When you get to college, you will find out within days if not hours of your arrival that if you wanted to, you could spend every minute of your time socializing, whether it takes the form of hanging out in the common room with your friends, checking out the parties on Fraternity and Sorority Row, or checking out your new city. People who take the path of all social life no academics have a much better time than those who take the all academic no social life path -- until they start getting (usually very bad) grades. Fortunately for you, there are many more moderate paths you can forge between these two extremes. A balancing act between your social life and your academic one takes some effort and commitment, but it's worth figuring out how to do it. With a little planning, you can enjoy both aspects of school even more than you would if you were to pursue just one at the expense of the other. So, just how do you go about balancing your social life and school?

Social Life and Academic Life: Strike A Balance By Making A Plan

Okay, sure. Some people might get the career of their dreams because they shared a laugh over the keg with the right person during their sophomore year of college. But you can't plan on things like this. What you can plan for is your academic success. And when you have that, the keg party or poetry reading you decide to attend with your friends will be that much more fun, because you won't have work hanging over your head.

What this means in short is plan your social life around your academic life. That means you plan your academic life first; you give it priority over your social life, and you do the social things that appeal to you after the work day is done. Will this work 100 percent of the time? No, it probably won't. For example, when Jimmy Eats World played a surprise show at USC last fall, many of my students had to re-arrange their study plans to go enjoy the show. But, if you make a commitment to academics for the most part, enjoying exceptions like a surprise concert or a call from your crush in math section won't take you too far off course. When you get to school and find out what your classes are, make a study schedule, and stick to it to the best of your abilities. Plan on getting papers and assignments done sooner rather than later. That way, when your favorite band shows up, you won't be behind the eight ball academically when you give in to the urge to go -- which you should, because college is about the fun things you do, too.