7 Things Graduating Seniors Should Know About College By LYNN F. JACOBS and JEREMY S. HYMAN As graduating seniors prepare for their freshman year in college, we’ve asked Lynn F. Jacobs and Jeremy S. Hyman, authors of “The Secrets of College Success,” to provide tips for incoming college freshmen. What follows are excerpts. — Tanya Caldwell Here are some things that incoming students should know about college:
You Have Control Over Your Courses You do not have to confine yourself to a set of preselected courses that are designed to help incoming students fulfill general education requirements. As you select your courses, be sure that each one is on the right level for you (in some cases, one can substitute higher level courses for more basic ones). Once you’ve picked your program, you should attend each of the classes and decide whether the professor is someone from whom you can really learn. Often, there are many instructors teaching the same course, and using the drop/add process, you may be able to get a much better teacher.
Every Class Counts There is a lot of redundancy built into high school courses. Many classes go over what was done before, some classes are devoted to preparing for tests, and, once in a while, you don’t really do much at all. In college, it’s different. Professors have only 30 or 40 lectures in which to cover the subject, so they try to make each class count. If you miss more than a few lectures, you’re likely to miss out on content that will be difficult to fill in on your own.
You Are Expected to Do a Lot of the Work on Your Own You need to be your own boss. Figure out when things need to be done and do them. The professor or teaching assistant might remind the class when papers are due, but no one will contact you when the deadline has passed and you haven’t handed in your work. You will also need to propel yourself to study. While a recent study shows that the average college student spends about 15 hours outside of class preparing, if you poll professors, you’ll find that they expect two hours of preparation for each class meeting. So, if you’re taking 15 class hours, the professors assume you’ll be spending 30 hours a week studying. That equates to four hours a day, if you’re doing your homework seven days a week.
The Testing Is Often by ‘Sampling’ Exams in college are not 100 percent comprehensive — that is, the tests will not cover every topic or problem discussed in class. Instead, professors often select a representative sample of problems or topics, and test the students on only those. This is because professors are looking for depth of thought on some issue. When preparing for exams, then, it’s often a better strategy to prepare the central points in greater detail rather than going over everything superficially.
College Papers Are More Than Just Reports College papers require analysis and research. In college, you may be asked to break down some issue into its parts and offer some evaluation of your own. You may be asked to consult original documents and scholarly sources and offer your assessment of them. This is in sharp contrast with what is expected of written assignments in high school, some of which require no more than a simple summary of what others have said on Wikipedia, and articles found on Google, newspapers, and magazines.
You Don’t Have to Pick a Major in Your First Year Many colleges now encourage students to declare a major at orientation; this allows students to get started on some directed course of study, and it helps colleges manage course offerings. It may be a good idea to declare your major right away, especially if yours is a four-year program like pre-med, music, or a world language. In more cases than not, however, it’s better to wait until you’ve taken a few courses — especially upper-division courses in a given field — before you commit to a major. A reason students take so long in completing their degrees is that they successively change majors when they’ve picked wrong; and each time they pick, they’re committing themselves to 10 or 12 required courses.
The Professor Would Like to Help You Succeed Professors are not distant figures whose job it is to give lectures in large auditoriums and spend the rest of their time doing research. In addition to those tasks, professors are also teachers, whose self-conception is often invested in whether students are doing well. They are often delighted to help students construct a paper or prepare for an exam. They also have office hours throughout the week so they may devote time to helping students. You should plan to visit each professor at least once during the semester. The office hour can be one of the few times at college for one-to-one engagement with a genuine expert in the field.
23 Comments 1. 1. June 21, 2012 8:38 am Link I would also add that it is important to pick classes carefully the first semester. While it may be tempting to try and get your “hardest” courses over with first, don’t try to cram them all into the first semester, when you will be struggling to balance all your new responsibilities, new social life, and learn about your new world. For example, if you struggle with writing research papers, don’t take only courses that rely heavily on research papers. Take a variety of courses that interest you and spread out your challenging courses over a few semesters. This will help you get off to a good start your first semester. — Jill Rooney, Ph.D. 2. 2. June 21, 2012 10:35 am Link One never stated lesson is to grab every course offering schedule and use that as a plan to pre-schedule your courses. This is extremely beneficial if you change measures and allows you to understand the economic impact of this decision. Another lesson is to understand your college advisor’s main role is to ensure the policies of the institution and not to guide you. You are 100% responsible for your course decisions! Leanne Hoagland-Smith Creator of the College Success Boot Camp and LinkedIn for College Grads — Leanne Hoagland-Smith 3. 3. June 21, 2012 1:46 pm Link Although you do have control over your classes, remember that your advisor is there to help you. And, some of those courses listed in the recommended course of study may be prerequisites for other required courses down the road. It is good practice to speak with your advisor about any changes to your course schedule, especially if they stray from the recommended course of study. — Amy Hutton 4. 4. June 21, 2012 1:59 pm Link This is a terrific article… please read it before you go to PSU! — mom
5. 5. June 21, 2012 2:11 pm Link This is all so true! One thing I would like to add – try to find at least one little thing that captures your interest, even in the classes you dislike. That way, when you write a paper, you can expand on the subject and connect it to something that actually interests you. It makes studying more bearable, and professors like it when you are able to connect different subjects in ways they haven’t seen before. For example, I had to do a Trigonometry project using a series of equations and graphs over a certain period of time. I HATED math. So for my project, I used trig to examine the history & growing popularity Facebook. My professor said she loved my project, because instead of just examining the passage of time in general, I studied something that actually interested me. It was more interesting for her to read, and it was more thoroughly researched on my part because I wasn’t bored to death. Then again, I go to Bard College at Simon’s Rock, which is based around the idea that education shouldn’t be painful. It’s really an incredible experience… And I DIDN’T have to be a high school senior to go. I started after my junior year of high school. Having the time of my life! — Bethany Geiger 6. 6. June 21, 2012 3:23 pm Link I would add that you should think carefully about your social circle, especially in a large state university. If your friends are motivated students taking advantage of everything the school has to offer, your own best impulses will be reinforced. If your friends compete to see how many times they can get trashed a week and laugh about having to take the same remedial course five times, you will have to swim hard against the tide to make college worth the expense. I was lucky enough to go to a liberal arts college where intellectual curiosity and striving to understand was the social norm. Living in that kind of environment has literally shaped my entire life. — Neal 7. 7. June 22, 2012 7:01 am Link Incoming engineering students should be very careful with some of the advice from this column. Engineering has a tight series of prerequisites that are laid out in a program of study. Your control over your courses is limited. You can choose your elective courses, you can probably rearrange your general education requirements a bit, and you can certainly shop around for a Calc I professor you like, because multiple sections of that
course are offered every semester. But deviating significantly from the program of study will delay your graduation, as will “shopping around” for the best engineering professor for that difficult junior-level course in your major. Similarly, the tight prerequisite series means you will probably need to declare your engineering major during your freshman year. While there are a few engineering schools that let you wait until late into the sophomore year, most require students to declare during their freshman year, because the programs of study begin to deviate during the sophomore year. — Engineering Professor 8. 8. June 22, 2012 9:45 am Link If you are on financial aid, particularly Federal financial aid, plan your program early and choose courses wisely – there are complications if you change majors or drop courses. You really need to know the financial landscape because there are restrictions that could cause you to have to pay back the cost of dropped courses or get you placed on academic probation. — Norm 9. 9. June 22, 2012 12:00 pm Link One adjustment problem that isn’t mentioned above is that new college students should not expect that their professors will focus on the positive and minimize the negative in students’ work. Most will do exactly the opposite. If you ignore most assignment instructions and do just a few aspects of the assignment well, that won’t result in a good grade. You can’t play guessing games about assignments, assuming that you just know what’s being asked of you based on your high school experiences. You must read and follow instructions carefully, look at and take advantage of models to imitate if they are provided, and realize that your professors are not in the business of rewarding you for things you already do well. They are focused on teaching you to improve those things you don’t do well and building new skills, which means that you WILL get negative feedback and you WON’T be told you’re wonderful on a regular basis. Your parents will not be able to drop by to harass your professors on your behalf if your feelings are hurt in some way by a professor’s objective evaluation of your work. Also, while your work may have been better than most of your high school classmates, it will probably be mediocre in comparison to your college classmates. You are going to have to learn to deal with negative feedback and profit from it by paying attention to it so you don’t keep repeating the same mistakes. In other words, you are finally going to have to learn how to learn. — Laura L. Nelson, Ph. D. 10. 10. June 22, 2012 3:06 pm Link
An 8th thing every graduating senior should know: Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid of meeting people different than you. If you come from a homogeneous place, don’t be afraid to talk to the person next to you that is a different color. You’ll be glad you did. Do not be afraid to take charge of your coursework. Every college will provide you with the courses necessary to get a degree in a certain major. Go through them and come up with a plan for when you are going to take certain things. You’ll probably need biology and chemistry to take biochemistry, so don’t wait until your senior year to take chemistry THEN go to your adviser have them look it over. If you rely on your adviser to make it up for you, they could make an honest mistake. It could cost you extra time and money (if you need to stay an extra semester to take one class) if it is not caught in time. Don’t be afraid to ask questions of other students. Ask other people in your classes if they have taken a class you are interested in. They might be able to give you old tests or recommendations on professors. When you get to be a junior and a young looking freshman asks you about a class, return the favor. Don’t be afraid to ask questions of your professor. These are not your high school teachers. They will not yell at you for wanting to use the bathroom. If you do not understand something, go ask. Do not wait until the week before mid-terms to try to understand something from the second week of class. Looking for a JOB? After you have built some sort of rapport with a professor, ask to see if they or anyone they know needs a lab assistant//journal researcher/understudy. Bar-tending will probably pay more. However, when you graduate employers will like that you have a little experience in your field, more than the ability to make a killer Brass Monkey. And finally, don’t be afraid to have fun….to a point. Like many college students, you may choose to experiment with drugs/alcohol/sex. Just do so in the midst of people that you feel completely comfortable around. Make them earn your trust. Know that no matter how much you beg, they won’t let you go away with 3 unknown guys during your vacation in Aruba, force you to do anything you don’t want to do, or let you get into a car with someone that has had enough sangria to not remember driving the next day. College is supposed to be fun, eye-opening and challenging, not tragic. — Andrew 11. 11. June 22, 2012 4:37 pm Link good post — hotel in Khobar 12. 12. June 22, 2012 4:47 pm Link
Don’t be afraid to get credit for your interests either. I love to read. I read extensively while I was in college and I’m not talking about dime novels. I took 4 or 5 literature courses so I wouldn’t feel guilty about all the extracurricular reading I did. I got the credits and, if the professor was a good teacher, there were lots of good discussions in the class. I also had to write papers on some of the books. This may be the only time you will be able to take a course just for the fun of it so if you do want to learn about something off the beaten track and there is a course, go for it. College is not just about your major. It’s also about looking at the world in a different way, learning outside the prescribed curriculum. Electives outside your major should include some of your interests, not what you think will make you look good on a resume. — hen3ry 13. 13. June 22, 2012 9:29 pm Link Thanks for the tips. I am community college student that will matriculate at a top ten school this fall. I am quite nervous about the workload and professor expectations. — David 14. 14. June 22, 2012 10:46 pm Link The main problem my incoming students have is, they can’t read. I don’t mean functional illiteracy so much as aliteracy. They can read something, but unless forced, won’t. Once forced, they don’t understand what they’ve just read– at least not well enough to explain it in their own words. There are many places to point the finger of blame, but what’s the point? They can’t, and I have to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to explain basic concepts because I’m 100% confident they either haven’t read the textbook or didn’t understand it if they did. Because of this, of course, student writing is generally subliterate. I’ve been teaching over 25 years and yes, it’s getting worse.Sad, but true. — Displaced Alabaman 15. 15. June 23, 2012 12:32 pm Link This is a terrific article and thank you! I particularly appreciate the point about working with your professors. I was very glad to receive this tip early in my undergrad years and I always enjoyed having conversations with my professors during office hours. I feel that I learned so much more this way. It also helped when applying to graduate school because I was able to ask these faculty members where they thought I should apply, and they were very helpful with writing recommendation letters, too. College is such a great time to
really explore your intellectual curiosities and develop your own passions; what better way to do that than to have great conversations with very educated people who love the same subjects! — Susanna Cerasuolo, M.Ed. 16. 16. June 23, 2012 11:18 pm Link 1. When thinking about the first term’s scheduling, try to balance courses with heavy reading loads with classes requiring different sorts of work. 2. When considering courses, go to the bookstore and have a look at the texts required in classes you are considering. Seeing what you will be reading in different classes (or different sections of the same class) might help you to make a choice. 3. Leave the PS3 at home Seriously, a large percentage of the male students who have academic trouble in the first term at my pretty good college seem to be spending too much free time trying to drive the Russians out of New York. Figure out how to control this. — Profscam 17. 17. June 25, 2012 12:00 am Link I would also add take advantage of the clubs/groups that are abound on campuses. Find what interest you as well as clubs relating to your area of study. There are academic groups, volunteer organizations, service fraternities, social groups, student government, etc. Show initiative and involvement of your school and your eventual field of study. Not only are they a way to meet new people, it is also something employers look for in many fields other than high GPA. — Jan S 18. 18. June 25, 2012 11:00 pm Link As a graduate from Duke University, and current “drop-out” from Columbia University’s Teacher’s College, I realize now, more than ever, the importance of 1) students choosing a college after thinking long and hard about why it is they are going into higher education and 2) working before and during college to gain practical life experience. More and more students are struggling to find their ways in school while accruing major debt when, I believe, they should take time to find themselves in a less costly and stressful environment. Trust me, a swift shift change and a measly pay check can sometimes educate quicker than an over-aged professor can. As an alum, I have written to my alma mater to offer practical financial courses to college students (which they are now
implementing), but I believe hands-on courses on financial management and planning should begin even earlier for high school students. — Aeden Keffelew 19. 19. June 26, 2012 4:26 pm Link Great article with some good points. As a soon-to-be graduate there are a few points I would like to add: 1) Work, then play! Take college seriously. Get what needs to be done, done. Then you are able to enjoy yourself during leisure activities. There is no reason to create undue stress. 2) Branch Out. Talk to people you wouldn’t normally talk to and do things that you wouldn’t normally do, within reason. It’s liberating and fun to take risks! Plus, it helps you grow as an individual. 3) Enjoy it! College only lasts for a small time. Enjoy it. Be serious but know when to have some fun. These are supposed to be some of the greatest days of your life. Grab it by the horns! All the best of luck to future college students. — Anna Kate 20. 20. June 28, 2012 2:06 pm Link Excellent article, seniors! — David Gertz 21. 21. July 2, 2012 6:20 pm Link I wanted to add: Pick the major that is right for you, not what your parents insist. I spent seven mostly miserable years in school to become a lawyer, only to retire and pursue other career options after just six months of practice. I knew it was wrong for me, it wasn’t what I wanted for myself, but I stayed because it was what my father demanded. What a waste of money and time. Now I will spend decades paying back that debt! Have the courage to know when you need to make a different choice. I wasted the years when I should have
been discovering who I am and where my talents would be best suited trying force a square peg into a round hole. School shouldn’t be something you hate. It should challenge you, but if you dread going to the classes in your major and hate doing the course work, consider making a change, even if means you might be stuck in school an extra year or so. It is easier to make those changes and put off your career while you are young and you don’t have a spouse, children and a home! And lastly, your professors are people. Try and visit them at least once. You would not believe what a difference that can make – especially if you need letters of recommendation for graduate school! If you have a chance to have lunch with a professor – go! Talk to them like they are people, they’ll remember you! I had a professor that I used to talk to about music that remembered me and years later emailed me to offer me an incredible job (which unfortunately I couldn’t take because I couldn’t relocate for it at the time). — retired from law at 30 22. 22. July 18, 2012 2:37 am Link If you complete your graduate in a good university, you can make good career in life. — Caroline 23. 23. July 19, 2012 1:54 pm Link 1. Visit every professor at least once during office hours. You don’t have to have anything insightful to say; just introduce yourself. If you’re able to ask a question about a recent lecture or reading, terrific — but if not, go anyway! Also, pay attention to how the professor is identified on the syllabus. Memorize it and use the correct form of address (Prof., Dr., or whatever they use) and the correct name every time you talk to or e-mail the professor. So few students do this, and professors care and notice when someone gets it right! 2. If you are on financial aid, watch the rules. At my state university, if a student fails a course, the professor must report the last date of attendance. If that student stopped coming to class early on, his/her financial aid eligibility will be ruined, forever. 3. Don’t be afraid to be challenged in your work.
There is no glory in squeaking by in college and taking only the easiest courses. If you’re being asked to stretch, STRETCH! It’s for your own good and you’ll be getting your money’s worth. 4. Enjoy and appreciate your good fortune to have a college experience, while you are having it. Take advantage of it. This means you should attend lectures or events you might not usually think to. You should visit the Writing Center and other such resources your university might have and get something out of them. You should force yourself to talk to someone in each class you’re taking — get to know some people you might otherwise not. Try new things, learn something new, and meet new people.