At the beginning of last semester, I wrote a column featuring my five top tips for incoming freshmen. These were words of advice coming from an eighth-year senior, someone who's just about as old-school as you can get.

I've probably made just about every mistake you can make in college, but I've learned from those mistakes. I've figured out the game, so to speak. In hindsight, I don't think that just five tips were near enough, considering all the things I've learned throughout the years.

So here are five more tips, designed to enable you-the freshman or sophomore-to avoid the mistakes I did during my early years at UNO.

To recap, my top five tips of last semester were:

5. Wake up before the crack of noon.

4. Go to class.

3. Turn studying into something you look forward to.

2. More sex, less relationships.

1. Don't try to graduate in four years.

If you'd like more clarification on those five tips, go to UNOGateway.com and search "Bashara college tips."

And now, five more tips:

5. Don't buy textbooks at the school bookstore unless you have to. Unless you like getting screwed, that is. Each semester, tons of students eagerly run to the bookstore and drop loads of unnecessary cash on books because they don't realize that there are many alternatives. The easiest (although not the cheapest) is the Big O Bookstore on 72nd and Pacific. There you'll usually save around 5 to 10 percent-sometimes more-on textbooks.

But if you're not lazy, and you start your search for books a little earlier than the day before classes start, you can literally save hundreds of dollars by shopping online. Seriously, you can buy a used book for less than half of what UNO sells it for. Just go to the UNO Bookstore, write down all the ISBNs of the books you need, then hit up the Internet. Some great sites that have saved me tons of cash: BigWords.com, Alibris.com, Amazon.com, AbeBooks.com and many more. Just Google "Textbooks" and you'll see a ton.

Also, be sure to hit up eBay. Sometimes a college kid will put up a $100 book for $20, as was the case with my Intro Psychology book this semester.

4. Don't get sucked in to all those back to school supplies. My first few years at UNO, I would literally spend almost $50 per semester on all these stupid school supplies. I'd buy a binder for every class, multiple folders, tons of highlighters, pens, pencils, planners and all that other garbage.

Know what I bought at the start of this semester? A five-subject notebook for $3. That's it. Pens are all over the place-it's really not like you need to buy them. I use a digital planner on my laptop, and I re-use my highlighters instead of buying "fresh" ones each semester. Later, if I find out I need more stuff like folders, I'll buy them. But I never start out a semester with anything more than a five-subject notebook. Save some money and do the same. Think about it. Do you really need all that extra crap going to waste in your backpack?

3. Don't max out your student loans unless you realize what you're doing. When I turned 24, the financial aid office stopped using my parent's financial info to base my aid on. It'll be the same for you if you're still in school by the time you turn 24.

When that happens, you can really get a lot of money. That first year, I was offered almost $4000 cash-outside of tuition-in extra aid money per semester. That was $4000 per semester to do whatever I wanted with, which I basically used as spending money so I didn't have to work that much. The money kept increasing as my year in school did and each year, I'd max it all out just so I could take an easy ride.

Now I'm in debt a little more than I'd like to be, and I'm going to owe some hefty monthly payments after graduation. In retrospect, I really wish that I hadn't taken so much out. I could have just worked an extra 10 hours per week and I would have been fine.

But on the flipside of that, those financial aid checks saved my butt a few times, like when I needed a new engine for my car. And because the interest is so low on student loans, you can consolidate your higher-interest credit cards into your student loans to save some money in the long run.

But unless you have a really good reason for doing so, play it safe and don't max it. You'll feel a lot better when you graduate and don't have to immediately start making payments.

2. Get involved. Especially if you weren't involved in high school, college is like a second chance. It's a chance to not make the same mistakes you did before. It's a chance to take those regrets you have for all those missed opportunities and turn them into experiences.

I was like a ghost in high school. I had my group of friends, but beyond that, I was pretty much disconnected from every aspect of school. I'm not even in my senior yearbook. Yeah, how messed-up is that?

So halfway through college I began to really get involved in organizations and activities, and I'm so glad that I did. I've been able to make up for lost time and missed experiences. In fact, I even ran for homecoming king last fall-something I would have never in a million years thought I'd ever be doing back in high school.

So get involved. Forge those memories. Don't let your second chance get away.

1. Date now, and often. Throughout your college career, you won't realize until later that going to school is pretty much like a smorgasbord of dating potential.

Never again will you be surrounded by so many girls and guys amidst the height of their sexual urges. College doubles as one big meat market. You think you're going to be up to your ears in ready-and-willing coeds after graduation, sitting in your cubicle in the accounts receivable office? Or at the happy hour dive bars, flooded with desperate 30-somthings looking for a husband/wife?

Sate those sexual yearnings now, before you're left with slim pickings. Just remember to be safe. Nothing can halt your college career faster than a bright-eyed bundle of joy, or the dark reality of a sexually transmitted disease.