College Freshman Year Survival Tips
How to Make Good ChoicesThat Lead to Top Talent Achievement
Freshman year in college may be the most crucial. It is during this first year that students develop the focus and discipline that not only enables them to survive freshman year, but successfully progress to senior year and graduation. Any student contemplating post-graduate programs must look at freshman year critically with the aim of making good choices.
Leaving the Nest Behind
Unlike the high school years which often features eager parents analyzing every score and involving themselves regularly in the educational process, college students are expected to embrace a high degree of independence in college. Students are expected to do their own laundry, organize their daily routines, and transition from teenager to young adult.
Leaving the nest behind does not mean failing to call parents or coming home over college breaks. Prolonged homesickness, however, is only worsened when students refuse to assimilate into their college communities.
Avoiding Distractions
In many cases, the newly independent status will offer tempting distractions that might never have been part of the high school routine. This includes:
- On and off campus parties that may feature alcohol
- Unnecessary “road trips” during the semester
- “Sleeping in” once too often for an 8:00 class
- Hanging out with “friends” that make academic studies their last priority
- Becoming a “regular” at local clubs or frat activities
- Adopting the bad habits of non-focused dorm-mates
Focusing on Goals
It really doesn’t matter whether students attend a top tier Ivy League school or the small independent or state university barely ranked by U.S. News and World Report. Successful students that are goal oriented can make the grades – and the GPA – that will enable admittance to Law School, Med School, an MBA program, or other post graduate tracks.
Freshman year grades set the tone in a highly competitive process and it is simply not enough to rationalize a low grade by saying, “take the hit and move on." Unlike high school, where steady rises in GPAs occur during sophomore and junior year, showing college admissions officers an impressive level of improvement coupled with more challenging courses, the college years are a totality. Every class counts. It goes without saying that in order to achieve the desired grades, goal-oriented students must make choices between excessive socialization and academic imperatives.
Embracing Diversity
Colleges and universities pride themselves on achieving levels of diversity that add a rich collective experience to the campus community. For some freshman, diversity may be an entirely new experience. These students may come from high schools that, for a variety of reasons, were not diverse.
Diversity speaks to tolerance and the broadening of world views. Beyond actual academics, diversity may be the greatest single contribution an institution of high learning can offer their students. Diversity breaks the ignorance of racism, anti-Semitism, and homophobia. To the extent that colleges prepare leaders, diversity is a powerful tool.
Rethinking the Freshman Year
Freshmen should not only plan a strategy of survival, but develop a blue print for maximum success based on long-term goals. If the college or university was not the student’s first choice, doing well during the freshman year may enable the student to transfer to the first-choice school. All of this can only be accomplished when reasonable choices are made that will, inevitably, impact post-graduate studies or the search for a job after graduation.
Salem College
|
What do you think about this article?
More in Education & Career
Latest Articles