Are you about to enroll in a four-year institution? Are you currently attending one? Are you considering going to a university? If so, then you might to read on.

I spent five years at the university. Yet, I still do not have a job that I think I rightfully deserve. I spent countless hours trying to figure out what went wrong. In the process, I pinpointed key mistakes that I made and valuable lessons that I learned which I would love to share with the rest of you today.

Know Why

Know why you are going to a four-year institution. I know. I sound like a billion other people out there, but it is in your best interest to read on instead of just rolling your eyes at me. Let me explain why.

Think about the following. Today we have the world’s knowledge readily available. All you have to do is open up your laptop, enter your favorite search engine’s name, and search away. The only real issue is that you have to know what you are looking for. Otherwise, the world’s collective knowledge will be useless to you.

Same goes for college.

With that in mind, take out a piece of paper and write down “Why am I going to college?” at the top of the page. Then spend some quality answering that question. It might take a couple of minutes, hour, or days. However, it will be all worth it if you are able to answer the question concretely.

Even if you write down “I want to figure out what to do with my life,” then you are on the right track. However, if you are drawing a blank, then you might seriously need to reconsider committing to this four-year relationship.

Eliminate Distractions

If you were able to pinpoint the exact reason as to why you want to go to college then you are half way done. The next step is to eliminate all distractions, which would otherwise prevent you from achieving your goal.

There will be plenty of them. Some of the distractions are excessive drinking, drug abuse, overwhelming social life, sex, general laziness, video and drinking games, destructive relationships, and just doing dumb things because you can. That is only a partial list.

Simply put, you will be overwhelmed with freedom because there will be nobody to there to tell you no. Unless you get too crazy and get kicked out of the university.

I am not saying that you should avoid all having fun. Yet, know where to draw the line by reminding yourself why you are here. Do not let “fun” keep you from accomplishing your goals. Also, keep in mind that many – if not all – destructive habits that you form in college will stay with you for the rest of your life.

Purposeful engagement

Practice purposeful engagement. Let us assume that you were able to keep those distractions to a minimum. After that, comes the most important part of all. I call it purposeful engagement. It is just a fancy way of say to know why you are doing what you doing.

Tell everybody what you want to do and why you are here in college. People will talk about you and many opportunities and resources will open up to you just because of that. If you tell people that you do not know what you want to do, then nobody will know how to help you.

Get to know your professors. Unfortunately, I made the above mistake. NOT talking to your professors and NOT making friends with them is simply DUMB. Besides the fact that they are expert in their field, they are very well connected with professionals in your field, can write a recommendation letters when you need one, guide you in the right direction and just be your friend. This is the single most important thing you should do in college.

Join related student and social organizations. If I forgot to mention it, then here it is: college is all about networking. Get to meet as many people in your field as possible and become friends with them. Many of them will become professionals once they graduate. You can never know too many people in this world. You might want to start a business one day. When that day comes, you will know where to turn to and who to look for.

Grades do not matter that much, unless you are planning to go to a top-notch graduate school after your undergraduate studies. If you are able to maintain a GPA above 3.3, then you are in a good shape. Once you are looking for employment, GPA will be something your employers will look at only once and then they will focus on your skills, your communication ability, teamwork, leadership, and personality. So yes, GPA is overrated, focus on networking, gaining experience and exposure.

Stay focused

You will get sidetracked. It is a fact. It is fine to let go sometimes and not worry about your future. Just do not make it a habit. Remind yourself of what your purpose was for coming to school and keep going. It will help you have a much more pleasant and rewarding college experience.

However, if you cannot get back into the rhythm, then it might be important to reconsider the reason as to why you went to college. I know I changed my major multiple times. Just accept it as a life fact: you will change throughout life.

Your priorities and desires will change; your experience will force you to reexamine your old beliefs and will help you form new ones. Just accept it. Change things accordingly and move on. One thing you do not want to do is to be stuck doing something you hate. Make the switch early and save yourself tons of trouble later in life.