Is it okay to join the College of Winterhold before Whiterun?

I'm totally a noob to Skyrim. And on my first time, I went to the Whiterun to warn about the dragon in Helgen. But this time, I wanna make a difference, so I was wondering to go join the Mage College up in the Winterhold before going to the Whiterun.

But I fear that I would mess up the storyline if I join the College first. Is it okay to join the College before warning the Jarl of Whiterun of the Dragon?

Solution 1:

Short answer: Yes.

Detailed answer: Skyrim is an open world RPG! Basically, that means that once you get full control of your character, you can go almost anywhere on the map and do almost anything! There are some quests, items, enemies, and locations that have level requirements, but you can go anywhere the map shows from the get-go.

My understanding is you are concerned with the main storyline integrity. Well, have no fear, you can't mess anything up (too badly, anyways).

Interestingly, if you dont go to Whiterun and complete Bleak Falls Barrow, you wont start Dragon Rising. Furthermore, if you never start Dragon Rising, you won't run into any wild dragons on your adventure. Whenever you're ready for those monsters in the sky, head on back to Whiterun and everything will be great!

Solution 2:

Yes, you can do what you want and it won't have an effect on the storyline. It's perfectly fine to become guild leader of every guild in skyrim and then tell the Jarl about the Helgen attack.

Solution 3:

I totally agree with Dulkan and jordie, so I won't go into it.

But I fear that I would mess up the storyline if I join the College first.

Well, that's something different. While you can do the storyline as the very last thing in skyrim (which is exactly what I did on my second playthrough), you CAN miss a part of the storyline. Without going deeper into it, there comes a time in the mainstory, that tackles the current civil war which you just witnessed in Helgen. That being said, there is a questline,

where you choose a side and actively participate in the war. At the end of that sidestory, you will end the civil war, completely defeating the other side.

If you've done that before the mentioned part of the mainstory, you will just skip it, which is rather sad in my opinion, so I recommend doing that part of the story BEFORE you do the sidequest, which, if I remember correctly, won't be influenced by the mainstory.