{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "bskyPostRef": {
    "cid": "bafyreifrvl4kcaogv3wq3hwpwznamdr2epizn3tjgl3p7rc4gejbtim6na",
    "uri": "at://did:plc:ytp7opjv63h44nkzsr7o3hds/app.bsky.feed.post/3moe2qwnwqek2"
  },
  "description": "Having recently graduated with a B.S. in Cybersecurity from Montreat College, I thought it would be prudent to write down some tips I learned along the way. This is not at all a comprehensive list, it is merely what came to my mind at the time of writing. I hope it helps!\n\n\nGeneral\n\nChoose your homework battles. If you are a student who treats a B failing the class, you need to very quickly realize that life is about living and not about school. You don't have to thoroughly read every book or ge",
  "path": "/blog/some-advice-for-college-students/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-15T19:53:17.000Z",
  "site": "https://jessekramer.org",
  "tags": [
    "this Reddit thread",
    "learn about it",
    "my post here",
    "How to Win at College by Cal Newport.",
    "Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky.",
    "Monk Manual.",
    "PARA Method.",
    "PAR Method"
  ],
  "textContent": "Having recently graduated with a B.S. in Cybersecurity from Montreat College, I thought it would be prudent to write down some tips I learned along the way. This is not at all a comprehensive list, it is merely what came to my mind at the time of writing. I hope it helps!\n\n## General\n\n**Choose your homework battles.** If you are a student who treats a B failing the class, you need to very quickly realize that life is about living and not about school. You don't have to thoroughly read every book or get a perfect grade in every single subject. Completing 100% of every class is miserable and, honestly, inefficient. Instead, figure out what is _most important_ to get a _decent_ grade in the class and then do that. Read \"How To Win At College\" by Cal Newport for more details on this.\n\n**Start simple, scale complex.** There is a tendency for some (including me!) to develop the perfect system for studying, information organization, project management, time-boxing, or productivity. My recommendation is to start using the system in its simplest and leanest form, and _then_ make it more complex as needed. If you build a complex system first and then try to live it, you will likely find that the system you built in your head actually sucks when living it out. Instead, simplify that system by 80%, live it for a week, and then add 20% complexity _if needed_.\n\n**Double-check your academic advisors.** While I'm sure many academic advisors are good willed _and_ good at their job, some are not. It's all too common for them to mess up your academic plans either to purposefully delay your graduation or merely out of ignorance. You _should_ talk to them as they can be helpful in general, but double-check everything they say and understand the education system better than they do. Don't be afraid to push back for more clarification if something seems off. Also, make sure you involve a 3rd party who has done college before (i.e. ask a senior student, friend, parent, or older sibling).\n**Note:** I am not pulling exclusively from my time at Montreat. Instead, I am pulling from many students' experiences at many schools. This is a universal problem, not just a Montreat problem. Please also remember that academic advisors are first and foremost people, who deserve to be loved and respected. They should be allowed to make mistakes, even big ones.\n\n**Learn the credit system.** To facilitate the above tip, make sure you understand how US schools' credit systems work. See this Reddit thread for a good explanation.\n\n**Don't be afraid to live off campus.** Living on campus can be _really_ expensive. Price everything out and do the math. If it's cheaper for you to live off campus, don't be afraid to do it. Many colleges will pressure you into living on campus, often citing the claim that \"you won't get to engage with the community.\" If you are a social person and enjoy being social, you can get community easily while saving thousands as a commuter. Don't be afraid to hold your ground.\n\n**Double-check financial services.** Don't be afraid to ask them to explain your finances to you and then have them explain it again if it still doesn't make sense. They are human and should be permitted to make simple mistakes. However, if you understand how your finances work rather than just blindingly trusting, mistakes are much more likely to be corrected. This is especially true when debating whether it would be cheaper to live on of off campus; they should be able to lay out clearly how much you would save if you lived off campus.\n\n**Review after each semester.** A beneficial system that I have recently learned is the PAR system (Thanks Monk Manual!). It stands for: Plan, Act, Reflect. We always do the planning and acting, but we never do the reflecting. Reflecting is incredibly important and must be done to grow personally and professionally. After each semester, do a simple reflection of what went good, bad, and what your takeaways are. Trust me, you will thank yourself when you can look back and review your past advice and thoughts.\n\n**Inbox Rules.** If your college is like most colleges, you will be flooded with a massive amount of email that you either (1) don't _ever_ care about reading or (2) don't care about reading it except once a week or so. To manage this, I highly recommend using inbox rules in Outlook / Gmail.\n\n**Don't over commit.** Since you won't listen to your over-worked, over-stressed brain, please, I beg of you, listen to me:**do not over-commit yourself**. This is a _very_ hard thing to learn. A new opportunity pops up, whether it be a school club, an extra hobby, or a side-project, and you decide that you can _make_ time for it. However, in reality, if you don't immediately have the time for it, you never will. Learn this lesson well and it will save you so much stress, anxiety, and frustration in the future. It will also help you to do things thoroughly and intentionally, producing much higher quality work. Before committing to a new project, club, or extracurricular, let yourself get into the first three weeks (ideally) of the semester and _then_ make a decision.\n\n**Try the PARA Method.** The PARA method (not to be confused with PAR), is an incredibly simple, but very powerful organization system. It won't work for everyone, but it has worked excellently for me. Wherever you are storing information and notes (for me it was OneDrive, Outlook, my personal computer, and my notes app) you organize the data into one of four folders/categories called Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives. If you choose to use the PARA method, I also recommend organizing each class as an individual project.\nI am purposefully vague about the PARA Method in this blog post, so please spend the time to learn about it. And always remember: Start simple, scale complex 🙃.\n\n## Montreat College\n\nI don't have much advice pertaining particularly to Montreat college. But I hope the below points are somewhat helpful.\n\n**Talk to your professors.** While I can only speak for the Cybersecurity and Honors professors at the time of writing, I would say that they are very open to face-to-face feedback from decent students. If you pay attention in class, get good grades, and respect your professors, they will listen to you if you have an issue. If you think that a way a class is taught or some of the content presented is useless, tell them in a respectful way. At least for my professors, they took feedback to heart, especially when it was face to face.\n\n**Take advantage of certifications.** If you are cyber student at Montreat, take advantage of not only their free certification vouchers, but also the fact that you can transfer in certifications as classes! It can save you a lot of effort, energy, and money in the long run. See my post here for more info on that.\n\n## Suggested Books / Resources\n\nThese books/resources were very helpful in preparing and carrying me through college.\n\nHow to Win at College by Cal Newport. Really great tips for studying and learning! Don't try to implement everything from it, just what works for you.\n\nMake Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky. The most practical and realistic productivity book I've ever read.\n\nMonk Manual. The perfect journal/planner _for me_. I use their weekly planner version, not their daily planner. One personal modification is that I make the notes section at the end of each week into a weekly to-do list. Each to-do item I either put it under a project category (i.e. school subject, current employment, extracurricular) or an \"other\" category I have for random things.\nP.S. I highly recommend reading their free eBook called \"Outgrowing Productivity.\" At the time of writing, it is advertised on their homepage. You need to sign up for their newsletter to get it (newsletter is excellent too). It is very short but shockingly good.\n\nPARA Method. My favorite information organization and processing system. It works marvelously well for me and it might work for you too!\n\nPAR Method. A more peaceful and mindful approach to productivity.",
  "title": "Some Advice for College Students",
  "updatedAt": "2026-06-15T20:53:25.590Z"
}