Advice to the class of 2023, frosh this fall

That's you frosh entering college this fall.  College is fun and parties. I enjoyed it all immensely.  It's also serious stuff.  We are talking serious money for a 4 year bachelor's degree, like $100K, which either your parents put up, or you take out US guvmint loans for.   If you take out guvmint loans, know that you are stuck with the payments, declaring bankruptcy doesn't get you out of paying them off.  You are stuck.
   First thing you need to decide that you are gonna graduate, on time, no matter what.  If you give up and flunk out before getting your degree, all the money spent is wasted, you don't get squat for it, but you still have to pay off your student loans.
   Second thing you need to decide is what you want to do to make a living after you graduate.  You have to make a living somehow.  You will spend much of the rest of your life after college making a living. Best to find something that you like to do.  Selling used cars or waiting tables can get old, fast.  At this stage of your life you may not have a clue.  Talk to your parents, talk to your family, talk to friends, do some reading of biographies.  You need to have something in mind by Christmas freshman year.  Given you have chosen a career field, pick a college major that makes you employable in your chosen field.  Colleges and universities offer many majors that are totally worthless in the job market.  Avoid any major with "studies" in the name.  Gender studies, black studies, environmental studies. Avoid art history, sociology, archeology, and political science. Nobody hires graduates in those majors.
   Think about STEM majors.  Those are valued in the job market.  For you kids entering high school, be aware that STEM majors require integral calculus.  The subject matter is taught using calculus and if you don't have your calculus, the courses won't meant anything to you.  Figure you have to take integral calculus freshman year.  To do which, you have to have taken trigonometry and algebra in high school.  A high school course in geometry is extremely helpful, although not mandatory.  Plan your high school courses accordingly.
  Finally, beware, colleges have all sorts of obscure graduation requirements.  You have to have so many credits in a bunch of strange subjects.  If you lack ALL the required credits you don't graduate with your class.  Get a current copy (last year's copy may be obsolete) of the college catalog and research all the credits needed to graduate in your major.  At my school engineering majors needed 15% more credits to graduate than education majors.  Make a spreadsheet and print it out.  Bring it to your appointment with your college counselor.  Ask him if it is correct.  Remember that counselors have about 100 other students to counsel, and papers to grade and classes to prepare for, and don't have much time to help you.  Plus they see their mission as recruiting more students to their academic departments.  Listen to counselors but don't trust them much.