How to Succeed as a College Student

New Student Orientation

How to Succeed

How to Succeed as a College Student

I am assuming ? I am hoping ? that all of you applied for college, paid your tuition, and bought your books with the intention of succeeding. I would hope that none of you did all of that thinking, "Yeah, I'm going to fail." Everyone plans to succeed, and we want you to know that we really want you to succeed. It isn't like in the old days when I went to college and the professor would say, "Okay, look around you. Half of you won't be here by the end of the term." And he seemed really happy about that. It made me nervous because I thought everyone seemed smarter than I was. But I can tell you that we are not about "weeding people out;" we are about helping people out, which is one of the reasons we have you do this orientation. Educational research shows that students who do an orientation are much more likely to finish college than those who do not.

We also want you to know that we believe people can succeed if they want to badly enough. So that is the question I want you to ask yourself right now: How badly do you want to do this? If you want to, you will find a way to do it. I've read a couple of interesting studies on success that I think you should know about. The first is by Angela Duckworth, a psychologist from the University of Philadelphia. She studied people who are successful in a variety of fields, and she found that the common denominator among these people is not IQ, or ACT, or high school grades. The common denominator is something she calls "grit," which she defines as a "passionate persistence to achieve long-term goals." In other words, when people want to badly enough, they find a way to do it. I want you to be one of those people with grit.

The second study is by Carol Dweck, a researcher at Stanford University. She says that there are two basic types of mindsets about learning and succeeding. One is a fixed mindset. People with a fixed mindset think that they only have so much talent and so much intelligence and a limited potential. The other mindset is a growth mindset that sees learning and succeeding as something that grows and changes. With effort, these people believe, you can get smarter, and more talented, and more successful. So if you think, "I'm not good at math, and I never will be," then you have a fixed mindset. But if you think, "Math isn't my strong suit, but I think I can learn to do it if I put time and effort into it." I want you to have a growth mindset because that is the mindset almost all successful people have.

So that's the basic philosophical foundation for success. Now I want to talk about some specific things you can do that will help you get to where you're going:

1. Guess what the number one thing is: Go to class! I know that in high school you might have heard that going to class was "optional" in college. That wasn't the truth. The truth is that you don't have to go to class, unless you want to pass. If you want to pass, you've got to be there. When I look over past gradebooks from my courses, and I see students who did not pass, almost invariably they are people who I probably wouldn't have recognized if they had walked in the door. While going to class does not necessarily guarantee that you will pass, not going to class almost certainly guarantees that you will fail. So make sure you register for classes that you can attend. In other words, don't sign up for a class that overlaps the time you have to be at work.

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New Student Orientation

How to Succeed

2. And while being in class is the most basic thing, being prepared for class is equally crucial. So you need to keep up with the assignments. I really don't think college is a lot more difficult than high school, but I do think it moves more quickly, so you have to keep up with the work. How do you do this? The first thing is that you need to follow the course schedule and your syllabus. Your instructor will probably point this out when you start class, but you should look over the syllabus carefully when you get it. In addition to important information like your instructor's name and contact information, the syllabus or course schedule usually tells you what to read when, when assignments are due, and other expectations for the course. Make sure you know that and prepare yourself for class. It's a bad feeling if you walk into class and discover that there is a test that you didn't know about, because you hadn't looked at the syllabus or course schedule.

3. You also need to know where to go for help. In the general part of this orientation, they talked to you about our Success Center, and I really want to encourage you to go there any time you need help. There are full-time English and math faculty there who can help you. In all honesty, if I were going back to college right now, I would be waiting for the doors to open, if I were taking a Math class. But you can also go to your instructors. Honestly, we love it when students come in and want to ask us questions about our subjects. We're just kind of nerdy like that.

4. Another thing you need to do is make school a priority. Okay, go back to the question I asked you a little bit ago: how badly do you want to do this? If you want to do it, you will have to make it a priority, which means you will have to make some sacrifices. I'm not going to sugar coat things and tell you that college is a piece of cake. It isn't, it's hard. But most things in life that are worthwhile are difficult at times, and you just have to make them a priority. So reading, studying, writing, and working are going to be a major part of your life. But I want you to think about this: what you do now will make a difference for the rest of your life. So put this at the top of your priority list.

5. But I know that if you are like many students, you have other important things in your life, too. Many of you have families and jobs. I understand how difficult it can be to fit everything in. That's why time management is one of the most important skills you can learn. I just want to say one thing about time management, right now: Know what your "time suckers" are. All of us have time suckers: those things we do that just make us lose track of time and space and consciousness. For some of you, it might be Pinterest. Or others of you might be into Call of Duty. But whatever it is, remember that you need to control it; don't let it control you. I'm not saying you can never go on Pinterest for the next few years. I'm just saying that Pinterest comes after the studies. So know what those time suckers are, and don't let them derail your progress.

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New Student Orientation

How to Succeed

6. You also need to know policies. All organizations have policies, and college is no different. One of the most important policies you can know is your instructor's policies about late work or make up work. We do not have a college-wide policy on these things. Each instructor sets his or her own policy, and you need to know it. And you will find this on your syllabus, which is another major reason you need to read that thing.

7. I'm sure that most of you have heard that communication is vital to maintaining any kind of relationship. The same is true of college classes. You need to communicate with your instructor. On the syllabus, you will find contact information: phone number, email, office number. That means that you need to use those to communicate with your instructor. If you have an issue, or a question, or a problem, communicate. Your instructor will get back to you. (Maybe not immediately, but he or she will get back to you). Another thing I want to say about communication is this: all people deserve to be treated with respect, simply because they are human beings. Your instructor and your fellow students are human beings who deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. So, if you are writing an email to your professor, for instance, you need to make sure that it is respectful. Avoid any kind of snarky tone. Think of it this way: would you write a snarky email to your boss? Well, you shouldn't write one to your professor either. Be kind. Be respectful. That's just basic human relations.

Okay, those are some of the most important things you can do to get you to where you want to go.

? Indian Hills Community College

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