Top 5 Things Students Struggle With in College

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Enrolling for college feels like you’ve finally—FINALLY—stepped into the age of maturity. You’re free from your 7AM to 1PM timetables (ick!) and you’re parents can no longer give you shit about staying out “too late” now that you’re living in a dorm. A DORM *shrieks internally*

College means frequent night out with your friends, hitting the club till it’s 4AM and drinking yourself stupid, right? Life should be easy from here on, pish posh, it’s going to be the absolute best time of your life!

Well…not really. Here are 5 things college students struggle with: 

1. DUE DATES, DUE DATES, AND MORE DUE DATES

Dear God, when will the assignments stop rolling in? As if you’re not already buried under the amount of stress and lack of sleep already. Noooooooo. Your lecturer just gets a kick out of dumping more work on you and seeing you suffer. Sorry to say, but in college, you’ll be swimming in the midst of your assignments most of the time. You’ll have to suck it up since the due dates are a ticking time bomb just waiting to explode, no time to whine, nope, none at all.

2. FINDING A PARKING SPOT

Sure, you have a 2PM lecture and you’re half an hour early for class. You’ll just park your car, maybe go grab a sandwich, get your everyday dose of coffee, and walk slowly over to the lecture hall. Perfect. But there’s one teeny tiny problem… finding a damn parking spot. College students who drive suffer the pain of circling the parking lot round and round just searching for that legendary parking spot. And they pray to all the Gods out there that they find one to avoid the awkward stares they’d get for entering the lecture hall late (mostly from kids who live next door to the college), not to mention getting reprimanded by the lecturers. College and universities are supposedly loaded right? But parking lots seem to be out of the question when it comes to budgeting.

3. “ME” TIME

With the ever-growing pile of work you have just sitting on top of you, kiss most of your hobbies goodbye. You might have been a couch potato before, but once you step into college… maybe you’ll see that couch in another life. Getting involved in your “college life” can really suck dry your personal time and space. You’ll be forced to juggle with your studies, lectures, tutorials, assignments, joining clubs and societies and going out to socialise with everybody. By the time class ends, the only “Me” time you get is a date with your bed.

4. “Guys, I’m broke”

College students everywhere would agree with me that dollar bills have legs. Tiny invisible ones. And they always seem to run off and disappear on their own. You start off the month with a full, fat, striving amount of cash and bling in your bank account. A few meals and night outs later, they’re gone, along with your enthusiasm, never to be found again. Instant noodles and Gardenia bread will be your best friends and salvation in the following weeks to come before cash starts rolling in again. I WILL SURVIIIVEEEE.

5. Lecturers and classmates who never get your name right.

In high school, everyone knows everyone. The teachers are your best friends (or your worst enemies), and your classmates are considered family. Ohana and all that jazz. That’s all up in the air when you enter college. In fact, most of the time lecturers and classmates don’t even call you by your name.  Your name has been officially changed to “Eh”, “Bro”, or in some circumstances, “Dear”. Yes, apparently you start dating some of your female lecturers because that’s her pet name for you. Maybe you should consider tattoo-ing your name on your forehead, just to hear your name get called out once or twice in class. However, that’s not really their fault, with lecture halls that are built to sit 200 students, it’s a miracle to get everyone in class to recognise you.

Now with all that said, don’t let college scare you away. It’s still a heck of an experience that you’ll just have to try out for yourself. Grab it by the horns and just hang on tight for the bumpy ride!

Did we miss anything out? If you’re a student, lecturer or are just itching to leave a comment, please do so below.