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Reading, Writing and Arithmetic are Just the Start of College Success.Sep 26 '06 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line Motivation; Organization; Supplies; Organization; Lifetstyle; Understanding Cheating. There may seem like an easy answer to succeeding in college academic: just do your work. More goes into it than just doing your work. Of course if you don’t do the work you won’t succeed. Doing the work on time and to the best of your ability is a given and the most important aspect of success. However what else does one need? Motivation: If you aren’t motivated you won’t do your work. You certainly won’t do it on a timely basis. Why wouldn’t you be motivated? There are lots of reasons. The first that comes to mind is that you were expected to go to college when what you really wanted to do was become a hairdresser. You’ve been doing your dolls’ hair since you were two and now you are in a four- year college studying anthropology. The expectation could come from within but it is commonly due to parental pressure. When a student is doing poorly and is asked about their goals they often say that they didn’t want to be an accountant; they hate math; they wanted to be a writer or a painter. Dad’s an accountant so son was pushed/directed into a choice that wasn’t his. It doesn’t always work. A friend of ours wanted to go into the political area but dad was a doctor and so is he. He claims to have no passion for his work. He is a good doctor but I truly believe we must let our kids make their own choices unless their choices are going to hurt them. I'd rather my daughter be a passionate writer than an uninspired doctor. Organization: Some of us work best in a chaotic environment; some don’t. If you find that you aren’t doing well look at your surroundings. Can you easily find the book you need or do you have to dig through the pile of dirty laundry on the floor? Are you doing your work in front of the television not because you want to but because your desk is covered with snack food? If this applies to you get some crates and/or a file cabinet and get organized. I think you’ll find how much easier it will be to work. Supplies: These days you can’t be successful without a computer of some sort. My husband is a college Professor at a school where computers are mandatory for each student. Have you bought your books or are you sharing them with a roommate? Books are very expensive – sharing is a great idea. Just make sure that your roommate really is sharing so when you go to class the book is available for you to take with you. If this isn’t happening you’ll have to have your own copy. Even with computers you still need notebooks, especially file folders. Although a lot of schools put everything online there is often still material passed out. It could be the syllabus or a paper handed in and then returned. You want to keep these in a notebook; not under the snack food on your desk. Oh I forget you’ve removed these. Well you get the idea. Again in spite of computers you need pencils. You’ll be taking exams with pencils so bring them to class. As a substitute teacher I’d often run into 8-year olds with out a pencil. There is no excuse for an 18-year old not to have a writing utensil. Lifestyle: Having a good time is part of campus life. Having too good a time is a set up for failure. If you are hung over on Monday morning you may not get to class and even if you do your brain probably won’t be hearing the lecture. I know you can manage on four hours sleep but really a good night's sleep will make you a better student. Cramming for tests is not the way to ace it. You are better off sleeping and being alert for the exam assuming you’ve done some studying and work throughout the semester. If you are working while in college you may have to cut down on some of the partying. You can’t do everything. You can’t do every extra curricula activity either. Make choices and bring a good balance into your college life. Eat breakfast. Study after study have shown that we do better all around with a good breakfast in our bodies. “Evidence suggests that breakfast consumption may improve cognitive function related to memory, test grades, and school attendance. Breakfast as part of a healthful diet and lifestyle can positively impact children's health and well-being.” www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&list_uids=15883552&cmd=Retrieve&indexed=google Get the exercise your body needs. Not only will this keep the freshman 15 off but it will relieve stress and make you feel better all around. Cheating: This one is near and dear to my heart. I lived with a cheating scandal for years. Do students cheat because they think they can get away with it? Do they cheat because of the pressure to do well? Books have been written on the subject. From personal experience I want to tell you that you will get caught and the consequences are not pretty. Your ethics and values should tell you not to cheat. However the temptations are great. Students have been caught text messaging friends for answers while taking exams. Before cell phones there were other variations. If you don’t know by now Professors have software that gives them sources of papers. If your paper is plagiarized you will be caught. The Internet has made this type of cheating much more difficult. So be aware of that. I don’t want to lecture. I thought it would be most helpful if I shared with you a letter my husband wrote to our daughter. I am eliminating some identifying items. It is called “She looked me in the eye and lied.” "I am writing this letter because I am very sad. One of my students looked me right in the eye and lied……. Last week, I was grading a course project and I discovered several projects that looked very similar. I sent e-mails to about 20 of my students asking them to come by my office and talk about the similarities. What I learned really saddened me. Student teams of two were working in teams of four. Students were taking roommates’ solutions and making them their own. There was even an e-mail attachment circulating among students that was being printed out and submitted. Needless to say this troubled me a great deal. I thought of you. You are a good kid - just like most of my students. You are working very hard at college - just like many of my students. You have goals, dreams and a future that you don’t want to screw up. I know that sometimes you get stressed out and you feel a lot of pressure to get things done, but I trust you to do the right thing. I trust you to take pride in your actions and to maintain your integrity and self-respect. I don’t want to imagine you sitting in a professor’s office or a dean’s office responding to charges of academic dishonesty. I don’t want to see you losing your scholarship or being thrown out of college or reducing to zero your chances of getting into graduate school. We all are tempted to take shortcuts and we all make some bad decisions, but I truly hope that you make choices that reflect your sense of what’s right. You know that taking credit for someone else’s work is not right. You know that lying is not right. Unfortunately, I now have to spend a lot of my time policing what is right and wrong. The faculty had to prohibit the use of test-capable calculators on the final exam because a few students were programming their calculators with course materials. I have had to mark down grades on students’ projects. I am in the process of submitting academic dishonesty forms to the dean’s office. The College is offering training to faculty on how to use software that can detect plagiarism. Why do we have this battle? I would hope that students and professors are on the same side, sharing common goals. …..” Oh well, thanks for reading this letter. I’ll let you get back to your studies. Good luck with your final exams. Dad (Used with permission.) What Should I Know About Care Packages? ~ An Interview with a Professor: How to Ask and Get References ~ What you should know about medical school: Part I ~ You're a Medical Student. Important information on the match and ranking process: Part II ~ Care Packages: Wrap a Gift to Go ~ My Guide to Choosing a College ~ The Myth of the Party School ~ They're Off to College ~ My Guide to Acing a College Interview ~ What Should I Do if My Student is Unhappy? ~ What Should I Bring to School? ~ Emory University ~ Bentley College ~ University of Massachusetts Medical School ~ University of Pennsylvania  |
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