. Be smart with your money and do not spend out of your means. Sounds like common sense, right?
Apparently not, judging by how much debt most people have.

Let’s start by buying the things we need first and then figuring out if we can afford all the fun toys out there.

As a girl who has indeed lived off Ramen noodles for a while trust me this advice would have been gold to me. Some of you will be getting refunds soon, so don’t blow it all, and save some of it for a rainy day.

Something I wish I had been told. Sometimes it is hard to resist buying things, but we really should. TAS