Friday’s Fact

Check in each Friday for your weekly Get College Smart fact.

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For this week’s fact, Get College Smart brings you another profile of one of our resource websites.  This week’s featured site is Zen College Life.

According to the website, “Zen College Life is the leading source for college and degree information online.”  In particular, this site seems geared to the associate’s degree seeker or the student wishing to earn a certification. 

The proof is in the career guides, which include careers like auto mechanic, cosmetologist, EMT, and paralegal (not the kind of careers you enter after earning a four year degree).  Students who are more interested in a technical track should find the information on this site quite useful for helping them to understand the ins and outs of the career they might want to enter.

Do you have any favorite college resource websites?  If so, share them with us.  Email us the links: askcollegesmart@gmail.com

Spring Semester Goals

Now that you have done some soul searching and reminded yourself (or possibly asked yourself for the first time) why you are in college, now is a good time to set some goals for the semester.

Is this your first time making goals for your academic career?  Let me assure you that this is a both a good and useful exercise.  Setting goals gives you something to work for and can outline a plan to help you improve the quality of work you produce, the grades you earn, and/or the knowledge you gain this spring.

What are some good goals to set?  Here are a few ideas:

• Improve grades
• Choose a major (have you figured out what you want to major in yet?)
• Manage my time better
• Don’t procrastinate!
• Save money
• Volunteer
• Take better care of my health
• Get to know my professors

I know, I know, these sound a lot like New Year’s resolutions, and like resolutions, they help you to focus on areas that you can improve.  But in order to stick to these goals, you have to do more than say that you want to raise your grades; you need to develop a plan of action for how to achieve this goal and stick to it.

Your action plan may include things like putting more time into studying, not going out on week nights, and starting projects as soon as they are assigned.  To put this plan into action, you will need to keep track of your assignments, turn down  week night invitations for drinks or dinner, etc.  And you need to continue to do these things all semester long!

So let me challenge you: set some goals for the semester, and take action!  Your GPA just might thank you.

Virtual Campus Tours

Have you ever wished you could visit your dream campus but not have to shell out the money to get there?  Now, you just might be able to thanks to Google’s Street View Program, which now has a number of university partners.  For more info, check out this Los Angeles Times article. 

Friday's Fact

Check in each Friday for your weekly Get College Smart fact.


Fact: this website has undergone a few changes over the holidays.

You may have noticed the new page tabs just under the website title.  One of these tabs, "Resources," is a work in progress.  Currently, it has a list of several links to websites that are designed especially for undergrads, grad students and job searches.  Have any good "go-to" sites?  Let us know, and we'll add them to the list.

Today, I'd like to highlight a new favorite: Dr. Mom's Guide to College.  I was told about this site just this week in my department's start of term meetings.

I like Dr. Mom because she gives practical, no-nonsense advice that is good for all college students.  Also, I identify with her desire to help students be smarter about how they approach their education, especially when they are just starting out.

Take a few minutes to read Dr. Mom's Guide - you just might learn something!

Self-Examination for the Start of a New Semester

Welcome back – to Get College Smart and to your college campus!  I hope that your vacation was both relaxing and invigorating, giving you the energy and motivation you need to hit the ground running this spring. 

But before you take off, let me recommend that you take a few moments to reflect on why you are in college.  Are you seeking a certain career or income level?  Are you hoping to broaden your horizons?  Maybe you want to become a more well-rounded person.  Or maybe you still buy into the older notion that education develops virtue and want to use your education to be the best “you” you can be.

Reminding yourself of the reasons you are in college can help give you direction and purpose.  And direction and purpose comes in really handy when times get tough – think about those all-nighters you pulled last semester or those tough exams you struggled with, and you’ll know what I mean.

Keep in mind: purpose comes from within.  In other words, “My parents want me to attend college” is not a viable purpose.  You need to determine, for yourself, what you want from your college education.  And if your purpose happens to be material, that’s fine and entirely legitimate, particularly in today’s economy.  That said, I would encourage you to consider if any other purposes – greater than a title, paycheck, or even yourself – go hand-in-hand with your immediate purpose of position and/or compensation.  The greater the purpose, the greater the motivation, and the greater the desire for success.

Once you’ve determined why exactly you are in college, try writing a purpose statement: “I am in college to . . .”  Write this purpose statement in a safe place where you can refer to it when you need some extra motivation.  Keeping in mind the end goal can make all the difference when it comes to college success.

On Hiatus

Get College Smart is taking its own advice and will be on hiatus for the holidays.  We will be back in 2012 with new features and more advice to help you succeed in college.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

-Get College Smart

This Holiday . . . Take a Break! Part II

For many of you, the semester has come to a close, and you are happily situated at home (wherever that happens to be), enjoying holiday activities, friends, family, and down time. 

The rest of you may be more like me.  I am up to my elbows in a minimester course, helping 10 brave souls to develop and improve their writing skills.  Others of you may have full-time jobs and/or families to care for and no time to slow down. 

If you fall into this second category, let me encourage you to find some down time in the midst of your busy daily lives to rest and enjoy the holiday season and all it has to offer. 

This may seem like an impossible goal, but if you are planning on diving into another semester this coming spring, you need that down time to refresh, revive, and give yourself the strength to face 15 weeks of academic challenges. 

Even one day of doing nothing, lounging around in your pjs, or having a family night of fun can help.  So embrace your inner couch potato and allow yourself to take a break this holiday!

Friday’s Fact

Check in each Friday for your weekly Get College Smart fact.

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Let’s go bowling!  This week’s fact (which just so happens to be a Saturday fact) pays tribute to the College Bowl season and the granddaddy of them all, the Rose Bowl. 

As many of you know, the very first bowl game was the Rose Bowl game of 1902, where Michigan routed Stanford in a 49-0 victory.

This year’s bowl season offers a lot of exciting matchups.  Is your team playing in a bowl game?  Who do you want to see come out victorious?

Wrapping Things Up

Did you think that your final exams and final projects were the only things you needed to worry about at the end of the semester?  Not so, my friends.  There are a few things that you should take care of before you head back home.

• Check your final grades (if they’ve been posted).  Even though you may not want to know the outcome of your semester, you should check your grades before leave campus so you can address any issues or inconsistencies before your campus shuts down for the holiday.
• Address any issues you discover.  Before you leave (not after) is probably the best time to address any issues you have or questions that come up about your grades.  So email your professors – or, better yet, locate them in their offices (if you can) – and discuss these issues and questions.  Be respectful (no professor likes to deal with an emotional or cranky student), ask specific questions, and make sure your concerns are logical and real.  If you handle the situation like an adult, your professors will be responsive – and even helpful!
• If you can’t find resolution, try speaking to the department chair.  This piece of advice is only for those of you who have spoken to your professors and still have real concerns.  If you have clear evidence that indicates the need for a possible grade change, and your professor is unwilling to hear you out, then you need to take your case to his/her supervisor, the department chair.  That said, you should NEVER talk to a department chair before speaking to your professor.  A chain of command exists for a reason, and in all cases, the chair will refer you to your professor if you have not yet spoken to him/her.  So don’t waste your time (or theirs) by trying to jump to the top of the chain.

Addressing any grade concerns you have immediately at the end of the semester, rather than waiting, will make life easier for you and will ensure that you a) follow up on the issue and b) have your case heard while the semester’s coursework is still fresh in your mind.

Also, don’t be shy about talking to professors about your grades.  If you don’t understand why you earned a grade or how your final grade is calculated, you should ask.  I always prefer that students leave my classroom understanding why they have the grade they see on their transcripts, and so do your profs. 

Friday’s Fact

Check in each Friday for your weekly Get College Smart fact.

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Spending a lot of time in the library lately?  If so, you should try out one of these libraries on CampusGrotto’s Most Beautiful Libraries list. 

The library above can be found on the campus of the University of Texas.  Pretty impressive, right?  Take a look at the list to see if your campus library is mentioned.  If it is, pay it a visit.  Studying is always more enjoyable when you can do it in a beautiful place (relatively speaking).

Last Minute Final Exam Advice

If you’re a regular reader, you’ve seen lots of advice on how to study for college here.  If you’re new, take a look at the archives to see what you missed.  And read on for a few last minute pointers.

1. Take care of yourself.  Eat regularly, exercise, and try to get plenty of sleep.
2. Moderation in all things . . .  Avoid binging on sugar, caffeine, and alcohol.  Binges will only serve as a roadblock to your goal of doing well on your exams.
3. . . . this includes studying.  Try to avoid the all night cram session – you will find that you have a hard time remembering everything you have studied.  Study in shorter blocks (2 hours or so) and then take a break (30 minutes to two hours) to refresh and re-energize yourself.
4. While you should focus on studying, you shouldn’t crawl into a hole to do so.  Make sure you spend time around your friends and/or family (if you leave near them).  It will help to keep you grounded and sane during this stressful time.
5. The day of the final exam, get plenty of sleep the night before, make sure you eat that day, arrive to your exam early, and wear layers to ensure your comfort during the exam.

Hang in there – it will be over before you know it.  Good luck!

Friday’s Fact

Check in each Friday for your weekly Get College Smart fact.

Click to view the enlarged graphic.

This graphic seems fitting for this time of year, when exams loom around the corner and stress levels are high.
 
Don’t let stress get the best of you.  Instead, take care of yourself, get organized, study as best as you can, and get help when you need it.  If you do these things, you will give yourself the best opportunity to earn the grades you want and survive the end of the semester.

Fall Semester Rewind

The Thanksgiving holiday has ended, Black Friday sales are over, and the “Cyber Weekend” is coming to a close.  You’re back on campus, and you have to hit the ground running to make it through the end of the semester unscathed.

In the midst of this end of the semester rush, I recommend that you take some time to look back on this past fall term.  If I had to guess, I would say that most of you experienced a lot of changes over the last fifteen weeks.  Whether it was adjusting to college life as a first semester freshman, earning a failing grade for the first time, or learning how to live on a shoestring budget, every semester is eventful for college students.

Reflecting on what you have learned and experienced this past semester can help you take stock of where you have come from, and determine where you are going.  Hopefully you are a better student, roommate, friend, child, sibling and/or significant other than you were when the semester began.  If there’s room for improvement in any one of these areas, you can start to consider how to make changes so that next semester goes better.  You can also start looking ahead and strategizing how to achieve your goals for your future.  And if you don’t have any specific goals, now’s the time to make them!

Don’t float through the end of your semester.  Instead, be introspective.  College is short, so you need to make the most of your time here.

Friday’s Fact

Check in each Friday for your weekly Get College Smart fact.

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If you’ve spent any amount of time reviewing your class notes lately, you can see how much time you spend doodling on the edges of the page.  Turns out, that seemingly mindless activity can actually be good for you.

The September 2011 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine references a study by the University of Plymouth, which found that doodling during a lecture or meeting can boost your memory by approximately 30%!  Why?  Researchers aren’t exactly sure, but they believe that drawing while listening to someone speak engages a part of the brain that would zone out or otherwise distract you with daydreams.  So the next time you’re trying to focus during a long classroom lecture, pull out your pen or pencil and start sketching.

This Holiday . . . Take a Break!

The Thanksgiving holidays can be a rough time for college students.  While it's generally a happy time where you can enjoy the company of family and friends, you may also find that school responsibilities prevent you from fully relaxing

That's why I encourage to take a break.  In fact, take the whole holiday off if you can.  Try to put school out of your mind and focus on the people who are near and dear to you.

For some of you, this may not be an option because of the mountain of work you will have waiting for you after the holiday.  In that case, be sure to take at least one day off to rest.  Rest is essential to keep you happy and healthy.  Also, well rested students tend to be better students overall.  So enjoy your break as much as you can, travel safely, and have a happy Thanksgiving.

Friday’s Fact

Check in each Friday for your weekly Get College Smart fact.

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Have you ever taken an English course?  Then you should be familiar with the Modern Language Association.  It’s the group that determines the format for English papers that your composition and literature professors love so much.

You may not know that MLA does a whole lot more than simply make life in your English courses difficult.  The organization also tracks and keeps up to date on issues that affect college students.  The latest issue this group is interested in: student debt.  Here’s a statement that MLA recently issued on the subject:

“Public attention has been directed recently to the educational debt students accumulate in the course of undergraduate, as well as graduate, study. A major contributing factor has been the increasing portion of educational costs students must bear in the form of loans. To reduce debt burdens in the future, we call on Congress, state legislatures, and institutions of higher education to calibrate educational costs and student aid in ways that will keep student debt within strict limits. We also call on them to hold in check tuition increases, which often far outpace inflation, and to ensure that degree programs allow for timely completion.”

One thing I like about this statement - it proves that major organizations made up of faculty are concerned about the students that they teach.  And this particular concern is one that extends far beyond the classroom, for college debt has a nasty way of following you around for years after college. 

That said, it will take a long time for the government and institutions of higher education to act on these issues.  That means that the burden of responsibility for controlling college debt rests firmly on your shoulders. 

How can you control school expenses and get a quality education?  Here’s a few tips:

• Choose a college that excels in your area of study and is affordable
• Consider attending a community college to complete your general education requirements
• Complete your degree in the shortest time frame possible
• Try to limit the amount of money you take out in student loans, and never take out more than you need to pay for your schooling.
• Apply for all the scholarships and grants you qualify for
• Take advantage of work-study programs, or use part-time work to help finance your education while you’re in school

In other words, start being financially responsible now.  It can save you a lot of heartache and stress later.

The Home Stretch

I don’t know about you, but  I’m really starting to feel the pressure of the end of the semester.  I’m juggling multiple projects, I’ve got a stack of papers that I still need to grade, and I feel like I am barely able to keep up with the day-to-day activities that need to be done.

But I find that with some careful planning, I am still able to keep my head above water.  Here’s what works for me:

At the beginning of the week, I write out my schedule.  Just last night, before I went to bed, I spent about 15 minutes plotting out all the activities I need to complete before the weekend.  The first half of my week is packed, and I know it will be exhausting.  But I’m not intimidated . . .

. . . because I prioritized my week.  I know what absolutely must get done – paper grading – and when my deadline is – Wednesday morning.  So, I plan on spending the bulk of today and tomorrow tackling that project. 

Sure, there’s lots of other smaller tasks that I need to do over the next couple of days, too.  How do I manage those tasks?  I get the little, quick projects out of the way first.  That way, I’m not distracted from my main goal and can focus all my energy on my most important project. 

Let me add that this is not the time to slack off.  To get everything done, I find that I do have to get up early and work when I have the fewest distractions.  For me, that means trudging downstairs while my family is still sleeping, firing up the coffee pot, and getting to work.  You may work best at other times of the day.  Figure out when your optimum work time is, and minimize your distractions during that time.  That may mean heading to the library, or disconnecting your computer from the internet, or hiding your cell phone. 

Will I have to sacrifice some sleep during this week?  Probably – but I have planned my schedule well enough to know that this is a temporary situation, and I can squeeze in a nap or head to bed earlier towards the end of the week.  Why is that important to know?  Because getting adequate rest can affect the quality of my week – and my work.  So I make sure that I pay attention to my physical needs during this busy time, too, so that I can maintain a good quality of life and ensure that my family and students don’t have to deal with a grumpy professor.

What about you?  Are you ready for the home stretch?  If not, start planning now – the end of your semester will be here before you know it.

Friday’s Fact

Check in each Friday for your weekly Get College Smart fact.

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I was poking around on the American Association of Community Colleges website today, looking up facts for today’s feature, and came across some interesting numbers.

Not surprisingly, enrollment at community colleges is up 15% from the Fall of ‘08 to the Fall of ‘10.  I’m sure we can thank the financial collapse here in the U.S. for that increase, at least in part.  Also, community college students make up 44% of the undergraduates in the U.S., and they pay, on average, about $2700 annually for tuition.

Talk about a savings over the cost of your average 4 year college!  If you’re exploring your options for college, consider your local community college.  Attending one can really protect you from accumulating large amounts of school debt.  And if you’re just starting out at a 4 year college or university, check into what course you could take (on the cheap) during summer.  It’s an inexpensive way to free up time during your long semesters, and you might find that focusing on one course at a time improves your ability to concentrate on the course material.

November is the Cruelest Month

T. S. Eliot may have stated that April is the cruelest month in “The Wasteland,” but for college students (and professors), that month is November.

November is the time of year that most people start to get into the holiday spirit.  Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and many of you will be going home for the first time since the start of the semester.  It is a time for you to enjoy the company of family and friends, and when you return, you’ll be faced with tests, project deadlines, and final exams.  This, in my opinion, is cruelty in its rawest form.

What can you do to ensure that you don’t spend your holiday stressing over what is to come, and don’t come back to campus underprepared?  Repeat my mantra – plan ahead – and get yourself ready for the home stretch.

If you’ve taken my advice from earlier posts, you’ve already listed looming deadlines in your planner.  Take a look at what is due when, and create a study plan.  Your plan should identify all remaining major deadlines and include increments of time that allow you to meet those deadlines successfully.  Studying a little bit every day will prevent you from having to cram when you return from break and help you to avoid lugging all your books home over the holiday.  Preparing yourself now is the best remedy to the cruelty of November.

Friday's Fact

Check in each Friday for your weekly Get College Smart fact.

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Debt seems to be a theme for Friday's Fact, so forgive me if I go back to this topic.  A recent report found that two thirds of the graduating class of 2010 left school with an average of $25,250 in debt.  That puts quite a hole in the pocketbook, and if you plan on going to grad school, expect the hole to get bigger.  

How can you manage finances so that you don't return all your post-graduation income to the loan companies?  Here's a few pointers:

• Choose an affordable school that is academically strong in your areas of interest
• Consider completing your gen ed courses at a community college
• Look for scholarships, and apply for all the ones you qualify for
• Don't waste time "finding yourself" in college - it's a really expensive way to discover what you want to do
• Work hard to pass all your courses - having to repeat courses or extend the length of your edcuation only increases your debt.