Five Rules for College Freshmen
The secret to earning a college degree is not a secret at all…just get to your junior year. If you get that far, you’re almost guaranteed a degree.
In fact, get through your sophomore year successfully, and you’ll almost certainly return for your junior year, according to a large body of research.
The “killer” year is year one. Lots of freshmen leave college before completing two semesters. Others complete the year, but do not subsequently return. If you are scheduled to begin college in the not-too-distant future, here are a few suggestions to keep you from being among them.
1. Attend all scheduled classes. There is a reason this is the first rule listed. If you think it’s OK to miss classes, remember this you’re just a freshman…you don’t know anything yet. You only think you do.
2. Put yourself on a schedule and stick to it. Be sure to schedule study times, study breaks, and sleep time.
3. Don’t get behind. Review the syllabus in each of your courses, be aware of when assignments are due, and know when the busiest periods of the semester will be for you. That way you can do your best work without having to cram or be under the kind of stress students feel when they have not stayed on top of their coursework.
4. Remember the “all things in moderation” speech that your parents or teachers gave you? If not, as painful as it may be to hear again, ask them to repeat it. That’s because it’s true. If you stay up all night, drink too much, and spend more time seeking romance than looking for the answers to your math problems, you could be joining the work force before you planned to, and in a different position than the one to which you aspired.
5. Become a part of the college community. Make new friends, join at least one campus organization, and spend most of your weekends on campus.
The five rules above aren’t very complicated. And, they shouldn’t be terribly hard to follow. Yet, if everyone adhered to them, the average six year college graduation rate in the United States would probably jump from its currently disappointing 55% to the 90% plus seen at some of our most selective institutions.
