This blog is intended for incoming college freshmen. If that happens to be you, congratulations. You are about to embark on the greatest four to six years of your entire life. You will be given freedom like you’ve never experienced before. While freedom typically comes with benefits such as no curfew and no longer carrying Visine around all the time, there are also some drawbacks.
More freedom means more responsibilities. You will need to look out for yourself. That means prioritizing your health, becoming financially literate, and trying your best not to die while still having a good time. It can be tricky. Especially considering college is filled with a bunch of scammers and con artists, you always need to be skeptical. If something sounds too good to be true, trust me it is. If something is supposed to be the coolest thing in the world and “everybody is gonna be there,” I can guarantee you it will be empty. My point is, people in college will often try to deceit you. Don’t get got. Here are three prominent college scams you need to be on the lookout for.
Textbooks
Honestly, this is a lesson you probably should’ve learned in high school. 99% of textbooks can be found for free online. Basically, all you need to do is search the name of the book followed by the words “file type: pdf.” Yes, that actually works. If you can’t find it online, there is a good chance that your professor is the author of the textbook. In that case, drop the class immediately. First off, they’re clearly a horrible person if they’re profiting off of their students by making them drop $100 to read what the professor could have just explained in the first place. Yet, even more so, if a professor has so much to teach that they felt the need to write it all down in a 300 page book, that’s not a class you want to be in anyway. Save your time, your money, and your mental sanity.
Readings
This is similar to textbooks in the sense it’s another thing professors will require, while it’s actually not needed at all. Readings are probably the worst part of college. Luckily, most professors don’t use them in any way at all. Chances are you won’t be cold called in a massive lecture just to give your thoughts on last night’s reading. In fact, no one will.
At most, readings are used on assessments like midterms or finals. On a 100 question test, professors will probably make about 10 questions about the readings from the semester. If that’s the case, just put C for all them. You will probably get three correct. So, I leave you with this question. Would you rather miss 7 questions out of 100 on a midterm or spend a cumulative 50 hours reading boring nonsense? Surely, you should take the 93%.
Welcome Week Parties That Cost Money
Freshmen welcome week is possibly the greatest week of your college career. Thus, by the transitive property, that makes it the best week of your life. Welcome week as a freshman is the only time you can get into any frat party you want. Take advantage of that. Go party at the top house you have no chance of getting a bid to. Meet girls from sororities you will never be able to mix with. Drink as much free alcohol as possible. The keyword there being free. Let me explain.
Frats will throw massive parties during welcome week that they occasionally charge money for. The price of entry could be anywhere from $5 to $60. Yes, people will pay $60 to get into a frat party just to drink Natty Light and swap shoulder sweat with strangers. It sucks. Eventually, if you were to go to every big frat event that costs money you’d probably spend over $200 during welcome week. Listen to me. Despite what your wannabe-promoter friend tells you, I guarantee you these parties will not be fun. They will be overcrowded, poorly organized, and sweaty. Seriously, I cannot overemphasize the sweatiness. Do yourself a favor and go to the frat parties that are free. You’ll make a name for yourself for rush and have a way better time.
