How to Have a Social Life and Maintain Good Grades in College

Contrary to popular belief, you can still get good grades in college and have fun. While professors, and maybe even your parents, will pressure you to get good grades, it is important to not feel guilty about spending time with your friends, because maintaining a healthy social life is crucial to your sanity. If you maintain a healthy balance between school and your social life you will be just fine. Moreover, it is important to realize that keeping this balance doesn’t need to be a high-wire act – it just takes careful discipline and motivation. Here is how to have a social life and maintain good grades in college.

First, make sure to go to class every day. In most colleges you aren’t required to go to each and every class – there is typically a pretty lenient policy on attendance. They just expect you to make up for the work you missed and do well on exams. As long as you do the work you will get a good grade. However, if you miss only one class, you might start to develop a nasty habit and it can be very easy to lose count of your absences. The more you go to class, the less time you have to spend catching up, thus the more time you get to spend with friends.

Next, make sure to study during the day. Instead of taking that fifteen-minute nap on the quad, try to spend that time studying for an exam or going over those notes from the last class, The same goes if you are taking online courses. No matter if you are getting your WSU online degree or your degree from any other online college, instead of taking an afternoon nap on the couch, do your homework that is due the next day. That way you won’t have to spend all night doing your homework or studying.

Another more extreme option – if college life is really starting to distract you from your studies – is to live off campus. Living in your own apartment a few miles from the university is a really good idea if the activity in the dorm rooms or the pledge houses is getting in the way of you being able to complete your school work. Not only that, but if you have to take the bus or subway to school in the morning you can spend that extra time studying. Commuting is a great impetus to get up earlier and do school work that you might not have done the night before.

Lastly, turn your social events into school events. You will feel much better about spending the weekends with your friends if you spend your weekdays with your classmates going over notes, studying for exams, and writing papers together. Instead of making your school work a solitary event, you can easily invite a few people over to make studying a more sociable event. You can even include drinks and snacks to make it a homework party. While your main priority in college is to get good grades and pass classes, you don’t need to sacrifice your sanity or your social life.