Background: Community College Student for 3 years, then transferred to UC Berkeley (Civil Engineering)

College is freaking awesome, but that's only if you know what you're doing. After going to a community college for a few years, I was able to have a pretty good hold on how to be an adult AND develop a passion for my education/future career.

Put your education first by studying and working hard, and if you can stay on top of everything, then a college town/city gives you the chance to expand your social life in unprecedented ways.

I'm not in college yet but I plan to go to Mississippi State University...

From my experience so far, I'd say try the following

Get some good friends, even if it's one or two, make sure they're not going to drag you down though or sponge off of you for project work ect...

It's okay to follow the crowd, to an extent, sure partying is fun and hanging out is chill but if it gets to the point that it will get in the way of your work and your focus, drop it and make sure you keep on track

Don't cram, leaving things to the last moment is the worst thing, even if you can speed type a 2000 word essay in two hours, it'll be sloppy and your lecturer will notice

Make your opinions and points clear, the whole teacher/lecturers pet thing is a myth, your lecturer will notice you're keen and see you're showing initiative

If you can do projects and work early, make sure you do it, usually your lecturer will be able to look threw it and point mistakes out so you can fix them before the deadline so you don't have to go through remediation

To go on what Version said,
You should really find a couple friends that will help push you to be your best self and won't try to get you partying over education. I met a girl at the beginning of this school year(both freshman) and we help each other. We both get our schoolwork done and know how to have fun if we earn it. I have seen too many people put partying over their education and it's not smart since we are paying to go to school. The key is balance and if you learn how to balance everything then you will be golden. College makes you grow up really quick and if you don't it won't be a good place to be.

I'm in my second semester of my first year at community college. I'm going for my criminal justice degree so some of the classes actually interest me. The core classes like math and English kind of suck. It all depends on the professor, really. My CJ teacher was awesome and my psyche teacher sucks. It's a lot more independent and relaxed than high school but there's a lot of work and responsibility. I usually just go straight from work to class, and go straight home after class. Ain't got time to try and make friends

tip don't f*ckin go hahahah

College is great. Don't lose sight of your academics though. There is plenty of time for social life.

You will never know until you actually go, study something that you're interested and learn.
IMO college is a good experience but that's not the main reason you're going there.

College is okay, lots of work, keep up with it, stay away from the parties.