New Student Week is over. Parents have gone home, students are moved in, and the Norris University Center has returned to some degree of normalcy. By now, all you newbies have been bombarded with various opinions on how to shape your life at Northwestern. For what it’s worth, here’s my two cents.

Early in the year is the time new students tend to sit down with their Purple Book, assess all they have been told, and study the stereotypes of NU’s many sub-communities.

The questions are often overwhelming: “Do I want to go Greek? If so, which house? Do I want to join a student group? Which one?”

At the core of these questions is the always elusive desire to be “cool” – and being cool is all about stereotypes.

As new students will soon discover, popularity is far less tangible at NU than it was in high school. In a sea of 8,000 undergraduates there is little consensus on anything, nevermind what defines a “cool” fraternity.

Predictably, the message from the administration is different from what’s written in the Purple book. No doubt, every freshmen has had an adviser stress to them the importance of “bridging gaps” or “expanding their horizons.”

We’ve all heard it before: “If you’re a physics major, try an art history course. Like theater? Why not also give Club Soccer a try.”

And, of course, the ubiquitous, “Who knows, you may surprise yourself.”

The advice does not stop there. A friend of mine once had a professor calculate the amount that his students were paying per-minute for class in an effort to guilt-trip them into attending. Feeling extra generous, the professor decided to share his own tried and true recipe for success: “Go to class. Study hard. Study often.”

It’s not easy to be a freshmen. They must be “cool” in a place where there is no clear definition of what that is, try new things, and all the while risk falling flat on their face. Not to mention they must work their asses off.

Lucky for them, college isn’t high school. The winners and losers no longer sit on their own sides of the lunch room and breaking curfew isn’t a punishable offense.

But even so, there’s no formula for success at Northwestern.

While things will certainly get difficult, I am here to offer you one more piece of advice: Relax. In this unpredictable new collegiate world there are few guarantees. But one thing’s for sure: Students cannot do it all and they will not please everyone.

So sit back, freshmen, and know a lot is going to change over the next few years. But there is no need to worry; you made it this far and you can handle whatever comes your way.

This may be the best four years of your life, and it may be the worst. But either way it is yours, and you can do with it what you will.

Just don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it.