College advice from a New York VC, including when to get an internship

Steve Schlafman and his
youth mentee, Jake.
Courtesy of Steve
Schlafman

• As a new school year begins, New York-based VC Steve
  Schalfman shared his best advice for
  college.
• One was to find your summer internship by
  December.
• Another was to schedule early morning classes.

A jittery new batch of freshmen are moving to start their first
year of college this month — and advice is pouring in from adults
everywhere.

Steve Schalfman, the seed
investor for New York-based Primary Venture Partners, provided
his own list of must-dos for his mentee Jacob via Twitter. 

We called up Schlafman, who graduated from Northeastern
University, to ask a bit more about his advice.  Here’s what
he said about each point:

1. Take wide range of classes

“I primarily focused on core classes and business, because
I studied business in undergrad. If I could have done it over
again, I would have taken more classes in philosophy or design. I
would have done a lot more exploration and not be so focused on
what my major was. I often feel we don’
t know what
we want, so being exposed to a wide range of things in that
period often leads to more possibility. To me, it’s about opening
up to different ideas and disciplines, which I think leads to
more possibility.”

2. Find a summer internship by December 

“This isn’
t for everyone. There are times you
have to be a kid, a responsible teenager, or a college student
and enjoy the summer. But I always found that, at Northeastern,
when I would treat finding an internship as almost an extra class
of sorts in the first semester, it relieved the pressure of,
‘What am I going to do this summer?’

“Most of the best internships are filled by December or the
first quarter. For me, it created a mindset of, ‘I’m going to go
after my summer internship before anyone else is even thinking
about it.’ I
t just kind of gives you a leg
up.”

3. Grill faculty about their work, not class work

“When I engaged with my faculty, it was about the class
work. I
 really regret not spending time in
their office hours, not being curious about theirf own work.
These people obviously have lives outside of the university and
research. Many are in industry, so really trying to understand
their work (is important).”

4. Schedule morning classes

“I found that by scheduling early classes, it allowed me to
finish earlier in the day and that freed up a tremendous amount
of time, so I could get my work done in the afternoon. It just
sort of forces you to be a little more disciplined and have more
time to have a more well-rounded experience. 

“If I’m waking up at 10, have class at noon, and am doing
work in the evenings, 
it doesn’t leave for a
whole lot of time to get other things in — in terms of being a
leader and getting things done.”

5. Have fun but don’t stay out past 2am

“If I had rewritten it, it would be like, ‘Don’t stay out
past 1 a.m.’ If you’re out late, bad things probably are not
gonna happen, but it increase the chance for things to go wrong.
And if you’re out past 1 a.m., you can’t get up for your early
classes.”

6. Find and meet people not like you

“Seek out people that are different from you. It leads to a much
richer experience because you will just gain a whole range of
people with different upbringings.

“In college, I became really good friends with a Puerto Rican
American. He was such a unique guy and I gravitated towards him.
He was super eclectic. (When I was thinking about college
advice,) I thought back to my time in college and thought how I
really loved spending time with him.”

7. Bonus: Be a leader

“I was always a big believer in this notion of being a leader.
I’ve seen so many students in college who just coast, who don’t
really do much. I think this is a really great time in a person’s
life to form their own identity and be a leader. I remember when
I first got on campus, I was thinking I wanted to lead, I wanted
to well academically.

“The whole notion of being a leader teaches you so much that it
becomes transferable to the real world. ”