MORE COLLEGE TIPS, YAY!

I really wasn't expecting my previous post about dental school tips for incoming freshmen to get attention. Honestly, I would have been ecstatic to have just gotten ten clicks, haha. What I realized though, is that freshmen love college tips, and they're just eager to learn whatever they can, and so, here we are, more college tips-- not just for Dentistry students, but for everyone, yay! Today, I'm going to talk about stuff that I had neglected to write about on my previous post-- stuff that I would not have remembered had I not been asked (yes, this means that I love questions and requests). Just like the precedent post, no study tips here. This is going to be a long post, but let's power through :)

1. STUFF TO BRING ON YOUR FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL. I actually can't believe that I had neglected to point this out on my previous post, when this was something I asked my roommates about the very night before my first day of Pre-Dent. -- The most important would be your Registration Form (at CEU, this is called the Certificate of Matriculation), especially if your ID hasn't been issued yet. Other relevant stuff would be--

• Pencil case. Sometimes people just get too excited that they forget to grab pens, haha. Pilot G-Tech pens were quite popular among my classmates, and I liked them too. Towards the clinical years, we gravitated towards multi-colored pens because we used different colors when writing charts-- Most of the time, I used Pilot G-Soft. I loved Pilot Coleto (they just kept getting lost..), and Uni Style-Fit. I also kept a few mechanical pencils, sometimes with colored lead, that I really enjoyed using in cephalometric tracing in Orthodontics.

• Notebook. Some classes will make you whip out your notebook on the very first day of class. In Pre-Dent up to DMD1, I had two notebooks-- one for MWF, and one for TTHS. My friends and I used loose leaf type refillable notebooks in DMD2, and it was quite easy to find the refills, so yay! In DMD4, my classes weren't as notes-intensive, so I started using notebooks that were more cute, rather than functional. It was only halfway through Dental Review that I had started using grid notebooks, and my oh my, they changed my life! My notes have never been neater, and the grids made it so much easier to tab my notes.

• Paper things. For the most part of college, I kept plastic envelopes (nothing fancy, it was pretty much one of those zip bags that delicates would be sold in), and put paper items in them. I would pack a few pieces of intermediate pad and yellow pad (actually, I used pink yellow pad), in different sizes. I also had sticky notes, index cards, and even ID pictures. As time went by, my envelope also became home to photocopies, loose lecture notes, and important-looking pieces of paper. I wasn't organized at all, but at least I had what I needed.

2. SOCIAL LIFE. Let's get real, in high school, people live relatively similar lifestyles in terms of values, spoken languages, habits, and sometimes, even socio-economic backgrounds. In college, however, you will meet a whole lot of people from very different backgrounds, and yes, you will also adjust. You'll need to practice being more tolerant, more tactful, and essentially, more open-minded. It will be a bit tricky to find the right balance between surrounding yourself with good people and being kind to everyone-- but I think it can be done. I think the first step to adjusting to people is knowing that people from different backgrounds make our lives more colorful. Don't hesitate to be kind to people who have made different choices in life, because they can always add something to make your life even more beautiful.

Guys, chill. It's rootbeer.

Case Discussion with Johanna

Ocular with my MYM 2018 committee

Birthday surprise for Onessa and Me

Birthday!

Semi-adjustable birthday

We love samgyupsal

friends > samgyupsal

Samgyupsal family!

Samgyupsiblings

My sis <3

My mini me love love love

Ate Lunch

Ate Joh comes back from the US

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

#celebrating (I forgot what)

My graduation dinner

I found my people in college, and I love them hard. They were always there with me through my little victories, and through my heartaches. If you're as lucky as I had been, you'll find your people too.:) I made a slideshow for you guys. 3. LEARN TO BUY IN BULK. When I was studying in Manila, it was really easy to buy bond paper by the sheet (aka. tingi-tingian), but later on, I realized that it's cheaper in the long run to just buy reams of bond paper-- very useful for classes that require lots of print-outs. The key here is investment-- drop money now, in order to save money in the future. By the way, I've already opened up the portal to bond paper, so just let me share this-- for really important stuff (reviewers that you intend to use well after graduation), I really like the brand Paper One. For less important stuff, I reach for the least expensive bond paper I can find. 4. ELECTRONICS. I'd say that a laptop is an essential, but I wouldn't say the same for a tablet. I have a MacBook Air A1370 that I've been using since 2012. Aside from a few memory issues and a few problems here and there with the charger, it's holding up pretty well. I have an iPad Mini, but I hardly ever reach for it if it's not for reading PDFs on the go. As far as college work goes, I feel like the general rule is that if it does the job, then you're good.

I personally like iOS, even if it is quite choosy when it comes to connectivity, but if you've ever had a virus attack your device, you'd appreciate the fact that iOS isn't susceptible to disasters like that-- this would be very helpful, especially since you might find yourself sharing files very often using a USB flash drive. When you name your drive, type in your cell phone number. If it gets lost, the kind-hearted finder can contact you right away to return it-- and when the chance presents itself, be the kind-hearted finder. 5. LEARN TO CONTROL YOUR STARBUCKS LOVE. Okay, I'm not talking only about Starbucks. Whatever it is, wherever you go be it Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Seattle's Best, Serenitea-- control it! I completely understand how and why students flock to coffee shops and set camp there-- I really do, mainly because just two months ago, I used to be one of them, and I will be again, during board exam preparation. Don't get me wrong, the ambiance of a coffee shop is conducive to studying, but you need to think practically-- a four-hour stay can easily set you back about Php500 or more (considering food and multiple drinks). You also need to think about how much sugar you're putting in your body, making it nearly inevitable to have a sugar crash, and not to mention other effects down the road. Control, control, control. Everything in moderation, and you'll be all right.