Top 10 pieces of advice from alumni for Baylor freshmen

On Facebook earlier this week, Baylor asked a simple question of the university’s 200,000+ followers:

What one piece of advice would you share with #Baylor freshmen on their first day of college?

Baylor alumni and others were quick to respond, sharing more than 5,000 words worth of wisdom. Feel free to read through all their advice (and add your own). For this post, we distilled all that down into the top 10 suggestions:

10. It’s your first year of college, so learning when to say yes and no to experiences are going to be difficult. My advice: Say yes to anything that interests you and isn’t a full-time commitment and then scale back to just things you would enjoy saying yes full-time to. — Johanna Renee

9. Approach that random person in the cafeteria and have a conversation. 11 years later you could still be friends. Right, Tracie? — Caity Greig

8. Seek help if it all gets to be too much. Many college students struggle with depression for various reasons. There is no reason you need to be miserable when help is just a question away. — Sarah Stephens

7. Scan EVERYTHING with your phone — syllabus, handouts, flyers with info you want to remember — and keep everything on Dropbox/Box/Google Drive. — Christopher Griesemer

6. Be involved. Most reasons that people leave Baylor is because they don’t get connected to groups, whether it’s a fraternity or Quidditch, have fun and do something. — Anthony Ray Madrid

5. If a professor lists extra credit assignments on the syllabus that can be done anytime during the semester (e.g. participation in an online study, a short essay, etc.) do it on the first weekend of the semester. Your motivation is usually higher and your workload smaller that weekend than at any other point in the semester. You’ll thank yourself when exam week rolls around and the extra credit points come flooding in, seemingly out of nowhere. — Carrie Plapp

4. Don’t feel pressured into joining a sorority/fraternity just because it seems like everyone is doing it. Try it and see if you like it, and even rush if you want to know more, but don’t feel like you have to do it because a. You will make friends, sorority/fraternity or not, b. There are lots of other things to do, and c. It will be a pretty expensive mistake if you just do it to do it. I’ve made lots of great friends and had fun times in my sorority, but I rushed later because I wasn’t so sure my freshman year, and it still turned out great — so don’t sweat it. — Shannon Livezey

3. During the first week of classes, meet with the professor(s) that teach the course you’re most anxious about. Tell them your concerns. It will show them that you care and want to pass. — Joshua Newman

2. Find a church where you can serve & be served. Invest in it and let them invest in you. — Dawn Bowles

1. Talk to people from around the nation and world and watch as you understand things in a new way. — Marlin Bullard

Sic ’em, Baylor Class of 2021!