Over the next few years, you'll make some of the best friends of your life, learn how to live on your own, do things just for fun and experiment with classes and activities. Academics are only one aspect of the college experience.

Some of the best advice I've ever read about college comes from Ben Jones, MIT's former Director of Communication. I've picked my favorite of the fifty points he mentions here, but highly encourage you to read the entire article, even print it out and stick it on your dorm wall!

Your friends will change a lot over the next four years. Let them.

Call someone you love back home a few times a week, even if just for a few minutes.

At least a few times in your college career, do something fun and irresponsible when you should be studying. The night before my freshman year psych final, my roommate somehow scored front row seats to the Indigo Girls at a venue 2 hours away. I didn't do so well on the final, but I haven't thought about psych since 1993. I've thought about the experience of going to that show (with the guy who is now my son's godfather) at least once a month ever since.

Become friends with your favorite professors. Recognize that they can learn from you too — in fact, that's part of the reason they chose to be professors.

Welcome failure into your lives. It's how we grow. What matters is not that you failed, but that you recovered.

Things that seem like the end of the world really do become funny with a little time and distance. Knowing this, forget the embarrassment and skip to the good part.

Half of you will be in the bottom half of your class at any given moment. Way more than half of you will be in the bottom half of your class at some point in the next four years. Get used to it.

Make perspective a priority. If you're too close to something to have good perspective, rely on your friends to help you.

This is the only time in your lives when your only real responsibility is to learn. Try to remember how lucky you are every day.