 Yo yo yo, it's your boy Nick Chay coming back with another video. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. If you are new to the channel, welcome. I make videos about college, lifestyle, fashion, photography, and film. So if any of that sounds interesting, make sure to hit that subscribe button because I have tons of new content coming for you guys. But today we are talking about eight essential skills that every college student should know. Being in my second year as a sophomore at Princeton, you know, I've accumulated a lot of these skills and learned over time. So hopefully this will help you guys develop these skills so that you can make the most out of your college experience. Now I'd like to thank the sponsor of this video, Skillshare, for helping me create this content. Because honestly, Skillshare is an amazing platform with thousands of different classes and a bunch of the different topics that I'm going to be talking about. If you've ever wanted to get into graphic design, photography, filmmaking, editing, any types of those skills can be learned on Skillshare. Personally, one of my favorite courses, and I mentioned it before, is the one taught by John Olson, who's also a YouTuber and photographer. And his courses on content creation, how he edits his Instagram photos have been super helpful for me to develop my own style as well as learn more about photography that I hadn't known before. I also have tons of different communities that you can join. So if you're just getting started as a beginner or you've already been in the game for a couple years, they have everything right for you. Now a lot of these skills I talked about in today's video can be learned through Skillshare. Now the first 500 people to hit that link in my description will get two months for you, so make sure to go check them out. Now the number one skill that every college kid should know is pretty basic and to be honest, I don't even think it needs to be said. But it is to be a good human being. Basically what this means is you should do the right thing every single day, no matter who's watching, no matter where you are in that situation. You should always be doing the right thing. Now as a college student, there are going to be dozens of different encounters that you're going to have, whether it's with faculty or staff or people who work around your dining hall or your res college. So being a nice person, being friendly, being an amicable person that people genuinely enjoy to be around is a huge part about being a successful college student. As someone who's from the south saying yes sir, yes ma'am, has been something I've been growing up with so anytime I'm talking to, you know, employees or dining hall workers, I'm always courteous and kind to them because, you know, they have to work with hundreds of different college kids, like being nice and being genuine will matter more to them than you actually realize. Like on a day-to-day basis, just be a good person. Like if you're in the bathroom, like throw away your paper towels, sometimes I go in there and it is absolutely disgusting and I can't even imagine what the workers have to go through. So just be a good person, like do the right thing and that's honestly just common sense. So if you've already got that checked off, then let's move on to number two. This is a huge one and I'm ranking it number two because it is that important and that is emailing. If you have never written a proper email, don't know how to respond to people on time or learning how to set up a basic email template, then that is something you absolutely need to hop on. E-mailing is probably one of the most important things that you're going to have to learn as a college student because you're constantly emailing professors, other students, people that you need to, you know, get in contact with. The easiest way and the most convenient way, especially as college students, is through email. So whether you need to clarify a question with your professor, you can shoot them an email or if you need to get together with a study group but you don't have their phone number, you can shoot them an email. If you're looking for internship opportunities or job connections or alumni networking, you need to learn how to email. I can't emphasize this enough and especially coming to college, I've learned just how to be more professional with the way I phrase my words and, you know, not to come off as, you know, just another college kid but someone who is professional and has been doing stuff like this for a while and the difference between a poorly written email and a professional sounding email is a lifetime's difference. It can honestly get you an internship or jobs and to be honest, it's really not that hard to learn how to email. The basics of it are good afternoon, good morning, comma, insert name, type out your message politely, cordially, best, comma, Nick, send. Now this is something that you can learn along the way so don't freak out too much if you haven't started already but please get on your email game. Number three, this is also kind of another basic skill and something that most students should or will have grown up learning and that is laundry, basic hygiene, cleaning and grooming. These are all, like I said, very essential and basic tips that either any guy or girl should know but if you don't know how to tidy up your dorm room, clean up after yourself in the bathroom, do some basic shaving then college is going to be hard for you, buddy. Seriously, like doing your laundry, that's a must. If you're 18, 19, 20 and you don't know how to do a proper load of laundry, whether it's cold water or hot water, buddy, you need to do some serious contemplation because just about every college kid has to be able to do their laundry. Now the other stuff like basic hygiene, cleaning, grooming, like you better be brushing your teeth twice a day, flossing, washing your face, that is all basic elementary stuff. Cleaning, like I'm not saying you have to do a deep clean every single day but at least keep it tidy and maintainable so that if you have people coming over it's not a complete mess. Now college students do get the stereotypes of having just completely disgusting rooms but to be honest I try and make an effort to at least go through my room and tidy up once a day so that there's not just trash leaving around or clothes hanging out because once that starts to accumulate is when it really becomes a problem and then your dorm room becomes a mess. Now number four, this is something that you should get started especially at a young age because it's going to benefit you a lot when you're older and that is your basic personal finance. Now depending on your financial situation or how your parents raise you, this is not a one-size-fits-all type of umbrella because as a college student there are going to be dozens of things that you are going to be having to pay out of pocket whether it's textbooks going out to eat with your friends, just basic necessities like groceries, all of that has to come from somewhere and if you don't have a job or some kind of savings account then it's going to be really hard for you to maintain your budget as well as keep track of your finances. Something I've been trying to do a better job of in 2019 is to start tracking my personal expenses so you know counting how much I spent on food, how much I spent on shopping, how much I spent on entertainment or going out with friends all those little things can really start to add up and eventually develop into bad spending habits so if you get a head start and have a good foundation for your basic personal finance then you're going to be way ahead of the game when you go into the real world when you have rent, bills, and credit card debt to pay. Other basics of personal finance are obviously are you working? Are you saving? Do you have a part time job as a student? Obviously this conversation is something that is really important to be had with your parents before you leave to college so make sure you sit down with them and figure out you know how am I going to afford these textbooks what's going to be paid out of pocket? What can my parents help me cover? Moving on to number five, this is a little bit more advanced skills not something that every freshman needs to know right off the bat but as you get older in college and you learn more about your university you can learn a little bit more about finesse and what I mean by finesse, don't stress finesse, is essentially getting what you want now when it comes to college there are dozens of opportunities like I mentioned so many times on this channel see what programs are offering what and try to make the most out of every single opportunity that your school gives you whether it's scholarships or travel opportunities or study abroad or financial aid like there are so many resources that the school has to offer that it's going to benefit the kids who do the research and look into them the most number six, these kind of all tie together but it is critical thinking, speed reading, and writing these are pretty foundational skills for any college students regardless of your major regardless of the types of classes you are in but they will undoubtedly help you so much as a college student because number one being able to critically think in just about any of your classes you are going to have to critically think now how is this different than just regular thinking? you have to actually analyze the problem see what they're asking for see what foundational skills you can use that you've learned from the class and apply it to the problems and also apply it to the real world critical thinking is honestly like one of the most important things that you need to learn as a college student because that's really what helps you in the real world when you have a job how can you apply the things that you've learned to the real problems that you're actually facing number two, speed reading, now to be honest it's not even speed reading it's just about reading analytically and being able to delve deeper than the surface for just about any classes especially the humanities are out there are going to be dozens if not hundreds of pages that you are going to have to be reading each week per class let's say multiply that by two or three different classes and that adds up to easily 200-300 pages of reading that you have to get done every single weekend number three, writing writing is a critical foundational skill for any type of subject whether it's computer science, you need to learn how to write code whether it's English, duh, chemistry, you need to learn how to write equations number seven is taking initiative when it comes to college there are dozens of things that will happen that you either will not be prepared for or have never expected and if you take the initiative to either overcome those obstacles or make the most out of it then you will be so much better off as a college student for example like taking the initiative to make a new friend when you meet someone new that seems interesting you know take the initiative to reach out to grab dinner later in the week and establish that relationship because honestly like that becomes harder and harder as you get older taking initiative in your classes is like be the person that asks the questions take advantage of office hours with your professors now number eight, time management I say this for the end because honestly it is the foundational skill for everything I've talked about in this video if you don't have the right time management to divide up your academic studies with your extracurriculars and finding time to hang out with your friends then college is going to be a huge struggle for you if you are a procrastinator in high school let me tell you right now that that shit is not cute in college being proactive, having all your work done being on top of your studies is cool in college like don't ever let anyone tell you differently because that is what gets you respect that is what gets you credibility around campuses and to let people know that damn this dude really knows what's going on he's always on top of his classes he's always hanging out with people and he seems to have everything figured out so that's the type of person you want to be and to be honest that's still something I'm working on finding the time management to film videos edit them, work on my classes work on my own brands and projects and everything that I'm trying to do is all about time management I know this video ran a little bit longer than usual but I hope you guys enjoyed the eight essential skills that I think every college kid should know make sure to leave a comment down below and let me know which skill you found the most helpful subscribe for more videos and as always don't stress finesse