What it took me four years of college to learn...

1. Put yourself in uncomfortable situations. They make you better able to adapt to awkward situations and to think on your feet.

2. Sit near the front, your grades will improve the closer you get to the front of the class. I am living proof. Otherwise, you will get distracted by the person who is looking at pictures on Facebook from last weekend's birthday bash or by how someone's annoy habits. I was afraid of being called on so stayed near the back, but in fact, you don't have to worry because professors rarely pause to ask questions to their classes.

3. Network! Get to know your professors, staff members on campus, and make friends with everyone, even the people who you don't think seem "normal" in your eyes -- they may be the ones getting the A's in class or become your future doctor or CEO. Talk to everyone! It'll help your interpersonal skills for later in life. You can't avoid people forever or expect them to read your minds.

4. Invest in those who show commitment to being your friend and reach out to you, they are the ones who you'll be friends with in the end. Don't strive to be everyone's friend or try to be with a certain crowd. You're wasting your time. This is speaking from experience.

5. Stay in the library. Go there when you're bored, when you don't even have much to do. Just go there and get it done there. Life gets so much easier then.

6. Get involved. Work on campus, join clubs/associations, try everything (at least once). Use the facilities, departments, and offices that are available for you to use, you're paying big bucks for them whether or not you use them.

7. Don't be afraid to ask for help. You obviously won't know everything, so why not ask someone who probably has the best knowledge of the topic out of the handful of people in the world that do?

8. FAILURE HAPPENS. REJECTION HAPPENS. That doesn't mean you stop trying. Something good will happen eventually and you'll learn to appreciate it more (this hasn't happened to me yet, but I'm waiting for it, patiently...). It took me a while to realize that one, but you really can't stop trying.

9. Don't go home all the time. Your social life and your building of friendships will happen OUTSIDE the classroom. Don't miss out on the chance to make friends, learn and try new things, and experience college.

10. Do all 9 of the above and doing well in school will automatically follow. These are mostly things I didn't do until my last year of college. If I had the opportunity to do it again, those are the things I would do over again. Doing just those nine things would have made my whole college experience entirely different.