THE
DEGREE COMPLETION PROGRAM INSIDERS GUIDE:
KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE PRIZE Our advice to you is: • Commit to the promise that you made to yourself to get your degree. There will be so many great times and some not so great but it will all be worth it. • Perfection kept me at times from submitting what I felt was poor work and other times prevented me from starting at all. Perfect is the enemy of good. As an adult learner keeping up with deadlines is difficult. It became easier when I accepted that sometimes I would have to submit work that reflected the limited time I had available. • I was promoted shortly after finishing my degree. No one has ever asked about my GPA.
SOME PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS • Look for e-textbooks as often as possible! • Utilize the Reading and Writing center. • Get the Moodle app for your smartphone. • Check Moodle often, so you always know what the next deadline is and what’s ahead. The weeks move fast. • Know your degree map and ask questions if you have them. • You have to pay for the summer sessions in full, no payment plan option.
Thank you to all current Degree Completion Program students and recent graduates for their contributions. 8.19
Adult students share their hard-earned wisdom and best advice
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• That being in a cohort is extremely helpful. As you move along with your peers, you bond and become a tremendous support to each other. It really makes a difference learning this way.
FINDING BALANCE We wish someone had told us…
• How many awesome people I was going to meet.
• How doable it really was. • To set realistic expectations and strike a balance between school work, your work, and your personal life. • That I should have faith in myself that I could absolutely do the required work. • This is far more manageable than I anticipated. So our advice to you is… • Do not feel guilty taking time for yourself while you are going back to school. If that means you have to lock yourself away to complete a paper or an assignment or just take an hour to do nothing, do it! You will thank yourself. • Go for it. The professors will work with you if/when you have conflicts with work, etc. If I can do it with preschool age twins and a full time job, you can too!
SUPPORTING YOUR NEEDS We wish someone had told us… • About the great support that I would receive from the educators and the advisors. • That if there was ever a problem with the work or the time line, the instructors were very understanding and always reached out to help solve any problem. So our advice to you is… • If you are having trouble in one class, don’t give up. Ask for help as soon as possible and know that in the end, everything works out just fine.
So our advice to you is… • Create strong bonds with your fellow classmates. Some of my favorite classes involved us working as a team and helping each other out. • Get to know your classmates. A large percentage of them will have the same classes as you and it’s nice to have that support system.
MANAGE YOUR TIME We wish someone had told us… • That there is enough time to complete everything. You just need to schedule the time to do it. So our advice to you is… • If you need to complete a Prior Learning Assessment, work on it section by section & as soon as possible! Don’t leave it to the last minute. • Manage your time. It is very hard working full time and going to school but it is completely doable if you find a time management system that works for you. • Make the time, plan ahead and stay on top of your assignments, it is very easy to fall behind. But it is worth it! • When assignments are posted, do them as soon as possible since you can get backed up with work faster than you realize. • Do a little each day so you don’t become overwhelmed.
• The faculty are there to assist when needed so do not be afraid to let them know your areas of struggle and ask for help.
• Thoroughly read the syllabus as soon as you are provided one and make sure to manage your time according to the assignments because the course flies by!
• Ask questions! Know that you are valued and that with hard work and commitment, you CAN do this.
YOU CAN DO THIS
• How simple it was to make the first step to starting and how much support was available through the entire process.
KNOW THAT YOU’RE NOT ALONE We wish someone had told us… • How much I would enjoy my cohort. I always thought I would want an online only program. I found that I really enjoyed the classroom interaction, much more so than I did when I was right out of high school.
We wish someone had told us… • How wonderful the experience would be and not get so nervous about it! • That my concerns were realistic yet manageable. • How much of my study and paper writing skills came back to me and how quickly. So our advice to you is… • Relax. You can do it. • Enjoy the experience.