On the first day of class, give students 2-5 minutes to write in their notebooks: 

Thinking about both academic and social aspects of college, what are your expectations of what college will be like?

At least 2/3rds of the way through the first semester, I assign a one page typed journal:

Revisiting your college expectations (as written in your notebook on Day One), describe one expectation that turned out to be true/accurate and one expectation that turned out to be false/inaccurate. 

(Contributed by Chris Pudlinski)