If I could sit my freshman self down for five minutes, there are six things I'd tell him.
I'm a final-year student at the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), currently on a first-class CGPA. But this isn't really a FUTA story. These are lessons I've picked up throughout university, some through experience and some the hard way.
I wish someone had told me these things earlier.
1. Your Degree Won’t Teach You Everything You Need
I used to think mastering the syllabus was the whole game. It isn't.
University hands you theory. The real world demands execution. I graduated top of my classes and still had to learn, too late, that knowing a principle on paper means nothing if you can't operate the software or apply the theory to an actual problem.
Meanwhile, some of my classmates who weren't chasing straight A's spent that time building practical skills instead, and their transition into the real world has been far smoother than mine.
School isn't a scam, but treating the curriculum as the whole education is a trap. From day one, go looking for the tools, software, and workflows your department will never teach you.
2. Studying Alone Can Cost You
There's a certain pride in wanting to do everything yourself. I learned the hard way that this pride is expensive.
In my third year, I walked into an MEE 305 (Heat Transfer) exam fully confident, I'd studied my notes inside out. Then the paper landed, and I couldn't properly answer a single question. Around me, people were writing smoothly. Why? Because while I'd been reading alone, the class had been sharing practice questions, past exam papers, and study guides that pointed straight at what the lecturer actually emphasized in class.
I walked out with a D. One course, one refusal to connect, and my GPA that semester dropped to 4.12, down from the 4.7-plus I'd been used to every semester before. One grade, one bad decision to isolate, and months of consistent work took a hit. By final year I'd swallowed my pride, studying with friends, letting people explain things to me — and the difference was night and day.
The lesson: Intelligence doesn't replace community. Build your circle early, share what you have, and don't let pride keep you isolated. (To be clear, this is about collaborative studying, not shortcuts. Find people, not leaks.)
3. CGPA isn’t all you should leave with.
University puts thousands of sharp, ambitious people in one place, and not all of them are optimizing for GPA.
Some are building businesses. Some are deep into tech. Some are already thinking past graduation day. If the only people you talk to are discussing assignments, your world stays that small. The peers who stretch your thinking are usually the ones focused on something bigger than the next test.
To be fair, plenty of people are also just figuring life out at their own pace, and that's a legitimate way to spend these years too. But seeking out a few peers with vision, beyond the classroom, changed how I think about my own path.
Don't let four or five years pass with nothing to show for it but a transcript. Find a few people already thinking beyond the classroom, and let them pull your horizon wider.
4. Know Yourself Before You Let Someone Else In
There's a quiet pressure on campus to do what everyone else is doing , including pairing off.
For me, relationships took real bandwidth - emotional maturity, time, attention I also needed for my academics and my own growth. At a point when I was still figuring out who I was, adding a relationship into the mix would have pulled focus I didn't have to spare.
I'll be honest, this isn't true for everyone. Some people find real stability and growth in a relationship during university. It genuinely depends on where you are and who you're with.
Know your own capacity before you commit to something that demands a lot of you. If you don't have the bandwidth right now, it's fine to wait, that's not the same as missing out.
5. Don’t Wait For Final Year Before Taking Opportunities
In 300 level, I applied for the MTN scholarship and wrote their exam. I was fortunate enough to be selected, and that scholarship did more than just support me financially. It helped me get a laptop, which became an important tool for my academics, design work, learning, and other opportunities that followed.
That wasn’t the only scholarship I got. I applied for other opportunities too, and some of them worked out.
Looking back, none of this started in final year. It started with simply being willing to apply.
Sometimes, we convince ourselves that we need to be “ready” before going for opportunities. But you may never feel completely ready.
Don’t wait until final year. Write the exam. Learn the skill. Take the internship. Try something new.
You never know which opportunity will open the door to the next one.
6. You Probably Have More Time Than You Think
The most common line I heard (and said myself) in university was that there wasn't enough time for anything beyond studying.
For a lot of us, that's true, I mismanaged time I actually had, and once I got intentional about it, I found room for leadership roles, side projects, and skills I never thought I had time for, without my grades slipping.
Of course, not everyone has the same amount of free time. Jobs, family responsibilities, health struggles, and other challenges can make that genuinely difficult. That's not laziness or bad planning, that's a different reality.
If you genuinely have room you're not using, intentionality can open up more than you think. But don't beat yourself up if your situation is different, know which one is actually true for you.
University is what you make of it, but only once you stop believing that high grades alone will solve everything. Learn practical skills early. Build real relationships, on your own timeline. Find your anchor, whatever it looks like for you. And don't spend your years here inside an academic bubble.
If you're still in school, you have something I don't have anymore: time. Use it well.
