Three basic life skills you need to survive college

Beginning your freshman year of college will throw a number of challenges your way that you may not have encountered before. With the average annual tuition at a four-year college nearly $33,000 during the 2009-2010 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, you'll need to find scholarship opportunities to help counter the costs. However, there are a number of other task you'll need to master without the help of mom and dad as a student. Here are three basic life skills that you will need to survive college.

Budgeting
Even if you're planning on getting a part-time job, knowing how to effectively budget your money will help you avoid going broke for the next four years. Once you've settled into your dorm life, draw up some brief figures about how much money you have, expect to make and plan to spend on both essential and recreational items. When you have an idea of your finances, you can manage your weekly spending so as not to exceed your means.

Laundry
Whether or not you did laundry before college, maintaining a clean wardrobe can be a challenge when you're sharing washers and dryers with an entire dorm. Brush up on some basic laundry techniques like sorting colors, ironing and using the right detergent so you don't accidentally ruin your entire closet's worth of apparel.

Time management
In high school, you have parents and teachers constantly reminding you about upcoming assignments and projects you need to complete. However, you won't experience the same level of academic handholding in college, so make sure you're prepared to balance your extensive free time (there's a lot of it in college) between a personal life and class work.

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