Ithaca College Top Questions

Maintaining the right balance between your social and academic life. Freshman year is your one chance to start over and further explore your interests. You don't want to overload yourself with partying or taking part in too many clubs that you simply can't commit to. You also need to keep up with schoolwork and maintain good grades--freshman year is crucial for that. Starting off with a good GPA can only help you in the future. For me personally, finding that balance between my social life and academic life was the hardest thing to get right. It took me about three semesters to finally get it right. I thought the most important thing about freshman year was making friends and making memories--for me, that came first and school came second. As semesters past, I quickly realized that I needed to make adjustments. I realized that I should be getting the most out of my education and realized that if I wanted to make it in the real world and actually have a chance at being successful in the future, I had to work as hard as I could in school and cut back on going out. You need to find that right balance; for some people it may come easy and they can effortlessly play hard and work hard. But for others, like myself, it may take more of an effort to work as hard and be able to play hard too.