So you wanna be a slacker? If you ask me, the first year of university should be spent meeting people, making new friends, and getting adjusted to “campus life.”
In other words, studying as much as you can to impress your parents shouldn’t necessarily be your top priority.
I’d rather go through first year university with mediocre grades and have a little fun than study my brains out–there will be plenty of time for that, believe me. In order to do this and not be booted out on your ass, you’ll have to quickly master the art of minimum effort.
A major part of this is first-year course selection. If you don’t already know exactly what you’re going to do with the rest of your life (who really does?), you’ll have a lot of courses to choose from. There are courses you can take that will play a key role in deciding whether or not you’ll be on a first-name basis with the librarians.
I’m not going to tell you how to register, but a few notoriously easy courses include Geology 209 ("Rocks for Jocks"), Computer Science 203 ("Bits for Twits"), and Astronomy 205 ("Scopes for Dopes"), among others. Unless you ate an abundance of paint chips when you were a kid, any of these courses should be a slacker’s paradise.
Almost as important as course selection is the time of day the course is offered. If you couldn’t get out of bed for your morning classes in high school–where they took attendance–there’s no way in hell you’ll make it to a morning class where they don’t care if you’re alive.
In terms of other courses, check out the syllabus handed out on the first day of class. If you have to write eight ten-page papers and five tests, you might want to reconsider taking it–especially if it’s an option. An additional item to examine is the instructor’s policy regarding late or missing assignments.
It has been my experience that if you go to a prof early enough and don’t feed him with some bullshit story, you’ll usually get an extension–after all, they have 400 other papers to grade and they don’t usually care if yours is a few days late.
Finally, it would be prudent to make friends with someone who regularly attends class and looks like they take fairly good notes (bonus points if they use a tape recorder). This will ensure that in the unlikely event you should miss class, you’ll have a decent set of notes to copy.
Everyone has their own style and technique when it comes to "scraping by," and if you don’t, you soon will. The rest is basically up to you; just keep these tips in mind, your gpa above 1.8, and your eyes on someone else’s paper.
Happy slacking.