College Advice for Incoming Students

by Sanjana Mishra

With a new school year on the horizon, many students will soon head to college for the first time. Some may be staying close to home or in-state while others may be venturing out. A few students have some advice to share when it comes to navigating one’s college career and life post-graduation. The following interviews have been edited for clarity.

I wouldn’t stress too much about friend groups. The people that you meet in your first year aren’t always going to be the people that you stay with. Sometimes it takes time, but you’ll find your people. In high school, everyone’s together – you guys start at the same time, you guys leave at the same time. In college, it’s not like that. You have to be okay doing stuff on your own now. You learn to be so much more independent because you have different schedules and you’re busy with jobs, internships, or research. Make sure you also take time to reach out because it’s easy to isolate yourself.

Akshitha Ganta, University of North Carolina at Charlotte (Class of 2026)

Don’t be afraid to pivot. There are huge pre-professional student groups like pre-med, pre-consulting, pre-finance, etc. It’s easy to get roped into that career track just because it’s so well-defined and there’s little uncertainty about how to get into those industries. I feel like a lot of people find that they really don’t enjoy pre-med classes or don’t see themselves in medicine, but they’ll just keep pushing ahead. A lot of people run into the situation where they ultimately decide after four years that they really should’ve pivoted earlier. It’s important to be attuned to how you’re feeling throughout college. The best time to explore is now. I don’t think you’ll ever have the freedom that you have in college again.

Navami J., Stanford University (Class of 2023)

College Advice on page 92