5 Common Risks to Avoid on Campus

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College can be a time for fun and a time to learn how to live on your own. Without your mom and dad there to tell you what you should and shouldn’t do, it leaves a lot of room for common mistakes and risks. Here are five of the biggest and most common ones, and how to avoid them.

1.)    Stress– This is unfortunately one of the hardest risks to avoid in college. With classes, clubs, tests, and socializing there will be plenty of times where it will seem like there are just not enough hours in the day to get everything done. However, with discipline, this risk can be avoided. The most important factor is that you do assignments when they are assigned and before they are due. In most classes, your homework will be reading, which to many can seem like no homework. But reading is often imperative to understanding and passing the course and you don’t want to wait until the night before the midterm to read an entire month’s worth of homework. So do it when it is assigned, even if the teacher isn’t collecting it. Another way to avoid stress is to manage your time wisely and schedule it out. Believe it or not, students have a lot of free time if they work out when they will do everything and don’t waste time watching tv or napping. The moral of the story: make sure to use your time to the most and get things done as soon as possible to avoid a huge headache and a lot of stress.

2.)    Illness– It is also common for college students to get sick, sometimes really severely just from not taking care of themselves. One reason for this is that they are living in close quarters with many other people so they are exposed to a large amount of germs. So if one person gets sick, it’s likely the rest of the dorm will as well. Another reason is that college students often push themselves by staying up all night, not getting enough sleep, and not getting the proper vitamins and nutrients they need in their food which makes them more susceptible to illness. To prevent this, make sure you wash your hands many times throughout the day and that you treat yourself right. Make sure you’re getting enough sleep and that you’re not burning yourself out by trying to do too many things at once. Also, if you feel an illness coming make sure to take extra time to rest and go to the health center sooner rather than later. They may be able to give you some medicine that will help nip it in the bud.  If you become so ill or injured that you need to withdraw remember that colleges don’t often provide 100% refunds and that tuition insurance is an affordable way to help you return to classes.

3.)    Theft– Unfortunately, theft rates can be high in college due to the amount of people in one area and the lack of privacy for student belongings. For many students, their dorm is not only their bedroom but also where they entertain so the risk for something being stolen can be pretty high. However, this can be relatively easy to prevent if you are careful. Don’t keep anything valuable out in the open where someone may be tempted to just grab it. And if it’s something you really care about you can always get a little safe or a trunk which you can lock and keep in your room hidden somewhere. Also, make sure to always lock your room when you leave, even if it’s just for a few minutes to go down the hall. It doesn’t take a lot for someone to sneak in the room and grab your stuff. Another option is also to insure your belongings using renter’s insurance which can be affordable and help you should your belongings ever get stolen.

4.)    Fire– Living on your own often means learning how to cook on your own and this can lead to fire. The smallest thing like burnt toast can be a risk in a college dorm so you want to be as careful as possible. Not only do you risk losing your items and suffering huge costs, but you could also be hurt or hurt someone else. Whenever you cook make sure you pay attention to it and don’t leave it sitting alone unattended. If anything starts smoking or burning make sure you get it away from the fire or heat asap and if you need to, dowse it under water. Fire can also be started by certain lights and candles, especially since many things in a dorm are flammable, so make sure to check what you are and aren’t allowed to have. If they’re not allowed, it’s probably for a reason.

5.)    Unhealthiness– This risk can have negative effects on you now and even after college if you create bad habits. Eating habits are one of the major causes of unhealthiness in college since students often rely on cheap fast food and ordering take out late at night. While this is okay once in a while, it is important to know how to eat healthy and create good habits so that the bad ones don’t follow you after college. Another bad habit is not getting exercise. Even though you feel mentally exhausted after a long day of classes, it is important to get in some exercise and not resort to lying on the couch for hours. Even a little bit of exercise every day will make you feel better and make you a healthier person overall!