1. Don't pick a roommate that you have gone to school with your whole life long. First of all, you don't want to ruin what has been a beautiful friendship. Second, one of the points of college is to get to know different people, to learn to adapt to different ways of doing things. Plan for your good friend to live on the same floor, close by. And then introduce each other to the new people you are meeting.

2. Learn to do your own laundry and to iron. In every freshman's life there comes a time when you will find yourself rooting through your hamper to find your cleanest dirty shirt. Learn to do your own laundry so that your whites stay white and so that your classmates don't think that you are a homeless person who has just come into class to get out of the cold. Learn to iron your shirts so that you avoid expensive cleaning bills. Surprise your mom by coming home without 7 loads of laundry.

3. This January start buying extras of your favorite shampoos, toothpaste, deodorant, and other personal care products. Put them in a box at the top of your closet and start stockpiling. When you are off at school and short on money, you will have already bought the items that seem to take a large chunk of your money. It also gives you a reason to go home from time to time.

4. In college, books are expensive. And you have to buy them. (You also have to buy your own Scantrons for tests.)You will have to spend a lot on materials to get books about writing essays or research papers, although you could just look here. You can easily spend between three and four hundred dollars per semester on books. Start saving ten percent of your money now to buy the books you will need for college.

5. Buy a big fat college-rule spiral notebook for each class. Write the name of the class in Magic Marker on the front cover. Take that notebook to that class every time you go. Staple the syllabus that your professor gives you to the inside covers and highlight your due dates. Keep all of your notes from that class in that notebook. Staple handouts to pages inside the notebook in order of when you get them. You don't want to have to hunt through every notebook you have for notes for a test. Disorganization causes more failure than anything except laziness.

Taping lectures is over-rated. If you don't listen to the tape and take notes every night, you wind up with countless hours of tape to listen to. Plus you don't know which class is on which tape. Take notes. No one has died from taking notes.

6. Learn to use a calendar or day-timer. These calendar books are not just for real adults. You need them when planning activities around your tests, papers, and projects. When you get your syllabus, put the due dates for papers and projects and the dates for tests in your day-timer. And then look at your day-timer every day. Never plan an activity without looking at your book to see what happens the next day. Some of the PDA's that most of us use nowadays don't give us a look at the full month. You can't afford to be surprised by a test date or due date.

7. Do not get plastic. You may not realize it, but your credit rating begins with your first loan or credit card and then follows you for a very long time. Some people make mistakes with plastic in college that destroys their credit ratings, making it impossible to buy a house or car later on down the line. You have a lifetime to accumulate debt. Postpone getting into debt as long as you can.

8. Get involved with a group on campus. High school students sometimes think that they have made a life for themselves when in actuality; the school has made a life for them.  In college you must take thefirst steps to getting involved. Fortunately there are many organizations to join. Some are social. Some are honorary. All can help you make friends and/or learn more about the career that you have chosen. Also this is a school that you have chosen to go to. Support your school. Go to the games. Buy school T-shirts and sweatshirts.

9. Study, study, study-You parents aren't paying all of this money just so that you can go to a four-year party. At first it doesn't seem like much learning is going on. You are only going to classes about half of the time you went when you were in high school. And the professors don't seem to assign much. They just want you to read. And you can do that later, right? Wrong! Keep up with your reading. Read your assignments on a daily basis and take notes on what you read. Use your highlighter. Summarize chapters. Take note of key words and memorize their definitions