Be prepared to change your major simply because the university experience is all about discovery - including what really sets you on fire. It may be history, but it may be something else. Be agile and flexible. If history is the focus of your passion after the dust settles, that's a great place to put one foot, but since you have two, consider carefully what else excites you. Your ability to carve a unique niche for yourself is not your passion for history (others will have the same for the field(s) of your focus). Rather, it is what else you bring to the table - economics, chemistry, biology, an understanding of culture, sociology, house design, textiles, archaeology, meteorology - you name it, but it will be the combination of things you bring to the table that makes the difference.

Also, seek out and obtain practical experience. If you are to be employed as historian, there is a better than even chance it will be as a public historian, not as a teacher/professor. Volunteer at a local house museum or at an excavation. Find work on campus in the archive or in town with an architectural firm or construction firm that works with old buildings. Any of these things could be the foundation for a career that in all likelihood you can't even imagine, but which can be rewarding. But as indicated in the first paragraph, prepare to be agile and flexible.

And be prepared to be homesick. That's just part of it. It gets better, but it can be miserable for a while. Soldier through.

And most of all, best of luck.

Start the essays asap, because they tend to creep up quite quickly and then you find the library has been emptied of books

Also lots of stuff you learnt in school will be wrong, and what you probably consider a history book is not in fact a history book

Take a broad range of modules from a variety of periods in your first year, have fun with it. I went to uni wanting to study the world wars, I left more interested in the 17th and early 19th century

Here's an article about dealing with homesickness at university. Hope that helps!

Remember that first year doesn't count, so don't get too stressed about grades. Make sure you get essay and exams skilled nailed down, but don't be scared to experiment, because if you mess up a little now, it doesn't matter.

1. Try to put aside things you know by hindsight and place yourself in the position of those making choices at the time.

2. Don't get too radical: it's too hard to defend a controversial position within a word limit and you'll get better marks with fairly conventional analysis.

3. As Eggfibre says, master the skills of argument and essay structure, and using and analysing sources effectively. All the factual knowledge in the world is nothing if you can't argue a case.

Learn to love historiography and book reviews. Find or create a study group (which will also help with the homesickness bit) and have different people lead discussion on different topics.

But seriously, historiography.

Even if you are primary interested in a specific time and/or place in history, take courses that cover times and places outside your comfort zone. It will not only improve your ability to analyze historical information, it will give you new ways to think about your chosen specialty.