Coming from a diff perspective. Just kind of an FYI:
I'm currently in my third year of an MFA at Syracuse University. I'm working on a novel as well, hope to get an agent.
BUT, what I wanted to say is: last year we had an agent come and offered to read everyone's first chapter and meet with us about it. It was incredibly nice of her. Probably twenty of us sent her stuff. Then she did a big-group talk and one thing she said stuck with me, "When I get queries, the first thing I look for is what have they done that makes them marketable or better writers." Meaning, have you published short stories, essays, reviews, poems, etc., where at? How often? Any prizes? Honorable mentions? Etc. She also said to us to put in the subject-field of our queries to agents "MFA in Poetry/Fiction from ______". She said every single agent will stop and read your submission with closer attention if you're a graduate of a prestigious university.
This pissed me off. But that's how it is. An agents goal is to sell a book. They look for what the publishers tell them to look for.
So, my advice: publish excerpts of your novel, or your short stories. Focus on that. Forget hitting up agents cold without a track-record of publishing. Also, if you live in a decent sized city, there's bound to be a writing group; join up, get people to read your shit. Also, you're in college. Presumably you have an English department. Find out who writes and publishes fiction (even the poets will be a great resource). Take their classes, go to their office hours. Take workshop classes and keep writing as much as you can but MAKE SURE YOU'RE CHALLENGING YOURSELF AS A WRITER. Try new things. Get feedback. Find writer friends, reader friends, but make sure people you take advice from are people you respect as HUMANS first, otherwise their feedback won't be worth your effort.
And, if you're interested, apply to MFA programs. I'm not a huge fan of MFA's. It's hit or miss if you get a good cohort. Find writers you like, read their essays too to find out what kind of people they are, and reach out to them, find out where they teach and apply to study with them. All you need is one person with some clout to believe in you. Names, institutions, publications, awards: these things pave the way to publication. Start with some smaller journals, online journals are fine, just get your shit into the world. Build a track-record of editors publishing your shit because then you have proof that people dig you.
But save your best shit for the agent (or an excerpt).
Agents are hard as fuck to get. Be patient with that. Try magazines.
I'll hang around for a bit to answer any q's.