Grades and Girls: What Your Parents Never Told You About College

by Seth Rose

  Sophomore Year

  Your 2nd year in college will be a blast too. You have one year under your belt and have a feel for how campus life works. You’re also still young enough where you’re going to do stupid, but memorable shit.

  Although some schools will offer you the option to live in a dorm for another year, I highly recommend moving out on your own. Living in a dorm is no fun. Plus you lack freedom and are not going to be in a prime location.

  My sophomore year was my best year in college in terms of hooking up with girls. My game was not refined, but I had a carefree, fun attitude which is even more important than knowing the right lines. Moreover, I wasn’t in any relationship and had just moved into my fraternity house. Like I mentioned earlier, Sophomore year is the year of opposites. I had a lackluster (Read: Non-existent) sex life, so I wanted to go all out my Sophomore year.

  In terms of academics, sophomore year is important as well. By this point you will have solidified your major, and should have a solid idea of what your career path is going to be. This means your grades are important as you will be looking to market yourself for internships.

  Reconciling your social life and academics sophomore year is key. Most are not mature enough to be able to make rational decisions about when to party and when to study, but after reading this book you should know better. Studying always comes first. Moreover, you can’t go out to bars (legally), so you should not be tempted to go out and party during the week. Save it for the weekend when you have all your work done.

  If you didn’t join a fraternity and don’t want to, consider looking into clubs relevant to your field of interest. Say the engineering or finance club. It won’t take up a lot of your time, and will be great for networking purposes.

  Sophomore year is also a good time to study abroad. If you don’t have plans for a summer internship, then study abroad (or just take an extended vacation).

  Junior Year

  Your junior year is going to be the most important year of college. As an upperclassman, your career is on the horizon. You’re going to have enough experience under your belt to compete for some top internships, whether it is on Wall Street or for a big engineering company. I recommend talking to your career advisor at the beginning of your Junior year (even summer after Sophomore year) to look for internships. It never hurts to get a head start on the competition. By starting early you can craft your resume and cover letter, and will have a list of all the great places to intern relevant to our field of interest.

  I can’t stress how much of a priority this is. Your career is not a bust if you get nothing of course, but it will make your life a lot easier. Moreover, if your internship or co-op with a company goes well, they may likely extend you a job offer.

  Your social life is also going to have changed quite a bit since your days as an underclassman. You’ve been to plenty of house and frat parties—you’ve seen it all. Even though you’re only going to be 21-22 years old, you’ve gotten used to the party scene. Cracking open a natty light doesn’t have the same ‘Wow’ factor anymore. In fact, if you’re in a fraternity, you may even forego attending social events to head to the bars. And now that you’re 21 (most likely), you’re going to have the opportunity to explore bars on campus, or in the city if your campus is near one.

  Your group of friends is going to be solidified at this point. Of course you’re always meeting cool people and pretty girls, but you’ve developed a strong bond to a few people and that’s who you will spend your time with.

  Senior Year

  Wow, four years have already gone by. Your final year in college will be bittersweet. You’ve made a ton of great friends and had a lot of good experiences, but soon they’ll be no more. Sure, you’ll be able to hang out with old friends and get nostalgic about fun stories, but college will be a thing of the past. Don’t let it go to waste!

  There are two different approaches to socializing senior year: Either party hard to take it easy. Some argue that senior year is a great time to party. If you’ve already had a couple of top internships and have a high GPA, then slacking a wee bit won’t throw you off. And the sooner you have a career lined up the sooner you can get to partying more! My friend is doing this as a 3rd year law student. He got an offer from a big New York law firm after interning with them, and now has no reason to stress himself over studying and homework.

  On the other hand, some people may be tired of the partying. After three years on campus, you’ve seen and done pretty much all of what your campus has to offer. You then decide senior year would be better spent just chilling with friends on the weekends instead of doing tons of shots at the bar.

  The first approach sounds more fun, doesn’t it? But to each their own.

  We should also emphasize that career aspect a bit more. If you don’t have something lined up going into Senior year, it is your number one priority to have a job offer before graduation! I can’t stress this enough. You can do this by doing internships throughout your college career, networking with professionals in the field and fellow students, and talking to your career advisors.

  Chapter 37: Internships and Career Development

  Depending on your major, internships will make or break your future. Regardless of what you study, the key to succeeding after college is to always stay one step ahead of your competition. If everyone in your major is lazy as fuck, put yourself at the top by building a kick ass resume.

  When it comes to internships anything counts. While some people may not want to do an internship with some no name organization it can pay off. I volunteered at a non-profit one summer. I put it on my resume and it was the only thing related to my studies. I was able to get a kick ass government internship and I attribute it to the non-profit.

  If you’re an underclassman, shoot for the stars. Apply to the best companies or organizations in your field, but also apply to some smaller ones. It’s like applying to schools: You apply to Stanford as your dream school, but also some no name state school as a safety.

  Try and do an internship every year. Most do it over the summer which is most convenient, but doing it during the semester means less competition although that may inconvenience you.

  I only did two internship during undergrad. It wouldn’t have made a huge difference, because I don’t think I could have gotten a job with my liberal arts degrees anyway.

  Grad school was a different story. I interned every semester. I knew I was going to need to work my ass off and stay ahead of the competition was to build a kick-ass resume, contacts, and experience. Just ‘focusing on school’ was not enough for my career path.

  This is one reason why going to school near a big city will come in handy. If you want to do finance or engineering, where can you intern in some rural area? It’s going to be pretty tough. I was fortunate enough for both my schools to be in a city (sort of), so there were always plenty of opportunities available.

  Another great reason to get an internship is that oftentimes the company you intern with will offer you a job after graduation. This is not always the case, but definitely a possibility.

  ***

  Finding the right job starts with choosing the right major. A mediocre engineering student will have a much easier time getting a job, than a history major who graduates Summa Cum Laude—I’ve seen this plenty of times.

  And engineering is not specific enough. As I mentioned earlier, you should diligently sift through employment data of your prospective or current school. Find what majors have the highest salaries and go for that. Moreover, seek out current and former students in that field and pick their brain as to what their career paths are.

  Once you have solidified your choice of major, you need to start looking out for internships. Use the information in the previous section to do so.

  Networking will allow you not only to potentially find an internship, but to land a job as well. Your university should have an alumni database, which can be narrowed done by major and background. Additionally, LinkedIn
is a superb website for cold-messaging people. Having a LinkedIn page is a must!

  Networking and internships are made much easier if you live in a location near a hub of your desired sector (i.e. NYC for finance, Silicon Valley for tech). This means ideally you would attend college in this area, but doing internships during the summer is also a good better.

  Career development and job hunting can’t be emphasized. You need to have the mindset that finding a job is the single most important factor in college. Really drill that in your head so you spend your four years in college always hustling to get that job offer come graduation time.

  Chapter 38: Life After College

  We often here the mantra that college is ‘The Best 4 Years of Your Life’. Our elders tell us to enjoy college because after graduating life sucks and we’re never going to have fun again!

  When graduating college, some will wonder how life goes on: You and your friends are separating; there aren’t a ton of sexy, young girls to flirt with; getting drunk off $2 pitchers and cheap pizza—forget about it.

  There are so many amazing, yet unique aspects of college that many are going to miss.

  And working a job: What’s so great about that right?

  In spite of all that, they’re wrong. People who say ‘It’s all downhill after college’ are mediocre dopes who you should ignore. Why would someone want to live a life that peaks at 21, only to spend the rest of their life dissatisfied?

  It’s insane, but too many people believe it.

  This is not to say college isn’t a blast—it damn well is. The problem is that most people give up on having fun in life after college.

  Too often people cling to this and can’t move on. Especially when their life post-graduation leaves a lot to the imagination. This was the case for most people I know. None of them are living particularly interesting lives. Some guys, even the biggest playboy I know, settled down his college girlfriend.

  You see, too many people get stuck in the College —> Job —> Marriage —> Mortgage —> Kids bubble. That’s it. For the rest of their life they’re on cruise control. Nothing interesting or amazing happens to them whether its dating, travel or wealth.

  The reason most people cling to this idea is because it’s easy. Life after college is tough. You don’t get to always sleep in, you have to work, you can’t party with your parents’ money, and you can’t flirt with girls at work because the HR head is breathing down your neck.

  That said, life actually gets better after college for many reasons. Especially if you’re always working to improve yourself, your wealth, dating skills, hobbies and more.

  When you’re in college you eat pizza and drink Natty light because that’s all you can afford. With an income you can buy higher-quality food and other things.

  Life after college is certainly about more than material goods. You’re more mature. You understand more about the world. You don’t make dumb decisions and have control over your thoughts and emotions (ideally).

  In fact, college is an aberration from the norm. It’s temporary. Make the most of it for what it is. Have fun, get drunk, flirt and bang pretty girls and enjoy it all. But when the time comes for graduation, don’t bitch and moan. It’s time to move on and get better every day.

  Chapter 39: Paying Back Debt

  Upon graduation, a diploma is not always the only thing your given. For many college students, they’re going to have to begin repaying their student loans, which again, averages over $30,000.

  This is a substantial sum of money. It is not insurmountable, but you need to have a plan to pay this off.

  For me, I chose to attack my loans from the very start of grad school. Unlike in undergrad, Masters students’ loans are subject to interest while in school. Instead of accruing thousands of extra dollars upon graduation, I decided to pay off the interest as school went along. It was the single biggest payment I had because I was living at home, but it was the smart thing to do.

  When paying back your loans, you are given a minimum monthly payment that you must pay over a 10-year period. While many would opt to pay this minimum, I suggest you pay much more. Even though it may seem more amendable to pay this smaller amount, in the long run you’re paying much more. Get this debt tackled early and you can get rid of this to have a less stressful future.

  In recent years there was a ‘cap’ implemented on student loan payments for those who are struggling. This cap allows students to pay a maximum of 10% of their income on student loans for those who choose this ‘Income Based Repayment Plan’ as opposed to the traditional plan. This monthly payment is going to be a pretty small number for students coming out of college, and is even more tempting than the minimum payment on the traditional problem. The issue is that instead of paying back this loan over 10 years, it may take 25 years to pay off! This is insanity.

  Quite honestly, 30K is not that much. It adds up to a few hundred dollars per month over 10 years, which you should not take nearly that long to pay off anyways. Ideally, you will have a decent paying job after graduation where that $300-400 a month payment feels like nothing. If you only work 40 hours a week and are struggling with loans, you’re going to need to find a side hustle or even 2nd job to make extra money. This book, for example, is a side hustle to make extra money online each month. I also get affiliate income from my websites. If I needed more money, I could go back to freelance writing or pick up some gigs on TaskRabbit. With the ‘Gig Economy’ today, there is no reason to struggle financially.

  There’s also the option of moving back home. While it may not be fun, it’s an effective way to drastically reduce costs.

  While I want you to take this financial situation seriously, don’t stress about it. Create a plan, implement it, and stick with it. You should get to the point where if you are, for example, driving with Uber every weekend it’s not a drag or something you have to force yourself to do. Rather, it’s become a habit and part of your lifestyle. This approach makes working much more tolerable.

  Refinancing Your Student Loans

  A big reason student loans can be burdensome is due to the high interest rates. While interest rates vary, for grad students like myself, are loans can come at an interest of between 5.8-6.8%. This is quite high, and it is desirable to find ways to cut this rate down.

  These days, there are private lenders who are more than happy to take over your loan and offer you a lower interest rate. Refinancing at a lower rate is really a no brainer. Even just slashing 1% off your interest rates can save you thousands in the long run in certain cases.

  As soon as I am offered a full-time job, I plan on refinancing my loans with Social Finance or SoFi. They seem like a great company, and have changed many financial futures with their student loans.

  I considered putting an affiliate link in, but since I haven’t used their service yet, I can’t do that in good conscience. Instead, check out Financial Samurai’s thoughts on SoFi.[29]

  Chapter 40: My Life After College

  The reason I emphasize not getting a liberal arts degree, or an otherwise worthless degree, is because reality will hit upon graduation. Chances are you will have no job and will be moving back home with your parents. Grad school is an option, but usually not a good one.

  I had the bright idea to go back and get a Master’s degree in a slightly less worthless field. It’s paying off to the extent that I will have a decent paying job upon graduation. Yet, if I chose a STEM or finance field in undergrad, I could’ve made my life a whole lot easier.

  My sex life was pretty lame after undergrad too. It’s hard having a good sex life when living with your parents, not having a career.

  That said, I didn’t let me time ever go to waste. I spent nearly two years as a freelance writer. Not only was I able to really enhance my skills as a writer, but I hit my savings goal of $10,000 in doing so.

  I’m also beefing up my online income through my websites (namely Masculine Books), e-books (this is the first of several), and potential
courses and consulting work. I know where I am going to be in the future and it is bright. It just took longer to get there than it should have, and would have been expedited had I majored in something more pragmatic. This leads me to the next section.

  Escaping the Rat Race

  My long-term goal (only 2-3 years) is to travel the world, spending my days writing. I will make my money online writing about what I love. So far, I’m already realizing this dream, as I make money online through assets like this book.

  The reason I am so adamant about this future is that living your life working for someone else is no way to go about life. The days of working a cushy job for 40 years, collecting your pension and enjoying the fruits of your labor are over. Even if they weren’t, I have no desire to spend 40 years of my life making someone else rich.

  Your goal in life should be to become self-employed. Whether it’s starting a business, being a freelancer, or building enough passive income through assets that you can live off that fully.