Advice for First-Year College Students from an Academic Travel Agent Dr. Drew C. Appleby Professor Emeritus of Psychology Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

More than one third of all freshmen enrolled in American colleges and universities drop out before their sophomore year, and this figure accounts for one half of all student attrition in American higher education.

The causes for this appallingly high rate of academic casualties have been research extensively and appear to fall into basic categories such as: Poor academic preparation and/or performance Inadequate financial support Lack of campus engagement Low level educational motivation

While these reasons certainly account for a substantial percentage of the high drop-out rate, I have observed many academically prepared, financially supported, actively engaged, and highly motivated freshmen who failed to return for their sophomore year because of either one or both of the two reasons on the next slide.

They were unaware of the very real and very important differences that exist between secondary and higher education. And, as a result of this unawareness, they failed to adapt successfully to their new academic environment because they were unable or unwilling to change the behaviors, attitudes, thought processes, and strategies they used to succeed in high school.

When you travel to another country for the first time, it is wise to consult with an experienced travel agent who can make your trip safe, successful, and satisfying by helping you understand, prepare for, and adapt to the new culture, climate, and living conditions you will encounter when you arrive at your new destination.

By enrolling in college, you will be taking a trip to a very different educational destination. You adapted successfully to elementary education and then to secondary education, but you are now embarking on a journey to a type of education, whose very name—higher education—clearly indicates that it will place new and higher expectations on the ways you think, learn, and behave.

Forty-one years of college teaching provided me with an exposure to thousands of both successful and unsuccessful college freshmen. Please allow me to be your academic travel agent by sharing this knowledge with you and providing you with information about your new educational destination that can help you experience a safe, successful, and satisfying first year in college.

your freshman year in college will NOT be 13th grade. A very important fact that you should become aware of as early as possible during your high school career is that your freshman year in college will NOT be 13th grade.

I identified seven crucial differences between high school and college when I performed a content analysis on the answers my freshmen gave me to the questions on the following two slides.

Question #1 What are the most important differences you have experienced between your high school classes and your college classes?

Question #2 What are the most important differences you have experienced between your high school teachers and your college professors?

The Seven Crucial Differences Between High School and College I Discovered Were: Academic expectations are much higher. Student-teacher contact is less frequent and more formal. The syllabus replaces teachers’ daily reminders. Homework is done after, not during school. Students must be more independent and responsible. Students are treated more like adults than children. Students must learn to prioritize and manage their time.

The following slides summarize these seven crucial differences, and provide support for these differences in the form of direct quotations from my students.

Academic Expectations Difference #1 Academic Expectations

In High School . . . Academic expectations are not always high, and good grades can often be obtained with minimum effort. This is especially true for bright students who discover they don’t have to do much more than attend classes and remember what their teachers say to earn high grades. This situation is made even worse by the fact that being perceived as popular in high school sometimes requires the ability to project the appearance of not working hard. In College . . . Academic expectations are much higher, and minimum effort usually produces poor grades.

I had a paper assigned on the very first day of classes.” George Hill “It was a big adjustment. I had maybe one paper to write in my whole high school career. Here, I had a paper assigned on the very first day of classes.” George Hill George was a star basketball player at IUPUI and was the first round pick of the San Antonio Spurs in the 2008 NBA draft.

“In high school, I was one of the ‘smart’ people who never had to read the material before class, study for a final, or write a paper well in advance. Here, I have to spend every free minute preparing the homework assigned for that day. If I don’t, I will fall behind, and if I fall behind now, there is no catching up.”

“Homework was a big thing in high school and counted for a lot of points. In college your grades are based on tests, not homework.”

“Even if I didn’t pass the tests in high school, I could still pass the class as long as I did my homework.”

“In high school, you were a dork if you got good grades and cared about what was going on in your classes. In college, you’re a dork if you don’t.”

Student-Teacher Contact Difference #2 Student-Teacher Contact

In High School . . . Teacher-student contact is close and frequent in classes that usually meet five days a week. Teachers are very accessible. In College . . . Classes meet less often—sometimes only once a week and sometimes never if they are online—and faculty are usually available only during their office hours or by appointment.

“College professors aren’t as personable as high school teachers “College professors aren’t as personable as high school teachers. I could stop into my high school teachers’ offices and sit there for 30 minutes to just hang out.”

“In high school, teachers were supposed to learn our names and to get to know us. In college, I have learned that it is my responsibility to help my teachers to get to know me.”

Difference #3 The Syllabus

In High School . . . The teacher prepares a lesson plan and uses it to tell students how to prepare for the next class period (e.g., “Be sure to read Chapter 3 in your textbook.” or “Don’t forget to study for tomorrow’s test.”) In College . . . The instructor distributes and discusses the syllabus on the first day of the class and expects students to read and follow the syllabus without having to be reminded about what will be done or what assignment is due during the next class period.

“High school teachers told us our assignments; college professors tell us to read the syllabus.”

“College teachers don’t tell you what you’re supposed to do “College teachers don’t tell you what you’re supposed to do. They just expect you to do it. High school teachers tell you about five times what you’re supposed to do.”

“College teachers expect their students to read the syllabus and the classroom is set up to where it is sink or swim. Do the work or fail. High school teachers reminded us about the deadlines for our projects everyday and tried to help us if we were struggling.”

Difference #4 Homework

In High School . . . Students are assigned daily homework, which teachers collect and check to insure that assigned work is being done. For example, a term paper can require many intermediate steps before the final paper is submitted. In College . . . Instructors assume students have learned how to “keep up” with their assignments in high school and can be trusted to do course work without being constantly reminded or assigned “busy work” homework.

“The biggest difference between high school teachers and college professors is that you have to learn by yourself in college.”

“High school teachers go over all the material “High school teachers go over all the material. College teachers expect you to learn it on your own.”

Independence and Responsibility Difference #5 Independence and Responsibility

In High School . . . Parents, teachers, and counselors support, give advice to, and often make decisions for students. Students rely on their parents to meet their basic needs and must abide by their parents’ boundaries and restrictions. In College . . . Students must learn to rely on themselves and begin to experience the results of their own good and bad decisions. It is their responsibility to seek advice when they need it and to set their own restrictions.

“You didn’t have to do reading assignments in high school because your teachers taught you everything you had to know for tests. In college, if you don’t do your homework, you have no crutch to lean on. You are on your own in college classes.”

“College is learning to do it yourself.”

The Transition from Childhood to Adulthood Difference #6 The Transition from Childhood to Adulthood

In High School. Teachers often contact parents if problems occur In High School . . . Teachers often contact parents if problems occur. Parents are expected to help students in times of crisis. In College . . . Students have much more freedom, and must take responsibility for their own actions. Parents may not be aware that a crisis has occurred because the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) protects their sons’ and daughters’ privacy.

“High school teachers assist you more “High school teachers assist you more. They kind of hold your hand and make sure you get everything done.”

“The most important thing I’ve learned since I have been in college is that it’s time for me to step out of the purgatory between my teenage years and adulthood and to take some responsibility for my life.”

Prioritizing and Time Management Difference #7 Prioritizing and Time Management

In High School . . . There are distractions from school work, but these are at least partially controlled by rules at school and home (e.g., curfews, dress codes, and enforced study hours). In College . . . Many distractions exist. Time management and the ability to prioritize become absolutely essential survival skills for college students.

“We just don’t have as much time to do assignments as we did in high school because a lot more material is covered in a much shorter amount of time.”

“Even though you may not be in class as long as in high school, the amount of time you have to put in to complete the assigned work is doubled, even tripled.”

“In high school, things were over at 4:00 p. m “In high school, things were over at 4:00 p.m. At IUPUI, things like studying are just starting by that time.” George Hill

A Heads-Up for Bright Students Some bright students get though high school successfully by simply showing up. However, they often reach a point where just showing up stops working, and they actually have to put forth serious effort to perform well. If you have never had to study before, you may not know how to study. If you suspect this might be true for you, then I urge you to become familiar with your school’s support services and to use these services if and when you need them.

At the end of the semester, I asked my students to create suggestions they could have given their high school teachers that would have helped them to prepare more successfully for their transition from high school to college. The following six slides contain my summaries of their suggestions.

Suggestion #1 Give us a syllabus on the first day of class that has the schedule for the class planned out for the whole semester (e.g., tests dates, deadlines for papers, grading scales, etc.), and then stick to that syllabus the way college professors do.

Suggestion #2 Don’t tell us at the end of each class what we will be doing during the next class period. That allows us to be irresponsible because we don’t have to read the syllabus to know what we are expected to do. Please help us to become as responsible as possible when we leave high school and go to college.

Suggestion #3 Don’t accept lame or undocumented excuses about why we don’t have assignments done, and don’t allow us to sweet talk you into letting us make up tests that we are unprepared to take. College professors seldom accept these types of excuses because they try to be fair to their students by making sure that all their students have the same amount of time to study for tests.

Suggestion #4 Be sure to teach us how to be academically honest by requiring that we cite all the sources we use to support what we write in our papers. Most importantly, don’t ignore situations in which you suspect we may be plagiarizing. We need to know exactly what plagiarism is so we can avoid it when we get to college. College students who are caught plagiarizing flunk classes and are sometimes kicked out of school or are not allowed to graduate.

Suggestion #5 Don’t let us pass classes just because we earned a lot of homework or extra credit points. In college, we will be graded on our ability to demonstrate that we have actually learned the material we have been taught by passing tests. In college we will be graded on our performance, not our effort.

Suggestion #6 Don’t teach us the answers to all the questions on your tests. Be sure to ask us some questions that come from the reading assignments you haven’t covered in class. In college, we must learn to be independent learners by reading and comprehending the information in our textbooks without having to rely on our professors to explain everything to us. Our professors are more than willing to help us with difficult-to-understand information in our textbooks when we ask them questions in class, but they are unwilling to “spoon-feed” us all the information we are supposed to learn from our reading assignments.

Now that you are aware of the basic differences between high school and college, please allow me—in my role as your academic travel agent—to share the same three pieces of simple, yet very powerful advice that I share with my freshmen to help them adjust successfully to their new academic destination.

Over 2000 years ago, the Oracle at Delphi, speaking through the Greek philosopher Socrates, said . . . “Know thyself.”

“To thine own self be true.” Centuries later, Shakespeare wrote Hamlet in which Polonius provided Laertes with the following piece of valuable advice . . . “To thine own self be true.”

Many years later, Nike (the Greek goddess of victory), speaking through her 21st century commercial namesake, says . . . “Just do it.”

Savvy college students know themselves when they can accurately and honestly identify their strengths, weaknesses, values, and goals.

Savvy college students are true to themselves when they use their self-knowledge to identify potential careers in which they can perform well and enjoy the work that they do and create realistic plans to use both the curricular and extracurricular aspects of their undergraduate educations to prepare for, enter, and succeed in these careers.

Savvy college students just do it when they put their realistic plans into action by actually engaging in the behaviors that will enable them to successfully carry out their career plans.

If you would like a copy of this PowerPoint presentation for yourself or to share with others who may benefit from its message, please email me at the following address. dappleby@iupui.edu