Category — Student Success Tips

Perhaps your student has received his midterm grades and is worried.  Or perhaps your student has talked with his professors and has been warned that things aren’t going well.  Or perhaps your student simply knows that he hasn’t done what he needed to do so far this semester and things look bleak.

However your student determines that the first half of the semester has gone poorly, he may be wondering whether it is too late to turn things around.  Your student may share his situation with you or he may worry about how you will react.  Encourage your student to share his situation honestly with you.  Help him understand that you want to do whatever you can to help him have a successful experience.

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One piece of advice that is given to students over and over again is “Get to know your professors” or “Talk to your professors.”  It is wonderful and important advice.  College provides a wonderful opportunity for students to get to know and work with experts and leaders in their chosen field.  Some students develop lifelong mentoring relationships and friendships with their faculty members.

However, for many students, making that first move to get to know a professor can be intimidating.  If the student needs to talk to the professor because he is having difficulty in a class, has missed a class (or several classes), or needs to discuss a grade, that initial meeting may be downright terrifying.  Because today’s students are part of the “electronic generation,” meeting face-to-face with a professor may also be an unfamiliar situation.  Your student might prefer to have a discussion via Facebook, e-mail, text, or Twitter.  Help your student understand that there are some circumstances in which a face-to-face conversation may be preferable. [Read more →]

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This is the third of three posts about college students asking for help.  In our first post we considered why students sometimes have difficulty asking for help. Our second post looked at who students might turn to for help. In this post we’ll consider how students can most effectively seek the help they need.

Many high school students planning to go to college spend a lot of their time reviewing vocabulary words for their SAT College Board exam.  They learn big words, important words, roots of words, and definitions.  But if your college student is going to succeed in college, there may be one important word that he needs that never shows up on his entrance exam.  It may be the most important word that he can use in college.  What is that word?  “Help.”

Your student is very likely to need help at some point in his college career.  Hopefully, you’ve helped him understand that it is important to seek the help that he needs and encouraged him get past possible barriers to seeking that help.  Your student has worked to learn what is available to him on campus and thought about the most appropriate source of help for his problem.  Now your student needs to think about how to most effectively ask for that help.

Asking for help is often very difficult for students.  For many of the reasons that we discussed in our first post, students are reluctant to seek help.  However, even if your student understands that he needs to ask, actually approaching professors or college staff members may be intimidating.  This can be especially true if your student has missed some classes, or has any other reason to be concerned about what the professor or staff member may think of him.  Having a plan for the appointment may help your student to anticipate what might happen and to feel he has more control over the encounter.

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This is the second of three posts about college students asking for help.  In our first post we considered why students sometimes have difficulty asking for help. In this post we’ll look at who students might turn to for help and in Part 3 we’ll consider how students can most effectively seek the help they need.

Many high school students planning to go to college spend a lot of their time reviewing vocabulary words for their SAT College Board exam.  They learn big words, important words, roots of words, and definitions.  But if your college student is going to succeed in college, there may be one important word that he needs that never shows up on his entrance exam.  It may be the most important word that he can use in college.  What is that word?  “Help.”

One of the first steps in encouraging your college student to ask for help when he needs it is helping him understand some of the factors that may be holding him back from seeking what he needs.  Once he works his way past those barriers, however, it is important that he know what help is available to him.  We’ve written earlier posts about helping your student find support on campus.  It is important that your student know when he needs to ask for help and know where to find that help on campus.

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This is the first of three posts about college students asking for help.  In this post we’ll consider why students sometimes have difficulty asking for help, in Part 2 we’ll look at who students might turn to for help and in Part 3 we’ll consider how students can most effectively seek help.

Many high school students planning to go to college spend a lot of their time reviewing vocabulary words for their SAT College Board exam.  They learn big words, important words, roots of words, and definitions.  But if your college student is going to succeed in college, there may be one important word that he needs that never shows up on his entrance exam.  It may be the most important word that he can use in college.  What is that word?  “Help.”

As a parent, helping your child understand early in her educational career that asking for help is important may be one of the best lessons that you can teach. This lesson might start in elementary school – or even at home earlier than that.  As a college parent, it is important that you reinforce that message.  As one college professor has stated, “Asking for help is the new smart!” Help your college student understand the importance and necessity of asking for help and advocating for herself.

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Winter break is an important time for college students to recharge their batteries, earn some extra cash, take an extra course, catch up with friends and family, and perhaps just enjoy some down-time.  Your college student will probably be glad, at least for a while, to have a break from college and from thinking about classes and responsibilities.

However, while most students are on break during at least part of the month of January, most college offices are open and working.  January might be an ideal time for your student to take care of any items that need to be addressed with college offices before other students are back on campus.  For some departments, the time while students are off campus is quieter.  Your student can avoid the beginning-of-semester rush and perhaps get more attention than he will once all of the students have returned. [Read more →]

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Your college student has completed his first semester of college.  Congratulations!  Hopefully, it was a good semester, but there’s a chance it might not have been.  A rocky first semester is not unusual for many first year students.  But whether or not the semester was as successful as you and your student had hoped, having the first semester under your belt is a milestone on the college path.

As your student prepares for his second semester of college, this is a good time for you both to take stock, think about the past semester, and to create a plan for the fresh start that a new semester brings.

Returning to college for the second semester may loom large for some students.  Beginning college for the first semester is stressful, but exciting.  Everything is new, students look forward to their independence, opportunities to make new friends, and the new experiences that a new environment will bring.  Returning for the second semester may mean that your student needs to make some changes, break some habits, sharpen some skills, or get out of a possible rut.  This time, your student knows what’s ahead and knows some of the challenges he may face.

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In our next two posts, we have some thoughts about New Year’s Resolutions for college parents and for college students.  This post offers something for college parents to share with their college students.  Our next post offers some resolution thinking for college parents.

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You assume that by the time that your student graduates from high school he is ready to head to college and succeed.  For both students and their parents, a great deal of time, energy, anxiety, and often money is spent on the admissions process and getting in to just the right college. Less focus has been given to whether students are ready to succeed in college once they get there.

According to David Conley, founder and CEO of the Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC) “High schools are designed to get students to graduate . . . They are not necessarily designed to enable students to succeed in college . . . The time has come to think past admission to academic success.” Certainly, high schools need to do their part, but can parents help?  What can parents do to help their students be ready for college?  How do parents know whether their student is ready for college?

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Your high school student has his sights set on college. You and your student are focused on finding just the right school, getting accepted, and figuring out how to make it all financially possible.  But are you assuming that your student is prepared to succeed in college once he gets there?  Getting into college only opens the door.  How will your student do once he gets to college?

College readiness is a complex characteristic and is not easily defined.  Simplistically, it refers to being prepared to succeed in college.  More intricately, however, readiness includes not only academic mastery of key content and academic behaviors, but also key cognitive strategies and skills.  In this post, we’ll look at some important things that you and your student can do to increase his academic readiness for college level work.  In our next post, we’ll look at some of the “softer” skills that will help your student be prepared.

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