Going to college? Take their advice

The New York Times asked readers about their college experience and what they wish they had known sooner both inside and outside the classroom. It heard from hundreds of students and former students across the country and in Canada. The answers have been edited and condensed.

Grace deMeurisse, Bellingham, Washington; Western Washington University

I wish I had known how to separate my learning from my grades. My educational experience became profoundly better and more enriched when I learned how to start learning for the sake of learning, and not for the sake of monotonously turning in an assignment for the grade I would get in return.