What advice do you have for staying on top of your grades in undergraduate school?

Stephanie, good question and great career goals and ambitions. Grades are a huge part of college and it is good to hear that you are looking to do your best academically. College is really just giant time management puzzle and you will be forced to balance a social life, with academics, and potentially work. A key part of staying on top of your grades is not put things off and be proactive. It's only natural that many students procrastinate, but this is a trap that can lead to lackluster grades. When you are given an assignment, be sure to start it early and not wait till the last minute; put when the assignment is due in your calendar and be sure to check it. I would always start my essay two weeks before they were due and I was always done with my assignments with days to spare. So while all of my friends and classmates were scrambling at the last minute and pulling all-nighters in the library, I was hanging out in Starbucks drinking coffee and having a relaxing time.

Also, be sure to take good notes and not get distracted in class. Some of your college classes will have hundreds of students and while it may be tempting to sit in the back of the room, this is a bad idea. I always was sure to sit near the front row so that my attention was solely focused on the professor. I found that those who sat in the back would often talk to their friends and would largely not be involved in the class. I also never brought my laptop to class even if a professor told me that laptops were allowed. It is easy to get distracted if you have your laptop in class and you always end up taking bad quality notes; instead bring a notebook and pencil to all of your classes and take notes that way. I found that my memory and retention of the material was better when I hand wrote things instead of typing. Furthermore, since there is no way that you can possibly hand write everything that the professor says, this will force you to only write down that which is the most important. So instead of having ten pages of poor quality typed notes, you will end up having 3 pages of high quality notes.

Also, the first week of your classes will be syllabus week which is when your professors will pass out the course syllabus and go over due date and class expectations. Be sure to note when readings and assignments are due even if they seem far off. That 7 page essay due in November may seem far off, but time flies in college and you don't want to end up being ambushed by an assignment that you forgot about.

I could go on, but these were some of the things I found to be the most helpful and productive during my time in college.

Best,

Austin