So, you and your parents have just invested a significant amount of money for your university education. As a freshman, what can you do to make sure you get your money’s worth? How will you assure a return on your investment (ROI)?


Step 1: Get Organized

Developing a strong, structured time management routine is crucial to being successful in college. Your first semester will set the tone for your following four years. It is imperative that you establish a strong GPA that first semester because maintaining a high GPA is much easier than trying to bring up a low one.

Being organized will also keep you healthy, reduce your stress levels, and prevent fatigue.

Work on maximizing your time between the hours of 8am and 5pm, Monday through Friday. Take advantage of free time between classes to work on homework, projects, career development, and exercise. This will free up your evenings and weekends for additional activities, rest, and relaxation. Then, spend a few hours at the end of your weekend to review and plan for the following week.


Step 2: Schedule Monthly Meetings With A Career Coach

Because career development is a process that takes as many semesters as your established major, scheduling career coaching appointments monthly will benefit you tremendously. Every college has a career development office. Locate it and visit your first semester. Then, establish a relationship with this office

and keep consistent appointments with a career coach. He/she will help you plan out your professional

development goals for each semester.

If you do not do this, you will not be educated on how to transition from student to professional. Would you dare wait until your final semester of college to visit your professors, attend class, and follow through with your major requirements for graduation? Of course not! So, why would you dare make the mistake of doing this with your career development?


Step 3: Engage In Your Career Development

The majority of students who fail to attend and participate in career development events do so because

they choose not to engage and prioritize this development. Again, it is imperative that students educate

themselves on how to transition from student to professional. Establish and keep consistent appointments with a career coach so you can identify professional interests, build strategies for out of classroom experiences, identify strong, mentor-based internships, and establish a strong professional brand. Learning to be professional starts freshman year, not senior year.


Step 4: Investigate Extra Curricular Activities

Once you have identified professional interests, it is time to celebrate those interests and meet others who have those same interests. This is where extra curricular activities come in. As a freshman, finding a community that celebrates these same interests will help you learn more about yourself, your goals and passions, and your interpersonal style. College provides an abundance of clubs and activities for students to choose from, so investigate these choices and participate starting your freshman year. This will set the

stage for future leadership opportunities within these clubs or activities and will help strengthen your

professional interests.


Step 5: Create Your LinkedIn Profile

Establishing a professional on line presence begins freshman year. Yes, students need to clean up their Facebook page and even lock it down, if preferred. However, the main focus freshman year, is to establish your LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn is a professional networking site every bit as relevant to first year college students as it is to seasoned professionals.

The difference is in the strategies used by freshman versus seasoned professionals. Freshman can research

alumni, learn about their majors and subsequent careers, research those careers and the companies in which they work and learn tons about the professional world. And, the career development coaches and staff can assist freshman in building their profiles and using the site strategically.



Step 6: Get A Mentor

Because your first year in college is a huge transition, it can be a tremendous help to build a relationship with someone a bit ahead of you. Someone who has recently been in your shoes, can guide you, give you advice and support you through this transition. This is where mentoring comes in. Ask the career development office if they can assist you in locating a mentor. Alumni can be fabulous mentors for freshman and a career coach can assist you in making connections with alumni through LinkedIn.



These are six easy steps to accomplish during your freshman year. Remember, you have made a significant financial investment to attend college, so follow these steps and you will be on your way to gaining a huge ROI.

Dedicated to Dr. Aria Enefo, whom gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, she believed in me.

That's good write up there OP.

IAMLOOSEWEIGHT

Step 7...and probably the most important step of them all:
Believe in and be guided by God: PRAY!

You could be the most organized person ever and meet the most renowned career coaches in the world as often as you like, participate in world-class career development events and the most relevant extra-curricular activities, have the perfect profile on LinkedIn and be mentored by the very best people in the game and still end up performing far below par. We've heard of lots of first-class brains who seem to do everything right and still can't seem to make any headway. Why? Come to think of it, what if you dropped dead right after graduation?

It's important we take all the aforementioned wonderful steps and hope for the very best, but they aren't failproof. The Divine is. So it's paramount we always put God first.

So long as there's life, time and chance are what really make the difference. And guess what? They're all in His hands!

9ce 1

Kole Werk!!!
Especially if you are in UNIBEN

_{Ask Madcow1 if you think am lying}

Freshman or Jambite?

My primary aim is too hunt for fine and fresh ladies,not this your long epistle....

First to Comment! Gosh!!! I can't believe this.

I will like to say hi to my family. Your sibling Lilly
is on front page.

Shout out to our pastor for his prayers. And to MTN for not disappointing me.

But one question I have, why must all these Bloggers do copy and paste every time. Even if you can't create contents yourself, can't you at least edit it to suit the Nigerian environment/audience?

lolz, this piece is for the serious ones i.e those that know what they want..... most fyb's sef are confused not to talk of freshman

Na wash !

Tanks, u have a good point

op. 1 million likes for you!
for those still in school, this is what I call free life expo given on a platter!
do not take what op listed here lightly I take God beg you!

lillylove2:
First to Comment! Gosh!!! I can't believe this.

I will like to say hi to my family. Your sibling Lilly
is on front page.

Shout out to our pastor for his prayers. And to MTN for not disappointing me.

But one question I have, why must all these Bloggers do copy and paste every time. Even if you can't create contents yourself, can't you at least edit it to suit the Nigerian environment/audience?

hahahahahaha...you're not FTC

Nice piece sha.

Buh sounds too foreign

ok

Op U Try Wit Dix Ur Copy And Paste Technology, 7 Gbosa 4 U Oo.. *2 Dose Concerned, Op Is Actually Correct*

IamLukas:
Nice piece sha.


Buh sounds too foreign

bro negative...
this is what it takes to be a big player...on top of your game/on the food chain. very vital if want to roll with international coy.
believe you me you don't see these kind of article often. it comes once in a blue moon.

Seems the OP's talking about Universities Abroad...

Nice one Op....

#TeamFynestboi

I never knew that being a freshman - or an undergraduate for that matter - is a career

So, you and your parents have just invested a significant amount of money for your university education. As a freshman,

...BLAH BLAH BLAH

...and your interpersonal style. College provides an abundance of clubs and activities for students to choose from,

I Concur!! I Concur!!

Some of these steps are not applicable here in Nigeria

Interesting..

Nice write up, it seems more of an american guide for doing well in college, Africa and Nigeria is a bit different, now in as much as i appreciate this thread, i am a writer and i love the UK and US write ups on guilds on college things, how to save and more but please let's be creative, for a forum like this and an audience like this, you can edit that write up and put more things a Nigerian in a Nigerian university (whether public or private) can totally relate to? we are Nigerians, we are smart people, creating a thread like this with the target audience being us studying in Nigerian uni system, trust me, we would all relate to it better, with this all you would get is, nice one, nice write up, good one, really good one OP and all that, reason is they understand but can't really relate and you shouldn't blame them.

lillylove2:
First to Comment! Gosh!!! I can't believe this.

I will like to say hi to my family. Your sibling Lilly
is on front page.

Shout out to our pastor for his prayers. And to MTN for not disappointing me.

But one question I have, why must all these Bloggers do copy and paste every time. Even if you can't create contents yourself, can't you at least edit it to suit the Nigerian environment/audience?

U still dreaming of FTC

I think I should put this to practice already!

But what if I don't want to follow a career path defined by my university education?

I concur!

Not what I was expecting. Please write about Nigeria. It is different here

Abimloaded:
My primary aim is too hunt for fine and fresh ladies,not this your long epistle....

same here man. Forget this pastor were dey preach long epistle o na fine girls my eye wan catch o. I hear say na UNIBEN dem plenty for there.
How about you which uni you go flirt the fine babes

FuckTheM0ds:
same here man. Forget this pastor were dey preach long epistle o na fine girls my eye wan catch o. I hear say na UNIBEN dem plenty for there.
How about you which uni you go flirt the fine babes

My brother, na OAU my headquarters go dey ooo but I will network my hunting to all the universities in nigeria.... Hunt from all regionn

Abimloaded:
My primary aim is too hunt for fine and fresh ladies,not this your long epistle....

Tell me that's a joke