Advice from a 4th-year
By: Katelyn Brass
During my time here at Ohio State, I have been fortunate enough to experience many opportunities and learn a lot about myself. College is a period of a lot of changes such as moving to a new city, taking on harder classes, finding new friends and learning how to take on new responsibilities. However, it always made me feel better to know that almost everyone else you meet is going through similar things. I’ve had some trials and errors so here are some pieces of advice I found to be helpful throughout my college experience.
1. You can't say yes to everything
I learned fairly quickly during my time here that there aren't enough hours in the day to do everything. I would pack my schedule to the brim with things to do, and a lot of which I didn't want to do nor have to do. Learning how to say no to people is not a natural thing for me to do, but once I got more comfortable with my own personal boundaries it does become easier. My advice is to start small. For example, make it a point not to take on responsibilities past 9pm on school nights. This also doesn't mean to write off your friends or other one off opportunities if it's something you are interested in. This is a very valuable skill to learn and practice while in college because once you start your career, the feelings of needing to do everything will reappear and having solid skills in place already will make the transition into the professional world go much easier.
2. Be prepared for things not to go the way you thought they would freshman year
Freshman me would be shocked if I told her that I completely changed career paths by senior year, but that’s why I am so passionate about being open to new opportunities. My theory is to try new industries or tap into your other interests while you are young and don’t have a family, mortgage, or other responsibilities quite yet in college. I would encourage you to not do multiple internships in the same industry, especially for Marketing majors. Try unconventional marketing internships, it will give you so much room for growth.
3. Get involved in things you actually like, not just to build a resume
Ohio State and FCOB pushes getting involved on campus, which is a great thing, however, I feel more times than not a lot of students (including myself) get overwhelmed with their involvements their first year. Events like the involvement fair are great to see what this campus has to offer, but it's super overwhelming. I break down my involvements into three categories: professional, hobby, and social. For professional involvement, find an organization that relates to your major or desired industry. Use it to network with possible employers and also meet other students in your major that you’ll end up having almost all your classes with. For hobby involvement, do something that you enjoy and relieves stress. This could be any art club, or intramural sport, make sure it's something you enjoy. Finally, for social involvement, there are elements of socials in most clubs on campus, even if it isn't expressed outright. For a social organization with a larger impact, I would suggest looking into Greek life. These are meaningful organizations where you can easily meet others and develop friendships through service.
These three pieces of advice are just a small amount of the things I could say I learned in college, inside and outside of the classroom. Everyone’s college experience is different and dynamic. My last and most important piece of advice is to reach out to people if you are in need of help. This goes for classroom help or even in a career, people are usually always willing to give you time if you take the initiative to ask.