Hello! I am going to be a Sophomore at Michigan State University in the Fall. I succesfully managed to accomplish one year of college with Type 1 Diabetes and I just wanted to share some helpful tips I learned up at school. Careful: Many of these tips are not new and are honestly common sense, but the key is to put them in action while you are up at school. Hope you enjoy them and feel free to add more tips and ideas that you discover while in college.

- Regardless of what the cafe staff says, take apples and bananas from the cafe for snacks/ walking around campus. Everyone else does it anyways. Healthy too!

- If you are on a large campus, such as MSU, it will be extremely advantageous for you utilize the bus system. I started off in a small residential college first semester my fresh year. All my class were in one building. I chose to branch out and take courses in the university all across campus and found I had to walk/bike everywhere. This had a major impact on my bs ( Obviously..) If you plan out your classes right, you can make room for taking the bus to and from classes to avoid riding an out-of-control blood sugar roller coaster.

- In the dorms, if you can lower your bed from the "lofted" position it is in in the beginning of the year, that is ideal because you might have a low in the middle of the night. Trust me, it is difficult to climb down while just waking up and being low to treat. 

- Plan your schedule for at least 1 hour for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Also at least 30 minutes in between classes to no stress yourself.

- Keep juice, sugar pills, test kit, phone, and flashlight in your bed while you sleep ( no brainer.)

- If you are able to get close with your roommate, try creating a system where he/she wakes you up every morning if your alarm goes off and you don't wake up. College can be really stressful at times with many lows at different times of the day and night. I never got the chance to try something like this with my roommate, but there were multiple mornings where I woke with severe low bs. It would have been nice to have a roommate who could check on me.

-Watch out for late night studying after dinners, for my friend and I, both diabetics, I noticed my number plummeting just because I was concentrating so much X0

- Text friends when you are leaving a party and where you are going (i.e. home) so they know what your plans are for the rest of the night.

- I don't drink and at house parties that can be tough if you just walk around with nothing in your hand ( not so much at frats because it is just chaotic and everyone is dancing). Sooo...  walk around with the same red cup everyone else has or a beer can half-filled with water. You look and feel more approachable. More than half the drunk people you talk to don't know you are not drinking. If it's one of those plastic red cups, most people assume there is vodka in it ( when it is really water.) (Bonus: Depending on how much you want to fit in, act buzzed or drunk. It can sometimes be really fun! lol)

- At parties, I found that if I want to make the most of a situation I must act myself and be able to put myself out there a little bit more since I am not smoking or drinking. Considerate people will respect you and your decisions. Don't feel like you need to do something because the crowd is doing it. Do not fall into conformity. 

-  If you don't smoke or drink and you are around people doing it , don't judge. It is what it is. They are what they are. You are what you are. It's a party, be chill!

- Last bit of advice I can think of: Expect people to avoid you/not include you when going out for drinking/smoking if they know you don't do that. At school sometimes I wanted to go out; sometimes I did not want to be around it. You have to find a balance of what you want to do. Even my close friends sometimes don't invite me to go with them when they are planning to drink/pre-game. It's cool. I have expected this so I don't take it personally or make assumptions about them. If I want to be there, I make an effort to be there and make the most of it. 

Once again, (if you stuck around to read this list of tips lol) I appreciate it and I hope it serves you well. Please feel free to criticize or add anything you found here. I am interested in how Type -1s can balance the college life style in relation with their diabetes. Thanks!!

What great advice.  Congrats on one year down!  Best of luck this year.  Thanks so much for sharing this information I am sure it will help so many people out there going through the same thing.

Thanks! I am a big fan of the site! It has helped out a lot already!

great advice I think it will help  some of the college people on here. 

Great advise

great  advise!