Advice for freshmen entering college
gdp: Oh, I just thought of another thing that served me well.Find the professors and academic staff who are doing worthwhile research that interests you, and talk to them!  Not in an irritating sycophantic way, just have a conversation if you genuinely want to know more.A big adaptation going from high school to university for me was the fact that academic staff are not like teachers at school.  Most of them will actually treat you like an adult and will just have a conversation with you.  The clear demarcation between "teacher" and "student" kinda goes away.This probably varies hugely between institutions, but I found that by the end of my undergraduate career, I had made really good friends with some of my lecturers.  Just last week I went to a pub with one of my old professors because he was passing through London.  There are three major benefits to this:  1) You'll see the other side!  If you are planning a research career after grad school, it's a really good way to learn how to be a professional researcher!
2) You are more likely to get a good-quality recommendation for grad school if the person writing it knows who the hell you are.
3) Academics are generally really nice people!  They became academics because they were good at something that you want to become good at.  You have a shared interest - it'll probably be very rewarding for you (and hopefully for them too).So, in short, don't view your lecturers as faceless drones who stand up in front of a class and drone on for an hour.  That's a tiny part of what they do - and the rest of what they do is usually much more interesting!  And finally, just don't be sycophantic about it.  Nobody likes a suck-up :-p