Mistakes at college aren’t anything new. As you’re about to start the road of a freshman, it’s important to know the biggest mistakes you can make that can spiral college out of control.

If that’s something that interests you, then this is the article for you. With all that said, let’s look at the 6 biggest college mistakes freshmen make.

Skipping Classes

You might think it’s cool to skip classes, but it’s actually not. Not only is this one of the biggest reasons why college freshmen struggle with classes, but it can also be the reason for dropping out.

According to EUW, skipping classes is a huge problem on campus. With all that said, why do college freshmen skip classes? The likeliest of answers is due to social reasons. Students love to socialize and many skip classes to do that.

The obvious downside is that it leaves them behind in coursework, so they have to do it all on their own.

Not Managing Your Time

Everyone struggles to manage time in college. This issue isn’t exclusive to college freshmen, but the sudden difficulty change is enough to impact freshmen the most.

This issue is mostly characterized by procrastinating. If there is one thing to avoid in college then it’s to procrastinate. Your assignments and classes won’t wait on you, so always use the time you have.

More so, many college freshmen have poor time management skills. This can be especially disadvantageous when needing to balance a potential business and studies.

As a general rule of thumb, college freshmen should learn how to manage their time more effectively. Doing that will save them from all kinds of issues.

Spending Money You Don’t Have

A big problem that college freshmen have in college is not knowing how to manage their finances. Much like having time management skills, money management skills are even more important.

College isn’t cheap; it’s actually quite expensive. The average college student debt is $29,000 in the US. So that means you should start working on managing your finances as soon as possible.

Doing this will save you from your parents needing to take out another loan to cover existing expenses. You can always do the smart thing and take out a job. But if entrepreneurship isn’t your thing, then you can always start a freelancing career.

Missing Financial Deadlines

Even more reasons why managing your finances is important, the last thing you want is to fall behind on your payments.

Missing financial deadlines is a mistake to avoid making. Not only can this get you in hot water with the financial institution, but you might even have to give up college as a whole.

If you happened to be receiving financial aid, then missing the deadlines by failing to submit paperwork on time is the last thing you want.

Financial aid comes in many forms and helps cover a lot of expenses. It might cover your tuition fees, pay for costly textbooks, student accommodations, etc.

So when you start missing deadlines, you will be sent a financial counselor to help you stay on track.

Not Sleeping Enough

Sleep is vital for your health. Students are advised to get 8 hours of sleep each day. Unfortunately, that isn’t possible for college freshmen. It is estimated that 70% to 96% of college freshmen sleep less than 8 hours a day.

The reasons for that could be many. From personal distractions to social reasons and of course, pressure to keep up with studies. But much like managing time and finances, managing your sleep cycle is very important.

Without it, it’s only a matter of time before you’ll take energy drinks and coffee just to make ends meet.

Too Many Distractions

Crunch time usually means you’ve failed to manage your time. As one can imagine, crunch time is when college students have to work overtime to keep up with assignments and exams.

When that happens, and that happens quite a lot, it’s important to eliminate distractions and use what time you have left effectively. If you don’t do this, you’ll probably fail your exams and fail to submit assignments.

In the best-case scenario, you’ll make things very difficult and stressful. So instead of checking Instagram every 10 minutes, let your phone sit on the bed and get your head in the game.

The last thing you want is too many distractions when things are boiling around you.