Originally Posted by
Clifton
First 3 months: Work very hard. Be on time for every class. Do every assignment with plenty of time to spare. Don't worry about going out, don't worry about making friends.
Many people become lifelong friends with the people they happen to be around Freshman year. If this is destined to happen with you, it will happen on its own; you don't need to force it.
You will either go in focused on social conquests or academic ones. Make them academic. Most of the worthwhile social stuff will happen after you've been there a while. As a freshman you're too green to know the lay of the land. You will only get used and make friends with the wrong people. You'll have to spend your sophomore year getting rid of them.
When your major and your extracurriculars are set, that's where your friends will come from. Wait for those. Start strong academically to get yourself on the right track. Get As or high Bs in your language, core, math/science, etc. classes. Once you're taking stuff you're interested in, you can coast a bit more, and you'll get fairly good grades in those naturally. Freshman year is often designed to weed out the weak and the lazy. Don't be a sucker. Once you conquer that, college is a piece of cake and you're on the fast track.
I've heard the same is true of law school. And... most other things. There is an initial hump and once you overcome it, a whole world opens up, and in that world, things are mostly easy.