How to College Companion Guide: How to College: Activities

Give Me Five!

If you are thinking about reinventing yourself

• Where do you start?
• What do you want to keep and what do you want to toss, or change?
• Why do you want to reinvent yourself anyway?

Try this:

Ask yourself, “What are 5 fantastically awesome things about me?” and “What are 5 things I would like to improve about myself?” Then… Ask 5 friends or family members to list 5 strengths or positive things they see in you and 5 things that they think you could improve.

Compare the results.

• Do you see trends?
• Do you see similar things?
• Do you feel your friends and family are accurate?
• How much does it matter to you what others see or think about you:
• How much does it mater to you what you think about yourself?
• Is there a mid-point where the importance of both sides meet?
• Did the picture you had of yourself change? 

There are only so many hours and minutes in a day. When you take on something new like starting college, you have to expect to adjust your previous schedule to fit in the new. You might hear people say that they are talented multitaskers. Maybe you say that about yourself. Is that really true? Again, there are only so many hours and minutes in a day, make the best use of them!

When you begin doing research for college classes you will be using academic, scholarly, and peer-reviewed resources - much beefier than People and Rolling Stone. Efficiently finding and reviewing information can seem like a huge task, but if you go about it the right way you can quickly assess whether or not an article contains the information you need. 

Try your hand at the "Anatomy of a Journal Article" assignment below using one of the articles provided or find one of your own.