1) I want my mommy! Even if you don't come down with a classic case of homesickness, you'll quickly realize that suddenly there's no one there to look out for you. This has its pros and cons. If you sprain your ankle trying to organize your closet the first week of school, there's no mom or dad in the other room to pick you up, put you in the car, drive you to the hospital, and get you a milkshake on the way home. This is true in general, sprained ankle aside. You're on your own now. You look after yourself; you call the shots. If you get hurt, you've gotta get through it on your own. Yes, you will make friends. But college kids are busy. And you might be hard-pressed to find someone you've just met to drop everything to come to your rescue the way your parents would have.

2) This ain't the high school cafeteria. Depending on where you go to school, you might find yourself with some pretty fancy meal choices. Some schools have a meal card that you can use at affiliated restaurants or fast food places. Now that's livin'. Different dining halls on campus might even have different options--a subtle way of getting you to mingle with different students? Who knows. Pasta bars are popular, as are theme-meal nights. Your school might do stir fry made-to-order or pancakes with three different fruit toppings. Yippie! And most schools have improved their spread for vegetarians in recent years--though vegans may still need to get creative. Enjoy the newfound variety--and don't forget to eat your vegetables.

3) Your professors are a whole new breed. If your high school teachers were condescending or coddling or pushovers, you're in for a switch. Most college professors we know are: 1) Respectful of students and treat them as adults--not children. They are interested in your thoughts, they are preparing you for careers, and they want you to succeed. Because they see you as an adult, they expect you to act like one, too. And because you're acting like one, they're going to treat you like one. 2) Rather demanding. Your professors will expect you to be prepared for class. They aren't into your invented excuses and won't offer you open-book exams when they're in a good mood. They may not even know who you are, if you're in a 300-student lecture class. So don't try to be teacher's pet. (Note: You don't hear the expression "professor's pet!") 3) Perhaps your high school English class whined so much about senioritis and getting ready for prom that your poor teacher finally gave in and let you turn in a three-page paper instead of the 10-page paper she initially assigned. Cherish the memory--that will never happen again!

4) Hello, little fish! Certainly you've heard of the "big fish in a small pond." Well, at most schools, you will feel like the small fish in the gigantic pond. If you choose a huge school, in fact, you may feel like this for a full four years. And maybe you enjoy being kind of anonymous, with no one tuning in to every move you make. At a smaller school, you may only feel like this in the very beginning, until you get to know your way around campus, meet some people, and get into the college groove. Either way, you've probably listened to some story about a high school star football player, for example, who gets into a big-time sports university only to sit on the bench most every game. It's a big place, college. And it's not as easy to earn a place in the spotlight, if that's what you're used to. You'll learn to find that the little fish has its own advantages--and many fish grow as big as the water they're in anyway.

5) Challenge is good. Nervous about heading to school? Some people try to create the same comfort zone they had for themselves in high school as soon as they get to college. They'll take the same classes ("That way I'm sure to get good grades!"), join the same kind of organizations and activities ("Well, that's what I've always done…"), and seek out the same types of people they were friends with at home. But hey, why not just go back to high school and redo your senior year? The point of college, as you know deep down, is to branch out, try new things, meet new folks with different backgrounds and ideas, and risk something in the process. So what if you get a B instead of an A, or decide the Campus Liberals are a bit too radical, even for your taste? You'll make new choices next semester--and at least you'll have challenged yourself in the meantime. You don't have to be a Communications major to be a general staffer for the newspaper, nor do you have to be a Finance major to take a course in personal finance. Explore everything that comes your way, and you'll feel like a bona fide college student.