Alright, so let’s play a little game.  I assume you have heard of Mythbusters before, but if you haven’t it’s this show where a group of guys who are scientists take urban legends and all sorts of myths and put them to the test to see if they are actually true.

Well I’m going to do kind of the same thing – except the only thing I will be “mythbusting” are stereotypes and expectations, of college of course.  All the ones I’ve heard and other people have heard before they actually get here and experience what college is really like.  I’ve been here at the University of Alabama for over two months, and although I may still be just a first-semester freshman, at this point I know what goes down on your average American college campus.

Myth #1:  College is one big party.

All you high schoolers out there, get excited.  This myth is, without a doubt, true.  For many teenagers it is the first time in their life where they are basically on their own, making their own rules and curfews, all away from their parent.  So of course, many people take advantage of these new opportunities and go a little crazy.  Some go A LOT crazy.  Basically, if you come to college wanting to let loose, you’re going to find many chances.  The presence of fraternities and sororities, especially here in the South, only makes it that much easier.  HOWEVER, it’s also just as easy to avoid the party scene.  All you have to do is go to bed early, don’t leave your room to often, and when you do find friends who are equally calm and studious.

Myth #2:  The Freshman 15

Although personally I have not been very affected by this myth, I definitely believe it happens to a lot of people.  The reality is that instead of eating the home-cooked, usually healthier food that you’re used to, you’re eating at the dining halls.  And dining halls usually have some greasy, fatty selections of food.  This, along with frequent fast food runs and eating late night meals is not gonna make you any healthier nor thinner.  It all depends on your routine – walking all over campus instead of taking the bus, limiting the late night snacks, and trying to find time to exercise is going to make sure you don’t gain the freshman 15 pounds.

Trying to accomplish homework…..notice the distraction of my blog opened up on my laptop.

Myth #3:  You hardly get any sleep in college.

More than anything this one is False.  Before starting my freshman year here, I would hear all the time that college kids get so much homework and hardly get any sleep.  But for me, that was high school.  During high school I would have to get up around 5:30 every day after being up so late doing homework for all 7 of my classes that I had every day, so I would get virtually no sleep.  But in college, I can be up any time from 12-2 finishing up studying and still get plenty of sleep before my 10 am class, my earliest every single day.  College is much more relaxed in the sense that you have free time between your classes and throughout the day to get stuff done, and you don’t have to sit through 8 periods nonstop in one day.

However, time management is key.  If you don’t organize your time then you are going to find yourself getting less sleep and being more stressed out.  You do have less classes in college, but the homework and studying amount still comes out to be about the same, and along with that comes the endless amount of other opportunities and hedonistic activities to occupy your time.  This also happens to be the reason why there have not been blog posts recently – I’m trying to balance studying with everything else, and then somehow manage to squeeze in time to write.

So on this Sunday night, I managed to squeeze in some time to analyze three of the biggest stereotypes about college that I hear; time that should probably be spent doing homework.

What were your biggest expectations/surprises coming into college your freshman year?