The greatest surprise to me was the difficulty of the math classes. Just because you took a class in high school and did well does not mean that the college one will be just as easy. MATH140 was way more difficult than Calc AB in highschool despite having a similar curriculum. The reason for this is in high school you are given around 8 months to learn the material whereas you only have 16 weeks to learn the course in college. This not only means that you spend way less time learning each topic but if you do poorly on an exam there is very little time to bring your grade back up.
I have not had much success with developing mentoring relationships from faculty; however I have heard from some of my peers that sending cold emails to professors is always a good way to get your name out there and see if someone takes you under their wing. Additionally, participating in class and showing you personality, when appropriate, is a good way to be noticed by faculty.
Everyone is going through the exact same thing that you are so I have found comfort in just talking about things to my friends or classmates. It is always good to have at least one close person who you can rant and complain to about anything. The greatest obstacle in pursuing relationships is yourself. I personally found it uncomfortable to just go up to random people and introduce myself and create conversation out of nowhere. Something someone told me later on that I wish I had heard before I left for college was that everyone is in the same boat, nobody has any friends and just about everyone is looking to make friends so don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. Many times, they probably want to talk to you but are too nervous themselves to start a conversation. The best way of using your connections with your peers is to leverage their strengths to help you and use yours to help them so that you are both successful.
I was least prepared to get myself up every morning and go to every class regardless of how tired or boring the class was. Your parents aren’t here so your safety net is released which is something no teen has really experienced on this scale. I recommend that you make friends in your classes who push you to be a good student and encourage you to be better/call you out when you need it. Also, remember the reason why you are here and paying all this money: to get an education. You are paying lots of money for each class so get your money's worth and go make your time useful. Also, in general, every hour of lecture you miss is at least double that you have to spend learning the material on your own.