No, it's not a demotion although sometimes it seems that way. We're the part of the graduating class that chose higher education, but do we really know what we're getting into?

We work hard, prepare ourselves for good-byes, get excited about moving on. We feel like we're ready, we're adults! Then we realize we have to wait for three more months. We have three months to obsess and over analyze.

What can we do? How can we become better informed students ready to conquer college life? I set out on a mission to weed through the plethora of information geared toward us. My goal, to see if any of it is worth our time.

First, I interviewed some of my soon to be freshmen friends, to find out what it is we're afraid of, what we would really like to know, and what we're most excited about. I discovered that every one of us is nervous, but we're also excited. We expect to grow up this year, get to know ourselves better, make a lot of friends, and have a little fun. We're most concerned about grades, homesickness, money, bad roommates, increased vulnerability to rape, and partying too much. We're afraid of the unknown and all the what ifs that haunt us.

Before I turned to the books and various Internet sites dedicated to our plight, I interviewed some of the most recent pros, upcoming sophomores. I found them to be the most valuable resource available. They know what we are going through and they know how to answer our questions.