1. Create a home screen icon for our course web site: freshman. msstate
Create a home screen icon for our course web site: freshman.msstate.edu

2. FYE 1101-F01 Freshman Success Strategies
Dr. Rodney Pearson
Tuesdays, 5:00-5:50pm
Old Main Academic Center
Auditorium
Be sure to scan.
Did you get your handout?

3. FYE 1101-F02 Freshman Success Strategies
Dr. Cade Smith
Mrs. Meggan Franks
Tuesdays, 5:00-5:50pm
Old Main Academic Center 1030/1050
(OMAC Auditorium)

4. Course Materials Course Information
Follow along in your syllabus and mark the key information we are discussing.
Your syllabus is your game plan for each class.
You should receive a syllabus/course information document in each of your classes. Make sure that you get a copy, and be sure to keep it. It describes the course, the course policies, how grades will be calculated, and what you will do during the semester. It lays out your schedule for the semester – when things are due, when your exams are. We will talk about using a Planner later on – when you get your syllabus in each class, go to your Planner and mark down every important date for every class. Being organized is an important part of success in college.
We’re going to talk about those exact items for our class tonight, so follow along in your syllabus as we move from slide to slide.

5. FYE 1101 Freshman Success Strategies
What is the purpose
of this class?
The purpose of FYE 1101 is to inform, motivate and guide MSU students onto a path toward
retention (staying in school),
graduation,
and success.
Talk about success in academic life - why it is essential!
Across the nation, 80% of freshmen students return for their sophomore year. Surely they went to college with the goal of graduating, but 20% did not make it to the sophomore year. What happened to derail their dreams?
Across the nation, 30% of students graduate in 4 years, and 60% in 6 years. What kept 40% of the students from graduating in 6 years?
Our goal this semester is to make sure that we all succeed this spring, that we continue that success next year, and that our success results in graduation.

6. Course Objectives
1. Fostering Your Success through Class Discussion and Exercises.
Goal Setting
Time Management
Listening and Taking Notes
Financial Management
Career Planning.
2. Fostering Your Success through active, engaged learning and developing connections among students, teachers, and Freshman Year Navigators.
3. Fostering Your Success by learning about campus resources.
1. We will have classes on a variety of topics that are keys to academic success. We will talk about the importance of setting a goal, and working toward that goal. We’ll talk about ways that you can organize your life and manage your daily activities to get greater productivity. We’ll talk about the importance of going to class, and then when you’re in class, paying attention and taking notes. We’ll talk about something that is a new and growing responsibility in your life, managing your finances. We will talk about preparing for your career after graduation. All in all, we will talk about the road to academic success.
2. Although this is a big classroom, we are going to try to do things to encourage your participation and engagement. We want our class to be a community, where we can count on each other. We want to be work together -- all of us, your fellow students, your teachers, and the Navigators – toward your success.
3. There are many academic, social, health and wellness resources available to you on campus. It’s not always obvious where you should turn when you need something, and the right resource may be hard to find. We will talk about many of those resources, and how to get them when you do need them.

7. Where do you want to go in life?
Are you heading in that direction?
What worked in high school may not work in college.

8. Ultimate Goal: Graduation
Today, you’re making a major investment in your child’s future. That investment will pay off, many times over. A college graduate is likely to make a million additional dollars over their work career than he or she would have without that college degree.
But the key to your investment is graduation. Graduate, and all sorts of doors are open. Don’t graduate, and your investment suffers. Tremendously. So that is what our office works toward, your son’s or daughter’s success in school, on the road to graduation and an enriched life.
Here’s some great news for you. In recent years, 94% of MSU’s graduates either have jobs or are in graduate school within 6 months of their graduation. 94%!
Before we continue, if you have any questions at any point during our session, please raise your hand. We have students in the room with microphones, and we will get a mic to you so you can ask your question while it’s still fresh on your mind and the slide is still on the screen. Please don’t hesitate to ask any question, at any time.

9. Freshman Year Navigators
As an example of one of our programs, Freshman Year Navigators are undergraduate students who work for our Center throughout the year, working every week to help their assigned freshmen succeed in school. Each Navigator will call his or her assigned freshmen, they will text them, they will them, they will meet with them one on one… they will work throughout the year to try to make sure your son or daughter has the information to be successful at Mississippi State.
Some of our new freshmen will get to know their Navigator. They’ll call on them when they have a question. Their relationship with their Navigator will work, and it will help the student. Other freshmen will probably never answer the Navigator’s phone calls, will never respond to text messages, will never read the . The relationship with the Navigator is really up to the freshman. Rest assured, we have a Navigator who will be trying to contact your son or daughter, and who will be there to help when needed.
We have other programs that we will talk about during this presentation, but we want to be sure you know about the Navigators. Every freshman student has a Navigator. We encourage you to ask your son or daughter “who’s your Navigator?” Make sure they know that person they can always turn to when they have a question.

10. Who’s my Navigator? freshman.msstate.edu
Your Freshman Year Navigator is an MSU student who works to help you with things. Your Navigator from the fall is still with you this semester (with one exception: Spencer Thompson got an internship with Dow Chemical this semester; Jermaine Thomas will take his place this spring).
Be sure that you know who your Navigator is. You can go to freshman.msstate.edu, on your phone or on a computer. Click on the “Who’s My Navigator?” button.
Expect , text message, and phone calls from your Navigator. Remember, your Navigator is a student, just like you. They’ve been down the same road that you are travelling, and have faced most of the same challenges. Turn to your Navigator when you need something.
As part of your class grade, you will have two face-to-face meetings with your Navigator. We’ll talk about that more later, but just remember, it’s part of your grade in the class, so be sure to have those face-to-face meetings.

11. Importance of a Start Strong
First
Semester
Grades
4-year
Graduation
6-year
Strong Start
A’s and B’s
47%
79%
MSU
average
30%
60%
Slow Start
C’s and D’s 5%
26%
Now let’s get down to some nuts and bolts.
We can not over-state the importance of the first semester of college. Looking at the top row here, students who earned a 3.00 or higher GPA their first semester, who made mostly A’s and B’s, their 4-year graduation rate is 47%. 6-year, 79%. Remember, the overall university graduation rates(the middle row in this table) are 30% and 60%, but we see here that they are much higher for students who did well in their first semester.
But look at the difference of starting slowly, with a 1 point something GPA the first semester – the bottom row in this table. Remember, this is just the first semester. Start slowly, with mostly C’s and D’s your first semester, and you are facing a real challenge in graduating in 4 years, and – in reality – a challenge to graduate in 6.
The great news is that, typically, over 50% of our freshmen will be on that top row at the end of their first semester. Mostly A’s and B’s their first semester, a 3.00 or higher GPA, well on the road to success. Unfortunately, 10% will usually be on the bottom row, dug into a hole, that hopefully we can help them get out of. Here’s a key point about that bottom row, and we hesitate to even show people these numbers because it’s so easy to misinterpret them. I could see a student who did finish their first semester with C’s and D’s looking at that 5% on the bottom row and saying “well there’s no way I can graduate in four years.” To which we would reply, “of course you can, 5% of the people in your position did graduate in four years. You can be part of the 5%, you don’t have to be part of the 95. But we have to make some changes, changes that will put us on a road to success.” And that is the key, if you’re going down the wrong road, don’t just continue down that road – that’s the easy thing to do, that’s a road that you already know how to travel – no, re-direct yourself, and get on a road to success.
When your son or daughter comes here in the fall, our request of you is to keep up with them at least during the first semester. Ask them how school is going. Use the Parent Portal to make sure they are going to class, and to see how their grades are going. You’ll hear about the Parent Portal today – your son or daughter makes the decision to give you access or not. If you get the access, you’ll have a convenient web-based window into their performance in class.

12. Step 1: Class Attendance
Step 1 to academic success is going to class.This is a graph of student performance at MSU from Fall 2007 to today. It shows the relationship between absences and class grade. It shows that every absence lowers a student’s grade in a class – an average of .2 letter grades per absence.
Course information, page 2

13. Importance of Class Attendance
Absences
Per
Class
4-year
Graduation
6-year
0-1
41%
75%
2-3
27%
59%
4-5
14%
40%
Class attendance is important for all students. Looking at all students since Fall 2007, for the ones who averaged 0-1 absences per 3-hour class just their first semester, their 4-year graduation rate is 41%. And 6-year, 75%.
Look at the drop if they averaged just 2-3 absences per class – JUST their first semester – 4-year graduation rate much lower, 6-year graduation rate much lower.
A lot of people think that 4 or 5 absences is not a lot of absences. Just look at the effect it has on graduation rates.
We have a program that is part of our Center, the Pathfinders program, that will track freshman class attendance daily. When they see an “attendance problem”, they will try to contact that student. They will even come to their room in the residence hall to talk with them. Sometimes that interaction is enough to turn a student around. We hope you will join our Student Success team, join the Pathfinders effort, and make sure our students go to class. It’s the #1 step to success in school.

14. Fall GPA below 2.00 probation Spring GPA 2.00 or higher no suspension
How important is my GPA?
Fall GPA below probation
Spring GPA 2.00 or higher no suspension
Spring GPA below 2.00 and cumulative GPA below suspension
We will have a class meeting to talk about the importance of your GPA, but very quickly, for a freshman, if their fall semester GPA is below 2.00, they are placed on academic probation. To tell you the truth, this is not a real big deal – IF it is corrected the following semester. On probation, you are limited to taking no more than 17 hours, but that’s not a particularly serious limitation. But if a student who is on probation earns a GPA below 2.00 again the next semester, they probably face suspension, in which you would need to take a semester away from school. SUSPENSION is what we want to avoid this semester. So here is the big piece of news here:
No matter what happened in the fall semester, even if you failed every class and your fall GPA was 0.00, if you earn a GPA of 2.00 or higher this spring, you will be able to return next fall, and you will be on the road to academic success and graduation.
Our first goal for this semester is a GPA of 2.00 or higher.

15. Impact of spring GPA for students with fall GPA < 2.00
>= 2.00
Sophomore
retention
47%
83%
4-year
graduation 2%
10%
6-year 9%
40%
Here’s some very very positive news. For students whose fall GPA was below 2.00, if they turned things around in the spring, 83% of those students returned for their sophomore year. That’s above the university and national averages! Turn things around in the spring, earn a GPA of 2.00 or higher, and you are on the road to academic success.
There is one thing to know. 4-year graduation is a challenge when you got of to a slow start your first semester. But 4-year graduation is not impossible. 10% of students whose first semester GPA was below 2.00 graduated in 4 years. But they didn’t do it by continuing what they were doing in their first semester. They changed things. They started going to class. They started paying attention during class. They started taking notes. They started going to Supplemental Instruction. They started doing the things that would make them successful. You can be part of the 10%. You don’t have to be part of the 90%.

16. Grading (page 3) Class attendance Being on time After-class exercises
Navigator meetings
On-line situational analyses
MSU activity
Service activity
Written reflection after the service
Written assignment
Because we know the importance of class attendance, it is an important part of the grade in this class.
Ask students to open syllabus to page 3.
Q1. What happens if you miss a class? Lose 2 points for not attending, 1 additional point for being late, 1 additional point for not completing in class exercise. 4 POINTS OFF YOUR CLASS AVERAGE OR GRADE FOR MISSING 1 CLASS! WHY? Because one of the first steps to success in college in attending each and every class. You can’t learn if you are not there.
Q2. Notice the words “deadline” or “due” on page 3. What should you do with those dates? PUT THEM IN YOUR PLANNER.
Course information, page 3

17. Classroom Etiquette (behavior)
Get to class on time – early is better.
Remain seated and focused during class.
Avoid distractions
Turn off cell phone
Make eye contact
Take notes
Finish strong - Don’t pack up early. We will be done by 5:50.
These are all STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS in this class and other classes.
Q1. Why is it important to get to class on time?
Q2. What are typical distractions in class?
Q3. What does making eye contact with the speaker communicate?
Q4. What does packing up early communicate to the speaker?

18. Class Communication We will send you email to your
address.
We expect that you will read it.
Course information, page 6

19. Academic Intregity
“As a Mississippi State University student I will conduct myself with honor and integrity at all times. I will not lie, cheat, or steal, nor will I accept the actions of those who do.”
Look at the box at the bottom of page 6. Pretending to be in class when you are not actually in class is Academic Misconduct. Scanning and leaving is Academic Misconduct. Scanning for someone else is Academic Misconduct. We have an obligation to follow the MSU Honor Code, as both students and as teachers. It says ”nor will I accept the actions of those who do.” Because of that phrase, a teacher has an obligation to report Academic Misconduct, and we will do it. The penalties for Academic Misconduct are too severe and have potentially long-term consequences. If you’re ever tempted to do something that you know is wrong, resist the temptation.
Course information, page 6

20. Supplemental Instruction Learning Skills classes
The Learning Center is the home to many of our academic resources. One of its main programs is Supplemental Instruction. When you look at the Master Class Schedule – the schedule for classes for the upcoming semester – some classes will have an SI designation at the end. That’s an SI-enabled class, and we try to provide them for classes that historically have a high rate of D’s, F’s and Withdrawals – we call that the DFW rate. In SI, we hire a student who has done very well in a class, such as Calculus I shown above. That student attends the class again – they go to class every day, they pay attention, and they take notes. Then 2 to 3 times per week, they hold Supplemental Instruction sessions. Going to these sessions is entirely voluntary, and, indeed, many students in an SI-enabled class never attend a single session. But our data shows us that when a student goes to SI once a week throughout the semester, their grade tends to be a letter grade or more higher that not going at all.
So, you want your son or daughter to get off to a strong start. Make sure they register for any SI-enabled sections that they can, and then that they attend at least once a week. It’s just like that health club – it’s not enough to just be enrolled in the class, you have to attend the SI sessions to get their benefit.
We have SI in over 20 sections of classes, but the Learning Center has additional tutoring in over 100 other classes. The Learning Center is going to be a great resource to know about if your son or daughter ever needs help in a class.
Finally, the Learning Center teaches several Learning Skills classes to help students pick up better study skills. They teach those classes every semester, and they are a great way to get on the road to academic success.

21. Review (Course Packet page 11)
What is the address of our course web site?
Who is your Navigator?
Do you have a Planner?
Is going to class important in college?
Examples of good classroom etiquette.
Go to page 11 in you syllabus. We have a page like this for every class meeting, so you can follow along and take notes. Let’s review these few questions. Write down your answers. And if you don’t have anything to write with, please, always come to class prepared to take notes.

22. Review (Course Packet page 11)
Do you check your ?
Does MSU have an Honor Code?
Is scanning and leaving Academic Misconduct?
Is scanning for someone else Academic Misconduct?
Is your GPA important?
What is your goal GPA for this semester?

23. FYE 1001 Bulldog Participation Bingo (course packet page 13)
Print your personalized Bingo card
later this week, and be
sure to bring it to class next week.
The link will be available on our
course web site some time
Wednesday.
We are planning a semester-long activity that will encourage class participation and engagement. Each student will have his or her own custom 7-by-7 FYE 1101 Bulldog Participation Bingo card. Your name will be in the middle square, and the names of 48 of your classmates will be in the other squares. Any time someone participates in class, you can mark their name off your card. When you get seven in a row (just like regular Bingo), your name will go into the Bingo Pot. At the end of the semester, we’ll pick a name from the Pot, and that lucky student will win a $100 gift card!
We can’t print the cards until the Drop/Add period ends, but they will be available next Monday. We’ll send you a reminder next Monday to print your Bingo card and bring it with you to class next week. We’ll also talk more about the specific rules then.

24. Service Opportunity 2018 MLK Day of Service January 15th at 10:30am Cotton Mill Convention Center 600 Russell Street, Starkville Register at mlkdaystarkville.com

25. After-Class Activity (course packet page 14)
We have an online activity after each class. Follow the instructions on page 14 to complete tonight’s activity. The activities are due at 11:59pm each Tuesday night.
Finally, every Tuesday, we will have an online activity. These are always quite short, and you can even do them on your phone. You can do it immediately after class, before you even leave the room, so you’re sure that you completed it. This is one point each week, so 15 total points of your grade.

26. If you did not scan your id card…
Be sure to come talk to your teacher after class. Attendance is part of the grade in this class. Be sure to bring your id card, and be sure to scan successfully every week.
Finally, every Tuesday, we will have an online activity. These are always quite short, and you can even do them on your phone. You can do it immediately after class, before you even leave the room, so you’re sure that you completed it. This is one point each week, so 15 total points of your grade.