{"id":5874,"date":"2026-03-19T22:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T02:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/?p=5874"},"modified":"2026-03-19T22:50:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T02:50:15","slug":"zoe-r-3-step-survival-guide-for-surviving-freshman-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/2026\/03\/19\/zoe-r-3-step-survival-guide-for-surviving-freshman-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Zoe R: 3-Step Survival Guide For Surviving Freshman Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Zoe Rahaim<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I\u2019m about to graduate from BU this May, and as much as people like to remind me I\u2019m a senior, my first semester at BU still feels fairly recent. In my first semester, I was prepared for the shock of starting at a big school, but I picked up other tips that helped me stay afloat. Reflecting on my own start, I was leaving a high school class I had attended for most of my life and had grown up in a small town. When it came to tackling a larger school in a much larger city, this advice truly helped me.<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When you\u2019re a freshman, everyone is just as eager to meet new people, so don\u2019t hesitate to reach out! Building a community from scratch can feel daunting, but everyone is in the same boat. During my first week, I aimed to have a conversation with at least one person in each of my classes. I turned towards the people on my floor and used platforms like GroupMe to reach out and grab dinner. A simple &#8220;hello&#8221; is often all you need.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\n<p><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">You can\u2019t skip out on Splash! Join clubs that genuinely ignite your curiosity. BU offers a wide variety of organizations, and if you\u2019re looking for like-minded people, COM hosts clubs that cater to journalism, advertising, PR, and FTV. These groups are a great low-stakes environment to explore interests outside of your classes. I found WTBU during my first Splash visit, and after taking a chance at their interested member meeting, I ended up falling in love with college radio and built a show with fellow WTBU members. Whether you consider clubs useful for your career path or purely for fun, getting involved is a great way to meet new people.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\n<p><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Time management and establishing a routine were my best friends when I started college. I realized that it was up to me to track my obligations between my courses and extracurriculars. I turned to tools like Google Calendar to track my classes, and I relied on a physical planner to visualize deadlines and my daily to-do lists.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">College is your time to explore, grow, and have fun. BU offers countless opportunities to meet new people and try new things.\u00a0 As I\u2019m coming up on my last few months as a student, I realized how BU allowed me to explore my passions and broaden my horizons.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Zoe Rahaim I\u2019m about to graduate from BU this May, and as much as people like to remind me I\u2019m a senior, my first semester at BU still feels fairly recent. In my first semester, I was prepared for the shock of starting at a big school, but I picked up other tips that &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/2026\/03\/19\/zoe-r-3-step-survival-guide-for-surviving-freshman-year\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Zoe R: 3-Step Survival Guide For Surviving Freshman Year<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9594,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[44636],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5874"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9594"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5874"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5876,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5874\/revisions\/5876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}