College: How I Got the Most Out of My Parents' Investment

First, let's deal with the expectations of how great college is going to be. The great thing about going to college is that you become autonomous. It's the first time in most of our lives when no one else is making our decisions for us. We end up doing different things. That's why, to be completely honest, I don't have a lot of conviction in the idea that anyone's advice can help you "get the most out of your college experience." You'll do what you want to.

That said, almost everyone I know has at least this in common: We really romanticized the whole idea of going to college, and that made us believe that it would be a lot more fun, and a lot more engaging, than it actually was. You shouldn't feel let down when you go to college, but you most likely will, eventually, if only because everyone's always gushing about how great it is.

Don't get me wrong, you should go to college. But you should be warned, too. A lot of what's mandatory -- like taking, if not attending, classes -- will end up being really dull. It's still school. Eating in a dining hall and living in a dormitory become incredibly tedious.

At Harvard, they had bunk beds in the dorms, and not just for freshmen. I knew people who were sleeping on bunk beds in their junior year. Some schools have nicer housing than others, but rising freshmen should be prepared to lose a lot of privacy.