h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

On the domestic front, you should teach yourself the skills you'll need before you leave home. Learn some basic cooking skills. Don't just settle for mac & cheese in a box-- learn how to cook healthy, tasty foods such as stir-fry or homemade soup (these are things that can be made with a minimum of dirty dishes, too). Know how to manage laundry-- for example, what items can be dried in a dryer and which need to be hung up to drip, when you need to separate coloured clothes from white ones and when it's okay to mix them, etc. If you try doing this stuff for yourself while you're still at home and have people to turn to for advice and help, you won't feel so lost when you get to school. It's also good to have your own fridge-- in my dorm, we're not allowed to have microwave or toaster ovens in our rooms, but mini-fridges (like bar fridges) are okay. I can take food and dishes to the common kitchen on my floor when I want to cook my own meals. It saves a lot of money if you can buy groceries instead of living solely off your meal plan (and it's healthier too). Look for used bar fridges, and you'll get a good deal. Sometimes you'll be able to rent one, but usualy the cost of renting one for four years will be more than the cost of buying one brand-new.

If you have a roommate, you should discuss as soon as possible what both of you expect from each other. I told my roommate that I was messy sometimes but I would keep my mess on my side of the room (she turned out to be a neat freak, poor thing-- Sarah, if you're reading this, Brenda is sorry for making you live in that room... but it didn't spill over onto your side, just like I promised). Since I had my own fridge and she didn't, I said she could keep her food in my fridge as long as we remembered whose food was whose. She said that since she would be using my fridge, she'd pay for the phone bill (I would pay for my long distance calls, of course). Just ask them early on when the two of you can sit down and talk about it. Don't be bossy, and don't be a dictator; you're not in this to take control, you both want to do this in order to avoid nasty surprises and personality conflicts later on.

Join clubs. You'll be amazed at what kind of clubs you can find on a university campus. Even if you were a loner or a misfit in highschool, you'll be able to find like-minded people at university. Get yourself involved with a club for people in your academic programme, so you can talk to others who have been through/are going through the same classes you are. If it's a good club, not only will you be making social contacts, but it'll also help you learn and maybe even help you get summer jobs and such (if the chemistry professor knows that you're enthusiastic enough about chemistry to join the chemistry club, then that's a good thing). Join at least one purely-for-fun club too (my choice was the anime club).

Overall, have no expectations going in. University will be so unlike anything you will have experienced before that you'll be setting yourself up for a fall if you daydream beforehand about what it will be like. It's closer to the real world than highschool, but it's still a self-contained ecosystem with its own rules and experiences. Get in there and see what it's like.

This is, of course, assuming you really do want to go to university. Don't go just because your parents want you to or because you have to do it at your age or because you've just gotten out of highschool and it's what you're "supposed" to do next. Make sure you're going to be studying something you like and that you wouldn't mind terribly being employed in, because you may very well end up working in whatever field you studied afterwards.

Great advice here, but let me add one thing...

Don't feel like you're a failure if you don't gobble up the entire university experience in four years. I lost steam (read: got tired of the partying and foolishness) after second year, joined the military, and finished college and a graduate degree over the next six years. At age 42, I still take courses regularly, and I feel like I'm at least in the car with the rest of the world, and not left behind completely.

Also, this gave me the opportunity to change my major and minors at will, and more finely focus my goals with a little useful life experience and the advice of trusted friends and supervisors.

Excellent point. I was 22 when I started university, which means that this year, there are people younger than I am who are graduating. It's a little disconcerting, but I actually had a life before I started school, and I'm glad I got to do the things I did. I would have missed out on a lot (and been homesick and socially awkward) if I'd gone to university at 19 like most people around here.