College is a pivotal time for all students. It’s where you build the skills you’ll later use in your career, where you can meet and make your lifelong friends, and it’s where you truly develop into your own person. Most college students, of course, are also incredibly young. It can be hard to stay focused on what’s best for your career, life, and future when you’re dealing with the everyday drama that can come from living on your own for the first time.

Going above and beyond is essential to get the most value out of your college experience, and it’s never too late to make changes. You could transfer from a program you’ve found to be a letdown into Penn State University, for example. You could start getting more out of your education by looking into the societies, competitions, and career service opportunities.

There are always ways to improve, so use this guide to help you maximize your college experience:

If You Aren’t Happy with Your Program

First things first, your college program. If you find it isn’t what you wanted, then now is the time to make a change. If you’re in your first year and are only a few weeks in, you may very well be able to change tracks internally. If you find that the college institution itself doesn’t offer you what you want, then you can make plans on how to transfer. Say you want to go to Penn State. To make the change, you’ll first want to look up the Penn State University transfer requirements at CampusReel. This way you can understand just how likely your transfer application will be accepted, and what you’d need to be one of those successful candidates.

Transferring into your chosen program is a great way to get into your top choice college, even if you weren’t initially accepted. Regardless of whether you make a change or not, however, you’ll also want to look into extra-curriculars to help round out your education and give you the best boost up in the career world.

If You Aren’t Happy with the Scope of Your Education

If you aren’t happy with what you’re learning, then you have a few options. So long as the university itself feels like the right place for you, you can change majors or minors to better reflect your career goals. For some, however, you won’t even need to go that far. Consider your education as the theoretical part of your college experience. To get the practical experience you’ll need to add societies, competitions, and internships to the mix. Try to be an active member of at least one society and work on putting together your project for a competition, or alternatively working/interning/volunteering. Doing at least two things per semester will help round out your education so that you get more value out of the experience.

Use The University Resources

From the careers services to the mental health services, you need to not only know what’s available to you but make liberal use out of these services while you have access. If you don’t use these resources, you aren’t getting the full value out of your tuition fee. Not only will you get more bang for your buck, but you’ll also find that these services can help you strategize and manage your mental health, stress, and energy so that you can achieve most if not all of your goals.