These grads shared the live-and-learn insider information to campus life and career that they can't always teach you at orientation or in class (or in some cases, they try to teach it, but you might be too stubborn to listen.). Here are four of their stories.

Young people rush to choose a major to fulfill a college identity, not necessarily because it's what they enjoy. The beauty of admitting that you aren't sure what to study is that people are more willing to help you.

There are some predictable mistakes many newbie reporters make that are easy to avoid. I put together this list of the Top 10 based on my own experience as editor-in-chief of my college paper and an informal Twitter poll.

Boston College has decided they'd like to see applications only from students who are truly interested in attending Boston College. And how will they achieve this? You guessed it - by requiring their applicants to compose a thoughtful, revealing supplementary essay.

First-year students want a friend group. And they want it immediately. If a student doesn't have one, was ditched by one, or is in the process of seeking a new one, college can be a very lonely place.

Each year high school seniors spend the month of March in a nail-biting, gut-churning, adrenaline-fueled state of anticipation. It's the anxiety that each March brings as thousands wait for their college acceptance letters.

Back in the day, it was acceptable to take time to "find yourself." Going to college was the start of a journey in which students might take courses in many different disciplines and then, at some point, make a choice regarding a career focus. But things have changed.

I will admit I was one of those clueless freshmen, unsure of where to put laundry detergent or how much to use in the first place. I was plagued by cartoonish fears of returning to a washing machine overflowing with pink suds.

Political paralysis is nothing; Washington will regain animation based on the sheer force of your arguments. Senator [insert last name here] sure sounds nice, doesn't it?

Those four years flew by, and they had their share of joy, and angst, and heartache, and incredible new opportunities and friends. Each person has to make her own way; here is my humble offering of advice to young women starting their own journeys.

-- Each year since 1966, UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute has conducted a massive survey of incoming freshmen at four-year colleges, asking...

Sometimes love is far worse than indifference. Parental love powers the frenzy over college admissions, but in the process it distorts every ideal of higher education while it robs adolescents of dignity and even of selfhood.

If students want to transfer, there are things they must do to maximize their chances of success in transferring and ideally finding happiness at their current college.

Few events influence the atmosphere on a college campus more dramatically than a week of final exams. It's stressful. You can feel it.

If large universities fail to improve their first-year courses, they might just find themselves out of the business of education for the first two years of college.

A lot of students will choose to drink alcohol at some point during their time in college. That's the reality. It's how they drink and how they value drinking that always gets my attention.

The reason you want to know this is that a bad impression can affect how a professor perceives you and that impression might get passed along to other professors.

Many students don't realize that professors are often the gatekeepers to a multitude of opportunities in college, and even after college. Therefore, how to make a positive impression on professors is critically important.

Colleges recognize the key truth that those students who are most successful -- the first level of success being graduation in four years -- form the patterns that make them successful early in their academic experience.

For most college students, there will never be another time in your life when so many understanding, well-trained people are genuinely interested in helping you succeed.