The following tips are five things I’ve learned after my first term of university, at Carleton University. Hopefully they’ll be of some use.

1. Vending machine madness. If your campus has plentiful vending machines, and you like pop, prepare to be shelling out a lot of change for drinks. The best way to avoid this is simply not to carry around loose change, or buy cans of your favoured pop in bulk (e.g. get a large case from Costco/Sam’s Club and carry around a few everyday in your bag).
2. Coffee shops. Don’t buy coffee at the name-brand stores. On my local campus we have a couple name-brand coffee shops (Tim Horton’s, the Dunkin’ Donuts of Canada, and Starbuck’s), but we also have some smaller independent places. These independent shops give a portion of their profits to the local students association, so it’s good to help support them (a medium coffee is only 2¢ more here, and the variety/quality of the java is a lot better as well!).
3. Type your notes up the day take them. If you don’t, they’ll sit collecting dust and taking up space on your desk. From just three courses I have about a hundred or more pages of notes that I never got around to typing up, and probably never will. Typing them up the night of the lecture also helps reinforce the material in your mind.
4. Home lunches/meals. Make your meals at home and bring them in if you can – you can make large pots of things like chili, soup or bean salad that are tasty, cheap, and will last you a while. You’ll usually end up saving money compared to buying meals at your schools cafeteria and you can put the money you save towards something fun (like movies, games, gifts, dates, and so-on).
5. Find a quiet place on campus where you can relax. If you’re on campus between classes, find quiet places where you can sit down and do your readings, or work on assignments. These can be lounges, the library, empty classrooms, and so-on. Finding a place away from the large congregational areas to do your work will help you focus on what you’re supposed to be doing.