Take the time to get to know your roommate and others in your dormitory building. Try to become good friends with your roommate, since you'll be spending a great deal of time in a small space with him. Gain an understanding of what the other person expects in terms of behavior and boundaries, to prevent pent-up hostility and future arguments.
Get to know others in your residence hall to expand your social support network and meet potential future roommates.
Keep your dorm stocked with healthy snacks, fresh fruits and vitamins. Avoid making common freshman mistakes, such as overindulging in alcohol and stocking shelves with unhealthy snack chips, sugary cereals and microwave dinners. Watch your caloric and fat intake to prevent various illnesses, fatigue and lethargy due to malnutrition, in addition to the extra pounds this lifestyle will incur.
Bring items of emotional significance from home to help ward off any bouts of homesickness. Decorate your room with family photos, knickknacks from the family living room or gifts from relatives. Display personal totems to look at when you're feeling lonely and removed from the ones you love.
Bring only what you absolutely need from home to your dorm room, with just a few extra items that make you happy. Itemize all the things you'd like to bring from home, then cut that list in half. Reduce dorm room clutter by contacting your new roommate before move-in day. Determine what you'll each bring and adjust accordingly.
Create structure and balance your academic and social life by using a daily/weekly/monthly planner and continuously setting up short-term and long-term academic goals. Avoid the temptation to "hang out," waste time and procrastinate. Set up a block of time every day for exam studying and paper researching/writing. Try to keep the length of this block of time -- and the part of the day when it occurs -- steady so that it becomes second nature rather than forced effort. Pair up with like-minded students who share similar class schedules.