Welcome to College: making the grade your way!

You've recently finished High School, been admitted to your favorite college and now college is about to begin.

What should you expect as you begin your journey through college?

The major differences between High School and College are mostly cultural.  By cultural I am referring to the social structure and expectations that define the 2 environments:

• In High School, teachers, administrators and parents guide the student through the experience and in college the student is the leader.
• In High School your week is divided into 5 sessions of approximately 6 hours per day and in college classes are typically 1 hour sessions that meet twice or 3 rimes per week.
• In High School your teachers studied how children learn and in college your instructors are experts in their individual fields and seldom have studied how adults learn.
• In High School most of your planning for your learning experiences is accomplished by teachers and administrators and in college you follow a model and make your own decisions about working with that model.
• In High School you are treated like a child; in college you are expected to act like an adult. Unfortunately, this comes at a time in your life when you have limited experience with self-direction.
• In High School your social relationships are filtered by parental controls. In college you will have freedom for the choices you make and yet the college will provide you with something called A Student code of conduct.  This book is written by lawyers and it's language is often quite dense. Yet, you are expected to read the entire book and limit your actions to conform to this conduct code. without even cliff notes.
•  In High School if you require any learning accommodations staff persons coordinated these and you are just directed when to go to receive them.  In college you have an active role in determining these supports and also having a greater awareness and involvement  in the implementation aspects.

Wait, I hear you screaming, isn't college supposed to be fun?

When do we get to the discussion about the fun stuff? (you may be thinking)

There are many sites devoted to talking about the 'fun stuff'; this one is focused about helping you develop effective strategies for college success and happiness so that you are enabled to enjoy the fun stuff without worry about potential penalties associated with The Code. Once you discover and use effective academic and organizational strategies you will discover how much additional time you are able to craft out to engage with the fun stuff!

Here is a gift for you:

Here is a brief video by Dr.Rob Gilbert of Success University.  Dr. Gilbert is a college professor college success coach; I hope you benefit from Dr. Gilbert has to say in this brief video, 

Dr. Rob Gilbert's Secret of How You Can Graduate with Honors

I hope you enjoyed viewing Dr. Gilbert's video and that the powerful point he made was one you took to your heart.

My next post will continue with my thoughts on making the transition between High School and College; with the topic 

Making Relationships work for You! 

Until then,