If you’ve passed your first couple years of high school then you’ve likely already started the universal pursuit of the college-bound: What do colleges want to see in prospective students? But while playing the game with admissions offices, most students vying for college spaces forget the people who will actually affect their academic experience the most: their college professors. And although professors don’t usually influence the admissions process, they also have expectations for incoming students.

Five months ago I was a ball of nerves about to be kicked into the big field of college. I was excited to experience all the wonder of new adulthood and college student-ness I’d been promised, but dreading that I wouldn’t fit in with the aura.