How to Become King of College

The title of this article might be a bit misleading as I´m not going to explain to you how you can become a king of college that has a lot of minions or subordinates like a medieval king. This article is separated into two sections; the first part will focus on the question how you can become a fancied person in your school, college or university that knows a lot of people and has a lot of friends; the second part will show you how you can become the class representative and class president. By achieving both of these parts you can become a true king of college in a modern way.

Part I:

The Basics

Let us start totally from scratch. Let´s assume you are going to a new school, college or university. So you will either know a couple of people from there, some might even be your friends, but at best is if you do not know anybody in your new college. The later is a situation thousands of students are facing every year when they go to a new college, high-school or university. Whereas most of them have fearful thoughts about this (“I don´t know anybody there”, etc.) it is a great chance for YOU, if you know how to make use of this situation.

#1: Everyone is in a similar situation like you

When you go to a new college the majority of people there will be in a similar situation like you, which means that they only know a couple of people at their new school, but the majority might not know any person there. This means that they are as nervous and scared as you are when their first day of school arrives. They might not feel very comfortable in the new environment, being surrounded by all those “strangers”. But this also means that especially those people will be extremely open and friendly to you when you approach them.

#2: Do your new friends a favor

Now it comes the part where you will have to take action. Trust me: the majority of your fellow students would rather experience physical pain than to approach someone else, so do them a huge favor and make the first step: approach them. It really doesn’t matter what you say, just make sure it looks natural. Ask them a question about something and develop a conversation with them, get to know them better. A situational start into the conversation works always fine, like: “Hey you’re freshmen as well, right?”. Be creative and spontaneous and you will reap the fruit of your labor. And before I forget: do not try to pick up girls/boys. No really: don’t do this (flirting is just fine!). Just a friendly reminder; this will only let you become a figure of fun, others might consider you to be a wannabe Casanova or if you are a women: a sl*t. When I was in the third week in university rumors made the circuit that there was such a wannabe Casanova in our semester and in fact: I got to know at least seven fellow students only because of this guy, as it was a great situation to make fun of and to playful banter all his “victims”.

#3: The first two weeks

There is a time window of approximately two weeks where you and your fellow students get to know each other better and where you can approach a lot of people. In this time the social circles, that often last for years, are being established. Make use of these two weeks and try to make some friends. If possible you should try to sit every day besides another person.

The more often you sit beside someone you do not know yet the more people you get to know and the more friendships you can establish. Don´t limit yourself to just a couple of people that hang around with you day after day. Be open minded and don´t be afraid to sit beside someone you do not know (yet!). If you want to get to know other people it is a must to sit often somewhere else, especially in the first weeks. Don´t be one of those loners that leave one or more seats between themselves and others free. Especially those that prefer to do so are the ones with the least social contacts to others. So be confident and sit next to others and start a conversation with them. Talk about some topics that are relevant to the lecture you are hearing, small talk is fine as well. Don´t hesitate to change the topic after a while (leisure activities, parties, etc.) and most important: introduce yourself after some minutes!

#4: The social circles of a school/college/university

In the first days, you might spot a lot of different people and a lot of different groups. Here is a short explanation of whom you should get to know and those that you should better ignore:

The Loner: You can spot the loner easily as it is a person that stands around somewhere alone, totally disinterested and not talking to anyone. The loner might distract himself by typing into his mobile phone, surfing around on the internet or simply reading a book. When in the classroom, this person has no conversations with anyone else or reduces his conversations to a slight minimum: “hi, hello & goodbye”-conversations. Conclusion: don´t waste your time with this person as you´ll only bite on granite. This person wants to be left alone.

Shy People: Well, a shy person might behave very similar to a loner, but the whole body language is totally different. A shy person will have a shy and reluctant body language, but this person will not separate or distract himself from others. It’s body language is open, which indicates that this person is ready for conversations. Conclusion: Eye contact is key to success: if you can establish eye contact with that person and elicit a smile you are ready to get to know this person. They mostly are a bit shy in the very first minutes of a conversation, until they get to know you better. Plus: they are often very thankful that it was you that did the first step.

Open-minded People: The open-minded people are those that absolutely know no one in their new class but have established conversations within a few seconds. These folks are absolutely amazing as they are those that have befriended a couple of people after a few days. Conclusion: Spot an open-minded person and have a chat with this person. You might notice how easy it is to get in touch with these people; plus they will help you to get to know even a lot more people.

Groupies: Groupies are people that knew each other for some time before school started. Mostly they are good friends and you always see them doing things together. They sit beside each other, eat and study together. You won´t see them doing something alone. Conclusion: if it is a small group of people, don’t hesitate to approach them all and get to know them better. If it is a bigger group try to get to know one of them as this person will introduce you to the others sooner or later.

The Boys and Girls Club: These “clubs” are a group of people from the same gender. One thing you should not expect from them: initiating conversations with the other gender. These groups are mainly boys that are not confident enough to start conversations with other women or girls that simply do not want to be “interrupted” by men or are afraid of their social status and do not want to be considered as a sl*t. Conclusion: If you are of the same gender then do not hesitate to get to know all of them. If you are a women and you see such a “Boys Club” it’s super easy for you to get to know every one of them, if you are confident enough to initiate a conversation. If you are a men you should focus to get to know just one or two of the women in a “Girls Club” and you will naturally get introduced to the other “members” of that club.

Part II:

How to become the class representative?

The second part focuses on the steps to become class representative. Part one of this article will help you to get in touch with A LOT of your fellow students and you will notice that your social circle will increase day after day. If it is your ambition to become class representative it is essential to know a lot of people and to be in contact with them.

What kinds of characteristics make a good representative?

Fairness: the class representative will have to treat every person in the class in a friendly way, no matter if this person is one of his friends or a loner. Bullies or very dominant people won´t make a good class representative or class president.

Open-Minded: the class representative needs is a person that others can get easily in touch with, this means that this person is easily approachable takes himself time to listen to complaints or problems of his fellow students and take them seriously.

Group building: another characteristic that makes a good class representative is that he tries to include every person into the social circle of the whole class. This means that the representative also gives loners or very shy people the chance to be a part of the class, introduces them to others and invites them to events and parties.

Brave and honest: one of the most important tasks of a class representative is that he mediates between teachers, professors, and his fellow students. If one of his fellow students has got a problem with a professor he has a problem as well. From my own experience, I know that you will have once in a while an argument with one of your teachers or professors about their disrespectful behavior towards some of your fellow students or any other problems that occurred. And it will be you that has to solve this conflict and take the interests of your fellow students serious. No class needs a representative that cares about his reputation amongst professors and teachers and will, therefore, avoid necessary conversations.

Make use of the advantage

Something I found really amazing was that more than 90% of my fellow students were either too shy or too unselfconscious to become the class representative. To put it simply: they didn´t want to take the responsibility; they hadn´t had the confidence to be responsible for their class. Some others were not interested in being the representative at all. This means for you that you have a huge advantage towards those that are uncertain, which brings us to the next point:

Certainty

Make sure that you really want to become the class representative or class president. It depends from school to university how much work this job will require from you and being the class representative also means a lot of responsibility. Try to evaluate how much work this job will require in your college/university and make your final decision, but when you make this decision be certain about it.

The social aspect

People tend to vote for the candidate they like. This means that they won´t vote for you if you never talked to them or did not even look at them. This is where you reap the fruit of your labor in Part one as many of your fellow students already know you, which is a huge advantage for you! The fewer competitors for the election you have, the more difficult it will become for you to become class representative/class president. Especially in elections between only two candidates, as people will either vote for you or for your competitor. The more candidates in an election the better for you, as the majority of candidates, will only get a couple of votes, whereas you get a lot.

After some weeks you will notice that your social circle will grow drastically and you have a decent chance to get voted for class representative. But with this power comes a lot of responsibility, namely to come thru for your fellow students and to help them wherever you possibly can. That’s a true king of college!

Further articles about studying that might interest you:

• How to get motivated to study?
• Dealing with difficult Professors
• Effective Study Techniques
• Study Time Management
• Stop thinking you’re stupid!
• 5 Tips for students

Photo by Bdwaydiva1

What is your strategy to become King of college?