Dave Dillon

Alise Lamoreaux, Dave Dillon

What’s college for? That’s a little question with a big answer! A college education comes in many shapes and sizes. In 2014, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, there were over 4,700 different post-secondary degree- granting institutions in the United States.U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics, 2015 (National Center for Education Statistics 2016-014), Table 105.50.

These schools may be public, private, religious, small, large, for-profit, community colleges, junior colleges. Considering the variety of college options, there is no single answer to the question, “What is college for?” Brenda Hellyer, Chancellor of San Jacinto College in Houston and Pasadena, Texas, wrote in the Chronicle of Higher Education that students “are seeking more than an education—they are seeking options, opportunities, and guidance.”

How do you view college?
What will define college success for you?

People go to college for a variety of reasons. The type of college you select will help set parameters and expectations for your experiences. Before jumping into the details of going to college, it’s important to stop and think about the purpose college has in your life. Traditionally, college was a place young adults went after high school to explore courses and majors before settling into a job path. According to a 2015 UCLA survey, most people currently go to college for one or more of 7 main reasons:Kevin Eagan et al., The American Freshman: National Norms Fall 2015 (Los Angeles: Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA, 2015).

Video: Don’t Just Follow Your Passion: A Talk for Generation Y, Eunice Hii at TEDxTerryTalks 2012

A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: https://press.rebus.community/blueprint2/?p=218

What impression does this TED Talk leave you with? Which generation are you?

An article from 2015 in the Washington Post, What’s the purpose of college: A job or an education? says that students entering college today list getting a better job as the most important reason to attend college. In the past, learning about things that interested them was listed as the top reason to attend college. When did the change in priority occur? Dan Berrett says the change in priority can be linked to Ronald Reagan, when he was Governor of California.Dan Barrett, “The Day the Purpose of College Changed,” Chronicle of Higher Education, accessed April 26, 2018, https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Day-the-Purpose-of-College/151359.

Economic times were tough in 1967 for California. Everyone needed to “tighten their belts.” At that time, California was known for its excellent higher educational system. In a speech Reagan gave on Feb. 28, 1967, a month into his term as Governor, Reagan assured people that he wouldn’t do anything to harm the quality of their public education system. “But,” he added, “We do believe that there are certain intellectual luxuries that perhaps we could do without.” Taxpayers should not be “subsidizing intellectual curiosity,” he said. By the time Reagan won the presidency, in 1980, practical degrees had become the popular choice. In the 1930s, around the time Reagan went to college, about 8% of students majored in “business and commerce.” When he was elected Governor, that share was 12%. By the time he moved into the White House, more students majored in business than anything else. Business, as a major, has held that top spot ever since.

What frames your value of education?
What kind of return on your investment do you expect from college?

Deciding to go to college has an “opportunity cost.” An opportunity cost is based on the economic principle that there are limited resources available and choices must be made. Examples of resources would be things like time and money. If you are spending time doing something, you must give up doing something else you want to do. That is the opportunity cost of your choice. Going to college will have an opportunity cost in your life. An important question to ask in the beginning of your college venture is: what are you willing to trade off for going to college?

Opportunity costs are tied to the idea of return on investment. Once you make an investment of your time and money in college, what investment are you hoping to get in return? How you define success in relationship to your college experience impacts how you see the concept of return on investment. Some ways to gauge return on investment include: job opportunities after college, immediate financial benefit to earned wages, social network/connections made while attending college, development of communication and other “soft skills,” and personal enrichment and/or happiness.

Short-term rewards compared to long-term rewards are another way to look at return on investment. For example, it takes much longer to become a CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of a company than it does to get a well-paid job at the same company. Different skills would be required from the CEO and it may require more investment to acquire those skills. Frances Bronet, the Dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Oregon, conducted a survey of former engineering graduates when she taught at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She asked former graduates what they felt they had missed in their education. The results were very different depending on how recent their graduation was. Students who had graduated 1 year ago felt that they needed more technical skills. People who had graduated 5 years ago felt that they needed more management skills, and people who had graduated 10-20 years ago felt that they needed more cultural literacy because their work now involved more working with other cultures.

Deciding to go to college is a big decision and choosing a course of study can seem overwhelming to many students. Considering the changing world we live in, knowing what direction to go is not easy. According to Richard Riley, secretary of education under Bill Clinton, “We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t exist using technology that haven’t been invented in order to solve problems that we don’t even know.”

Video: Do Schools Kill Creativity? Ken Robinson at TED 2006

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Personal Inventory Questions:

1. Why are you here?
2. Why college, why now?
3. How do you define college?
4. What do you imagine college life to be like?
5. How do you know when you are ready for college?
6. What have you done to prepare for college?
7. What do you think college expects from students?
8. What does going to college mean for your future?
9. Using the list of 5 reasons students attend college provided in this chapter, rank your reasons for going to college.
10. In your opinion, is it a good idea for academic counselors to steer high school kids towards either a 4-year degree or vocational training?
11. Should students be steered towards careers that would be a good “fit” for them?
12. Opportunity Cost Analysis: Create a pie chart identifying how you currently spend your time (daily/weekly).

Suggested Readings:

Scott Carlson, “How to Assess the Real Pay Off of a College Degree,” Chronicle of Higher Education, 2013.

Jeffery J. Selingo, “What’s The Purpose of College: A Job or An Education?,” The Washington Post, 2015.

Kristen Mruk

Kristen Mruk

When thinking about college, what comes to mind? Perhaps stereotypical images or misconceptions of college life, a friend or sibling’s story, or scenes from popular movies?

“The Student Experience” by Kristen Mruk

In popular culture, some movies depict college life as a party atmosphere in which students binge drink and waste their parents’ money to have a good time without consequence. Films including National Lampoon’s Animal House and Van Wilder as well as Accepted, to name a few, portray the student experience as a blatant disregard for education coupled with excessive drunken buffoonery. However, my party experience illustrates a side to college that is not generally in the limelight.

During my first weeks in college, I felt disconnected from the campus and feared that I would not make friends or find my niche. I was commuting from my family’s home and wanted to do more on campus than just go to and from class. I was enrolled in a First-Year Experience (FYE) course that was intended to provide a framework for a successful undergraduate career and beyond. In the class, we learned about student support services on campus (tutoring, personal wellness, academic advisement, etc.) as well as personal success skills (time and financial management, values exploration, etc.).

Being a new student, and a commuter, I was overwhelmed by the amount of new information, new territory, campus culture, and unfamiliar processes. I asked my FYE instructor after class one day if there was something I could do to feel more connected to campus. She opened my eyes to a side of college that I was missing—this was my invitation to the party.

My FYE instructor promptly led me to her office, introduced me to the staff, and explained the variety of involvement opportunities available through her office. I was amazed that there was so much to do on campus! Because of that meeting, I decided to apply for a job in the Student Union working at the information desk. This position was a catalyst for all of the additional parties I would be invited to throughout my time as an undergraduate student. With so many possibilities, I had to be diligent in prioritizing my time and energy.

What My Friends Think I Do

Friends knew me to be much like the girl in the meme above. I was juggling extracurricular activities and two jobs all while maintaining a full course load. I had to be proactive and diligent to coordinate activities and assignments and make sure I had the time to do it all. Finding a system was a trial and error process, but ultimately I found a method that worked for me. I was an undergraduate student when apps didn’t exist and Facebook was just becoming popular, so my organizational system included a planner, a pen, and a lot of highlighters. Whatever that organizational system looks like for you does not matter as long as you use it.

There are a variety of organizational methods and tools you can use to stay on track with all aspects of your life as a student. Some of those are featured in the State University of New York (SUNY) blog: http://blog.suny.edu/tag/apps

What My Parents Think I Do

It may be difficult to discuss your studies and educational experience with a parent or someone that has a significant interest in your academic achievement. This was the case for me; I was the first kid in my house to enroll in college, and my parents were under the impression that grades would be sent home like they were in high school. During the New Student Orientation program, my Mom learned about FERPA (Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act) and what that meant for my grades. “FERPA gives parents certain rights with respect to their children’s education records. These rights transfer to the student when he or she reaches the age of 18 or attends a school beyond the high school level.” In essence, parents cannot access grades or other restricted academic information unless you provide it to them (http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html?src=ft).

I was fortunate enough to have my parents’ financial support toward tuition, so they felt entitled to reviewing my grades at the end of each semester. I did not want to give them direct access to my grade report by filing a FERPA waiver, so after much deliberation, I agreed to share my grades once released at the semester’s end. If their standards were not met, there would have to be a conversation about repercussions.

In the fall of my sophomore year I took my first online course—Introduction to Computers and Statistics. All of the lectures and assignments were available online at anytime and exams were administered in a computer lab on campus. I thought having the ability to view lectures on my own time would be more conducive to my schedule as I was becoming more involved on campus. For the first few weeks of classes I watched the lectures regularly and did the assignments on time. Slowly but surely I found myself prioritizing my time differently, ultimately putting my online class on the back burner, because (I told myself) the work could be done anytime! By the end of the semester I realized that I was going to fail the class. No amount of extra credit, crying, or pleading could save my grade; I had earned an F.

Seeing a failing grade on my transcript taught me two valuable lessons. First, I discovered that I needed the routine and accountability of an in-person class to ensure my participation in the material. Second, I was responsible for the grades I received. I probably could have come up with a million excuses for why I didn’t watch the lectures or do the assignments, but the reality was I just didn’t do it. I did not seek my professor’s help during their office hours when I started to fall behind, I did not go to the tutoring center on campus to get extra help, and I did not reach out to my classmates to form study groups.

Although the F that I received will never disappear from my transcript, it is an important reminder of the gruesome conversation I had with my parents and the feeling of failure in the pit of my stomach. Needless to say, that was the only online course I took during my collegiate career, but it was absolutely worth the lessons learned.

What My Professors Hope I Do

Professors do care about how you are doing in their class; they genuinely want you to succeed, but they will give you the grade you earn. There are people and resources on campus for you to utilize so you can earn the grade you want.

Your professors are one of those resources, and are perhaps the most important. Go see them during office hours, ask them questions about the material and get extra help if you need it. The caveat here is that you cannot wait until the last week of the semester to visit your professors to get help. Tears and pleading will not help you at the eleventh hour.

Another resource to utilize can be found in the campus learning center. I frequented my campus’ writing center for assistance with papers and research projects. Initially, I was scared to be critiqued, thinking my work would be perceived as inadequate. The first time I took a paper there, I recall standing outside the door for about ten minutes thinking of an excuse not to go in. Thankfully I saw a classmate walk in and I followed suit. The experience was less dramatic than I imagined it to be; no one ripped my paper to shreds and told me that I would never graduate. Instead I sat with an upper-class student who coached me through some pointers and suggestions for improvement. Thanks to that first visit, I received an A- on the paper!

What I Would Like to Do

I thought I knew exactly what I wanted to do when I started college, but that changed three times by the time I graduated. Initially I started as an International Business major but ended up receiving a degree in Communication and continued on to graduate school. My greatest advice to you is to embrace feelings of uncertainty (if you have them) with regard to your academic, career, or life goals. Stop into the Career Services office on your campus to identify what it is that you really want to do when you graduate or to confirm your affinity to a career path. Make an appointment to see a counselor if you need to vent or get a new perspective. Do an internship in your field; this can give you a first-hand impression of what your life might look like in that role.

When I chose International Business, I did not do so as an informed student. I enjoyed and excelled in my business courses in high school and I had hopes of traveling the world, so International Business seemed to fit the bill. Little did I know, the major required a lot of accounting and economics which, as it turned out, were not my forte. Thinking this is what I wanted, I wasted time pursuing a major I didn’t enjoy and academic courses I struggled through.

So I took a different approach. I began speaking to the professionals around me that had jobs that appealed to me: Student Unions/Activities, Leadership, Orientation, Alumni, etc. I found out I could have a similar career, and I would enjoy the required studies along the way. Making that discovery provided direction and purpose in my major and extracurricular activities. I felt like everything was falling into place.

What I Actually Do

I would like to pause for a moment and ask you to consider why you are in college? Why did you choose your institution? Have you declared a major yet? Why or why not? What are your plans post-graduation? By frequently reflecting in this way, you can assess whether or not your behaviors, affiliations, and activities align with your goals.

What you actually do with your student experience is completely up to you. You are the only person who can dictate your collegiate fate. Remind yourself of the reasons why you are in college and make sure your time is spent on achieving your goals. There are resources and people on your campus available to help you. You have the control—use it wisely.

Alise Lamoreaux

Before you enroll in college, it is important to understand your educational goal. Knowing your goal will help you decide the type of college you will need to select to reach that goal.

Video: How to find work you love, Scott Dinsmore at TEDx Golden Gate Park 2012

A TED element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: https://press.rebus.community/blueprint2/?p=27

Before getting too far into the topic of choosing to attend college, stop for a moment and think about the following questions:

1) What is your educational goal?

2) What are the top 5 criteria you would use in selecting a college?

3) What kind of degree or certificate will you need to achieve your educational goal?

4) Do you want to be full-time or part-time student?

5) Will you need to work while you are going to college? How much?

6) What are your priorities from a college?

7) What do you expect from your teachers?

8) What kind of support services do you need from a college?

9) What class size would make you feel comfortable?

10) Do you need support in improving your basic skills in Reading, Writing, Math or Speaking English?

11) What are you willing to pay for your college education?

12) How do you plan to finance your college education?

It is important for potential students to realize that every college has its own culture. Finding a comfortable match between student expectations and college expectations is essential for student success. Ultimately, college is a dynamic experience and the student is half the equation. The culture of a college plays a key role in finding a good match. It is important to take the time you need to make the decision about the college that is right for you. Rushing the process can lead to an unsuccessful match-up. Following a friend or family member to the same college they selected may also lead to a mismatched situation.

If possible, try to visit the college in person to get a feel for the campus and the setting. Are you looking for an urban, suburban, or online setting? The distance you travel to attend college will impact many aspects of your college participation. Location is an important aspect of the overall college selection process. The process of finding the right college for you will depend on your educational goal and your expectation for services from a college.

10 Factors to Consider in Finding the Right College Match for You

1. Cost: How important is the tuition cost to your decision? Tuition example: The average yearly tuition at Lane Community College in Oregon is $4,275.00 as of this writing (find the most up-to-date info on the Lane College Tuition, Fees and Payments page). The average yearly tuition at the University of Oregon is $8,190.00 as of this writing (find up-to-date info on the University of Oregon Cost of Attendance page).
2. Flexible Pacing For Completing A Program: How convenient and flexible are the class times and locations? Are there evening and weekend offerings? Online or Hybrid courses?
3. Your Work Schedule: How will your employment affect your ability to attend classes?
4. Open Access: What are the enrollment requirements of the college?
5. Teaching Quality: Who will teach the classes you take and is the college accredited?
6. College Size: How big a campus are you comfortable with and what size classes do you expect?
7. Support Services: Will you want child care, computer labs, health services, parking, tutoring, financial aid, scholarships, or other services?
8. Academic Reputation: What do you know about the academic quality of the college?
9. Variety of Certificate/Degree Options: Are you interested in career pathway options or transferring credits to another school? Are you planning to use the college you select to attend as a stepping-stone to another college or program?
10. Opportunity to play sports or participate in club activities: How important is it to you to have activities to participate in outside of your course work?

Where can a student find out information about the factors to consider when evaluating a specific college? Many students would suggest Google or another online search engine, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media, which may be helpful, but the place to learn the specific details of college is in their college catalog.

The Most Important Book on Campus: The College Catalog

A college catalog is the place a college puts all the information regarding the specific details and rules of the school. The purpose is to have all that information in one easy place for prospective students and current students. A school’s catalog contains all the information you need to know about living and learning at the school of your choice, so it can help streamline your college or degree research process. College catalogs are a long-standing tradition that pre-dates the Internet and websites. Many colleges are trying to find a way to make the information more available to students on websites and other social media.

The information in college catalogs changes as degree programs, school rules, and student expectations change. These changes make the catalog just as useful to current students as it is to new students. Catalogs are usually published every year, so make sure you’re using the most current version. Specific topics covered include:

• Overview of the college’s history
• Availability of financial aid and specific financial aid programs
• Academic expectations
• Degree programs and course descriptions
• Tuition, housing, and meals costs/estimates
• Campus life information
• Mission statement/statement of faith for religious affiliations
• School policies and student services offered

Finding College Catalogs

Most colleges give students access to the catalog on the school website. In addition, you may be able to pick up a printed copy on campus. Some colleges do a better job of making the transition to online information delivery and accessibility better than others. Finding easy-to-use online college catalogs may be frustrating to new college students. For this reason, some students prefer printed catalogs as they get acquainted with the framework of college systems.

What is the Difference Between a Certificate, Associate Degree, and a Bachelor’s Degree?

The main differences between certificates, associate degrees, and bachelor’s degrees boil down to these 5 factors:

1. Time: How long does it take to earn the credential?
2. Tuition: How many courses/units/credits will it take to obtain the credential and how much will that cost? This factor may vary from school to school.
3. Admissions Requirements: What the college expects your skill level to be prior to starting coursework.
4. Level of Study/Amount of Coursework: Will you study something very specific or something more general?
5. Career Opportunities: A certificate usually means you have completed a specialized form of training. It may demonstrate technical knowledge in a field and generally it is faster to complete than a degree. Sometimes a certificate can be a benchmark that applies toward a degree.

Associate degrees are commonly referred to as “2-year” degrees. If you can fix something or fix people, an associate degree may be what you are looking for. For example, health professionals, Information Technology, many high tech jobs, and culinary arts are examples of careers that do well with associate degrees. Associate degrees may be used as a stepping stone and units from an associate degree can often be transferred to meet some required classes for bachelor’s degrees.

Bachelor’s degrees are commonly referred to as “4-year” degrees. A bachelor’s degree extends learning and usually requires around 120 credits (about 40 courses) or more to complete, which is approximately twice as long as an associate degree takes to earn. These numbers vary based on whether the college operates on a semester or quarter schedule. If you want to pursue a career in teaching, engineering, architecture, business, or finance, a bachelor’s degree may be required.

Where Can You Find Out What Educational Level is Needed for a Career?

The table below lists several types of careers. Evaluate each career and determine what kind of educational background a person would need for the jobs listed. Some careers may be suited to multiple levels of education and you may select more than one choice if applicable.

Try using a college catalog, Occupational Outlook Handbook (released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics) https://www.bls.gov/ooh/ or O*NET (Occupational Information Network) https://www.onetonline.org/ to find the information needed to fill in the table below. Some answers will vary based on state regulations for the career.

You may have noticed that the answers to the educational requirements for the careers listed in Table 1 may vary and some careers have multiple layers to their skill requirements and degree requirements. Early Childhood Education, for example, has a career pathway option. Students can earn a certificate and then go on to earn an associate degree and even transfer to earn a bachelor’s degree depending on the job aspiration of the student.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of each of these educational outcomes? Fill in the table below based on your opinion.

Based on what you know so far about certificates and degrees, what will you be seeking as your educational credential?

Now that you have thought about what kind of certificate or degree you might need, where could you go to get that credential? Colleges can come in several forms. Some things to consider about the design of the college:

• Profit or non-profit
• Private or public
• 2-year degrees or 4-year degrees
• Accredited or non-accredited
• Transferable credits or non-transferable credits

Where Are You Most Likely to Attend College? Let’s Look at the Statistics!

Statistics show demographic differences in student populations between public and private; and for-profit and non-profit colleges. The culture of the colleges may vary greatly based on these qualities.

Examine the following two charts. Based on your age and whether you plan to attend college on a full-time or part-time basis, what kind of college are you most likely to attend? Do you agree or disagree with the statistical prediction about the college you will attend?

“Full-time undergraduate enrollment patterns, Fall 2013” by National Center for Education Statistics is in the Public Domain

“Part-time undergraduate enrollment patterns, Fall 2013” by National Center for Education Statistics is in the Public Domain

Suggested Activity

Using College Navigator, https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/ find out how many colleges are located in your area. You may be surprised by the results. You may also want to take a look at U.S. News and World Report’s content and rankings on colleges: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges.

Making the Choice

Ultimately, as a student, you will have to select a college that feels “right” to you. Complete the table below based on what is important to you as a college student.

Video: My philosophy for a happy life, Sam Berns at TEDx Mid Atlantic 2013

A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: https://press.rebus.community/blueprint2/?p=27

How does the philosophy of Sam Berns relate to your decision to go to college?

Suggested Readings

2012 National Research Report: The Factors Influencing College Choice Among Non-Traditional Students

Dr. Kristine Duffy

Alise Lamoreaux

When you envision yourself as a college student, what do you see?

What will your daily life be like?

Video: Gaming Can Make A Better World, Jane McGonigal at TED 2010

A TED element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: https://press.rebus.community/blueprint2/?p=29

After watching the Jane McGonigal’s TED Talk, think about the following questions:

• What are gamers good at?
• What is the importance of “10,000” hours?
• Are gamers goal oriented?
• How do gamers feel about tests and being measured?
• What happens when a gamer makes a mistake?
• How do gamers handle frustration?
• How do gamers feel about change?
• Can the skills of a gamer be applicable to the skills a college student will need?

College is constant change. Not just in terms of studying and learning new material, but also in terms of how it is structured. If the college is on the quarter system, a student’s classes, teachers, and the hours a student needs to be on campus will change every 11-12 weeks, or 4 times a year. Semesters divide an academic year into thirds and may have short intensive sessions in between the main semesters. People sometimes use the words quarters and semesters as if they are synonyms because both divide up a school year, but they represent different units of time.

Dividing up the academic year provides an opportunity for varied learning and developing specialties, but it also means new faces in classes, unknown expectations from new teachers, and juggling a new schedule. It means you may have new routes to travel on campus as you make your way to a different building if your college has a large campus. If a student is working along with going to college, it may mean negotiating new work hours with a boss and coworkers. All of these changes can feel like chaos that comes in like a tidal wave. Every term can feel like starting over, especially for students who are not in a specific program yet. The beginning of a college experience can seem blurry to a new student trying to navigate the system.

“There’s no blinking light to say, hey, look over here, this changed!”

– Amber McCoy, Lane Community College Student

Many students come to college with at least some high school experience and expect college to be similar. After all, many classes have similar names: Biology, Algebra, Writing, Chemistry, and so on. However, the expectations that accompany those titles may be very different. College classes tend to cover course material at a faster pace and expect students to carry more of the burden of learning the material on their own outside of classroom activities.

Compared to college, high school has a straightforward curriculum. High school is segmented and chronological. Students generally go to school at the same time each morning and finish at a similar time in the afternoon. Students are assigned counselors to guide them. High school students usually don’t have to buy textbooks for their classes. There are clear deadlines and the teacher monitors progress and potentially shares progress with parents. The academic benchmarks of quizzes, tests, and projects are concrete indicators of progress. Teachers may monitor students’ use of smart phones in class and help students maintain focus on classroom materials. The high school a student attends is picked for him or her, either by geographic location or their parents choice.

College is about choice. Initially, the choice is where to go to school. The student has to find the right “fit” on his or her own and figure out the process of college admission. There are forms to fill out, submit, and process. Students may have to learn the steps for admission and enrollment for more than one college, and the process can vary from school to school. Students are expected to be able to complete the application process on their own. Students must determine if college placement tests are required and if so, when they must be taken.

The next choice for the student as part of the enrollment process is what to study in terms of declaring a major. The major a student declares may impact financial aid awards. If a student is unsure of what to study and doesn’t choose a major, financial aid may not be given to the student.

A student can choose to attend classes part-time or full-time. College class times try to accommodate a variety of student needs and may can occur during the day, evening, online, or a combination of classroom and online (hybrid). Unless the student has someone to be accountable to, probably no one will check to see if attendance happens or if a student cruises the Internet or social media while in class.

Monitoring of time and its use will be student driven. Understanding the workload associated with a college schedule can be a surprise to the new college student. The first year of college can have a steep learning curve of time management and self-responsibility. For the first-time college student, starting college can feel like pushing a big rock up a steep hill all alone.

How much time do you have in your life for school?

What is Considered Half-time or Full-time Status?

The answer to these questions may vary from person to person and from college to college. Lane Community College’s website uses the following definitions:

• Full-Time Status: 12 or more credits per term (limit of 18 per term)
• 3/4 Time Status: 9-11 credits per term
• Half-Time Status: 6-8 credits per term

An average student full-time credit load is between 15-18 credits. This means that a student will be in the classroom 1 hour per credit. Based on the 15-credit schedule, a student would be in the classroom 15 hours/week. Students mistakenly think that is all there is to it. A schedule requiring a student to be in class 15 hours/week sounds much easier than high school where students typically attend 6-7 hours a day or 30-35 hours/week. College has hidden expectations for students in terms of outside of class “homework.” What does that mean?  College classes expect 2-3 hours of homework, and sometimes more, per credit. That means for 1 hour in class, a student can expect to spend 2-3 hours on homework or more. A 15-credit load expects a student to put in 30-45 hours outside of class each week on homework.

What does this mean in terms of your life?

Many students enter college with uninformed expectations. First-generation college students are at a disadvantage and may not have family members who can help them understand the context of college, what to expect as a college student, and what college life is like. As a result, first-generation college students may be less prepared to handle the challenges they encounter. Students tend to be idealistic in their expectations of college. Pre-college characteristics and experiences play a role in shaping expectations.

Video: Going Back To School As An Adult Student (Non Traditional), Tee Jay

A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: https://press.rebus.community/blueprint2/?p=29

Things to think about:

• How prepared are you to go back to school?
• How much time can you devote to college?
• How would you rate your time management skills?
• How do you feel about reading/homework?
• How are your technology skills?
• What kind of support do you have for going to college?
• Who is your support system?
• Make of a list of the resources you have to support your college lifestyle.
• What strengths do you bring with you that will help you succeed in college?
• What skills will you need to improve?
• What tips did you gain from watching the video?

How do you know if you are academically ready for college?

If you are accepted into college, does that mean you are ready?

College readiness is not clearly defined. Traditionally, completing high school was viewed as preparation for college, but course completion in high school does not guarantee college readiness. For example, English classes in high school may focus more on Literature where as entry-level college courses may stress expository reading and writing skills. If you have gone the route of getting your GED, did you work to dig deeper into the subjects and develop your skills, or just try to pass the tests as soon as possible? How did you handle attending classes and participating in classroom activities?

Another measure of college readiness has been standardized test scores. The problem with using a standardized test to determine readiness is its inability to measure the soft skills college courses require. A soft skill is a personal skill that is usually interpersonal, non-specialized, and difficult to quantify, such as leadership or responsibility. Typically, individuals are born with soft skills.

Expertise commonly known as transferable skill or sometimes functional skill, (and sometimes mistakenly called soft skill) include qualities like accepting feedback, adaptability, dealing with difficult situations, critical thinking, effective communication, meeting deadlines, patience, persistence, self-direction, and trouble-shooting. Meeting deadlines, for example, is a key to college success. The skills and behaviors needed to thrive in college may be different from those it takes to be admitted. Being accepted into college does not necessarily mean you are ready to face the challenges and frustrations that might lie between you and your goal.

Answering the question about being academically prepared for college is tough. Test scores and grades are indicators of readiness, but don’t guarantee success in college courses. Functional skills are important to college success, but without basic academic skills, functional skills alone won’t be enough. Most colleges use some type of placement test to try to place students into courses that will be appropriate for their skill levels. Usually, colleges have minimum placement test scores in Reading, Math, and Writing, requiring students to demonstrate they are able to handle the minimal expectations of college courses in terms of basic content areas. The degree or certificate associated with the student’s goal also influences the academic readiness required for success. Recognizing the importance of balancing the academic and soft skills, and how that relates to student goals is essential for college success and beyond.

Video: Strengthening Soft Skills, Andy Wible at TEDx

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Alise Lamoreaux

Getting started in college can seem like an uphill battle. One of the first challenges a student can encounter is navigating the college’s website. In the attempt to get as much information as possible into the hands of current and future students, college websites are crammed full of information and language that may be new to the first-time college student. Trying to figure out how to get started can be confusing, even when the website says, “Steps To Enroll.”  Registration, admission, enrollment… are they all the same thing? If you are registered, are you admitted and enrolled? Is enrollment in the college the same thing as enrollment in classes? And that’s just the beginning of the potential for confusion! How can a student know the answers to these questions?

Learning to speak the “language of college” can seem even harder than learning a foreign language because as a new student, you have no idea what words you need to learn. If you travel to a foreign country, there are core vocabulary words you will find most helpful – resources that will allow you to order the food you like and services you need. Basic needs like bread and water can be correlated among different languages. A dog is a dog all over the world and not confused with a cat. The vocabulary of college is not so straightforward.

One of the first decisions a student may need to make is whether to attend college as a credit or non-credit seeking student. Even more confusing, non-credit students can also be referred to as “continuing education” students. For example, a student wants to take a drawing class. One of the first questions that may be asked is whether the student wants to take the class for credit or non-credit? Both types of students can take drawing classes. If a student doesn’t know what a credit is or what one is worth, it’s hard to answer the basic question in order to register for the drawing class, and the registration process is very different depending on the answer to the question of credit or non-credit. How can a student know whether he/she wants to be a “credit student” or not?

Learning to speak the language of the college is part of learning the school’s culture. It is important to remember that not all colleges use the same words in the same way.

Commonly Used Academic Vocabulary

Below is a list of commonly used terminology. Without using the Internet or college catalog, see how many words you know the meaning of. Write the meaning in the space adjacent to the term.

As a college student, you will need to come up with a strategy for learning lots of information, like the specific language of your school. Tim Ferris has a TED Talk about mastering skills by deconstructing them. When you deconstruct something, it means to take something large, and break it down into smaller parts. It also means to identify why you might fail before you start and make a plan to stop failure before it happens.

Video: Smash Fear, Learn Anything, Tim Ferriss at TED 2008

A TED element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: https://press.rebus.community/blueprint2/?p=220

Based on the ideas of simplifying and deconstructing a task in order to learn it, think of how those ideas could be applied to mastering the language of college.

• Can you see any ways to simplify the task of learning 30 words?
• Are there any connections between the words that you can see?
• Will you need all the words all the time?
• Will you need some words more frequently than others?
• When and where might you need each of the works?
• Can you think of any words not included in this list that would be helpful to know in relationship to your college vocabulary?

Fatima Rodriguez Johnson

Alise Lamoreaux

Planning a class schedule is an opportunity for students to take the lead in their educational experience. For some students it will be the first time planning a college schedule. The amount of freedom to choose classes can be exciting and frightening all at the same time!

Before beginning, there are some key factors to consider:

1. Have you met with an academic advisor or counselor?
2. Will you be going to school full-time or part-time?
3. Have you taken college placement tests?
4. Are there specific courses you are required to take?
5. How many days a week do you want to be on campus? Will you be taking online classes?
6. Do any of the classes you want to take have prerequisites or co-requisites?
7. Do any of the classes have additional requirements such as labs or other components?
8. How much time will you have to devote to school-related activities during the term?
9. Are you a morning person or a night person?
10. Have you balanced required classes with less intensive electives?
11. Do you need any special accommodations for the classes you have selected?
12. Do you have alternative courses in mind in case the classes you want are not available?

Balancing College, Work, and Life

Attending classes, studying, working, and finding time for family, friends, and yourself can be a challenging schedule for college students to balance. How a student organizes their class load can affect their overall success when starting college. Class names may remind students of high school classes and how classes were scheduled in those years. College classes may only meet once a week or as many as 5 times a week. Not all classes are worth the same amount of credit or have the same attendance requirements. Some classes like Biology or Spanish will probably have additional lab requirements, which means a student will need to spend additional time on campus for those labs. Writing classes will require time outside of class preparing, editing, and revising papers. Many teachers require electronic submission of papers/projects. Students may need to build in extra time for meeting submission deadlines.

As a new college student, it is a good idea to take fewer classes in the beginning as you learn what college classes will mean to your daily life. Students who work full-time might want to start with 1 or 2 classes. You may find that you can handle more as you learn to manage your class time and work time. A counselor or advisor can help you with this decision. Be sure to include classes that interest you as well as required classes.

Something to think about: The table below illustrates the recommended number of hours a student should study per week based on the number of units they are taking.

Hourly Recommendations (per week)

Where is class information located?

The college catalog will have descriptions of specific classes and the college schedule for each term will be the place to find what modality (in person, hybrid, or online), days, times, and locations for classes. Not all classes are offered every term and some must be taken in sequence.

How to read the course numbering system

Courses are identified by a subject and a number. To search for courses when planning your class schedule, you will generally use the subject and section number to identify the course rather than the course title.

Many colleges utilize section numbers that identify specific sections of the class being offered. Section numbers are often used by students to register for their classes.

If you have selected a specific program of study, consult the college catalog for directions on the sequence of courses to take and/or look up the courses required for your program of study to see if they have prerequisites or co-requisites.

Know key dates and deadlines!

Organization is an important part of being a successful college student. One important aspect of organization is knowing the important dates for your classes and the college in general. Academic deadlines matter! Deadlines in college may not be flexible. They can have consequences for financial aid and grading that cannot be undone. A student needs to be aware of key dates throughout the term. The responsibility for knowing important dates lies with the student. The course syllabus that you get for each class you take will have important dates for that specific class. The college will put important dates to know on an academic calendar for the school.

Examples of key dates to know for a college:

• When does the term/semester start and end?
• Are there holidays or campus closures during the term?
• When is the last day to drop a class with a complete refund?
• When is the last day to make changes to your schedule?
• When is the last day to drop a class?
• When is the last day to change grading options?
• When is finals week and what is the schedule like during that week?

Alise Lamoreaux

A college website can be like a cookbook, full of great information and ideas, and can be completely overwhelming. Where do you start? Looking at the pictures? Scrolling down through the information? Can you taste the food in your mind just by looking at a picture? Can you imagine a food just from the list of ingredients? Is the number of ingredients needed to make the recipe exciting or paralyzing? How experienced a cook you are can impact your reaction to the cookbook.

As you begin navigating new information, remember, world-famous chef and author, Julia Child wasn’t always a great chef!  In fact, when she got married, she could barely cook. Experience isn’t everything. An open mind is paramount. Let the joy of discovering be your guide.

The role of a college website has changed substantially over the past few years. Student expectations for easy, accessible information drives colleges to get as much information online as possible. It also can lead to a battle for what information makes it onto the home page and how many clicks it will take to find what the student is looking for.

Student services are increasingly utilizing the college website to communicate with students and expecting that students will be proficient in navigating the college website. Students expect to easily locate information; this is helped when the college uses logical organization to the information architecture and design of the website. College websites can be very frustrating to new users, especially if the new user is a first-time college student and is unfamiliar with the underlying structure of the college system. The people creating the college web site may be very familiar with the way their system works and not see the structure as confusing.

Adding to potential confusion can be the lack of ability to view the entire home page of the college depending on the size of monitor or mobile device the student is accessing the website from. Students are increasingly using smart phones and tablets as their primary viewing device for the Internet. Sometimes key information a student needs may be just out of view on the screen. The experienced user knows to make adjustments, but new users may not. Knowing where and how to get started may not be as easy as the “start here” button.

Logical arrangement of information for the college’s needs may not be a logical progression of information for the student’s needs. From the college perspective, students come in different groups/classifications. Here are some examples:

• New
• Returning
• Transferring
• Students needing accommodations
• Local residents
• Veterans
• International
• Student-athletes
• Non-credit/Community Education
• Adult Basic Education

Each of these groups can have variations on what their first steps should be. Students aren’t necessarily used to thinking of themselves in terms of these classifications/groups. It can be difficult for first time students, who may fit into more than one of these groups, to decide which one is the place to start.

Most college websites have a “Getting Started” type button on the home page. After clicking that button, a student begins to make a decision about what category of student he or she is. To an experienced user, this is not an obstacle, but to the first-time college student it may be a barrier. For example, what if a student falls into more than one group or classification? Where does the person fit? The answer may vary from college to college.

In addition, some college websites may not be mobile friendly so that students who are trying to use smartphones or tablets may face additional obstacles. Despite the potential difficulties, today’s college students need to become savvy users of the college website and recognize the role it will play in the communication process.

Website challenge:

Pick 2 different colleges and examine their websites. Try to find the following information on each of the websites. 

1. What are the steps you would to take to enroll at the college?
2. How many locations does the college have and where are they?
3. How long would it take you to travel to the location of that college?
4. What term are you planning to attend the college for the first time? Is there an application deadline you must meet?
5. Where can you find important dates and deadlines for the term?
6. How long does a person need to live in the state you are living in (or the state of the college you want to attend) to be considered a resident of the State in terms of college tuition at the colleges you are interested in?
7. Does the college have a student conduct code? (A document about student rights and responsibilities)
8. Does the college have placement tests a student needs to take prior to staring college?
9. Does the website explain what type of tests are required and is there a cost?
10. What are the test scores used for?
11. Is financial aid available for students who attend the college?
12. Does the website have student success stories and/or student success tips?
13. Identify a program that you might like to study at the college.
14. Can you find the Mission Statement/Strategic Plan/Vision of the college?
15. What does the statement say and why is it important to know a college’s mission/plan/vision?

Website Challenge Reflection

1. How comfortable were you navigating the college websites?
2. Did the websites’ organization make sense to you?
3. What was your strategy for finding the information you were looking for?
4. What information would you consider most important to you as a student?
5. What suggestions do you have for making the website easier to use?

The college website will be part of your communication system with the college you attend.

• What other social media does the college use?
• As a student, how can you use the college website, social media, and the Internet in general to strengthen you learning community and connections?

As you watch John Green’s Ted Talk, think about what information applies to college websites.

Video: The Nerd’s Guide to Learning Everything Online, John Green at TEDx 2012

A TED element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: https://press.rebus.community/blueprint2/?p=33

Sara Vacin

Alise Lamoreaux

Congratulations! You are accepted into college. Now what? Before you can begin signing up for classes, most colleges will require you to take Assessment Tests.

Some Things to Think About:

• What are the purpose of the assessments?
• Can a student fail the assessments?
• Where are the assessments given?
• What does a student need to do to sign up to take the assessments?
• How much does it cost to take the assessments?
• Can a student re-take the assessment test if he or she is not happy with the score?
• How long are the assessment test scores valid?
• Can a student study for the assessment test?

The Assessment Tests are entrance examinations that are often required as part of the admissions and matriculation process for many community colleges and other schools in the United States. Assessment exams are not scored on the basis of pass or fail. The Assessments test students in reading, writing, and math. The test results help place each student in the most appropriate level of classes. The goal is to place students into classes that are not too difficult or too easy.

Community colleges tend to rely on placement testing because students entering these colleges have a variety of backgrounds and skill levels. The test results may mean a student can skip introductory level classes or that students need to refresh or build skills in a specific area. However, if a student gets a low score on the tests, he or she may need to take extra classes to be able to register for a certain class in a specific program.

Across the college campus, in many different classes, a student will be asked to read and write on a daily basis as part of the class activities. Even a Speech class will require writing! As a result, many classes have a prerequisite requirement for writing.

Many students have not taken a math class recently, or been using more than basic math in their daily lives, and may need to refresh or build their skills to be able to handle the course requirements of college. Also, certain programs emphasize specific math skills in order for students to be successful in those programs of study. Culinary Arts students must be proficient with the math skills needed for menu planning and food cost analysis. Those are different skills than a Nursing student. A Nurse needs to be proficient in math related to dosage and other measurements. The purpose of the placement tests is to help students identify their abilities. It is important for students to take the placement tests seriously since the test scores will influence course selection. Scoring well on placement tests can save a student time and money.

Which Student in the Video Reflects Your Attitude About College Placement Tests?

Video: College Placement Test Video, Golden West College.

A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: https://press.rebus.community/blueprint2/?p=34

Can a Student Study for College Placement Tests?

Students often wonder if they should study for assessment tests. Studying and becoming familiar with the type of test you will be taking is a good idea. Many College Assessment websites include sample questions. If a student is unhappy with their assessment score, retesting options usually exist, but vary from college to college. Check the policy of the college you are choosing to attend. Poor performance on an assessment may end up costing the student extra time and money. If the student has to take extra classes to build the skills needed for college that may change the timeline for the student’s goal and target completion.

Community colleges often have free or low-cost options for improving a student’s skill level for college courses. Check to see what options exist at the college you have selected in terms of improving assessment scores. Many first-generation college students find attending Adult Basic Education classes to be very helpful for getting ready for the rigors of college expectations. Along with improving academic skills, a student can also become familiar with the culture of the college before becoming a full-time student.

The assessment test is a general term and not the name of a specific test. Colleges may use different standardized tests as their assessment. Two of the most common tests are Accuplacer and Compass. As of June 18, 2015, ACT, the company who makes Compass, said in the article Finding A New CompassPaul Fain, “Finding a New Compass,” Inside Higher Ed, accessed April 26, 2018, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/06/18/act-drops-popular-compass-placement-test-acknowledging-its-predictive-limitsthat it will discontinue making the test and phase out its use. If the college you have selected has been using Compass as its assessment, changes may be happening for that college. ALEKS is an assessment system that is gaining momentum with the departure of Compass. ALEKS stands for Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces.

Sometimes it can be challenging to figure out which standardized test is being given by the college. If you have difficulty finding the name of the test the college is using, try the search engine on the college website for the keywords “college placement test.”

It is possible to study for these tests and to become familiar with the format of the tests. Some college websites may have study resources listed to help students prepare for the assessment test. Check with the college you select to see if resources are suggested.

Assessment tests using Accuplacer utlize an “adaptive” test model. It gives students one question at a time. You must answer every question it presents. When you get a question correct, the computer adapts by giving a harder question worth more points for the next question. A wrong answer gives you an easier question worth fewer points for the next question.

Many colleges also use “multiple measures” to determine a students’ placement level. Sometimes high school grades for English and math are used along with other indicators a college has approved.

Paulo Fernandes

Dave Dillon

“Time is the only commodity that matters.”

– Randy Pausch

My favorite aspect of time is its equality. Regardless of our race, religion, or age, all of us have the same amount of time in a day, week, month and year. Wealthy people cannot buy more time and poor people do not receive less time. A minute for a tall person is the same amount of time for a short person. An hour for a woman is the same amount of time for a man. Regardless of how many languages someone speaks, their sexual orientation, ethnicity, educational background, income or experience, we all have 365 days in a year. Some people will live longer than others, but when comparatively measuring how much time humans have with each other, we all have the same amount.

Time is a popular philosophical concept. You may have heard some of the following sayings:

• Time flies when you are having fun
• That is a waste of time
• Time is money
• We have all the time in the world
• That was an untimely death
• The time is right
• I’m having the time of my life
• Time heals all wounds
• We have some time to kill

What do the sayings mean to you?

Time is also how we keep track of when we’re supposed to be and where we’re supposed to be (work, home, class, meeting friends and family, etc.). Think about how many measures of time you have in your home (clocks, watches, cell phones, TVs, DVRs, computers, microwaves, ovens, thermostats, etc.). It is obvious time is important to us.

Time: A Limited and Precious Commodity

We cannot go back in time. If I used my time poorly last Wednesday, I can do nothing to get it back. Other commodities may allow for accumulating more or starting over, but time does not. We cannot “save” time nor earn more time.

“If you had a bank that credited your account each morning with $86,400, but carried no balance from day to day and allowed you to keep no cash in your account, and every evening cancelled whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day, what would you do? Draw out every cent, of course! Well, you have such a bank, and its name is time. Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off as lost whatever of these you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries no balance; it allows no overdrafts. Each day it opens a new account with you. Each night it burns the record of the day. If you fail to use the day’s deposit, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against the morrow. You must live in the present – on today’s deposit. Invest it so as to get the utmost in health and happiness and success.”

– Anonymous

Technically, time cannot be managed, but we label it time management when we talk about how people use their time. We often bring up efficiency and effectiveness when discussing how people spend their time, but we cannot literally manage time because time cannot be managed. What we can do though, is find better ways to spend our time, allowing us to accomplish our most important tasks and spend time with the people most important to us.

Human babies do not come with instruction manuals. There is nothing to follow to know how we are supposed to spend our time. Most of us spend our time doing a combination of what interests us, what is important to us and what we feel we “have” to do.

What is your relationship with time? Are you usually early, right on time or late? Do you find yourself often saying, “I wish I had more time?” Are you satisfied with your relationship with time or would you like to change it?

The Value of Time

It is also important to determine how much your time is worth to you. If someone were to negotiate for an hour of your time, how much would that be worth to you? We often equate time with money. Many of us work in positions where we are paid by the hour; this gives us some gauge of what we are worth to our employers. Some items we purchase because we think they are of good value for their price. Others we pass on. Are some hours of your day more important or more valuable than others? Why? Are you more productive in the morning or in the evening? Once people realize how valuable time is, they often go to great lengths to protect it because they understand its importance. How much would you pay for an additional hour in a day? What would you do with that time? Why?

What is the value of your time? How much is an hour of your time worth? If someone were to pay you $10 to do a job, how much time would that be worth? $20? $50?

How Do I Allocate My Time?

“Lack of direction, not lack of time is the problem. We all have 24 hour days.”

– Zig Ziglar

Most of us know there are 24 hours in a day, but when I ask students how many hours are in a week, many do not know the answer. There are 168 hours in a week (24 hours multiplied by seven days). I don’t believe that it is imperative that students know how many hours are in a week, but it helps when we start to look at how much time we have in a week, how we want to spend our time and how we actually spend our time.

One challenge for many students is the transition from the structure of high school to the structure of college. In high school, students spend a large portion of their time in class (approximately 30 hours in class per week), while full-time college students may spend only one-third of that time in class (approximately 12 hours in class per week). Further, college students are assigned much more homework than high school students. Think about how many times one of your high school teachers gave you something to read during class. In college, students are given more material to read with the expectation that it is done outside of class.

This can create challenges for students who are unable to set aside proper study time for each of their courses. Keep in mind for full-time students: your college educational day should not be shorter than your high school day.

Hourly Recommendations (per Week)

Work	Units	Study Time	Total
40	6	12	58
30	9	18	57
20	12	24	56

I use this table frequently in counseling appointments, classes and orientations. It’s a guide for students that provides an idea of how much time students spend with work and school, and what experts recommend for a specific amount of work hours that correlates with a specific number of units. I like to ask students how they spend their week. Students always know their work hours and their class times. These are easy to place in a schedule or on a calendar because they are predetermined. But study time is the one area that consistently is left out of a student’s schedule. It takes initiative to include it in a student’s busy week and self-discipline to stick to it. Here’s a tip: Write your study time into your schedule or calendar. It’s important to do this because it’s easy to skip a study session or say to yourself, “I’ll do it later.” While there would likely be an immediate consequence if you do not show up for work, there is not one if you fail to study on Tuesday from 3pm-4pm. That consequence may take place later, if the studying is not made up.

It is widely suggested that students need to study approximately two hours for every hour that they spend in class in order to be successful.Jeffery Young, “Homework? What Homework?,” Chronicle of High Education, 2002, A35-A37, https://www.chronicle.com/article/Homework-What-Homework-/2496. Thus, if I am taking a class that meets on Mondays and Wednesdays from 4pm-5:30pm (three hours per week), I would want to study outside of class six hours per week. This is designed as a guide and is not an exact science. You might need to spend more time than what is recommended if you are taking a subject you find challenging, have fallen behind in or if you are taking short-term classes. This would certainly be true if I were to take a physics class. Since I find learning physics difficult, I might have to spend three or four hours of study time for each hour of class instruction. You also might need to study more than what is recommended if you are looking to achieve better grades. Conversely, you might need to spend less time if the subject comes easy to you (such as sociology does for me) or if there is not a lot of assigned homework.

Keep in mind that 20 hours of work per week is the maximum recommended for full-time students taking 12 semester units in a term. For students working full-time (40 hours a week), no more than six units is recommended. The total is also a very important category. Students often start to see difficulty when their total number of hours between work and school exceeds 60 per week. The amount of sleep decreases, stress increases, grades suffer, job performance decreases and students are often unhappy.

How do you spend your 168 hours in a week?

• Child Care
• Class
• Community Service / Volunteer
• Commuting / Transportation
• Eating / Food Preparation
• Exercise
• Family
• Friends
• Household / Child Care Duties
• Internet / Social Media / Phone / Texting
• Party
• Recreation / Leisure
• Relationship
• Sleeping
• Spirituality / Prayer / Meditation
• Study
• Video Games
• Watching TV or Movies, Netflix, Youtube
• Work / Career

There is also the time it takes for college students to adjust to college culture, college terminology, and college policies. Students may need to learn or relearn how to learn and some students may need to learn what they need to know. What a student in their first college semester needs to know may be different than what a student in their last college semester needs to know. First semester students may be learning where classrooms are, building hours and locations for college resources, and expectations of college students. Students in their last semester may be learning about applying for their degree, how to confirm they have all of their requirements completed for their goal, and commencement information. Whatever it is students may need to learn, it takes time.

Fixed Time vs. Free Time

Sometimes it helps to take a look at your time and divide it into two areas: fixed time and free time. Fixed time is time that you have committed to a certain area. It might be school, work, religion, recreation or family. There is no right or wrong to fixed time and everyone’s is different. Some people will naturally have more fixed time than others. Free time is just that—it is free. It can be used however you want to use it; it’s time you have available for activities you enjoy. Someone might work 9am-2pm, then have class 3pm-4:30pm, then have dinner with family 5pm-6pm, study 6pm-7pm and then have free time from 7pm-9pm. Take a look at a typical week for yourself. How much fixed time do you have? How much free time? How much fixed and free time would you like to have?

Identifying, Organizing and Prioritizing Goals

The universal challenge of time is that there are more things that we want to do and not enough time to do them.

I talk to students frequently who have aspirations, dreams, goals and things they want to accomplish. Similarly, I ask students to list their interests at the beginning of each of my classes and there is never a shortage of items. But I often talk to students who are discouraged by the length of time it is taking them to complete a goal (completing their education, reaching their career goal, buying a home, getting married, etc.). And every semester there are students that drop classes because they have taken on too much or they are unable to keep up with their class work because they have other commitments and interests. There is nothing wrong with other commitments or interests. On the contrary, they may bring joy and fulfillment, but do they get in the way of your educational goal(s)? For instance, if you were to drop a class because you required surgery, needed to take care of a sick family member or your boss increased your work hours, those may be important and valid reasons to do so. If you were to drop a class because you wanted to binge watch Grey’s Anatomy, play more Minecraft, or spend more time on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, you may have more difficulty justifying that decision, but it is still your decision to make. Sometimes students do not realize the power they have over the decisions they make and how those decisions can affect their ability to accomplish the goals they set for themselves.

I am no exception. I have a long list of things that I want to accomplish today, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year and in my lifetime. I have many more things on my list to complete than the time that I will be alive.

Identifying Goals

Recently, there has been a lot of attention given to the importance of college students identifying their educational objective and their major as soon as possible. Some high schools are working with students to identify these goals earlier. If you are interested in career identification, you may wish to look into a career decision making course offered by your college. You may also wish to make an appointment with a counselor, and/or visit your college’s Career Center and/or find a career advice book such as What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard N. Bolles.

Goal identification is a way to allow us to keep track of what we would like to accomplish as well as a mechanism to measure how successful we are at achieving our goals. This video gives modern practical advice about the future career market.

Video: Success in the New Economy, Kevin Fleming and Brian Y. Marsh, Citrus College:

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Educational Planning

There has also been focused attention on the importance of educational planning.

Education plans developed with a counselor help students determine and explore a program of study and have proven to facilitate student success.“Advancing Student Success in the California Community Colleges,” California Community Colleges (California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office: Recommendations of the California Community Colleges Student Success Task Force, 2012), http://www.californiacommunitycolleges.cccco.edu/portals/0/executive/studentsuccesstaskforce/sstf_final_report_1-17-12_print.pdf.

Students can follow educational plans like a road map so they can see how to complete required classes in the most efficient and logical order based on their educational goals.

Educational planning may appear to be simple: identifying the program of study and then figuring out which courses are required to complete it.

Graphics courtesy of Greg Stoup, Rob Johnstone, and Priyadarshini Chaplot of The RP Group

However, it can often be extremely complex. Many students have multiple goals. One student might be interested in more than one of these goals: earn multiple degrees, transfer to a four-year college or university, prepare for graduate school, start a minor, or complete requirements for several transfer schools.

Students also have different strengths. Some might be strong in English. Some students excel in Math. Others might be strong in Science, Arts and Humanities, or Social Sciences. Educational planning takes these strengths (and weaknesses) into consideration. Students are encouraged to take English and Math earlyJ. Weissman, C. Bulakowski, and M.K. Jumisko, “Using Research to Evaluate Developmental Education Programs and Policies,” in Implementing Effective Policies for Remedial and Developmental Education: New Directions for Community Colleges, ed. J. M. Ignash (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997), 100, 73-80., as statistics show that those students will be more successful. But the order of courses taken for students with different strengths could vary even if the students have the same goal. There is not a one-size-fits-all solution.

Educational planning may be further complicated by availability of courses a college or university offers, the process in which a student may be able to register for those courses and which sections fit into students’ schedules. Transcript evaluations (if students have attended previous colleges or universities), assessment of appropriate English or Math levels and prerequisite clearance procedures may also contribute to the challenge of efficient educational planning.

Further, students have different priorities. Some students want to complete their goals in a certain amount of time. Other students may have to work full-time and take fewer units each semester. Educational planning might also consider student interests, skills, values, personality, or student support referrals. Grade point average requirements for a student’s degree, transfer or specific programs are also considered in educational planning.Beth Smith et al., “The Role of Counseling Faculty and Delivery of Counseling Services in the California Community Colleges,” (California: The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges).

While some students may know what they want to do for their career, and have known since they were five years old, many students are unsure of what they want to do. Often, students aren’t sure how to choose their major. A major is an area of concentration in which students will specialize at a college or university. Completing a major requires passing courses in the chosen concentration and degrees are awarded that correlate with students’ majors. For instance, my bachelor’s degree in Sociology means that my major was Sociology.

It is OK to not know what major you want to pursue when you start college, but I suggest careful research to look into options and narrow them down to a short list of two or three. Talking with a counselor, visiting your college’s Career Center, or taking a college success class may help with your decisions.

Seventy percent of students change their major at least once while in college and most will change their major at least three times. It is important for students to find the best major for them, but these changes may make previous educational plans obsolete.

The simple concept and road map often ends up looking more like this:

Graphics courtesy of Greg Stoup, Rob Johnstone, and Priyadarshini Chaplot of The RP Group

Due to the complicated nature of educational planning, a counselor can provide great value for students with assistance in creating an educational plan, specifically for each individual student. If you have not done so already, I highly recommend you meet with a counselor and continue to do so on a frequent basis (once per semester if possible).

How To Start Reaching Your Goals

Without goals, we aren’t sure what we are trying to accomplish, and there is little way of knowing if we are accomplishing anything. If you already have a goal-setting plan that works well for you, keep it. If you don’t have goals, or have difficulty working towards them, I encourage you to try this.

Make a list of all the things you want to accomplish for the next day. Here is a sample to do list:

• Go to grocery store
• Go to class
• Pay bills
• Exercise
• Social media
• Study
• Eat lunch with friend
• Work
• Watch TV
• Text friends

Your list may be similar to this one or it may be completely different. It is yours, so you can make it however you want. Do not be concerned about the length of your list or the number of items on it.

“Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off his goal.”

– E. Joseph Cossman

You now have the framework for what you want to accomplish the next day. Hang on to that list. We will use it again.

Now take a look at the upcoming week, the next month and the next year. Make a list of what you would like to accomplish in each of those time frames. If you want to go jet skiing, travel to Europe or get a bachelor’s degree: Write it down. Pay attention to detail. The more detail within your goals the better. Ask yourself: what is necessary to complete your goals?

With those lists completed, take into consideration how the best goals are created. Commonly called “SMART” goals, it is often helpful to apply criteria to your goals. SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. Perform a web search on the Internet to find out more about “SMART” goals. Are your goals SMART goals? For example, a general goal would be, “Achieve an ‘A’ in my anatomy class.” But a specific goal would say, “I will schedule and study for one hour each day at the library from 2pm-3pm for my anatomy class in order to achieve an ‘A’ and help me gain admission to nursing school.”

Now revise your lists for the things you want to accomplish in the next week, month and year by applying the SMART goal techniques. The best goals are usually created over time and through the process of more than one attempt, so spend some time completing this. Do not expect to have “perfect” goals on your first attempt. Also, keep in mind that your goals do not have to be set in stone. They can change. And since over time things will change around you, your goals should also change.

Another important aspect of goal setting is accountability. Someone could have great intentions and set up SMART goals for all of the things they want to accomplish. But if they don’t work towards those goals and complete them, they likely won’t be successful. It is easy to see if we are accountable in short-term goals. Take the daily to-do list for example. How many of the things that you set out to accomplish, did you accomplish? How many were the most important things on that list? Were you satisfied? Were you successful? Did you learn anything for future planning or time management? Would you do anything differently? The answers to these questions help determine accountability.

Long-term goals are more difficult to create and it is more challenging for us to stay accountable. Think of New Year’s Resolutions. Gyms are packed and mass dieting begins in January. By March, many gyms are empty and diets have failed. Why? Because it is easier to crash diet and exercise regularly for short periods of time than it is to make long-term lifestyle and habitual changes.

Randy Pausch was known for his lecture called “The Last Lecture,” now a bestselling book. Diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer, Pausch passes along some of his ideas for best strategies for uses of time in his lesser known lecture on time management. I don’t believe there is someone better suited to teach about time management than someone trying to maximize their last year, months, weeks and days of their life.

Video: Time Management, Randy Pausch.

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Organizing Goals

Place all of your goals, plans, projects and ideas in one place. Why? It prevents confusion. We often have more than one thing going on at a time and it may be easy to become distracted and lose sight of one or more of our goals if we cannot easily access them. Create a goal notebook, goal poster, goal computer file—organize it any way you want—just make sure it is organized and that your goals stay in one place.

Author’s Story

I learned this lesson the hard way. Some years ago, I used sticky notes all the time. I think they are a great invention and believe they help me stay organized. But one day when I was looking for a phone number I realized that I had sticky notes at work, sticky notes at home and sticky notes in my car. I had so many sticky notes in multiple places that I couldn’t easily find the information I needed. Everyone has a preference of how clean or messy his or her work area is, but if you’re spending time looking for things, it is not the best use of your time. I now keep all of my sticky notes in one place. Further, I always use one and only one point of entry for anything that goes on my calendar. I have also found many advances in technology to assist with organization of information. But I still use physical sticky notes.

Use Technology to your Advantage

Software and apps are now available to help with organization and productivity. Check out Evernote, One Note, or Stickies.

Break Goals into Small Steps

I ask this question of students in my classes: If we decided today that our goal was to run a marathon and then went out tomorrow and tried to run one, what would happen? Students respond with: (jokingly) “I would die,” or “I couldn’t do it.” How come? Because we might need training, running shoes, support, knowledge, experience and confidence—often this cannot be done overnight. But instead of giving up and thinking it’s impossible because the task is too big for which to prepare, it’s important to develop smaller steps or tasks that can be started and worked on immediately. Once all of the small steps are completed, you’ll be on your way to accomplishing your big goals.

What steps would you need to complete the following big goals?

• Buying a house
• Getting married
• Attaining a bachelor’s degree
• Destroying the Death Star
• Losing weight

Prioritizing Goals

Why is it important to prioritize? Let’s look back at the sample list. If I spent all my time completing the first seven things on the list, but the last three were the most important, then I would not have prioritized very well.

It would have been better to prioritize the list after creating it and then work on the items that are most important first. You might be surprised at how many students fail to prioritize.

After prioritizing, the sample list now looks like this:

• Go to class
• Work
• Study
• Pay bills
• Exercise
• Eat lunch with friend
• Go to grocery store
• Text friends
• Social media
• Watch TV

One way to prioritize is to give each task a value. A = Task related to goals; B = Important—Have to do; C = Could postpone. Then, map out your day so that with the time available to you, work on your A goals first. You’ll now see below our list has the ABC labels. You will also notice a few items have changed positions based on their label. Keep in mind that different people will label things different ways because we all have different goals and different things that are important to us. There is no right or wrong here, but it is paramount to know what is important to you, and to know how you will spend the majority of your time with the things that are the most important to you.

A Go to class

A Study

A Exercise

B Work

B Pay bills

B Go to grocery store

C Eat lunch with friend

C Text friends

C Social media

C Watch TV

Do the Most Important Things First

You do not have to be a scientist to realize that spending your time on “C” tasks instead of “A” tasks won’t allow you to complete your goals. The easiest things to do and the ones that take the least amount of time are often what people do first. Checking Facebook or texting might only take a few minutes but doing it prior to studying means we’re spending time with a “C” activity before an “A” activity.

People like to check things off that they have done. It feels good. But don’t confuse productivity with accomplishment of tasks that aren’t important. You could have a long list of things that you completed, but if they aren’t important to you, it probably wasn’t the best use of your time.

Perform an internet search for “Time Management Matrix images.” The matrix (also referred to in the Randy Pausch video), shows how to categorize your tasks and will help prioritize your goals, tasks, and assignments. Take a look at the matrix and quadrants and identify which quadrant your activities would fall into.

Quadrant I (The quadrant of necessity): Important and Urgent

Only crisis activities should be here. If you have included exams and papers here, you are probably not allowing yourself enough time to fully prepare. If you continue at this pace you could burn out!

Quadrant II (The quadrant of quality and personal leadership): Important and Not Urgent

This is where you define your priorities. What’s important in your life? What will keep you balanced? For example, you may know that good nutrition, sleep, recreation and maintaining healthy social relationships are important but do you consciously make time for them in your daily or weekly routine? Quadrant II includes your “A” goals. Managing your life and the lifestyle will help you manage your time.

Quadrant III (The quadrant of deception): Not Important and Urgent

While you may feel that activities, such as texting, need your attention right away, too much time spent on Quadrant III activities can seriously reduce valuable study time. This may leave you feeling pulled in too many directions at once.

Quadrant IV (The quadrant of waste): Not Important and Not Urgent

Quadrants three and four include your “C” goals. If you’re spending many hours on Quadrant IV activities, you’re either having a great deal of fun or spending a lot of time procrastinating! Remember, the objective is balance. You may notice I placed social media and texting into this category. You could make a case that social media, texting, Netflix, and Youtube are important, but how often are they urgent? Ultimately, it is up to you to decide what is important and urgent for yourself, but for the context of this textbook, your classes, assignments, preparation, and studying should almost universally be more urgent and important than social media and texting.

Here is an adapted version of the matrix, with an emphasis on quadrant II.

By Rorybowman – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2135450

Conclusion

Managing time well comes down to two things. One is identifying (and then prioritizing) goals and the other is having the discipline to be able to work towards accomplishing them. We all have the same amount of time in a day, week, month and year, yet some people are able to accomplish more than others. Why is this? Often, it is because they are able to set goals, prioritize them and then work on them relentlessly and effectively until they are complete.

Christopher L. Hockey

Dave Dillon

“You cannot hoot with the owls and then soar with the eagles.”

– Hubert Humphrey

There is a difference between a goal and a wish. A goal is something that requires action to complete. A wish is something we simply hope will happen without doing anything to achieve it. Students often confuse goals with wishes due to the expected probability of the outcome. For example, a student might say that owning a Ferrari or becoming a movie star were wishes, not goals, because the chance of them happening is slim. We could debate about realistic goals for a long time, but for the purpose of this lesson, the probability of a goal is irrelevant. Think of it like this: the chances of winning the lottery may in fact be slim, but we have no chance to win the lottery if we do not purchase a ticket. Purchasing a ticket requires action, and that distinguishes a difference between a goal and a wish.

When we apply this to education, there are many areas that require action in order to be successful. If I wish for good grades, but spend my time at parties instead of studying, I may not get my wish. But if my goal is to attain good grades, and I take action to achieve them by studying, reviewing, being prepared, etc., then I am much more likely to accomplish my goal.

“Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.”

– Michael Jordan

Author’s Story

I had a friend in college who wanted to be a professional athlete. He would talk about it all the time and say that it was his goal. He was a student-athlete but he loved Carl’s Jr. and ate there frequently. He rarely worked out. Over time, I started to think—if he really wanted to be a professional athlete, in order to give himself the best opportunity to make it, he should exercise more and eat a more nutritional diet. It occurred to me years later that he said it was his goal but in reality, it was a wish. He hoped that he would just magically become a professional athlete one day but was unwilling to take the action necessary to help him achieve his goal.

One of the challenges many students face is being over committed. Some are working full-time, going to school full-time, and have other responsibilities as well. Students may additionally be taking care of children, siblings, parents or have other commitments. It can be difficult to take action to complete goals when there are so many areas competing for our time. And sometimes we cannot “do it all.” Sometimes we need to prioritize, let something go, adjust and reevaluate what the most important things are to us.

Other students may struggle because college does not have as much structure as what they may have been used to in high school. Why should I start a homework assignment now when I don’t have anything I have to do for the next three days? This mindset usually leads to the student waiting until the last minute to start the assignment and as a result, the quality of work is not high.

Procrastination

“Do or do not – there is no try.”

– Yoda

Either a homework assignment gets done on time or it doesn’t. Over the years I have seen a lot of excuses from students who didn’t complete their assignment on time. Think about this: If someone were to give you $500 to complete the assignment on time, would you complete it sooner than you ordinarily would have? What level is your internal motivation? How important is the assignment to you? How important is your grade? How important is your class?

Procrastination is the act of putting something off. It’s doing something that’s a low priority instead of doing something that is a high priority. We all procrastinate sometimes. But when we procrastinate on an assignment or studying for an exam until there is little or no time left, our grades suffer and it can be stressful. Learning about why we procrastinate can help us overcome.

Reasons We Procrastinate

I don’t feel like it. I would rather play a video game, watch TV, hang out with friends, sleep, etc. than start my assignment. (The problem is – you might never feel like starting it.)

Perfectionism. I want to do it perfectly and there is not enough time to do it perfectly so I am not going to do it at all.

Fear of success. If I study my tail off and I earn an A on an exam, people will start to expect that I will get A’s all of the time.

Fear of failure. Without confidence, I can’t do the assignment well, no matter how much time or effort I put into it.

“If we are not prepared to fail, we will never create anything original.”

– Sir Ken Robinson

These reasons have been keeping some students from completing assignments and studying for exams. Do you procrastinate? Why?

Whatever the reason may be, procrastination is not a good idea. It often leads to stress. It can be stressful in trying to complete something if we have left it to the last minute. It can be stressful to know that we didn’t submit work that was our best. And stress can take a toll on the health of our bodies.

There are many examples of how American society realizes that people procrastinate. FedEx is built on the fact that people need something immediately and in many cases, they have procrastinated past when regular mail would have gotten it there on time. Post offices stay open later on Tax Day because they know people procrastinated getting their taxes done. Stores offer sales days before Christmas because they know people have procrastinated their Christmas shopping.

So how do we avoid procrastination?

Tell yourself to do your best all of the time. Ask yourself what is important NOW. Other peoples’ expectations of you shouldn’t matter. Be confident in yourself and in your abilities. Do the best you can and be satisfied with your effort. Realize that we’re not perfect. Make your goal to do your best and understand you don’t need to be perfect. Also, realize that you may never “feel like” doing an assignment or studying for an exam.

Get Started. It is the hardest part to do and will have the biggest effect on defeating procrastination. It can be simple: skim the chapter you have to read, think of a title for your paper or schedule an hour for when you will study. The rest of it will be easier once you get started.

Establish and rely on a process. Figure out what works best for you. Take some time to make a plan, list, or outline that allows you to see what you will do and when to complete your assignment or goal. It might be setting aside time early in the morning or waiting to watch a movie until after you’ve finished an assignment. Set your priorities and stick to them.

Set Imaginary Deadlines. If the paper is due in six days, tell yourself it is due in two days. Knock it out early and then enjoy not having it over your head. Fake deadlines are less stressful. And if you do end up needing more time, you have a cushion.

Don’t Break the Chain. Jerry Seinfeld developed a system to help prevent procrastination. He wanted to be a better comedian and believed that writing better jokes would help. To write better jokes, he thought he should write every day. His system, called Don’t Break the Chain was used to motivate himself to write every day. He started with a big wall calendar with a whole year on a page and a red marker. For each day he wrote, he would place a big red X on that day of the calendar. After a few consecutive days, he had a chain. And then the task became not breaking the chain.

Although originally skeptical, I tried it (with exercise), and found it to work. I liked marking the big red X and I liked seeing a long string of big red X’s after a few weeks. I still use this strategy and find myself much more motivated to not break the chain than to go for a run, swim, or to the gym. If there is something you want to practice every day, try it.

“If you eat a frog first thing in the morning, the rest of your day will be wonderful.”

– Mark Twain

I don’t suggest that you go out and eat a frog, but the point Twain makes is paramount to overcoming procrastination. He meant if you have to do something you don’t want to, the best thing to do is do it right away: get it over with as soon as possible then move on to enjoy the things you want to do.

This might be true of going to the dentist, making a phone call you don’t want to make, or doing your homework.

Tim Urban’s Ted Talk shines a light on procrastination.

Video: Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator, Tim Urban TED Talk

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Estimating Task Time

One of the biggest challenges I see college students have is accurately estimating how much time it will take to complete a task. We might think we’re going to be able to read an assigned chapter in an hour. But what if it takes three hours to read and understand the chapter? Having the skill to know how long a homework assignment will take is something that can be developed. But until we can anticipate it accurately, it is best to leave some time in our schedule in case it takes longer than we had anticipated.

We have a limited amount of time. Most of us cannot complete everything we wish to complete—either in a day or in a lifetime. We hear people say, “I wish there was more time” or “If there was more time, I would have done this.” We have enough time to do many of the things we wish to do. People run into difficulty when they spend time on things that are not the most important things for them.

“There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.”

– Bill Watterson

Author’s Story

I used to say to myself that I would do this or finish that as soon as I got caught up. “Caught up” might apply to my e-mail inbox, keeping current with my twitter timeline, or watching the latest episode of The Walking Dead. But I found that sometimes I was never going to be caught up. So, it was important for me to realize that I was inadvertently placing quadrant III and IV activities ahead of quadrant I and II activities. Worse, I was justifying them by telling myself I would do the I and II activities once the III and IV activities were finished. I corrected this by refocusing on quadrant I and II and constantly reminding myself not to concentrate too much time on the things that are neither urgent nor important.

Time Management Strategies

Laura Vanderkam’s TED Talk helps with perspective on free time.

Video: How to Gain Control of Your Free Time, Laura Vanderkam TED Talk

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You must make time for the things that are most important to you. In order to make time, you may need to decide you will not do something else.

The ability to say “no” cannot be underestimated. It isn’t easy to say “no,” especially to family, friends and people that like you and whom you like. Most of us don’t want to say “no,” especially when we want to help. But if we always do what others want, we won’t accomplish the things that we want—the things that are most important to us.

Ask yourself:

What am I doing that doesn’t need to be done?

What can I do more efficiently?

Have you ever ordered an appetizer, salad, beverage or bread, then felt full halfway through your entree? In situations like this many people claim, “my eyes were bigger than my stomach.” This is also true with planning and goal setting. It may be that your plan is bigger than the day. Experiment with what you want to accomplish and what is realistic. The better you can accurately predict what you can and will accomplish and how long it will take, the better you can plan, and the more successful you will be.

Phyllis Nissila

World View

The world in eye (memo) by colorlight4 CC BY NC ND

The term procrastination comes from Middle French and Latin and, of course, means putting something off until later.

It is hardly necessary to define this common problem at school–and everywhere else–in any language, however. We all know what it is. We all do it, and we’ve all suffered to some extent because of it (missed deadlines tend to make instructors–and bosses–crabby).

But here is a problem: some people procrastinate more than others. And NOT just because they are lazy, disorganized, unmotivated, or confused about what to do. Those might be the surface assumptions and sometimes true, but at other times, or perhaps beneath what appear to be the behaviors listed above, defeating habits like procrastination have to do with deeper issues, maybe beliefs and thought patterns such as:

• “What’s the use if I get this done, or not?”
• “I do better under stress, so leaving things until the last minute actually helps me.”
• “I’m just naturally disorganized.”
• “I never manage to do anything on time. I’ve always been that way!”

This is why this chapter begins with “foundational issues,” perspectives, and beliefs about ourselves such as our world view that operates at the bottom of our pile of motivations, and our sense of self-efficacy (or lack thereof) that generates thoughts that either work for or against us when it comes to successfully managing time, tools, and environments of learning. Self-efficacy is one’s sense of being able to achieve goals.

First, here is a look at world view, a concept some experts put at the foundational level of how we think and perceive the world. On top of our world view, so to speak, and as a result of it, are our beliefs. And on top of beliefs lay our conscious-level feelings and thoughts.

Our world view, as researcher F. Heylighen defines it, is “a framework that ties everything together, that allows us to understand society, the world, and our place in it, and that could help us to make the critical decisions which will shape our future.” In his article, What is a world view? Heylighen, citing the work of Belgian philosopher Leo Apostel, lists seven basic components of a person’s world view:

1. A model of the world (how the world functions/how it is structured)
2. Explanation (of the model)
3. Futurology (where are we going?)
4. Values (good/evil)
5. Action (plans of action based on our values)
6. Knowledge (true and false)
7. Building Blocks (what fragments of others’ world views helped us shape ours)

These components cover the fundamental questions about existence that human beings find themselves mulling over in time, questions that ultimately guide beliefs, thoughts, and feelings.

The exercise below is based on Heylighen’s article. Whereas this exercise is not a “personal inventory” per se, it has value in guiding the learner to discovering, perhaps, some foundational issues that can hinder a successful approach to overcoming non-productive actions and habits such as procrastination.

For example, if a person has a world view that is post-modern, he/she views the world with a heavy dose of skepticism and distrust of ideologies, rationality, and absolute truth. Therefore, it might be easy to subscribe to a “What’s the use?” thought and feeling when it comes to academic and work-world norms such as being on time and getting one’s work done.

Note: It is not necessary, however, to know precisely which world view one has been influenced by to complete the exercise. Indeed, most people more or less absorb their world views from parents, institutions, and the culture in which they grew up. The value in knowing such information about oneself is in understanding how to deal with certain attitudes and beliefs that work against successful learning, and success in life in general. It is also valuable to know what has contributed to successful attitudes and beliefs so that these can be affirmed and reinforced for future success.

Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy, or one’s sense of being able to achieve goals, is an essential ingredient in a learner’s ability to succeed. Thoughts and feelings on this topic, which stem from one’s beliefs (remember the pyramid illustration) contribute to more, or less, success.

A key element of self-efficacy is the concept of locus of control. As the definition indicates, the locus, or place, of control is usually either internal or external, but sometimes it is both.

Obviously if a person believes that he/she is in control of situations and outcomes (an internal locus) achieving goals is more likely. If a person believes he/she is controlled by external forces, achieving goals is less likely. But everyone experiences both internal and external forces for various reasons. For example, choosing to do the right thing on the job is based on the external control of workplace rules. Yet, one might apply for the job based on one’s internal belief that he/she can succeed. And both internal and external loci of control are in operation when one chooses to do the right thing at any time based on one’s religious beliefs.

For a more detailed explanation and the relationship of self-efficacy to locus of control, complete this exercise.

Phyllis Nissila

Following the introduction to procrastination in the Time Management Reality chapter, this chapter provides a deeper dive into understanding procrastination and finding solutions for it.

“Do it now” by Maklay62 is in the Public Domain, CC0

Complete the exercise below to help you solve what is arguably the number one detriment to effective learning at school, home, and/or on the job (aka procrastination).

As promised above, let’s get started with some immediate solutions as well as some perspectives that might, in time, help you adjust your thoughts and feelings regarding procrastination.

Yuki Sasao

Dave Dillon, Phyllis Nissila

“If you study to remember, you will forget, but, if you study to understand, you will remember.”

– Unknown

I often start this section of my class with a question: Why do some students earn good grades and others do not? Answers vary. Students with poor grades have said students with good grades are born book smart. Students with good grades answer that studying and hard work got them there. What do you think?

Everyone likes to earn an A grade. Despite the stigma of being a “nerd,” it feels good to receive good grades. Take pride in your preparation, take pride in your studying, and take pride in your accomplishments.

I have also noticed over the years with my classes that students know many things they need to do in order to achieve good grades – they just don’t always perform them.

Be Prepared for Each Class

Complete your assigned reading ahead of the deadline. Follow the syllabus so that you’ll have familiarity with what the instructor is speaking about. Bring your course syllabus, textbook, notebook and any handouts or other important information for each particular class along with a pen and a positive attitude. Become interested in what the instructor has to say. Be eager to learn. Sleep adequately the night before class and ensure you do not arrive to class on an empty stomach. Many courses, both in person and online, use digital platforms called Learning Management Systems (LMS). Examples of these are Canvas, Blackboard, and Moodle. It is important for students to check their e-mail regularly as well as Announcements or notifications from their instructor through the LMS.

Attend Every Class

Attending each and every class requires a lot of self-discipline and motivation. Doing so will help you remain engaged and involved in course topics, provide insight into what your instructor deems most important, allow you to submit work and receive your graded assignments and give you the opportunity to take quizzes or exams that cannot be made up.

Missing class is a major factor in students dropping courses or receiving poor grades. In addition, students attempting to make up the work from missing class often find it overwhelming. It’s challenging to catch up if we get behind.

Sit Front and Center

Author’s Story

Full disclosure: I loved to sit in the back of the classroom when I was in college. I felt more comfortable back there. I didn’t want to make eye contact with my instructor. I didn’t want to be called on. But I learned that if I wanted to give myself the best opportunity to see, hear, understand and learn, then I needed to sit in the front and center. And in order to make sure I sat in the front and center, I needed to arrive to my classes early.

I instruct my students to “Sit wherever you want — sit where you are most comfortable.” But I also ask them that if they were to attend a concert for their favorite artist, where would they like to be? It’s always right in front of the stage, because the best experience is closest to the band. That’s why front-and-center tickets are the most expensive. There are some reasons sitting in the back works for some students. But you run the risk of sitting behind someone you cannot see over. And if you’re sitting in the back so that you can send text messages without being seen, work on something else or so that you can disengage (not pay attention without the instructor noticing), then you’re sitting in the back for the wrong reasons. Rather than hiding, you want to create the best learning environment, from seeing and hearing perspectives.

Take Notes in Class

Hermann Ebbinghaus, a German psychologist, scientifically studied how people forget in the late 1800’s. He is known for his experiments using himself as a subject and tested his memory learning nonsense syllables. One of his famous results, known as the forgetting curve, shows how much information is forgotten quickly after it is learned. Without reviewing, we will forget. Since we forget 42% of the information we take in after only 20 minutes (without review), it is imperative to take notes to remember.

Take Notes When You Are Reading

For the same reason as above, it is helpful to take notes while you are reading to maximize memorization. Sometimes called Active Reading, the goal is to stay focused on the material and to be able to refer back to notes made while reading to improve retention and study efficiency. Don’t make the mistake of expecting to remember everything you are reading. Taking notes when reading requires effort and energy. Be willing to do it and you’ll reap the benefits later.

Know What the Campus Resources Are and Where They Are, and Use Them

There are many campus resources at your college or university and it’s likely that they are underutilized because students don’t know they exist, where they are or that most of them are free. Find out what is available to you by checking your school’s website for campus resources or student services, or talk to a counselor about what resources may be helpful for you. Check to see where your campus has resources for Counseling, Tutoring, Writing assistance, a Library, Admissions and Records (or Registrar’s), Financial Aid, Health Center, Career Center, Disability Support Services, and other support services.

Read and Retain Your Syllabus

In addition to acting as a contract between the instructor and you, the syllabus is also often the source of information for faculty contact information, textbook information, classroom behavior expectations, attendance policy and course objectives. Some students make the mistake of stuffing the syllabus in their backpack when they receive it on the first day of class and never take a look at it again. Those who clearly read it, keep it for reference and review it frequently find themselves more prepared for class. If there is something in the syllabus you don’t understand, ask your instructor about it before class, after class or during their office hours.

Place Your Assignments on Your Master Calendar and Create Plans for Completing Them Before They Are Due

Remember the story about the sticky notes? Place all of your assignments for all of your classes with their due dates in your calendar, planner, smart phone or whatever you use for organization. Successful students will also schedule when to start those assignments and have an idea of how long it will take to complete them.

Complete All of Your Assignments

There will be things that you are more interested in doing than your assignments and unexpected life happenings that will come up. Students who earn good grades have the motivation and discipline to complete all of their assignments.

Have Someone Read Your Papers Before You Submit Them

You might be surprised to learn how many students turn in papers with spelling, grammar and punctuation errors that could have been easily corrected by using a spellchecker program or having someone read your paper. Many schools offer writing centers or tutors who will read your paper and give feedback, make suggestions, and help shape ideas. Take advantage of these services if they are offered. Another strategy is to read your paper aloud to yourself. You may catch errors when you read aloud that you might not catch when reading your writing. Remember that it is always the students’ responsibility to have papers proofread, not someone else’s.

Ask Questions

Many students feel like they are the only one that has a question or the only one that doesn’t understand something in class. I encourage you to ask questions during class, especially if your instructor encourages them. If not, make the effort to ask your questions before or after class or during your instructors’ office hours.

If you take a class offered online, I suggest asking a lot of questions via the preferred method your instructor recommends. Since the delivery method is different to what most students are used to, I believe it is natural for students in online courses to have more questions. Online students may ask questions to understand the material and to be able to successfully navigate through the course content.

Inside information: I expect students to ask questions for both in person and online courses I teach.

Complete All Assigned Reading at The Time It Is Assigned

College courses have much more assigned reading than what most high school students are accustomed to, and it can take a while to become comfortable with the workload. Some students fall behind early in keeping up with the reading requirements and others fail to read it at all. You will be most prepared for your class and for learning if you complete the reading assigned before your class. Staying on top of your syllabus and class calendar will help you be aware of your reading assignment deadlines. There is a difference in assigned reading between high school and college. In high school, if a teacher gave a handout to read in class, students would often read it during class to prepare to participate in a class discussion. In college, more reading is assigned with the expectation it will be done outside of the classroom. It is a big adjustment students need to make in order to be successful.

Study Groups

It has been my observation that one of the recent generational differences is that students study less in groups than they used to. My advice for you is to study in the environment that works best for you, but ensure that you try a study group, especially if you are taking a class in a subject in which you are not strong. Study groups can allow for shared resources, new perspectives, answers for questions, faster learning, increased confidence, and increased motivation.

EXERCISE 20-1

PART A: Study Area–Help Tran

Create a plan for Tran, on how to organize a study area in her busy home where she lives with six members of her family.

Tran is a first year college student from Vietnam. She has been in the U.S. with her family for three years and recently passed the English Language Learner classes at the topmost level, so now she looks forward to pursuing her degree in Business Management.

She lives with six other family members, her mother, father, grandmother, and three younger siblings aged 14, 12, and 9. Their home is located right next door to the family restaurant. This makes it convenient for Tran and her parents to work their regular shifts and to fill in if one or the other is ill. Tran is also responsible at times to help her younger siblings with their homework and/or take them to school and other activities if her parents are busy. This usually occurs at peak times for customers in the restaurant. Her grandmother helps out when she can but arthritis flare-ups prevent her from working as much as she would like.

Tran does have a small bedroom to herself, but it also sometimes serves as a storage room for restaurant supplies, mostly paper goods, so it can get crowded.

She is anticipating setting up an effective homework/study area for what she knows will soon become more of an intensive course load.

EXERCISE 20-2

PART B: Study Group–Help The Athletes

Jeb, Andrew, and Nelson are first year students at the university on sports scholarships: Jeb for basketball, Andrew for tennis, and Nelson for track and field. They share an apartment near the college sports complex. They are all taking Math 95 this term and realize that forming a study group as their instructor encouraged everyone to do would really help them, too.

One of the problems in getting a group going is that they are all big fans of ESPN and each one favors a different sport, so the television tends to be on long–and loud.

They also enjoy trying out all the restaurants in this southern city which is famous for having the best barbecue joints in the nation. They have calculated that there are at least seven restaurants nearby they want to get to know.

And then there are those campus parties on Friday and Saturday nights…

Although the men are highly motivated to eventually finish their degrees in business, culinary arts, and economics, they could use some advice on how to form a useful study group–and how to stick with it, particularly before their sports programs kick into high gear.

Review for Exams

Preparation for an exam should begin on the first day of class, not when the exam is announced nor the night before an exam. Review your notes frequently to keep material fresh in your head.

Schedule Time for Studying

It’s easy to put off studying if it’s not something we schedule. Block specific times and days for studying. Put the times on your calendar. Stick to the schedule.

Study In a Location and At a Time That Is Best for You

Some students study best in the morning and some at night. Some excel at a coffee shop, and others at the library. The place and time in which students often study is usually the most convenient for them. Students often find convenient places and times may also be full of distractions and thus are not good choices for them to study. It’s worth the effort to study at the time and place that will be most productive for you. For most students, it is best to turn off the cell phone and TV and to keep off the Internet (and social media) unless it directly relates to your work.

Tips for Effective, Individual Study Spaces

“Cluttered desk” by OpenClipart-Vectors is in the Public Domain, CC0

Most students more or less take what they can get when it comes to study areas. Schools usually offer a variety of nooks and crannies for students to hunker down and get their assignments done. The school library is a good (and quiet) place. Many common areas elsewhere on campus have tables, chairs, couches, and lounges to accommodate learners. But most students end up doing the majority of their out-of-class work at home.

Home environments may be limited in terms of providing all of the recommended aspects of a good study space, but many of the recommendations can be either implemented or adapted from what a student has on hand or what can be improvised no matter what environment he or she is living in. Elements conducive to a more effective study/homework experience include such things as good lighting, ample supplies, comfortable seating, adequate space, and personalizing the study area to add a touch of inspiration and motivation.

EXERCISE 20-3

PART A

Describe your current study area at home–the good, the bad, the ugly. Be thorough.

PART B

List as many ways you think you can realistically improve, change, (or start over…) your study area. Remember, you might not have the advantage of a whole room, or even a corner of a room, but there are still some changes you can make to create a more effective study environment.

Author’s Story

I did most of my studying in college in my dorm room, at my house, outside if it was a nice day or at a coffee shop. However, if there was something I knew I absolutely had to get done – read a chapter, finish a paper or complete my preparation for an exam, I would head to one place: McHenry library. It was what I call my go-to place. I was able to concentrate at a higher level there. I was able to block out all other distractions and just focus on the task at hand. You may be thinking: why didn’t he study there all the time? Sometimes it wasn’t convenient. And sometimes it wasn’t necessary. I was able to become an expert on how well I needed to know something, and how much I could get done if I was at McHenry for a couple of hours. Note that I didn’t procrastinate and then try to cram everything in at McHenry. Rather I would place the finishing touches on what had already been studied or worked on.

Don’t Do Anything Academically “Half-assed”

Half-assed is defined as poorly or incompetently done.

Think of it this way: You’ve made the decision to come to college. You’re investing time, energy and money into your commitment. Why would you want to half-ass it? Students who miss class, turn in work late or wait until the last minute are half-assing it. Make college a priority and do your best in all of your college work and preparation.

Apply these basic principles and you will be giving yourself the best opportunity to achieve success. And I’ll let you in on a little secret: apply this to all aspects not just academics and you’ll find success in life!

Dr. Andrew Robert Baker

Phyllis Nissila

“Books” by Hermann is in the Public Domain, CC0

Most students entering college have not yet dealt with the level of difficulty involved in reading–and comprehending–scholarly textbooks and articles. The challenge may even surprise some who have pretty good reading and comprehension skills so far. Other students for whom reading has mostly consisted of social media, texts, forum chat rooms, and emails, find they are intimidated by the sheer amount of reading there is in college classes.

Phyllis Nissila

Reading Textbooks: Front and Back Matter

“Books” by Clker-Free-Vector-Images is in the Public Domain, CC0

Before diving into every line of text in a textbook reading assignment, it is helpful–and saves time–to find out, first, what resources the entire book has to offer you. Then, as those chapter readings are assigned, it helps to first skim read them for the big picture meaning.

The first exercise in this chapter will help you find all the resources in your textbook–and some textbooks have a lot more help in the front matter and back matter of the text than you may realize. I always think of one student who, when given this exercise to use on any textbook he had with him, picked his math book. He was at that time re-taking that math class because he had failed it the term before. As he did the exercise, he realized the back matter of the book included an answer key for half of the problems for every exercise. “Had I known this last term,” he said, “I would have passed!” See if you, too, find something useful in your textbook that perhaps you didn’t know was there, either.

The Exercises in this chapter cover strategies for skim reading specific chapters and a strategy for getting the most out of graphics included in textbooks.

Skim Reading Textbook Chapters

Before doing a detailed reading of a textbook chapter, get the big picture by following these steps:

• Similar to reading the Table of Contents for the entire book, read the Introduction or Chapter Overview, whichever the textbook features, for the main ideas and how they are divided.
• Read the headings and sub-headings.
• Note the graphics (charts, tables, illustrations, etc.).
• Read the first one or two sentences in the paragraphs (the paragraph topic is sometimes covered in more than one sentence).
• Read the last sentence in each paragraph which might be a paragraph summary.
• Read the summary of the entire chapter, if given.
• Read any sentence with boldface or italicized words or word groups in it (usually key ideas or technical terms).
• Stop when needed if you come across a complicated idea or topic and take a little more time to skim it until you understand it.
• Skim the study questions, too. They will help you focus on key points.

Reading Graphics

“Statistic” by JuralMin is in the Public Domain, CC0

Listed below are various types of data found on most graphics, whether a pie chart, bar graph, line chart, or other type.

The key to comprehending graphics and using them to get more meaning from a textbook chapter or an article, or to answer study questions, is to pay close attention to the typical elements of the graphic. Not every graphic includes all of the elements listed.

1. Title
2. Captions
3. Legend
4. Axis information (vertical information, or “Y” data, and horizontal information, or “X” data)
5. Publication date (important for the most current information)
6. Publisher (important for credibility)
7. Labels
8. Color (used to differentiate and compare data)
9. Size (also used to represent comparisons)
10. Spatial positions (helps for comparing and contrasting)
11. Patterns represented by the content, itself, and
12. Trends that appear more evident when viewing the visual representation of the data.

It is easy to overlook all of the information present in a graphic, so give yourself enough time to note all the elements and their meanings before answering questions about them. This exercise offers some practice.

Dave Dillon

Practice

If you want to be a better swimmer, you practice. If you want to be a better magician, you practice. If you want to be a better reader, you practice. I encourage you to read. Read, read, read. Read newspapers. Read magazines. Read books. Use your library card (get one if you don’t have one). Read blogs. Read tweets. Read Wikipedia articles. Read about history, politics, world leaders, current events, sports, art, music—whatever interests you. Why? Because the more you read, the better reader you become. And because the more you read, the more knowledge you will have. That is an important piece in learning and understanding. When we are learning new information, it’s easier to learn if we have some kind of background knowledge about it.

Background Knowledge

In their book, Content Area Reading: Literacy and Learning Across the Curriculum, Vacca and Vacca postulate that a student’s prior knowledge is “the single most important resource in learning with texts.”Richard T. Vacca and Jo Anne L. Vacca, Content Area Reading: Literacy and Learning across the Curriculum, 6th ed. (Menlo Park, CA: Longman, 1999).

Reading and learning are processes that work together. Students draw on prior knowledge and experiences to make sense of new information. “Research shows that if learners have advanced knowledge of how the information they’re about to learn is organized — if they see how the parts relate to the whole before they attempt to start learning the specifics — they’re better able to comprehend and retain the material.”Joe Cuseo, Viki Fecas and Aaron Thompson, Thriving in College AND Beyond: Research-Based Strategies for Academic Success and Personal Development, (Dubuque, IA: Kendal Hunt Publishing, 2010), 115.

For example, you are studying astronomy and the lecture is about Mars. Students with knowledge of what Mars looks like, or how it compares in size to other planets or any information about Mars will help students digest new information and connect it to prior knowledge. The more you read, the more background knowledge you have, and the better you will be able to connect information and learn. “Content overlap between text and knowledge appears to be a necessary condition for learning from text.”W. Kintsch, “Text Comprehension, Memory, and Learning,” American Psychologist 49 no. 4 (1994): 294-303, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.49.4.294.

There are a lot of recent advances in technology that have made information more accessible to us. Use this resource! If you are going to read a chemistry textbook, experiment with listening or watching a podcast or a YouTube video on the subject you are studying. Ask your instructor if they recommend specific websites for further understanding.

The Seven Reading Principles

Read the assigned material. I know this sounds like a no-brainer, but you might be surprised to learn how many students don’t read the assigned material. Often, it takes longer to read the material than had been anticipated. Sometimes it is not interesting material to us and we procrastinate reading it. Sometimes we’re busy and it is just not a priority. It makes it difficult to learn the information your instructor wants you to learn if you do not read about it before coming to class.

Read it when assigned. This is almost as big of a problem for students as the first principle. You will benefit exponentially from reading assignments when they are assigned (which usually means reading them before the instructor lectures on them). If there is a date for a reading on your syllabus, finish reading it before that date. The background knowledge you will attain from reading the information will help you learn and connect information when your instructor lectures on it, and it will leave you better prepared for class discussions. Further, if your instructor assigns you 70 pages to read by next week, don’t wait until the night before to read it all. Break it down into chunks. Try scheduling time each day to read 10 or so pages. It takes discipline and self-control but doing it this way will make understanding and remembering what you read much easier.

Take notes when you read. You may recall Hermann Ebbinghaus’ research from a previous chapter. He determined that 42% of information we take in is lost after only 20 minutes without review. For the same reasons that it’s important to take notes during lectures, it’s important to take notes when you are reading. Your notes will help you concentrate, remember and review.

Relate the information to you. We remember information that we deem is important. The strategy then is to make what you are studying important to you. Find a way to directly relate what you are studying to something in your life. Sometimes it is easy and sometimes it is not. But if your attitude is “I will never use this information” and “it’s not important,” chances are good that you will not remember it.

Read with a dictionary or use an online dictionary. Especially with information that is new to us, we may not always recognize all the words in a textbook or their meanings. If you read without a dictionary and you don’t know what a word means, you probably still won’t know what it means when you finish reading. Students who read with a dictionary (or who look the word up online) expand their vocabulary and have a better understanding of the text. Take the time to look up words you do not know. Another strategy is to try to determine definitions of unknown words by context, thus eliminating the interruption to look up words.

Ask a classmate or instructor when you have questions or if there are concepts you do not understand. Visiting an instructor’s office hours is one of the most underutilized college resources. I think some students are shy about going, and I understand that, but ultimately, it’s your experience, and it’s up to you if you want to make the most of it. If you go, you will get answers to your questions; at the same time, you’ll demonstrate to your instructor that their course is important to you. Find out when your professor’s office hours are (they are often listed in the syllabus), ask before or after class or e-mail your professor to find out. Be polite and respectful.

Read it again. Some students will benefit from reading the material a second or third time as it allows them to better understand the material. The students who understand the material the best usually score the highest on exams. It may be especially helpful to reread the chapter just after the instructor has lectured on it.

Strategies To Think About When You Open Your Textbook

Preview: Look at what you are reading and how it is connected with other areas of the class. How does it connect with the lecture? How does it connect with the course description? How does it connect with the syllabus or with a specific assignment? What piece of the puzzle are you looking at and how does it fit into the whole picture? If your textbook has a chapter summary, reading it first may help you preview and understand what you are going to be reading.

Headings and designated words: Pay close attention to section headings and subheadings, and boldface, underlined or italicized words and sentences. There is a reason why these are different than regular text. The author feels they are more important and so should you.

Highlighting: Highlighting is not recommended because there is not evidence supporting it helps students with reading comprehension or higher test scores.Lucy Cui, “MythBusters: Highlighting Helps Me Study,” Psychology in Action, accessed April 27, 2018, https://www.psychologyinaction.org/psychology-in-action-1/2018/1/8/mythbusters-highlighting-helps-me-study.

Pace: One of the biggest challenges I see students have with reading is accurately assessing how long it will take to read what is assigned. In many cases, it’s important to break the information up in chunks rather than to try and read it all at once. If you procrastinate and leave it until the day before it needs to be read, and then find out it will take you longer than you anticipate, it causes problems. One strategy that works well for many students is to break the information up equally per day and adjust accordingly if it takes longer than you had thought. Accurately estimating how much time it will take to practice the seven reading principles applied to your reading assignments is a skill that takes practice.

It’s Not All Equal

Keep in mind that the best students develop reading skills that are different for different subjects. The main question you want to ask yourself is: Who are you reading for? And what are the questions that drive the discipline? We read different things for different purposes. Reading texts, blogs, leisure books and textbooks are all different experiences, and we read them with different mindsets and different strategies. The same is true for textbooks in different areas. Reading a mathematics textbook is going to be different than reading a history textbook, a psychology textbook, a Spanish textbook or a criminal justice textbook. Further, students may be assigned to read scientific journals or academic articles often housed in college libraries’ online databases. Scholarly articles require a different kind of reading and librarians are a resource for how to find and read this kind of information. Applying the principles in this chapter will help with your reading comprehension, but it’s important to remember that you will need to develop specific reading skills most helpful to the particular subject you are studying.

Phyllis Nissila

Context Clues

Besides clues to help you determine the pattern or genre of a reading selection, there are clues to help you figure out the meaning of specific words that are unfamiliar to you. Here are the five most common:

1. Definition/Explanation Clues: sometimes the meaning of a word or phrase is given right after its use.
   Example: Taxidermy, the art of preparing, stuffing, and mounting the skins of animals (especially vertebrates) for display or for other sources of study, is popular among museum curators.
2. Restatement/Synonym Clues: sometimes a word is presented in a simpler way.
   Example: Stuffing dead animals has been a dream of Stedman Nimblebody, author of  Taxidermy Through the Ages, ever since his pet snake died when Steddie was six years old. He still misses Mr. Scaly Face.
3. Contrast/Antonym Clues: sometimes the meaning of a word is clarified by presenting a word or phrase opposite of its meaning.
   Example: Little Steddie wanted to visit the Taxidermy Museum but the rest of the family preferred a trip to the Zoo to see live animals.
4. Inference/General Context Clues: sometimes the meaning of a word or phrase is in the surrounding sentences, or must be inferred or implied by the general meaning of a selection.
   Example: When Steddie finally got the chance to visit the Taxidermy Museum, he was very excited. He even found a stuffed snake that looked exactly like Mr. Scaly Face! “Just think,” he exclaimed to his parents, “If Mr. Scaly Face was stuffed, I could still tease the cat and the dog with him!”
5. Punctuation: the correct use of punctuation helps a reader get the meaning of a term, phrase, or thought. Likewise, incorrectly placed or missing punctuation sometimes gives an entirely different and incorrect meaning across.
   Example:
   Missing punctuation: Is it time to eat Grandma?
   Corrected: Is it time to eat, Grandma?

Close Reading

“Books” by Wokandapix is in the Public Domain, CC0

In addition to using reading comprehension skills such as predicting, visualizing, “talking to the text,” skimming a textbook before reading, and noting context clues, another strategy called “close reading” is helpful. This is popular with literature professors; however, the skills involved in close reading are applicable to any complex reading assignment.

Since this kind of comprehension starts with knowing nothing about the elements of a story, novel, poem, or essay, I stand with my arms spread wide.

I then discuss, briefly, each element of a work starting with the title as a place to begin comprehension, while slowly moving my arms toward one another, a few inches per element.

Titles, for starters, particularly of non-fiction works, usually tell you precisely what the main idea, or thesis, is. For example, a book about “The History of the Roman Empire” usually gives you just that–the history of the Roman Empire.

This is not usually true, however, for works of fiction, for which inference is the key to comprehension. For example, “Story of an Hour,” by Kate Chopin, while it might seem to be something about time, also suggests it is about something other than a clock ticking away seconds and minutes, and indeed it is.

I next add the author, as this might aid comprehension. For example, most students are familiar with Stephen King, who writes in the horror genre. Knowing this element brings the arms in a bit closer as the reader will know to anticipate (and predict) a horror story with a lot of plot twists and turns in some horrible ways. Prediction has begun.

Next, I briefly discuss how knowing about the remaining elements – plot, characters, and setting – help the reader close in on meaning enough to be able to discuss the theme or themes of the work with reasonable evidence to support one’s conclusion.

This visual of the arms getting closer together can continue through a discussion of close reading of small passages, individual sentences, and even specific words. Each level of careful attention and thought helps a reader “read between the lines” when meaning is not overtly stated, when themes are inferred rather than explained outright.

Phyllis Nissila

Non-Verbal Communication

When we think about listening we think about, well, hearing sounds via the ears. However, when it comes to listening in order to pick up key points for note-taking, it takes more than just hearing. In this case, it takes a “critical ear,” that is, absorbing key points by noticing not only the words spoken, but also by noting tones, volume, and even the body language that goes along. Additionally, being an active listener increases a note-taker’s chances of getting the information needed. Exercise 1 illustrates common non-verbal communication.

EXERCISE 26-1

PART A

List as  many non-verbal, emotional cues as you can by studying the faces in the pictures below.

“Universal Emotions” by Icerko Lýdia is licensed under CC BY 3.0

 

PART B

The image below illustrates non-verbal body language. Describe a few poses or body movements one or more of your teachers now, or from the past, takes or has taken that communicates: pay closer attention. It might be from these examples, or something quite different. For example, an instructor might move close to the front row and fold his/her arms to indicate that what he or she will be saying is of a more serious nature. For another example, if he or she moves toward the white board to write something, it’s probably key information.

“Men Silhouette” by geralt is in the Public Domain, CC0

Active Listening

In previous units, we covered ways that students can actively engage in the learning process in order to get the most out of their education. There are ways to actively listen as well, in order to get the most out of lectures and, more importantly, take all of the notes that might be required. The video in the next exercise covers several active listening strategies along with why we sometimes have difficulty listening.

EXERCISE 26-2

PART A

Watch the TED talk below and answer the following questions:

Video: 5 Ways to Listen Better, Julian Treasure at TED Global 2011

A TED element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: https://press.rebus.community/blueprint2/?p=126

1. What 3 types of listening does the speaker discuss?
2. How and why have we been “losing our ability to listen,” as the speaker suggests? He cites 5 ways.
3. What are the 5 tools we can use to listen better?

PART B

Taking into consideration all of the activities in the exercises above, write a one-page (250-300 words) reflection on how you can use the information on non-verbal and listening skills to enhance both your ability to pay attention to lectures and to take better notes on them.

Perhaps the most useful learning tools of all are notes taken from both lectures and course materials. By annotating for key information, then condensing it, students create personalized summaries helpful for studying.

Often, students are unsure about what constitutes “key information.” Here is a list of items to highlight or annotate for in textbooks and a list of items to listen for in lectures.

Key Information in Textbooks

The following elements of a textbook chapter are especially important in helping you discern key information:

• Introductions
• Summaries
• Study questions
• Topic sentences (as the speaker in the video on “Skim Reading,” exercise 3.2, also in Lesson 3.2 notes: sometimes the reader has to read the first two or even three sentences of a paragraph or section to get the entire main topic).
• Anything that is bolded, or in some other way set off from the default print size and style. Sub-topic titles are good examples of this.
• “Side bars,” which are boxes of related information. These might include statistics, brief biographies of authors or persons of note related to the chapter content, price points on brochures for businesses, charts, graphs, photographs, and/or illustrations. They are typically a different color or in some other way set off for attention but not as the focal point of the text. Pay attention to the captions or legends that might accompany graphics. In this e-text, the exercises are set apart in side bars.
• Glossary terms that may be incorporated in the margins or otherwise set apart.
• Some textbooks include outlines of each chapter’s main points in the introductory section.

Key Information in Lectures

As the lecturer, live or video, presents the material, there are two types of key information cues to be aware of.

NONVERBAL CUES

A speaker will often have unique facial and body nonverbal cues that alert you to several things, as you learn to “read” your professor:

• Stances or movements that alert you to when he/she will shift to a different topic or subtopic.
• Other cues that alert you to when the information is of special significance (including verbal clues, below).

VERBAL CLUES

• Pay attention to when the speaker uses any of the transition clues used in reading comprehension.
• Many speakers also announce when they are adding information or changing topics in various other ways.

Dave Dillon

Phyllis Nissila and Dave Dillon

 

“Atkinson-Shiffrin model of memory” by OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Dave Dillon

concentration. n. exclusive attention to one object.

– dictionary.com

Where To Study

In order to study successfully, students must learn to concentrate at a high level. It is important to know where we study best. Some students study well at home. Other students study well at a library or coffee shop. There is no best for all. Your best environment is based on you and your preferences.

Watch this selective attention test video and see if you come up with the correct answer.

Video: Selective Attention Test, Daniel Simmons

A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: https://press.rebus.community/blueprint2/?p=304

When To Study

It is also important to know when we study best. Many students are most efficient studying in the morning when they are fresh. Studying late in the day may be the only option for some students but often we are tired at the end of the day, and this can have a major effect on study efficiency. Figuring out where and when we study best may take some time. And even when we find the best place and time to study, we also have to be aware of distractions, which can be internal or external.

Internal Distractions

An internal distraction includes thought processes, self-esteem, or confidence. It’s something that interrupts you from what you’re doing. It might also be a computer or cell phone – something that is controlled by you. Many students intend to study but easily get distracted with surfing the Internet, checking social media, watching YouTube videos, or receiving a text message. If you don’t absolutely need your computer or cell phone for your study, it is my suggestion to not bring them or turn them off. If you do study with your phone or computer, it is best to have all potential alerts turned off. Notifications of text messages, emails, or social media updates all can serve as a major distraction to your studying.

External Distractions

External distractions might be your roommates, family or friends. Even if they are supportive of your study, it may be challenging to concentrate when they are around. Saying “no” is an important skill that may need to be utilized in order for you to have your study time without interruption.

Keep in mind that it may take 20 minutes to reach a high level of concentration. When we are interrupted, it takes on average another 23 minutes to get back to the level of concentration that we were at prior to the disruption.Gloria Mark, Daniela Gudith, and Ulrich Kiocke, “The Cost of Interrupted Work: More Speed and Stress,” 2008, https://www.ics.uci.edu/~gmark/chi08-mark.pdf. If a student is studying for an hour and is interrupted twice, the consequence to study efficiency is devastating.

One way to try to monitor how many interruptions you incur and how well you maintain your level of concentration is to keep track of it. Take a blank piece of paper when you are studying and mark down each time you were interrupted.

Over time, with practice, you should be able to decrease the number of interruptions you incur. This will allow you to be most efficient when studying.

I always find it odd to think that before mobile phones, we invented the answering machine. Its purpose was to allow us to receive a message when someone called if we were not home or it was not convenient to answer the phone at the time. In contrast, text messaging is designed in most cases (user’s notification preferences) to interrupt us and alert us immediately that someone has contacted us. Whatever your opinion may be on this, my point is to tread cautiously when using technology that may be addicting and may frequently (consciously or unconsciously) distract you from studying and concentrating.

Author’s Story

When I was a first-year student in college, I lived in the dormitories and enjoyed socializing with my friends. I didn’t want to miss out on any social interaction opportunities, so I waited to study after everyone else was asleep. I regularly studied from midnight to two or three in the morning. I would not ordinarily suggest this for most students. It worked for me because I did not have any early morning classes or work. I took my classes in the late morning and afternoon, worked in the afternoon, and attended basketball practices in the afternoon or early evening. I was able to stay awake and concentrate well at that age and also be able to get adequate sleep. However, if I was studying for an exam or doing the heavy work on a paper, I would do it in the morning because that was when I concentrated the best. Now, almost two decades after college, as someone who works full time and takes care of two young children, there is no way I could stay up that late and be productive on a regular basis. It’s important to find out what works best for you, and it’s also important to understand how the environment you are in effects your concentration ability.

Multitasking

Millennials are considered extraordinary multitaskers, though brain science tells us that multitasking is a mythJim Taylor, “Technology: Myth of Multitasking,” 2011, Psychology Today, http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-power-prime/201103/technology-myth-multitasking.. More likely, they are apt to switch tasks quickly enough to appear to be doing them simultaneously. When it comes to heavy media multitasking, studies show greater vulnerability to interference, leading to decreased performanceEyal Ophir, Clifford Nass, and Anthony D. Wagner, “Cognitive Control in Media Multitaskers,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2009, http://www.pnas.org/content/106/37/15583.full..

My classes have had lively discussions on multitasking. Most of the time, I am able to convince students that multitasking is not a good idea for them. (There are always a few stubborn hold outs). Trying to do multiple things at the same time may seem like it may allow you to accomplish more but when studying it often leads to accomplishing less. There are things that I think can be successfully multitasked. I could throw clothes in the washer and make a snack, then eat and read a book at the same time while waiting for the clothes to be washed. But if I try to text, check e-mail, watch TV and look at my Twitter timeline all while studying, it won’t work well.

A study from Carnegie Mellon University found that driving while listening to a cell phone reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37 percentByron Spice, Timothy Keller, and Jacquelyn Cynkar, “Carnegie Mellon Study Shows Just Listening To Cell Phones Significantly Impairs Drivers,” (Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Mellon, 2008).. Why would anyone choose to use less brain activity when they study?

Phyllis Nissila

Pre-Test Strategies

“Anxiety” by HAMZA BUTT is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Q: When should you start preparing for the first test? Circle…

1. The night before.
2. The week prior.
3. The first day of classes.

If you answered “3. The first day of classes,” you are correct. If you circled all three, you are also correct. Preparing to pass tests is something that begins when learning begins and continues all the way through to the final exam.

Many students, however, don’t start thinking about test taking, whether weekly exams, mid-terms, or finals, until the day before when they engage in an all-nighter, or cramming. From the previous unit on memory, you might recall that the brain can only process an average of 5-7 new pieces of information at a time. Additionally, unless memory devices are used to aid memory and to cement information into long term memory (or at least until the test is over tomorrow!) chances are slim that students who cram will effectively learn and remember the information.

Additionally, a lot of students are unaware of the many strategies available to help with the test-taking experience before, during, and after. For starters, take a look at what has helped you so far.

Mid-Test Strategies

Here is a list of the most common–and useful–strategies to survive this ubiquitous college experience.

• Scan the test, first, to get the big picture of how many test items there are, what types there are (multiple choice, matching, essay, etc.), and the point values of each item or group of items.
• Determine which way you want to approach the test: Some students start with the easy questions first, that is, the ones they immediately know the answers to, saving the difficult ones for later, knowing they can spend the remaining time on them. Some students begin with the biggest-point items first, to make sure they get the most points.
• Determine a schedule that takes into consideration how long you have to test, and the types of questions on the test. Essay questions, for example, will require more time than multiple choice, or matching questions.
• Keep your eye on the clock.
• If you can mark on the test, put a check mark next to items you are not sure of just yet. It is easy to go back and find them to answer later on. You might just find help in other test questions covering similar information.
• Sit where you are most comfortable. That said, sitting near the front has a couple of advantages: You may be less distracted by other students. If a classmate comes up with a question for the instructor and there is an important clarification given, you will be better able to hear it and apply it, if needed.
• Wear ear plugs, if noise distracts you.
• You do NOT have to start with #1! It you are unsure of it, mark it to come back to later on.
• Bring water…this helps calm the nerves, for one, and water is also needed for optimum brain function.
• If permitted, get up and stretch (or stretch in your chair) from time to time to relieve tension and assist the blood to the brain!
• Remember to employ strategies to reduce test-taking anxiety (covered in the next lesson)
• If despite all of your best efforts to prepare for a test you just cannot remember the answer to a given item for multiple choice, matching, and/or true/false questions, employ one or more of the following educated guessing (also known as “educated selection”) techniques. By using these techniques, you have a better chance of selecting the correct answer. It is usually best to avoid selecting an extreme or all-inclusive answer (also known as 100% modifiers) such as “always,” and “never”. Choose, instead, words such as “usually,” “sometimes,” etc. (also known as in-between modifiers). If the answers are numbers, choose one of the middle numbers. If you have options such as “all of the above,” or “both A and B,” make sure each item is true before selecting those options. Choose the longest, or most inclusive, answer. Make sure to match the grammar of question and answer. For example, if the question indicates a plural answer, look for the plural answer. Regarding matching tests: count both sides to be matched. If there are more questions than answers, ask if you can use an answer more than once. Pay close attention to items that ask you to choose the “best” answer. This means one answer is better or more inclusive than a similar answer. Read all of the response options.

Post-Test Strategies

In addition to sighing that big sigh of relief, here are a few suggestions to help with future tests.

• If you don’t understand why you did not get an item right, ask the instructor. This is especially useful for quizzes that contain information that may be incorporated into more inclusive exams such as mid-terms and finals.
• Analyze your results to help you in the future. For example, see if most of your incorrect answers were small things such as failing to include the last step in a math item, or neglecting to double-check for simple errors in a short-answer or essay item. See where in the test you made the most errors: beginning, middle, or end. Also analyze which type of questions, true/false, multiple choice, essay, etc. And which topics were missed. This will help you pay closer attention to those sections in the future.

Dave Dillon

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

– Benjamin Franklin

Discipline, Preparation and Execution

From what I have seen in my own educational experiences, along with coaching and teaching at the college and university level for over 20 years, test taking (with few exceptions) comes down to discipline, preparation and execution. Students wanting to be successful have to have the self-discipline to schedule time to study well in advance of the exam. They have to actually do the work: the preparation needed in order to have the best opportunity for success on the exam. Then they must execute: they have to be able to apply their preparation accordingly and perform well on the exam.

Preparation for an exam is not glamorous. It’s easy to find other things to do that are more interesting and fun. Students need to keep themselves motivated with their “eyes on the prize.” Think of it like this: if the most important event of your life was coming up and you wanted to perform to the best of your ability in that event, you would likely spend some time preparing for it, rehearsing for it, practicing it, etc. A student may argue that an exam they will be taking would not be the most important event of their life, but think back to the chapter on Passion. If you’re already spending the time, effort, energy and money to attend college, why not do it to the best of your ability?

It would be beneficial to spread this preparation and practice out over time and prepare periodically rather than to wait until the last minute and binge study or cram. Your preparation would not be the same and this may affect your test score. Binge studying and cramming also are not healthy. Staying up late puts stress on our brain and body, and not getting adequate sleep places our bodies at risk for getting sick.

“One of the most important keys to success is having the discipline to do what you know you should do, even when you don’t feel like doing it.”

– Unknown

“The will to succeed is important, but what’s more important is the will to prepare.”

– Bobby Knight

Everyone wants to be successful. When the exam is passed out, everyone wants to perform well. But what often separates successful students and less successful students is the preparation time put in.

Studying the right thing is a process and a skill. As you gain more experience, you will learn how to become better at knowing what to study. It can be very frustrating to spend a lot of time preparing and studying and then finding out that what you studied was not on the exam. You will see a lot of variance with exams due to different instructors, classes and types of tests. The better you become at predicting what will be on the exam and study accordingly, the better you will perform on your exams. Try placing yourself in your instructor’s shoes and design questions you think your instructor would ask. It’s often an eye-opening experience for students and a great study strategy.

Preparation for Exam Strategies

Find out as much about the exam in advance as you can.

Some professors will tell you how many questions there will be, what format the exam will be in, how much time you will have, etc., and others will not. I encourage students to ask questions about the exam if there is not information given. I also encourage students to ask those questions before class, after class, in professors’ office hours or via e-mail rather than during class.

Know the test

If you know how many questions, what the format is, and/or how much time you will have, you can start to mentally prepare for the exam much more so than if you are coming in with no information. There are two more important aspects that you may or may not know: a) what will be covered or asked on the exam; b) how the exam will be scored. Obviously, the more you know about what will be covered, the easier it is for you to be able to prepare for the exam. Most exam scoring is standardized, but not always.

Look for opportunities where some areas of the exam are worth more points than others. For example: An exam consists of 21 questions, with 10 being True/False, 10 being multiple choice, and one essay question. The T/F questions are worth 1 point each (10 points), the multiple-choice questions are worth 2 points each (20 points), and the essay question is worth 30 points. We know that the essay question is the most valuable (it is worth half of the value of the exam). And we should allocate our time for it accordingly. I would advise starting with the essay question. Do a quick analysis of time to be able to spend your time on the exam wisely. You want to spend some time with the exam question since it is so valuable, without sacrificing adequate time to ensure the T/F and multiple-choice questions are answered.

Often, the order of the exam in this scenario will be: T/F first, multiple choice second and essay third. Most students will go in the chronological order of the exam, but a savvy student would start with the essay. If an exam were to last for 30 minutes with this format of questions, I might recommend a student spent 15 minutes on the essay question, ten minutes on the multiple choice, three minutes on the T/F and two minutes reviewing their answer.

Also, look for situations where exams penalize students for incorrectly answering a question. This does not occur very often, but is the case with some exams. With the SAT for example, students are awarded one point for a correct answer and ¼ of a point subtracted for an incorrect answer. Points are not awarded nor subtracted for leaving a question blank. Thus, the strategy for a multiple-choice question is: if you can narrow down the potentially correct answer to two rather than four or five, it is statistically advantageous to answer the question and guess between the two answers; however, if a student had no idea if any of the answers were correct or incorrect, it would be best to leave the answer blank. Remember, this is rare, but it is important to understand the strategy when students take these exams.

In conclusion, the more information you have about the exam, the better you can prepare for content, allocation of time spent on aspects of the exam, and the more confident you will be in knowing how and when to attempt to answer questions.

Take care of your body

Before the exam, it is important to prepare your brain and body for optimal performance for your exam. Do not cram the night before. Get a good night’s sleep. Make sure you eat (nutritiously) before the exam. I recommend exercising the day before and if possible a few hours before the exam.

Strategies for Specific Exam Formats

True or False Questions

Look for qualifiers. A qualifier is a word that is absolute. Examples are: all, never, no, always, none, every, only, entirely. They are often seen in false statements. This is because it is more difficult to create a true statement using a qualifier like never, no, always, etc. For example, “All cats chase mice.” Cats may be known for chasing mice, but not all of them do so. The answer here is false and the qualifier “all” gave us a tip. Qualifiers such as: sometimes, many, some, most, often, and usually are commonly found in true statements. For example: “Most cats chase mice.” This is true and the qualifier “most” gave us a tip.

Make sure to read the entire statement. All parts of a sentence must be true if the whole statement is to be true. If one part of it is false, the whole sentence is false. Long sentences are often false for this reason.

Students should guess on True or False questions they do not know the answer to unless there is a penalty for an incorrect answer.

Multiple Choice Questions

Think of multiple choice questions as four (or five) true or false statements in one. One of the statements is true (the correct answer) and the others will be false. Apply the same strategy toward qualifiers. If you see an absolute qualifier in one of the answer choices, it is probably false and not the correct answer. Try to identify the true statement. If you can do this, you have the answer as there is only one. If you cannot do this at first, try eliminating answers you know to be false.

If there is no penalty for incorrect answers, my suggestion is to guess if you are not certain of the answer. If there is a penalty for incorrect answers, common logic is to guess if you can eliminate two of the answers as incorrect (pending what the penalty is). If there’s a penalty and you cannot narrow down the answers, it’s best to leave it blank. You may wish to ask your instructor for clarification.

Answers that are strange and unrelated to the question are usually false. If two answers have a word that looks or sounds similar, one of those is usually correct. For example: abductor/ adductor. If you see these as two of the four or five choices, one of them is usually correct. Also look for answers that are grammatically incorrect. These are usually incorrect answers. If you have to completely guess, choose B or C. It is statistically proven to be correct more than 25 percent of the time. If there are four answers for each question, and an exam had standardized the answers, each answer on the exam A, B, C and D would be equal. But most instructors do not standardize their answers, and more correct answers are found in the middle (B and C then the extremes A and D or E). “People writing isolated four-choice questions hide the correct answer in the two middle positions about 70% of the time.”Yigal Attali and Maya Bar-Hillel, “Guess Where: The Position of Correct Answers in Multiple-Choice Test Items as a Psychometric Variable,” Journal of Educational Measurement 40 no. 2
(2003):109-128. This is 20 percent more correct answers found in B or C than a standardized exam with equal correct answers for each letter.

Matching Questions

Although less common than the other types of exams, you will likely see some matching exams during your time in college. First, read the instructions and take a look at both lists to determine what the items are and their relationship. It is especially important to determine if both lists have the same number of items and if all items are to be used, and used only once.

Matching exams become much more difficult if one list has more items than the other or if items either might not be used or could be used more than once. If your exam instructions do not discern this, you may wish to ask your instructor for further clarification. I advise students to take a look at the whole list before selecting an answer because a more correct answer may be found further into the list. Mark items when you are sure you have a match (pending the number of items in the list this may eliminate answers for the future). Guessing (if needed) should take place once you have selected answers you are certain about.

Short-Answer Questions

Read all of the instructions first. Budget your time and then read all of the questions. Answer the ones you know best or feel the most confident with. Then go back to the other ones. If you do not know the answer and there is no penalty for incorrect answers, guess. Use common sense. Sometimes instructors will award partial credit for a logical answer that is related even if it is not the correct answer.

Essay Questions

Keep in mind that knowing the format of the exam can help you determine how to study. If I know that I am taking a True-False exam, I know that I will need to discern whether a statement is True or False. I will need to know subject content for the course. But if I am studying for short answer and especially for essay questions, I must know a lot more. For essay questions, I must have much greater content knowledge and be able to make a coherent argument that answers the question using information from textbooks, lectures or other course materials. I have to place a lot more time and thought into studying for an essay exam than for True-False or Multiple-Choice exams.

Read the essay question(s) and the instructions first. Plan your time wisely and organize your answer before you start to write. Address the answer to the question in your first or second sentence. It may help to restate the original question. Write clearly and legibly. Instructors have difficulty grading essays that they cannot read. Save some time for review when you have finished writing to check spelling, grammar and coherent thought in your answer. Make sure you have addressed all parts of the essay question.

During the Exam:

Always read the directions first. Read them thoroughly.

Preview the exam to help you allocate proper time for each area.

Skip questions if you do not know the answer but make a mark somewhere to ensure you are able to go back to those questions (you may need to reallocate your prepared time for this depending on how many there are).

Allocate some time to review your answers before submitting your exam or the exam time expiring.

One of the biggest mistakes that students make after they take an exam in a course is that they do not use the exam for the future. The exam contains a lot of information that can be helpful in studying for future exams. Students that perform well on an exam often put it away thinking they do not need it anymore. Students who do poorly on an exam often put it away, not wanting to think about it any further.

In both cases, students are missing out on the value of reviewing their exams. It is wise to review exams for three reasons: 1) students should review the answers that were correct because they may see those questions on future exams and it is important to reinforce learning; 2) students should review the answers that were incorrect in order to learn what the correct answer was and why. These questions also may appear on a future exam. In addition, occasionally an answer is marked incorrect, when it should have been marked correct. The student would never know this if they didn’t review their exam; and 3) there is value in reviewing the exam to try to predict what questions or what format will be used by a professor for a future exam in the same course.

Author’s Story

What does it mean to be a “poor test taker?” Think about that. Does it mean that the student has put effort into studying but has difficulty under pressure? Does it mean that a student studies the wrong material? Is the student prepared but does not execute well? Could the student have a learning disability? Are they missing key strategies for taking tests? It could mean any of those things. And while I believe that it may be true that a student may be a “poor test taker,” it does not by any means mean it is permanent. Students willing to work hard and learn can improve their test taking skills and raise their confidence.

In high school chemistry, I earned a D grade. In microeconomics at UC Santa Cruz, I struggled and barely passed. Both of these classes had grading systems that were heavily weighted by exams. I was an above average student in my other classes in both high school and college, and so I was told (and believed for a long time) that I was not a “good test taker.” I no longer believe this. I will not make excuses. The responsibility for the grade I earned rests solely with me. I mention this because many students come to my office and complain that their professor grades in a way that is unfair to them because so much emphasis is on exams and that they understand the material but are “not good test takers.” It may be the case that my grade or another students’ grade would have been better had the course grade been determined with less weight levied to exams. That to me is irrelevant. It does not absolve me from being responsible for knowing what the grading metrics were at the beginning of the course and choosing to continue in the course after learning this knowledge. In the end, I realized I was not a poor test taker and that I needed to spend more time studying and preparing to perform well on exams. I changed my attitude from being afraid of exams to one of believing I was going to do well regardless of the class or the format of the exam. Once I had confidence that I had the necessary tools and was willing to work hard, it changed my entire perspective and experience with exams.

Note: if you think you may have a learning disability and would like to get assessed, contact your college to see what steps to follow to begin the assessment process.

Mike Krzyzewski, point guard at Army with Bob Knight, coach at Army.

Thinking about excuses reminds me of a story about Mike Krzyzewski, the successful Duke University men’s basketball coach. Before Krzyzewski coached, he was a student at the United States Military Academy at West Point. One day in his first year, Krzyzweski and his roommate were walking and his roommate stepped in a puddle. Mud splashed onto Krzyzewski’s uniform. Immediately, an upperclassman screamed at Krzyzewski about not knowing the rules of wearing a clean uniform. Plebes (first-year students at military academies) are allowed three answers when asked a question: “Yes sir!” “No sir!” And “No excuse sir!” Krzyzewski repeated himself, “No excuse sir!” Despite wanting to explain what had happened and that it was not his fault, he realized that there was no excuse. It was his responsibility to keep a clean uniform.

Jamie Edwards

Lumen Learning and Linda (Bruce) Hill

College and Career: Key Connections

Think back to the time when you first began to contemplate college. Do you remember specific thoughts? Were you excited about the idea? What began to draw you into the web of college life? What compels you to be here now?

In this topic on career and college readiness, we examine key connections between your motivations to be in college and your ultimate success in achieving your goals. We also examine how your college experience prepares you for a specific career, as well as for attaining general skills that you can apply to multiple pursuits.

Am I College and Career Ready?

Knowing what you truly want to gain from your college experience is the first step toward achieving it. However, reaching your goals does not necessarily mean you are college and career ready.

What does it mean to be ready for college and a career? In general, you are a college- and career-ready student if you have gained the necessary knowledge, skills, and professional behaviors to achieve at least one of the following:

• Earn a certificate or degree in college
• Participate in career training
• Enter the workplace and succeed

For instance, if you are studying for a skilled trade license in college, or perhaps pursuing a bachelor of arts degree, you are college-ready if you have the reading, writing, mathematics, social, and thinking skills to qualify for and succeed in the academic program of your choice.

Similarly, you are a career-ready student if you have the necessary knowledge and technical skills needed to be employed in your desired field. For example, if you are a community college student ready to be a nurse, you possess the knowledge and skill needed to secure an entry-level nursing position, and you also possess required licensing.

“Ultimately, college and career readiness demands students know more than just content, but demonstrate that they know how to learn and build upon that content to solve problems. They must develop versatile communication skills, work collaboratively and work competitively in a school or work environment. Ensuring that you possess both the academic and technical know-how necessary for a career beyond the classroom is a great step toward succeeding on whatever path you choose.”

– Washington, DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education“What Does College and Career Readiness Mean?,” Office of the State Superintendent of Education, accessed April 26, 2018, https://osse.dc.gov/service/what-does-college-and-career-readiness-mean.

 

College and Career Readiness in Your State

So where are you on the readiness scale? You can find out how your state measures your readiness. Visit the Interactive State Map at the College and Career Readiness and Success Center of the American Institutes for Research Web site. The map leads you to definitions of college and career readiness for your state. It also provides metrics to measure readiness. And it provides information about programs and structures to help you and educators. You can compare states across one or more categories.

Student Voices on Being College and Career Ready

In the following video, a number of high school students and recent graduates reflect on college and career readiness and their futures. As you view the video, be thinking about how your short-term goals can connect with longer-range ambitions. You might also reflect on how your deepening experiences in college can lead to achieving your longer-term goals. After all, each new experience in your life builds upon the last. You may never truly “arrive” at a destination if indeed your life is an ongoing journey.

Video: Student Voices: What Does it Mean to be College and Career Ready?

A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: https://press.rebus.community/blueprint2/?p=41

The Marriage of College and Career

The oldest institution of higher learning in the United States is widely acknowledged to be Harvard University. It was established in 1636 with the aim of providing instruction in arts and sciences to qualify students for employment. In the 1779 Constitution of Massachusetts submitted by Samuel Adams, John Adams, and James Bowdoin to the full Massachusetts Convention, the following language was used:

Art. I.—Whereas our wise and pious ancestors, so early as the year one thousand six hundred and thirty six, laid the foundation of Harvard-College, in which University many persons of great eminence have, by the blessing of GOD, been initiated in those arts and sciences, which qualified them for public employments, both in Church and State . . .

Is “public employment” preparation still the goal of higher education institutions today? Indeed, it is certainly one of the many goals! College is also an opportunity for students to grow personally and intellectually. In fact, in a 2011 Pew Research Center survey, Americans were split on their perceptions of the main purpose of a college education:

• 47 percent of those surveyed said the purpose of college is to teach work-related skills.
• 39 percent said it is to help a student grow personally and intellectually.
• 12 percent said the time spent at college should be dedicated to both pursuits—teaching work-related skills and helping students grow personally and intellectually.

These statistics are understandable in light of the great reach and scope of higher education institutions. Today, there are some 5,300 colleges and universities in the United States, offering every manner of education and training to students.

What do employers think about the value of a college education? What skills do employers seek in their workforce? In 2014, Hart Research Associates conducted a survey on behalf of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. The survey revealed that the majority of employers believe that having field-specific knowledge as well as a broad range of knowledge and skills is important for recent college graduates to achieve long-term career success.

Employers also said that when they hire, they place the greatest value on skills and knowledge that cut across all majors. The learning outcomes they rate as most important include written and oral communication skills, teamwork skills, ethical decision-making, critical thinking, and the ability to apply knowledge in real-world settings.“Falling Short? College Learning and Career Success,” Association of American Colleges & Universities, Hart Research Associates, 2015, https://www.aacu.org/leap/public-opinion-research/2015-survey-falling-short.

Employment Rates and Salaries

Consider, too, the following statistics on employment rates and salaries for college graduates. College does make a big difference!

• The average college graduate earns about 75 percent more than a non-college graduate over a typical, forty-year working lifetime. (U.S. Census Bureau)
• In 2014, young adults ages 20 to 24 with a bachelor’s degree or higher had a higher employment rate (88.1 percent) than young adults with just some college (75.0 percent). (NCES)
• The employment rate for young adults with just some college (63.7 percent) was higher than the rate for those who had completed high school. (NCES)
• The employment rate for those who completed high school (46.6 percent) was higher than the employment rate for young adults who had not finished high school. (NCES)
• Employment rates were generally higher for males than females at each level of educational attainment in 2015. (NCES) “Employment and Unemployment Rates by Educational Attainment,” 2016, https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/pdf/Indicator_CBC/coe_CBC_2016_05.pdf.
• Over the course of a forty-year working life, the typical college graduate earns an estimated $550,000 more than the typical high school graduate. (PEW)
• The median gap in annual earnings between a high school and college graduate as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2010 is $19,550. (PEW)“Is College Worth It?,” Pew Social Trends, Pew Research Centers Social Demographic Trends Project RSS, 2011, http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/files/2011/05/higher-ed-report.pdf.

Perhaps most important, an overwhelming majority of college graduates—86 percent—say that college has been a good investment for them personally (PEW).

Differences in Earnings between States

You may wish to use this Earnings and Educational Attainment (2011) interactive table to see how earnings for college graduates vs. high school–only graduates in your state compare with those in other states.

All in all, college imparts a wide and deep range of benefits. The short video Why College, below, shows that with a college degree you are more likely to

• Have a higher salary
• Have and keep a job
• Get a pension plan
• Be satisfied with your job
• Feel your job is important
• Have health insurance

Video: Why College?

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Summary

Success in college can be measured in many ways: through your own sense of what is important to you; through your family’s sense of what is important; through your institution’s standards of excellence; through the standards established by your state and country; through your employer’s perceptions about what is needed in the workplace; training for and becoming an entrepreneur, small business owner, or your own boss; and in many respects through your own unfolding goals, dreams, and ambitions.

How are you striving to achieve your goals? And how will you measure your success along the way?

Lumen Learning and Linda (Bruce) Hill

Pursuing Your Professional Interests

One of the most widely known and successful American entrepreneurs of all time is Steve Jobs. He is best known as the cofounder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple, Inc. He also cofounded Pixar Animation Studios, and he was a member of the board of directors of the Walt Disney Company. Four hundred eighty-four inventions bear Jobs’s name.

From early on in his life, Jobs was interested in electronics. When he was thirteen, for instance, he worked at the Hewlett Packard factory, which developed hardware and software components. Jobs later reflected on how he landed this job when he called Mr. Hewlett to ask for parts for an electronics project: “[Hewlett] didn’t know me at all, but he ended up giving me some parts and he got me a job that summer working at Hewlett-Packard on the line, assembling frequency counters . . . well, assembling may be too strong. I was putting in screws. It didn’t matter; I was in heaven.”

Jobs’s electronics and computing career quickly unfolded as he pursued his passion for creating and promoting computing products. At age nineteen, he was a technician for Atari, a leading electronics, gaming and home-computer corporation. By twenty-one, he and his two partners had formed Apple, Inc. At thirty-four, he was named “Entrepreneur of the Decade” by Inc. magazine. And at fifty-two, he was inducted into the California Hall of Fame by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

All in all, Jobs was relentless about pursuing his interests and passions. The products he and his associates developed have transformed modern culture, including the iMac, iTunes, Apple Stores, the iPod, the iTunes Store, the iPhone, the App Store, the iPad, the Mac OS, and the Mac OS X.

This story of Steve Jobs’s professional pursuits illustrates a dream, a goal, and an ambition that many college students share: to be successful in earning money and finding personal satisfaction in employment. His story also illustrates how opportunities are all around us and how random events aren’t always so random.

In this section, we explore strategies that can help you chart your professional path and also attain ample reward. We begin by comparing and contrasting jobs and careers. We then look at how to match up your personal characteristics with a specific field or fields. We conclude by detailing a process for actually choosing your career. Throughout, you will find resources for learning more about this vast topic of planning for employment.

Job vs. Career

What is the difference between a job and a career? Do you plan to use college to help you seek one or the other?

There is no right or wrong answer, because motivations for being in college are so varied and different for each student, but you can take maximum advantage of your time in college if you develop a clear plan for what you want to accomplish. The table below shows some differences between a job and a career.

In summary, a job lets you enjoy at least a minimal level of financial security, and it requires you to show up and do what is required of you. In exchange, you get paid.

A career, on the other hand, is more of a means of achieving personal fulfillment through the jobs you hold. In a career, your jobs tend to follow a sequence that leads to increasing mastery, professional development, and personal and financial satisfaction. A career requires planning, knowledge, and skills, too. If it is to be a fulfilling career, it requires that you bring into play your full set of analytical, critical, and creative thinking skills. You will be called upon in a career to make informed decisions that will affect your life in both the short term and the long term. A career also lets you express your unique personality traits, skills, values, and interests.

The following video gives explicit, textbook-style distinctions between the terms job, work, and career. You may especially appreciate this video if English is a second language for you or if you are a first-generation college student.

Video: Difference between Job, Work, and Career

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You can find the quiz referenced at the bottom of the lesson here. The next video takes a different look at jobs and careers. The speaker discusses the more affective, emotional aspects of pursuing a career. His emphasis is on the importance of being passionate about your work.

Video: Job vs. Career – Think about a long time career

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Whether you pursue individual jobs or an extended career or both, your time with your employers will always be comprised of your individual journey. May your journey be as enjoyable and fulfilling as possible.

The Five-Step Process for Choosing Your Career

As your thoughts about career expand, keep in mind that over the course of your life, you will probably spend a lot of time at work—thousands of hours, in fact. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average workday is about 8.7 hours long, and this means that if you work 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year, for 35 years, you will spend a total of 76,125 hours of your life at work. These numbers should convince you that it’s pretty important to enjoy your career.

If you do pursue a career, you’ll find yourself making many decisions about it. Is this the right career for me? Am I feeling fulfilled and challenged? Does this career enable me to have the lifestyle I desire? It’s important to consider these questions now, whether you’re just graduating from high school or college, or you’re returning to school after working for a while.

Choosing a career—any career—is a unique process for everyone, and for many people the task is daunting. There are so many different occupations to choose from. How do you navigate this complex world of work?

The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office has identified a five-step decision process that will make your career path a little easier to find. Below are the steps:

1. Get to know yourself
2. Get to know your field
3. Prioritize your “deal makers” and rule out your “deal breakers”
4. Make a preliminary career decision and create a plan of action
5. Go out and achieve your career goal

Step 1: Get to Know Yourself

Get to know yourself and the things you’re truly passionate about.

• Gather information about your career-related interests and values
• Think about what skills and abilities come naturally to you and which ones you want to develop
• Consider your personality type and how you want it to reflect in your work

The following video has some good ideas for ways of matching your personality and skills with a career. You can download a transcript of the video here.

Video: Matching your skills to a career

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This next video looks at the connection between childhood interests and career options. Several successful entrepreneurs and employees share stories about how they turned childhood interests into careers that suited them well. Learn how listening to your inner child can help you find the right career.

Video: Childhood Interests Can Help You Find the Right Career

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Before moving on to step 2, you may wish to review the online surveys in the Personal Identity module, especially the Student Interest Survey for Career Clusters, which is available in both English and Spanish. Yet another survey is the Career Assessment Test. All can help you align career interests with personal qualities, traits, life values, skills, activities, and ambitions.

Ultimately, your knowledge of yourself is the root of all good decision-making and will guide you in productive directions.

Step 2: Get to Know Your Field

Get to know your field. You’ll want to investigate the career paths available to you. You may also want to see what your college Career Center offers or conduct informational interviews to find out more about your field. One of the handiest starting points and “filters” is to decide the level of education you want to attain before starting your first or your next job. Students should consider determining both how much education they are willing to acquire, and how much education a particular career will require. Do you want to earn an associate’s degree, a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, or a doctorate or professional degree? Meeting with a college counselor or career counselor can help a student clarify this information.

Step 3: Prioritize Your Deal Makers

Prioritize your deal makers and rule out your deal breakers. Educational requirements aren’t the only criteria that you will want to consider. Do you want to work outside or in an office? In the country or a city? In a big or small organization? For a public organization or a private company? What type of industry is interesting to you? What role do you see yourself playing in the organization? Do you want to be your own boss?

Step 4: Make a Preliminary Career Decision

Make a preliminary (or first) career decision and create a plan of action. It is not set in stone and you may have multiple careers in your lifetime, but everything starts with that preliminary career decision and plan of action. As a student matures and gains experience, more career opportunities will present themselves.

Now that you have an idea of who you are and where you might find a satisfying career, how do you start taking action to get there? Some people talk to family, friends, or instructors in their chosen disciplines. Others have mentors in their lives with whom to discuss this decision. Your college has career counselors and academic advisers who can help you with both career decision-making and the educational planning process. Nevertheless, be advised: You’ll get the most from sessions with your counselor if you have done some work on your own.

Get started by using the Career Café or the Career Zone.

 Step 5: Go out and Achieve Your Career Goal

Go out and achieve your (initial) career goal! Now it’s time to take concrete steps toward achieving your educational and career goals. This may be as simple as creating a preliminary educational plan for next semester or a comprehensive educational plan that maps out the degree you are currently working toward. You may also want to look for internships, part-time work, or volunteer opportunities that help you test and confirm you preliminary career choice. Your college counselor can help you with this step, as well.

Your work experiences and life circumstances will undoubtedly change throughout the course of your professional life, so you may need to go back and reassess where you are on this path in the future. However, no matter if you feel like you were born knowing what you want to do professionally, or you feel totally unsure about what the future holds for you, remember that with careful consideration, resolve, and strategic thought, you can find a career that feels rewarding.

This isn’t necessarily an easy process, but you’ll find that your goals are more tangible once you’ve set a preliminary career goal. Don’t forget: There is always support for you. Ask for any help you need.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that the average worker currently holds ten different jobs before age forty. This number is projected to grow. A prediction from Forrester Research is that today’s youngest workers will hold twelve to fifteen jobs in their lifetime and it is estimated that people will change their career an average of 5-7 times over their lifetime.

What jobs are in store for you? Will your work be part of a fulfilling career? What exciting prospects are on your horizon?

Dr. Patricia Munsch

Lumen Learning and Linda (Bruce) Hill

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go.”

  – Dr. Seuss

Your Major

In the United States and Canada, your academic major—simply called “your major”—is the academic discipline you commit to as an undergraduate student. It’s an area you specialize in, such as accounting, chemistry, criminology, archeology, digital arts, or dance. In United States colleges and universities, roughly 2,000 majors are offered. And within each major is a host of core courses and electives. When you successfully complete the required courses in your major, you qualify for a degree.

Where did the term major come from? In 1877, it first appeared in a Johns Hopkins University catalogue. That major required only two years of study. Later, in 1910, Abbott Lawrence Lowell introduced the academic major system to Harvard University during his time as president there. This major required students to complete courses in a specialized discipline and also in other subjects. Variations of this system are now the norm in higher education institutions in the U.S. and Canada.

Why is your major important? It’s important because it’s a defining and organizing feature of your undergraduate degree. Ultimately, your major should provide you with the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and/or behaviors you need to fulfill your college goals and objectives.

In this section we look at how to select your major and how your college major may correlate with a career. Does your major matter to your career? What happens if you change your major? Does changing your major mean you must change your career? Read on to find out!

How to Select Your College Major

Selecting your major is one of the most exciting tasks (and, to some students, perhaps one of the most nerve-wracking tasks) you are asked to perform in college. So many decisions are tied to it. But if you have good guidance, patience, and enthusiasm, the process is easier. Two videos, below, present lighthearted looks undertaking this task. In the first one, the following five tips are discussed:

1. Seek inspiration
2. Consider everything
3. Identify talents and interests
4. Explore available resources
5. In-depth career exploration

Video: How to Pick a Major

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The next video shares nine tips:

1. Narrow your choices by deciding what you don’t like.
2. Explore careers that might interest you. Ask questions.
3. Use your school’s resources.
4. Ask your teacher, counselor, and family about your strengths.
5. Sixty percent of students change their majors.
6. Your major isn’t going to define your life. But choosing one that interests you will make your college experience much more rewarding.
7. Go on informational interviews with people in careers that interest you.
8. There’s no pressure to decide now.
9. Take new classes and discover your interests.

Video: How to Select Your College Major – WiseChoice

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Does Your College Major Matter to Your Career?

There are few topics about college that create more controversy than “Does your major really matter to your career?” Many people think it does; others think it’s not so important. Who is right? And who gets to weigh in? Also, how do you measure whether something “matters”—by salary, happiness, personal satisfaction?

It may be difficult to say for sure whether your major truly matters to your career. One’s college major and ultimate career are not necessarily correlated. Consider the following factoids:

• Fifty to seventy percent of college students change their major at least once during their time in college.
• Most majors lead to a wide variety of opportunities rather than to one specific career, although some majors do indeed lead to specific careers.
• Many students say that the skills they gain in college will be useful on the job no matter what they major in.
• Only half of graduating seniors accept a job directly related to their major.
• Career planning for most undergraduates focuses on developing general, transferrable skills like speaking, writing, critical thinking, computer literacy, problem-solving, and team building, because these are skills that employers want.
• College graduates often cite the following four factors as being critical to their job and career choices: personal satisfaction, enjoyment, opportunity to use skills and abilities, and personal development.
• Within ten years of graduation, most people work in careers that aren’t directly related to their majors.
• Many or most jobs that exist today will be very different five years from now.

It’s also important to talk about financial considerations in choosing a major.

• Any major you choose will likely benefit you because college graduates earn roughly $1 million more than high school graduates, on average, over an entire career.
• Even though humanities and social sciences students may earn less money right after college, they may earn more by the time they reach their peak salary than students who had STEM majors.
• Students who major in the humanities and social science are also more likely to get advanced degrees, which increases annual salary by nearly $20,000 at peak salary.

So where will you stand with regard to these statistics? Is it possible to have a good marriage between your major, your skills, job satisfaction, job security, and earnings?

Here to share a personal story about selecting your college major and finding the right career fit is Marc Luber, host of Careers Out There. Enjoy his insights, which he sums up with, “Focus on what makes you tick, and run with it.”

Video: Choosing a College Major & Finding the Right Career Fit

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The best guidance on choosing a major and connecting it with a career may be to get good academic and career advice and select a major that reflects your greatest interests. If you don’t like law or medicine but you major in it because of a certain salary expectation, you may later find yourself in an unrelated job that brings you greater satisfaction—even if the salary is lower. If this is the case, will it make more sense, looking back, to spend your time and tuition dollars studying a subject you especially enjoy?

Resources

“Success doesn’t come to you . . . you go to it.”

– Dr. Marva Collins

This quote really sets the stage for the journey you’re on. Your journey may be a straight line that connects the dots between today and your future, or it may resemble a twisted road with curves, bumps, hurdles, and alternate routes.

To help you navigate your pathway to career success, take advantage of all the resources available to you. Your college, your community, and the wider body of higher-education institutions and organizations have many tools to help you with career development. Be sure to take advantage of the following resources:

• College course catalog: Course catalogs are typically rich with information that can spark ideas and inspiration for your major and your career.
• Faculty and academic advisers at your college: Many college professors are also practitioners in their fields, and can share insights with you about related professions.
• Fellow students and graduating seniors: Many of your classmates, especially those who share your major, may have had experiences that can inform and enlighten you—for instance, an internship with an employer or a job interview with someone who could be contacted for more information.
• Students who have graduated: Most colleges and universities have active alumni programs with networking resources that can help you make important decisions.
• Your family and social communities: Contact friends and family members who can weigh in with their thoughts and experience.
• A career center: Professionals in career centers have a wealth of information to share with you—they’re also very good at listening and can act as a sounding board for you to try out your ideas.

Many organizations have free materials that can provide guidance, such as the ones in the table, below:

Lumen Learning and Linda (Bruce) Hill

“Every artist was first an amateur.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you lived and worked in colonial times in the United States, what skills would you need to be gainfully employed? What kind of person would your employer want you to be? And how different would your skills and aptitudes be then, compared to today?

Many industries that developed during the 1600s–1700s, such as health care, publishing, manufacturing, construction, finance, and farming, are still with us today. And the professional abilities, aptitudes, and values required in those industries are many of the same ones employers seek today.

For example, in the health care field then, just like today, employers looked for professionals with scientific acumen, active listening skills, a service orientation, oral comprehension abilities, and teamwork skills. And in the financial field then, just like today, employers looked for economics and accounting skills, mathematical reasoning skills, clerical and administrative skills, and deductive reasoning.

Why is it that with the passage of time and all the changes in the work world, some skills remain unchanged (or little changed)?

The answer might lie in the fact there are are two main types of skills that employers look for: hard skills and soft skills.

• Hard skills are concrete or objective abilities that you learn and perhaps have mastered. They are skills you can easily quantify, like using a computer, speaking a foreign language, or operating a machine. You might earn a certificate, a college degree, or other credentials that attest to your hard-skill competencies. Obviously, because of changes in technology, the hard skills required by industries today are vastly different from those required centuries ago.
• Soft skills, on the other hand, are subjective skills that have changed very little over time. Such skills might pertain to the way you relate to people, or the way you think, or the ways in which you behave—for example, listening attentively, working well in groups, and speaking clearly. Soft skills are sometimes also called “transferable skills” because you can easily transfer them from job to job or profession to profession without much training. Indeed, if you had a time machine, you could probably transfer your soft skills from one time period to another!

What Employers Want in an Employee

Employers want individuals who have the necessary hard and soft skills to do the job well and adapt to changes in the workplace. Soft skills may be especially in demand today because employers are generally equipped to train new employees in a hard skill—by training them to use new computer software, for instance—but it’s much more difficult to teach an employee a soft skill such as developing rapport with coworkers or knowing how to manage conflict. An employer might rather hire an inexperienced worker who can pay close attention to details than an experienced worker who might cause problems on a work team.

In this section, we look at ways of identifying and building particular hard and soft skills that will be necessary for your career path. We also explain how to use your time and resources wisely to acquire critical skills for your career goals.

Specific Skills Necessary for Your Career Path

A skill is something you can do, say, or think right now. It’s what an employer expects you to bring to the workplace to improve the overall operations of the organization.

The table below lists four resources to help you determine which concrete skills are needed for all kinds of professions. You can even discover where you might gain some of the skills and which courses you might take.

Spend some time reviewing each resource. You will find many interesting and exciting options. When you’re finished, you may decide that there are so many interesting professions in the world that it’s difficult to choose just one. This is a good problem to have!

Transferable Skills for Any Career Path

Transferable (soft) skills may be used in multiple professions. They include, but are by no means limited to, skills listed below:

• Dependable and punctual (showing up on time, ready to work, not being a liability)
• Self-motivated
• Enthusiastic
• Committed
• Willing to learn (lifelong learner)
• Able to accept constructive criticism
• A good problem solver
• Strong in customer service skills
• Adaptable (willing to change and take on new challenges)
• A team player
• Positive attitude
• Strong communication skills
• Good in essential work skills (following instructions, possessing critical thinking skills, knowing limits)
• Ethical
• Safety conscious
• Honest
• Strong in time management

These skills are transferable because they are positive attributes that are invaluable in practically any kind of work. They also do not require much training from an employer—you have them already and take them with you wherever you go. Soft skills are a big part of your “total me” package.

So, identify the soft skills that show you off the best, and identify the ones that prospective employers are looking for. By comparing both sets, you can more directly gear your job search to your strongest professional qualities.

10 Top Skills You Need to Get a Job When You Graduate

The following video summarizes the ten top skills that the Target corporation believes will get you a job when you graduate. Read a transcript of the video.

Video: 10 top skills that will get you a job when you graduate

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How to Find a New Job–Transferable Job Skills

If you are an international student, or perhaps English is your second language, the following video may especially appeal to you. It covers similar information to the 10 Top Skills video above. Discover how to find a new job more easily by learning how to identify and describe your transferable job skills in English.

Video: How to find a new job – Transferable Job Skills

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Acquiring Necessary Skills (both in and out of class) for Your Career Goals

“Lifelong learning” is a buzz phrase in the twentieth-first century because we are awash in new technology and information all the time, and those who know how to learn, continuously, are in the best position to keep up and take advantage of these changes. Think of all the information resources around you: colleges and universities, libraries, the Internet, videos, games, books, films—the list goes on.

With these resources at your disposal, how can you best position yourself for lifelong learning and a strong, viable career? Which hard and soft skills are most important? What are employers really looking for?

The following list was inspired by the remarks of Mark Atwood, director of open-source engagement at Hewlett-Packard Enterprise. It contains excellent practical advice.

• Learn how to write clearly. After you’ve written something, have people edit it. Then rewrite it, taking into account the feedback you received. Write all the time.
• Learn how to speak. Speak clearly on the phone and at a table. For public speaking, try Toastmasters. “Meet and speak. Speak and write.”
• Be reachable. Publish your email so that people can contact you. Don’t worry about spam.
• Learn about computers and computing, even if you aren’t gearing for a career in information technology. Learn something entirely new every six to twelve months.
• Build relationships within your community. Use tools like Meetup.com and search for clubs at local schools, libraries, and centers. Then, seek out remote people around the country and world. Learn about them and their projects first by searching the Internet.
• Attend conferences and events. This is a great way to network with people and meet them face-to-face.
• Find a project and get involved. Start reading questions and answers, then start answering questions.
• Collaborate with people all over the world.
• Keep your LinkedIn profile and social media profiles up-to-date. Be findable.
• Keep learning. Skills will often beat smarts. Be sure to schedule time for learning and having fun!

Just Get Involved

After you’ve networked with enough people and built up your reputation, your peers can connect you with job openings that may be a good fit for your skills. The video, below, from Monash University in Australia offers the following tips:

1. Get involved in part-time work
2. Get involved in extracurricular activities
3. Get involved with employment and career development
4. Get involved with volunteer work.  Check out this website for volunteer matching.

“Just get involved. There are so many opportunities and open doors for you.”

Video: Tips to improve your career from Monash Graduates

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Lumen Learning and Linda (Bruce) Hill

Career Development

See if you can remember a time in your childhood when you noticed somebody doing professional work. Maybe a nurse or doctor, dressed in a lab coat, was listening to your heartbeat. Maybe a worker at a construction site, decked in a hard hat, was operating noisy machinery. Maybe a cashier at the checkout line in a grocery store was busily scanning bar codes. Each day in your young life you could have seen a hundred people doing various jobs. Surely some of the experiences drew your interest and appealed to your imagination.

If you can recall any such times, those are moments from the beginning stage of your career development.

What exactly is career development? It’s a lifelong process in which we become aware of, interested in, knowledgeable about, and skilled in a career. It’s a key part of human development as our identity forms and our life unfolds.

Stages of Career Development

There are five main stages of career development (developed by Donald Super). Each stage correlates with attitudes, behaviors, and relationships we all tend to have at that point and age. As we progress through each stage and reach the milestones identified, we prepare to move on to the next one.

Which stage of career development do you feel you are in currently? Think about each stage. What challenges are you facing now? Where are you headed?

Keep in mind that your career development path is personal to you, and you may not fit neatly into the categories described above. It’s more common than it has been in the past for people to change careers in their thirties, forties, fifties, and even sixties. Perhaps your socioeconomic background changes how you fit into the schema. Perhaps your physical and mental abilities affect how you define the idea of a “career.” And for everyone, too, there are factors of chance that can’t be predicted or anticipated. You are unique, and your career path can only be developed by you.

Career Development Resources in Your College, Community, and Beyond

Career experts say that people will change careers (not to mention jobs) five to seven times in a lifetime. So your career will likely not be a straight and narrow path. Be sure to set goals and assess your interests, skills and values often. Seek opportunities for career growth and enrichment. And take advantage of the rich set of resources available to you. Below are just a few.

Career Development Office on Campus

Whether you are a student, a graduate, or even an employer, you can obtain invaluable career development assistance at your college or university. Campus career centers can support, guide, and empower you in every step of the career development process, from initial planning to achieving lifelong career satisfaction.

Books on Career Development

Going to college is one of the best steps you can take to prepare for a career. But soon-to-be or recently graduated students are not necessarily guaranteed jobs. Staying educated about strategies for developing your career and finding new jobs will help you manage ongoing transitions. The book The Secret to Getting a Job After College: Marketing Tactics to Turn Degrees into Dollars, by author Larry Chiagouris, was written specifically to help recent grads increase their chances of finding a job right after college. It speaks to students in all majors and provides tips and tactics to attract the attention of an employer and successfully compete with other candidates to get the job you want.

The following video provides an introduction to the book. You can download a transcript of the video here.

Video: The Secret to Getting a Job After College

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Career Roadmap

You can use the Career Roadmap, from DePaul University, to evaluate where you are and where you want to be in your career. It can help you decide if you want to change career paths and can guide you in searching for a new job. The road map identifies the following four cyclical steps:

1. Know yourself
2. Explore and choose options
3. Gain knowledge and experience
4. Put it all together: the job search process

Plan, Do, Check, Act

PDCA (plan–do–check–act) is a four-step strategy for carrying out change. You can use it to evaluate where you are in the career development process and to identify your next steps. The strategy is typically used in the business arena as a framework for improving processes and services. But you can think of your career as a personal product you are offering or selling.

1. PLAN: What are your goals and objectives? What process will you use to get to your targets? You might want to plan smaller to begin with and test out possible effects. For instance, if you are thinking of getting into a certain career, you might plan to try it out first as an intern or volunteer or on a part-time basis. When you start on a small scale, you can test possible outcomes.
2. DO: Implement your plan. Sell your product—which is YOU and your skills, talents, energy, and enthusiasm. Collect data as you go along; you will need it for charting and analyzing in the Check and Act steps ahead.
3. CHECK: Look at your results so far. Are you happy with your job or wherever you are in the career development process? How is your actual accomplishment measuring up next to your intentions and wishes? Look for where you may have deviated in your intended steps. For example, did you take a job in another city when your initial plans were for working closer to friends and family? What are the pros and cons? If you like, create a chart that shows you all the factors. With a chart, it will be easier to see trends over several PDCA cycles.
4. ACT: How should you act going forward? What changes in planning, doing, and checking do you want to take? The PDCA framework is an ongoing process. Keep planning, doing, checking, and acting. The goal is continuous improvement.

Internet Sites for Career Planning

Visit the Internet Sites for Career Planning Web site at the National Career Development Association’s site. You will find extensive, definitive, and frequently updated information on the following topics:

• Online Employment
• Self-Assessment
• Career Development Process
• Occupational Information
• Employment Trends
• Salary Information
• Educational Information
• Financial Aid Information
• Apprenticeships and Other Alternative Training Opportunities
• Job Search Instruction and Advice
• Job Banks
• Career Search Engines
• Resources for Diverse Audiences
• Resources and Services for Ex-Offenders
• Resources and Services for Youth, Teen and Young Adults
• Resources and Services the Older Client
• Industry and Occupation Specific Information
• Researching Employers
• Social Networking Sites
• Disabilities
• Military

Vicki L. Brown

Lumen Learning and Linda (Bruce) Hill

“Communication—the human connection—is the key to personal and career success.”

– Paul J. Meyer

In the context of career development, networking is the process by which people build relationships with one another for the purpose of helping one another achieve professional goals.

When you “network,” you exchange information.

• You may share business cards, résumés, cover letters, job-seeking strategies, leads about open jobs, information about companies and organizations, and information about a specific field.
• You might also share information about meet-up groups, conferences, special events, technology tools, and social media.
• You might also solicit job “headhunters,” career counselors, career centers, career coaches, an alumni association, family members, friends, acquaintances, and vendors.

Networking can occur anywhere and at any time. In fact, your network expands with each new relationship you establish. And the networking strategies you can employ are nearly limitless. With imagination and ingenuity, your networking can be highly successful.

A series of stick figures connected by dotted lines.

Strategies for Networking

We live in a social world. Almost everywhere you go and anything you do professionally involves connecting with people. It stands to reason that finding a new job and advancing your career entails building relationships with these people. Truly, the most effective way to find a new job is to network, network, and network some more.

Once you acknowledge the value of networking, the challenge is figuring out how to do it. What is your first step? Whom do you contact? What do you say? How long will it take? Where do you concentrate efforts? How do you know if your investments will pay off?

For every question you may ask, a range of strategies can be used. Begin exploring your possibilities by viewing the following energizing video, Networking Tips for College Students and Young People, by Hank Blank. He recommends the following modern and no-nonsense strategies:

1. Hope is not a plan. You need a plan of action to achieve your networking goals.
2. Keenly focus your activities on getting a job. Use all tools available to you.
3. You need business cards. No ifs, ands, or buts.
4. Attend networking events. Most of them offer student rates.
5. Master Linkedin because that is what human resource departments use. Post updates.
6. Think of your parents’ friends as databases. Leverage their knowledge and their willingness to help you.
7. Create the world you want to live in in the future by creating it today through your networking activity. These are the times to live in a world of “this is how I can help.”

Video: Networking Tips for College Students and Young People, Hank Blank

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International Student Series: Finding Work Using Your Networks

If you are an international student, or perhaps if English is not your native language, this video may especially appeal to you. It focuses on the importance of networking when looking for jobs and keeping an open mind. Simply talking to people can help you move from casual work to full-time employment.

Video: International Student Series: Finding Work Using Your Networks

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. . . And More Strategies

Strategies at College

• Get to know your professors: Communicating with instructors is a valuable way to learn about a career and also get letters of reference if and when needed for a job. Professors can also give you leads on job openings, internships, and research possibilities. Most instructors will readily share information and insights with you. Get to know your instructors. They are a valuable part of your network.
• Check with your college’s alumni office: You may find that some alumni are affiliated with your field of interest and can give you the “inside scoop.”
• Check with classmates: Classmates may or may not share your major, but any of them may have leads that could help you. You could be just one conversation away from a good lead.

Strategies at Work

• Join professional organizations: You can meet many influential people at local and national meetings and events of professional and volunteer organizations. Learn about these organizations. See if they have membership discounts for students, or student chapters. Once you are a member, you may have access to membership lists, which can give you prospective access to many new people to network with.
• Volunteer: Volunteering is an excellent way to meet new people who can help you develop your career, even if the organization you are volunteering with is not in your field. Just by working alongside others and working toward common goals, you build relationships that may later serve you in unforeseen and helpful ways.
• Get an internship: Many organizations offer internship positions to college students. Some of these positions are paid, but often they are not. Paid or not, you gain experience relevant to your career, and you potentially make many new contacts. Check CollegeRecruiter.com and internships.com for key resources.
• Get a part-time job: Working full-time may be your ultimate goal, but you may want to fill in some cracks or crevices by working in a part-time job. Invariably you will meet people who can feasibly help with your networking goals. And you can gain good experience along the way, which can also be noted on your résumé. Check your college career center website. Many have online job boards for full and part-time employment.
• Join a job club: Your career interests may be shared by many others who have organized a club, which can be online or in person. If you don’t find an existing club, consider starting one.
• Attend networking events: There are innumerable professional networking events taking place around the world and also online. Find them listed in magazines, community calendars, newspapers, journals, and at the websites of companies, organizations, and associations.
• Conduct informational interviews: You may initiate contact with people in your chosen field who can tell you about their experiences of entering the field and thriving in it. Many websites have guidance on how to plan and conduct these interviews.

Strategies at Home and Beyond

• Participate in online social media: An explosion of career opportunity awaits you with social media, including LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and many more. You will find an extensive list of suggested sites at CareerOneStop. Keep your communication ultra-professional at these sites. Peruse magazine articles, and if you find one that’s relevant to your field and it contains names of professionals, you can reach out to them to learn more and get job leads. Realize that social media is public and posting pictures of yourself at parties or commenting in an unbecoming way could cost you an opportunity.
• Ask family members and friends, coworkers, and acquaintances for referrals: Do they know others who might help you? You can start with the question “Who else should I be talking to?”
• Use business cards or networking cards: A printed business card can be an essential tool to help your contacts remember you. Creativity can help in this regard, too. Students often design cards themselves and either hand print them or print them on a home printer.

Activity: Networking for Career Development

Objectives

• Examine five strategies for obtaining and engaging with networking contacts
• Develop relationships with new contacts to enhance your career

Instructions

• Find information about five companies or people in your field of interest and follow them on Twitter.
• Research which social media platform is popular in your field of interest currently interested in, and find leaders and experts in that field who are good models for how to interact with the audience of that platform. Be thoughtful about creating an account. Remember that these accounts will be highly searchable for a long time. What you post and how and when you post matters. That may enhance (or hurt) your career.
• Find names of three people who interest you (peruse magazine articles, online sites, or other resources), and write an email to them explaining your interests and any requests you may have for information.
• Sign up for newsletters from two professional organizations in a field you want to know more about.
• Find and attend one in-person or online event within a month.
• Now write about this experience on one of your social media sites.
• Keep your communication on social media positive. It’s poor form to attack or bully someone and may have regretful consequences. If you disagree with someone, do so respectfully.

For additional ideas and inspiration about networking for career development, watch the following video, Hustle 101: Networking For College Students and Recent Grads. The speaker, Emily Miethner, is a recent college graduate and the founder and president of NYCreative Interns, “dedicated to helping young creatives discover and then follow their dream careers.”

Video: Hustle 101: Networking for College Students and Recent Grads, Emily Miethner

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Sources for Developing Professional Networks

The bottom line with developing professional networks is to cull information from as many sources as possible and use that information in creative ways to advance your career opportunities. The strategies listed in the section above provide you with a comprehensive set of suggestions. Below is a summary of sources you can use to network your way to career success:

• Meet-up groups
• Conferences
• Special events
• Technology tools
• Social media
• Career centers
• Alumni associations
• Professional organizations
• Volunteer organizations
• Internships
• Part-time job
• Job club
• Networking events
• Magazine articles
• Websites
• Career coaches
• Headhunters
• Career counselors
• Family members
• Friends
• Coworkers
• Vendors
• College professors
• Advisers
• Classmates
• Administrators
• Coaches
• Guest speakers

Jackie Vetrano

Lumen Learning and Linda (Bruce) Hill

“The most important tool you have on a résumé is language.”

– Jay Samit

A résumé is a “selfie” for business purposes. It is a written picture of who you are—it’s a marketing tool, a selling tool, and a promotion of you as an ideal candidate for any job you may be interested in.

The word résumé comes from the French word résumé, which means “a summary.” Leonardo da Vinci is credited with writing one of the first known résumés, although it was more of a letter that outlined his credentials for a potential employer, Ludovico Sforza. The résumé got da Vinci the job, though, and Sforza became a longtime patron of da Vinci and later commissioned him to paint The Last Supper.

Résumés and cover letters work together to represent you in the most positive light to prospective employers. With a well-composed résumé and cover letter, you stand out—which may get you an interview and then a good shot at landing a job.

In this section, we discuss résumés and cover letters as key components of your career development tool kit. We explore some of the many ways you can design and develop them for the greatest impact in your job search.

Your Résumé: Purpose and Contents

Your résumé is an inventory of your education, work experience, job-related skills, accomplishments, volunteer history, internships, residencies, and/or more. It’s a professional autobiography in outline form to give the person who reads it a quick, general idea of who you are, and what skills, abilities, and experiences you have to offer. With a better idea of who you are, prospective employers can see how well you might contribute to their workplace.

As a college student or recent graduate, though, you may be unsure about what to put in your résumé, especially if you don’t have much employment history. Still, employers don’t expect recent grads to have significant work experience. And even with little work experience, you may still have a host of worthy accomplishments to include. It’s all in how you present yourself.

The following video is an animated look at why résumés are so important. Read a transcript of the video.

Video: Why Do I Need a Resume?

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Elements of Your Successful Résumé

Perhaps the hardest part of writing a résumé is figuring out what format to use to organize and present your information in the most effective way. There is no correct format, per se, but most résumés follow one of the four formats below. Which format do you think will best represent your qualifications?

1. Reverse chronological résumé: A reverse chronological résumé (sometimes also simply called a chronological résumé) lists your job experiences in reverse chronological order—that is, starting with the most recent job and working backward toward your first job. It includes starting and ending dates. Also included is a brief description of the work duties you performed for each job, and highlights of your formal education. The reverse chronological résumé may be the most common and perhaps the most conservative résumé format. It is most suitable for demonstrating a solid work history, and growth and development in your skills. It may not suit you if you are light on skills in the area you are applying to, or if you’ve changed employers frequently, or if you are looking for your first job. Reverse Chronological Résumé Examples
2. Functional résumé: A functional résumé is organized around your talents, skills, and abilities (more so than work duties and job titles, as with the reverse chronological résumé). It emphasizes specific professional capabilities, like what you have done or what you can do. Specific dates may be included but are not as important. So if you are a new graduate entering your field with little or no actual work experience, the functional résumé may be a good format for you. It can also be useful when you are seeking work in a field that differs from what you have done in the past. It’s also well suited for people in unconventional careers. Functional Résumé Examples
3. Hybrid résumé: The hybrid résumé is a format reflecting both the functional and chronological approaches. It’s also called a combination résumé. It highlights relevant skills, but it still provides information about your work experience. With a hybrid résumé, you may list your job skills as most prominent and then follow with a chronological (or reverse chronological) list of employers. This résumé format is most effective when your specific skills and job experience need to be emphasized. Hybrid Résumé Examples
4. Video, infographic, and website résumé: Other formats you may wish to consider are the video résumé, the infographic résumé, or even a website résumé. These formats may be most suitable for people in multimedia and creative careers. Certainly with the expansive use of technology today, a job seeker might at least try to create a media-enhanced résumé. But the paper-based, traditional résumé is by far the most commonly used—in fact, some human resource departments may not permit submission of any format other than paper based. Video Resume Examples; Infographic Résumé Examples; Website Résumé Examples

An important note about formatting is that, initially, employers may spend only a few seconds reviewing each résumé—especially if there is a big stack of them or they seem tedious to read. That’s why it’s important to choose your format carefully so it will stand out and make the first cut.

Résumé Contents and Structure

For many people, the process of writing a résumé is daunting. After all, you are taking a lot of information and condensing it into a very concise form that needs to be both eye-catching and easy to read. Don’t be scared off, though! Developing a good résumé can be fun, rewarding, and easier than you think if you follow a few basic guidelines. In the following video, a résumé-writing expert describes some keys to success.

Video: Resume Tutorial

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Contents and Components To Include

1. Your contact information: name, address (note that some recommend not sharing for security purposes, others recommend sharing to be complete), phone number, professional email address
2. A summary of your skills: 5–10 skills you have gained in your field
3. Work experience: depending on the résumé format you choose, you may list your most recent job first; include the title of the position, employer’s name, location, employment dates (beginning, ending); Working for a family business is valid work experience and should definitely be on a resume.
4. Volunteer experience: can be listed in terms of hours completed or months/years involved. Use the same format as that used to list work experience.
   
5. Education and training: formal and informal experiences matter; include academic degrees, professional development, certificates, internships, etc.
6. Other sections: may include a job objective, a brief profile, a branding statement, a summary statement, additional accomplishments, and any other related experiences

Caution

Résumés resemble snowflakes in as much as no two are alike. Although you can benefit from giving yours a stamp of individuality, you will do well to steer clear of personal details that might elicit a negative response. It is advisable to omit any confidential information or details that could make you vulnerable to discrimination, for instance. Your résumé will likely be viewed by a number of employees in an organization, including human resource personnel, managers, administrative staff, etc. By aiming to please all reviewers, you gain maximum advantage.

• Do not mention your age, gender, height or weight.
• Do not include your social security number.
• Do not mention religious beliefs or political affiliations, unless they are relevant to the position.
• Do not include a photograph of yourself or a physical description.
• Do not mention health issues.
• Do not use first-person references (I, me).
• Do not include wage/salary expectations.
• Do not use abbreviations.
• Proofread carefully—absolutely no spelling mistakes are acceptable.

Top Ten Tips for a Successful Résumé

1. Aim to make a résumé that’s 1–2 pages long on letter-size paper.
2. Make it visually appealing.
3. Use action verbs and phrases.
4. Proofread carefully to eliminate any spelling, grammar, punctuation, and typographical errors.
5. Include highlights of your qualifications or skills to attract an employer’s attention.
6. Craft your letter as a pitch to people in the profession you plan to work in.
7. Stand out as different, courageous.
8. Be positive and reflect only the truth.
9. Be excited and optimistic about your job prospects!
10. Keep refining and reworking your résumé; it’s an ongoing project.

Remember that your résumé is your professional profile. It will hold you in the most professional and positive light, and it’s designed to be a quick and easy way for a prospective employer to evaluate what you might bring to a job. When written and formatted attractively, creatively, and legibly, your résumé is what will get your foot in the door. You can be proud of your accomplishments, even if they don’t seem numerous. Let your résumé reflect your personal pride and professionalism. A resume is also a “living document” and will change as your experiences and skills change.

In the following video, Résumé Tips for College Students From Employers, several college graduate recruiters summarize the most important points about crafting your résumé. Download a transcript of the video.

Video: Résumé Tips for College Students From Employers

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Résumé Writing Resources

Your Cover Letter

A cover letter is a letter of introduction, usually 3–4 paragraphs in length, that you attach to your résumé. It’s a way of introducing yourself to a potential employer and explaining why you are suited for a position. Employers may look for individualized and thoughtfully written cover letters as an initial method of screening out applicants who may who lack necessary basic skills, or who may not be sufficiently interested in the position.

 Cover Letter Examples

Often an employer will request or require that a cover letter be included in the materials an applicant submits. There are also occasions when you might submit a cover letter uninvited (also called a letter of interest). For example, if you are initiating an inquiry about possible work or asking someone to send you information or provide other assistance.

With each résumé you send out, always include a cover letter specifically addressing your purposes.

Characteristics of an Effective Cover Letter

Cover letters should accomplish the following:

• Get the attention of the prospective employer
• Set you apart from any possible competition
• Identify the position you are interested in
• Specify how you learned about the position or company
• Present highlights of your skills and accomplishments
• Reflect your genuine interest
• Please the eye and ear

The following video features Aimee Bateman, founder of Careercake.com, who explains how you can create an incredible cover letter. Download a transcript of the video.

Video: 5 Steps to an Incredible Cover Letter

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Cover Letter Resources

Lumen Learning and Linda (Bruce) Hill

If your résumé and cover letter have served their purposes well, you will be invited to participate in an interview with the company or organization you’re interested in. Congratulations! It’s an exciting time, and your prospects for employment are very strong if you put in the time to be well prepared.

In this section we look at how to get ready for an interview, what types of interviews you might need to engage in, and what kinds of questions you might be asked.

Preparing Effectively for a Job Interview

Review the Job Description

When you prepare for an interview, your first step will be to carefully read and reread the job posting or job description. This will help you develop a clearer idea of how you meet the skills and attributes the company seeks.

Research the Company or Organization

Researching the company will give you a wider view of what the company is looking for and how well you might fit in. Your prospective employer may ask you what you know about the company. Being prepared to answer this question shows that you took time and effort to prepare for the interview and that you have a genuine interest in the organization. It shows good care and good planning—soft skills you will surely need on the job.

Practice Answering Common Questions

Most interviewees find that practicing for the interview in advance with a family member, a friend, or a colleague eases possible nerves during the actual interview. It also creates greater confidence when you walk through the interview door. In the “Interview Questions” section below, you’ll learn more about specific questions you will likely be asked and corresponding strategies for answering them.

Plan to Dress Appropriately

Interviewees are generally most properly dressed for an interview in business attire, with the goal of looking highly professional in the eyes of the interviewer.

Come Prepared

Plan to bring your résumé, cover letter, and a list of references to the interview. You may also want to bring a portfolio of representative work. Leave behind coffee, chewing gum, and any other items that could be distractions.

Be Confident

Above all, interviewees should be confident and “courageous.” By doing so you make a strong first impression. As the saying goes, “There is never a second chance to make a first impression.”

Job Interview Types and Techniques

Every interview you participate in will be unique: The people you meet with, the interview setting, and the questions you’ll be asked will all be different from interview to interview.

The various factors that characterize any given interview can contribute to the sense of adventure and excitement you feel. But it’s also normal to feel a little nervous about what lies ahead. With so many unknowns, how can you plan to “nail the interview” no matter what comes up?

A good strategy for planning is to anticipate the type of interview you may find yourself in. There are common formats for job interviews, described in detail, below. By knowing a bit more about each type and being aware of techniques that work for each, you can plan to be on your game no matter what form your interview takes.

Screening Interviews

Screening interviews might best be characterized as “weeding-out” interviews. They ordinarily take place over the phone or in another low-stakes environment in which the interviewer has maximum control over the amount of time the interview takes. Screening interviews are generally short because they glean only basic information about you. If you are scheduled to participate in a screening interview, you might safely assume that you have some competition for the job and that the company is using this strategy to whittle down the applicant pool. With this kind of interview, your goal is to win a face-to-face interview. For this first shot, though, prepare well and challenge yourself to shine. This type of interview should be treated like a real interview. This may mean dressing for the interview and having a resume in front of you so that it can be referred to. Another suggestion is to use a land line phone if possible and/or make sure a cell phone is fully charged and that the screening interview takes place in a location that is free of distractions. Try to stand out from the competition and be sure to follow up with a thank-you note.

Phone or Web Conference Interviews

If you are geographically separated from your prospective employer, you may be invited to participate in a phone interview or online interview, instead of meeting face-to-face. Technology, of course, is a good way to bridge distances. The fact that you’re not there in person doesn’t make it any less important to be fully prepared, though. In fact, you may wish to be all the more “on your toes” to compensate for the distance barrier. Make sure your equipment (phone, computer, Internet connection, etc.) is fully charged and works. If you’re at home for the interview, make sure the environment is quiet and distraction-free.  If the meeting is online, make sure your video background is pleasing and neutral, like a wall hanging or even a white wall.

One-on-One Interviews

The majority of job interviews are conducted in this format—just you and a single interviewer—likely with the manager you would report to and work with. The one-on-one format gives you both a chance to see how well you connect and how well your talents, skills, and personalities mesh. You can expect to be asked questions like “Why would you be good for this job?” and “Tell me about yourself.” Many interviewees prefer the one-on-one format because it allows them to spend in-depth time with the interviewer. Rapport can be built. As always, be very courteous and professional. Have handy a portfolio of your best work.

Panel Interviews

An efficient format for meeting a candidate is a panel interview, in which perhaps four to five coworkers meet at the same time with a single interviewee. The coworkers comprise the “search committee” or “search panel,” which may consist of different company representatives such as human resources, management, and staff. One advantage of this format for the committee is that meeting together gives them a common experience to reflect on afterward. In a panel interview, listen carefully to questions from each panelist, and try to connect fully with each questioner. Be sure to write down names and titles, so you can send individual thank-you notes after the interview.

Serial Interviews

Serial interviews are a combination of one-on-one meetings with a group of interviewers, typically conducted as a series of meetings staggered throughout the day. Ordinarily this type of interview is for higher-level jobs, when it’s important to meet at length with major stakeholders. If your interview process is designed this way, you will need to be ultraprepared, as you will be answering many in-depth questions. Be prepared.

Lunch Interviews

In some higher-level positions, candidates are taken to lunch or dinner, especially if this is a second interview (a “call back” interview). If this is you, count yourself lucky and be on your best behavior, because even if the lunch meeting is unstructured and informal, it’s still an official interview. Do not order an alcoholic beverage, and use your best table manners. You are not expected to pay or even to offer to pay. But, as always, you must send a thank-you note.

Group Interviews

Group interviews are comprised of several interviewees and perhaps only one or two interviewers who may make a presentation to the assembled group. This format allows an organization to quickly prescreen candidates. It also gives candidates a chance to quickly learn about the company. As with all interview formats, you are being observed. How do you behave with your group? Do you assume a leadership role? Are you quiet but attentive? What kind of personality is the company looking for? A group interview may reveal this.

For a summary of the interview formats we’ve just covered (and a few additional ones), take a look at the following video, Job Interview Guide—10 Different Types of Interviews in Today’s Modern World.

Video: Job Interview Guide – 10 Different Types of Interviews in Today’s Modern World

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Interview Questions

For most job candidates, the burning question is “What will I be asked?” There’s no way to anticipate every single question that may arise during an interview. It’s possible that, no matter how well prepared you are, you may get a question you just didn’t expect. But that is okay. Do as much preparation as you can—which will build your confidence in your answers and ready for unexpected questions.

To help you reach that point of sureness and confidence, take time to review common interview questions. Think about your answers. Make notes, if that helps. And then conduct a practice interview with a friend, a family member, or a colleague. Speak your answers out loud. Below is a list of resources that contain common interview questions and good explanations/answers you might want to adopt.

Why Should We Hire You

From the Ohio State University Fisher College of Business Career Management Office, here is a video featuring representatives from recruiting companies offering advice for answering the question “Why should we hire you?” As you watch, make mental notes about how you would answer the question in an interview for a job you really want.

Video: Why Should We Hire You?

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Lumen Learning and Linda (Bruce) Hill

Interdependence

When we explore relationships within groups of people, interdependence may well be one of the most meaningful words in the English language. It’s meaningful because it speaks to the importance of connecting with others and maintaining viable relationships.

Interdependence is defined as the mutual reliance, or mutual dependence, between two or more people or groups.

An interdependent relationship is different from dependent and codependent relationships, though. In dependent relationships, some members are dependent while some are not (dependent people believe that they may not be able to achieve goals on their own). In codependent relationships, there is a sense that one must help others achieve their goals before pursuing one’s own. Contrast these relationships with interdependent relationships, in which the dependency, support, and gain is shared for the enrichment of all.

Interdependence in College

Interdependence is valuable in college because it contributes to your success as a student. When you feel comfortable with interdependence, for example, you may be more likely to ask a friend to help you with a class project. You may also be more likely to offer that same help to someone else. You may be more inclined to visit a faculty member during office hours. You may be more likely to attend the tutoring center for help with a difficult subject. Perhaps you would visit the career counseling center.

Overall, when you have a sense of interdependence, you cultivate support networks for yourself, and you help others, too. Interdependence is a win-win relationship.

The following table illustrates how interdependence can play a role in college life.

Interdependence Struggle Mode	Interdependence Success Mode
Students in struggle mode maintain a stance of dependence, co-dependence, or perhaps dogged independence, but not interdependence	Students in success mode develop relationships that support themselves and support other people, too
Students in struggle mode may avoid cooperating with others in situations where the common good could be achieved	Students in success mode develop networks of friends, family members, professionals, and others as a support team
Students in struggle mode may be reluctant to listen compassionately and attempt to understand the perspective of another person	Students in success mode actively and compassionately listen to others as an action of support; they demonstrate care and concern

Benefits of Social Interaction in College

If you were to ask fellow students what they think are the greatest benefits of social interaction in college, you would probably get a wide and colorful range of responses. How would you answer? Gaining good friends to “talk shop” with? Easing loneliness during difficult times? Having a group to join for Friday night fun? Indeed there are many, many benefits personal to each of us. But you may find, too, that there are certain benefits that are recognizable to all. These are highlighted below.

Form Deep and Lasting Relationships

When you socialize regularly in college, you tend to develop deep and lasting relationships. Even if some of the connections are shorter term, they can support you in different ways. For example, maybe a college friend in your same major is interested in starting a business with you. Or maybe a roommate helps you find a job. With a foundation of caring and concern, you are bound to find that your interdependent relationships fulfill you and others. It’s unlikely that students without interdependent relationships will experience these kinds of benefits.

Develop Good Study Habits

Study habits vary from student to student, but you can usually tell when studying and social life are at odds. Creative, organized students can combine studying and socializing for maximum advantage. For example, you might join a peer study group for a subject that you find difficult or even for a subject that you excel in. Either way, you and others gain from this relationship. There is mutual support not only for studying but for building social connections.

Minimize Stress

When you feel stressed, what are your “go-to” behaviors? It can be hard to reach out to others during times of stress, but socializing can be a great stress reliever. When you connect with others, you may find that life is a little easier and burdens can be shared and lightened. Helping is mutual. The key is to balance social activities with responsibilities.

Share Interests

In college, there are opportunities not only to explore a wide spectrum of interests but also to share them. In the process of exploring and developing your personal interests, you may join a club or perhaps work in a campus location that fits your interests. By connecting with others in a context of shared interests, everyone stands to gain because you expand knowledge and experience through social interaction.

Develop Social Skills

As you engage in social activities in college, you have the opportunity to observe how other people act in these situations. You may see behaviors you want to emulate or behaviors you wish to avoid. Throughout these observations and experiences, you can learn new ways to handle yourself in social situations. These skills will benefit you as you pursue a career and engage with people who interest and inspire you.

Communication Strategies for Effective Interactions

Socializing is generally considered a leisurely, enjoyable activity. But depending on your personality and attitude, it can also feel like work or provoke anxiety.

Whatever your natural inclinations are, you can learn how to communicate more effectively with others and foster supportive interactions. The “doors” of change to more effective interactions are threefold:

1. Examine your reservations
2. Engage with others
3. Expand your social circle and/or build a few meaningful friendships.

Examine Your Reservations

Everybody feels shy or insecure from time to time, but if you feel inhibited by your shyness, it may be because you’ve developed certain habits of thought that don’t serve your best interests anymore. Below are some strategies to help you examine reservations you may have about engaging in social activities.

• Change ideas and thoughts: In our busy, high-octane lives, it’s not always easy to be aware of our thoughts, especially habitual thoughts that sometimes lurk behind the others. But if we make a point to listen to our thoughts, we may discover some that we’d like to change. Once you begin to recognize thoughts you’d like to change, you can train yourself in new directions. For example, you can start by closing your eyes and visualizing the negative thought. Let it slowly dissolve until it disappears completely.
• Turn a negative thought into a constructive thought: If you find yourself thinking that you’re not suited to joining a group that interests you, turn this thought into a positive one by saying, “I am an interesting person and I have a lot to offer and share.” This affirmation is true! You might want to come up with three or more replacement thoughts.
• Acknowledge that everyone is unique: Everyone has their own unique mind, body, personality, interests, beliefs, and values.

Engage with Others

• Smile: One of the easiest ways to compel yourself into socializing is to smile. Smiling can instantly make you feel more positive. It also draws other people to you.
• Use welcoming body language: If you are at a social gathering, be aware of your body language. Does it signal that you are approachable? Make eye contact with people, give them a small wave or a nod, and look in front of you instead of at your feet or at the floor. When you look happy and ready to talk, people are more likely to come up to you.
• Put your phone away: If you look busy, people won’t want to interrupt you. Your body language should say that you are ready to interact.
• Be genuine: Whether you are talking to an old friend or somebody you have just met, show genuine interest in the conversation. Being fully engaged shows that you are compassionate and makes for more stimulating and fulfilling interactions with others.
• Keep conversations balanced: Ask people questions about themselves. Show that you care by asking others to share.
• Be open-minded: The old adage “Don’t judge a book by its cover” is relevant here. Someone you’re ambivalent about could end up being your best friend. Give yourself a chance to get to know others. What interests might you share?

Expand Your Social Circle

• Offer invitations: As you reach out to others, others will be more likely to reciprocate and reach out to you. Call old friends that you haven’t seen in a while and set up a time to get together. Invite a friend to the movies, a baseball game, a concert, or other activity. Consider having a party and telling your friends to bring guests.
• Accept more invitations: Granted, there are only so many hours in the day for socializing. But if you’re in the habit of turning down invitations, try to make a point to accept some—even if the invitation is to attend something out of your comfort zone. You might even want to make a habit of arbitrarily saying yes three times for every one time you say no.
• Join a club or group with like-minded people: Making new friends and expanding one’s social network can be accomplished by joining a club or group. You may even want to consider joining a group focused on something different from what you’re used to.
• Meet mutual friends: Meeting friends of friends is one of the easiest ways to meet new people. Try to view every person you meet in your life as a doorway into a new social circle.
• Look for unique opportunities to be social: This can be as simple as starting a conversation with a checkout clerk—”Hey, how’s your day going?”—instead of remaining quiet.

All in all, make your social life one of your top priorities. Everyone needs some alone time, too, but it’s important to stay connected. Keeping those connections alive contributes to healthy interdependence and personal success.

Activity: Reflections on Self-Confidence

Objective

• Identify personal traits that give you self-confidence and use them as a springboard to social interaction.

Directions:

• Make a list of your positive qualities. Acknowledge your accomplishments, talents, and good nature. Ask yourself the following questions to get you started:
  • What have I done in the past year that I am proud of?
  • What is my proudest accomplishment of all time?
  • What unique talents do I have?
  • What do people tend to compliment me for?
  • What positive impact have I had on other people’s lives?
• Draft your responses as a journal entry, or a diary entry, or even a poem or a brief essay.
• Submit your writing to a friend, a family member, or a social network. Reach out. Be social.

Social Conflict Situations and Resolution Strategies

Now that you know more about communication strategies for interacting in college, you may find it helpful to identify common situations that can evoke anxiety or social problems and conflict.

Campus Parties and Hookups

Many college students report that they have social limits not shared by their some of their friends. For example, you may join a group of friends to attend a party off-campus where a lot of drinking is taking place, along with other activities you are not comfortable with. If this kind of situation clashes with your personal, cultural, or religious values, you may feel best leaving the event and seeking out other social settings in the future. Angle your social interests toward people and situations that are compatible with your values and preferences. Be aware of your environment and your company and think about your health and safety.

Academic Problems

When you’re in college, it’s not unusual hit a rough patch and find yourself struggling academically, and such challenges can have an impact on your social life. If you may find yourself in this situation—and especially if it includes other stressors, such as employment difficulties, responsibilities for family member, of financial problems—you may benefit from slowing down and getting help. Your college or university has support systems in place to help you. Take advantage of resources such as the tutoring center, counseling center, and academic advisers to help you restore your social life to a balanced state.

Homesickness

Homesickness is a common among college freshman, but it can persist in later college years, too. During this time, one may not feel up to being fully sociable or outgoing, especially if depression is involved. In fact, depression and social isolation tend to go together. As unappealing as it may feel, one of the best antidotes to homesickness (and depression, too,) is try to make new social connections. Try to appreciate your new environment and know that you are not alone in feeling a bit out of place and alone. Many potential new friends may be sharing the same feeling and hoping to connect with someone just like you. Give yourself time to acclimate, but reach out as soon as possible and take an active role in building your new college life.

Too Much Social Networking

It’s pretty obvious that social media is an integral part of the social landscape in college. From tweeting about a football game, to posting an album on Facebook about your spring break, to beefing up your LinkedIn profile before a job hunt, to Instagramming picture of party hijinks, social networking is everywhere in college, and it’s likely to stay. Remember to be thoughtful about what you post. Content you post may be seen by future employers. Some things online will never go away (even after you delete them).

The following video gives an insider look at why college students use social media.

Video: The True Reasons College Students Use Social Media

A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: https://press.rebus.community/blueprint2/?p=271

Despite the many benefits, as you know, social networking can be a major distraction. If social networking is getting in the way of any part of your college success—whether its social or academic success—take a break and disconnect for a while.

Here are ten reasons why you may wish to step away from social media, at least temporarily: When It’s Time to Unplug—10 Reasons Why Too Much Social Media Is Bad for You

With a Little Help from My Friends

In a 2014 research study by the University of California-Los Angeles (the American Freshman Survey), 153,000 full-time, first-year students at more than 200 four-year public and private institutions were surveyed. Only 18 percent of those surveyed said they spend more than 16 hours weekly with friends. Compare this data point with a similar survey conducted in 1987: in that year, two-thirds of surveyed students said they spent more than 16 hours each week socializing.

What accounts for this change? Are academic pursuits now taking a larger percentage of students’ time? Is socializing being replaced by part-time jobs? And what is the impact of less socializing? You can read about the survey results to find out more: College Freshmen Socialize Less, Feel Depressed More.

For now, keep in mind the many benefits of socializing in college. It’s possible to have a healthy social life that’s balanced with other responsibilities.

Amie Bernstein

Lumen Learning, Linda (Bruce) Hill, Dave Dillon

What Is Diversity?

There are few words in the English language that have more varied interpretations than diversity. What does diversity mean? Better yet—what does diversity mean to you? And what does it mean to your best friend, your teacher, your parents, your religious leader, or the person standing behind you in a grocery store?

For each of us, diversity has unique meaning. Below are a few of the many definitions offered by college students at a 2010 conference on the topic of diversity. Which of these definitions rings out to you as most accurate and thoughtful? Which definitions could use some embellishment or clarification, in your opinion?

Diversity is a group of people who are different in the same place.

Diversity to me is the ability for differences to coexist together, with some type of mutual understanding or acceptance present. Acceptance of different viewpoints is key.

Tolerance of thought, ideas, people with differing viewpoints, backgrounds, and life experiences.

Anything that sets one individual apart from another.

People with different opinions, backgrounds (degrees and social experience), religious beliefs, political beliefs, sexual orientations, heritage, and life experience.

Dissimilar

Having a multitude of people from different backgrounds and cultures together in the same environment working for the same goals.

Difference in students’ background, especially race and gender.

Differences in characteristics of humans.

Diversity is a satisfying mix of ideas, cultures, races, genders, economic statuses and other characteristics necessary for promoting growth and learning among a group.

Diversity is the immersion and comprehensive integration of various cultures, experiences, and people.

Heterogeneity brings about opportunities to share, learn and grow from the journeys of others. Without it, limitations arise and knowledge is gained in the absence of understanding.

Diversity is not tolerance for difference but inclusion of those who are not the majority. It should not be measured as a count or a fraction—that is somehow demeaning. Success at maintaining diversity would be when we no longer ask if we are diverse enough, because it has become the norm, not remarkable.“How Would You Define Diversity?,” Open Ended Student Survey on How to Define Diversity, April 28, 2010, https://sph.unc.edu/files/2013/07/define_diversity.pdf.

Diversity means different things to different people, and it can be understood differently in different environments. In the context of your college experience, diversity generally refers to people around you who differ by race, culture, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, abilities, opinions, political views, and in other ways. When it comes to diversity on the college campus, we also think about how groups interact with one another, given their differences (even if they’re just perceived differences.) How do diverse populations experience and explore their relationships?

“More and more organizations define diversity really broadly,” says Eric Peterson, who works on diversity issues for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). “Really, it’s any way any group of people can differ significantly from another group of people—appearance, sexual orientation, veteran status, your level in the organization. It has moved far beyond the legally protected categories that we’ve always looked at.”Kevin Whitelaw, “Defining Diversity: Beyond Race and Gender,” accessed April 27, 2018, npr.org http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122327104.

The following videos explore aspects of diversity. They highlight the passion and excitement about diversity and the many ways in which diverse groups can support one another.

Video: Color blind or color brave? – Mellody Hobson

A TED element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: https://press.rebus.community/blueprint2/?p=273

Video: When To Take a Stand and When To Let it Go, Ash Beckham TED Talk

A TED element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: https://press.rebus.community/blueprint2/?p=273

Video: How to overcome our biases? Walk boldly toward them, Vernã Myers TED Talk

A TED element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: https://press.rebus.community/blueprint2/?p=273

Video: ‘Ask Me’: What LGBTQ Students Want Their Professors to Know

(View this video by clicking the subheading above or at Chronicle.com)

Surface Diversity and Deep Diversity

Surface diversity and deep diversity are categories of personal attributes—or differences in attributes—that people perceive to exist between people or groups of people.

Surface-level diversity refers to differences you can generally observe in others, like ethnicity, race, gender, age, culture, language, disability, etc. You can quickly and easily observe these features in a person. And people often do just that, making subtle judgments at the same time, which can lead to bias or discrimination. For example, if a teacher believes that older students perform better than younger students, she may give slightly higher grades to the older students than the younger students. This bias is based on perception of the attribute of age, which is surface-level diversity.

Deep-level diversity, on the other hand, reflects differences that are less visible, like personality, attitude, beliefs, and values. These attributes are generally communicated verbally and nonverbally, so they are not easily noticeable or measurable. You may not detect deep-level diversity in a classmate, for example, until you get to know him or her, at which point you may find that you are either comfortable with these deeper character levels, or perhaps not. But once you gain this deeper level of awareness, you may focus less on surface diversity. For example: At the beginning of a term, a classmate belonging to a minority ethnic group, whose native language is not English (surface diversity), may be treated differently by fellow classmates in another ethnic group. But as the term gets under way, classmates begin discovering the person’s values and beliefs (deep-level diversity), which they find they are comfortable with. The surface-level attributes of language and perhaps skin color become more “transparent” (less noticeable) as comfort is gained with deep-level attributes.

Positive Effects of Diversity in an Educational Setting

Why does diversity matter in college? It matters because when you are exposed to new ideas, viewpoints, customs, and perspectives—which invariably happens when you come in contact with diverse groups of people—you expand your frame of reference for understanding the world. Your thinking becomes more open and global. You become comfortable working and interacting with people of all nationalities. You gain a new knowledge base as you learn from people who are different from yourself. You think “harder” and more creatively. You perceive in new ways, seeing issues and problems from new angles. You can absorb and consider a wider range of options, and your values may be enriched. In short, it contributes to your education.

Consider the following facts about diversity in the United States:

• More than half of all U.S. babies today are people of color, and by 2050 the U.S. will have no clear racial or ethnic majority. As communities of color are tomorrow’s leaders, college campuses play a major role in helping prepare these leaders.
• But in 2009, while 28 percent of Americans older than 25 years of age had a four-year college degree, only 17 percent of African Americans and 13 percent of Hispanics had a four-year degree. More must be done to adequately educate the population and help prepare students to enter the workforce.
• Today, people of color make up about 36 percent of the workforce (roughly one in three workers). But by 2050, half the workforce (one in two workers) will be a person of color. Again, college campuses can help navigate these changes.

All in all, diversity brings richness to relationships on campus and off campus, and it further prepares college students to thrive and work in a multicultural world. Diversity is fast becoming America’s middle name.

Accessibility and Diversity on Campus

The idea of “accessibility” is an important force of change on college campuses today. Accessibility is about making education accessible to all, and and it’s particularly focused on providing educational support to a diverse group of students, faculty, and staff with disabilities. According to the American with Disabilities Act, you can be considered disabled if you meet one of the following criteria:

• You have a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, such as seeing, hearing, walking, learning, and others.
• You have a history of such impairment.
• Others perceive that you have such impairment.

If you meet one of these criteria, you have special legal rights to certain accommodations on your campus. These accommodations may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Academic accommodations, like alternate format for print materials, classroom captioning, arranging for priority registration, reducing a course load, substituting one course for another, providing note takers, recording devices, sign language interpreters, a TTY in your dorm room, and equipping school computers with screen-reading, voice recognition, or other adaptive software or hardware.
• Exam accommodations, like extended time on exams
• Financial support and assistance
• Priority access to housing
• Transportation and access, like Wheelchair-accessible community shuttles

Assistive technologies and Web-accessibility accommodations are critical in today’s technology-driven economy and society. The following are some examples of assistive technologies are the following:

• Software like Dragon Naturally Speaking, Kurzweil, Zoom Text, CCTV Magnifier, Inspiration Software
• Computer input devices, like keyboards, electronic pointing devices, sip-and-puff systems, wands and sticks, joysticks, trackballs, and touch screens
• Other Web-accessibility aids, like screen readers, screen enlargers, and screen magnifiers, speech recognition or voice recognition programs, and Text-to-Speech (TTS) or speech synthesizers

Students in the following video share some of their experiences with the Web-accessibility.

Video: Experiences of Students with Disabilities

A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: https://press.rebus.community/blueprint2/?p=273

For more information about Web-accessibility, visit http://webaim.org/.

Lumen Learning and Linda (Bruce) Hill

Student Life

Whether your campus is small, tall, grande, or venti, you are probably amazed by the array of institutionally supported student activities available for your enrichment and enjoyment. Perhaps your biggest challenge is deciding how much extra time you have after studying and which added activities yield the greatest reward.

Below are two videos that give a sample of campus life at two different types of colleges. The first is from a large state institution—the University of Maryland. The second is from a smaller, private college—Baldwin Wallace University. Regardless, though, of where your institution fits on the spectrum of size, or how many activities, clubs, and organizations your institution offers, it’s very important for you to be able to explore co-curricular interests—for learning, enjoyment, and personal satisfaction. Student life should always be satisfying and rewarding to students, as well as to alumni, faculty, staff, and community members. Together, these groups are an institution’s lifeblood.

Organized Groups on Campus

Student Organizations

Colleges have an abundance of student organizations. Some examples you may be familiar with are the Hillel Student Organization for enriching the lives of Jewish students, the Chess Club, and Model United Nations. Larger institutions may have hundreds of such organizations. Here is a lengthy and exciting list of student organizations at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Generally, an organization is created and run by current students, and it’s sponsored by an executive officer, dean, or director of a major academic or operational unit. An organization must also have a mission that’s consistent with the mission of the college and sponsor. It might also collect dues from members, but in many cases, membership is free.

To link up with a student organization, you may not need to do much more than take stock of your interests. What do you love to do? In a later section, you’ll find a list of ways to learn about student organizations at your institution. If you find that your college doesn’t have an organization that speaks to your particular interests, you might consider starting one.

Fraternities and Sororities

Fraternities and sororities are social organizations at colleges and universities. The terms “Greek letter organization” (“GLO”) and “Greek life” are often used to describe fraternities and sororities. Generally, you obtain membership while you are an undergraduate, but your membership continues for life. Most Greek organizations have five shared elements: secrecy, single-sex membership, rushing and pledging to select new members, occupancy in a shared residence, and identification with Greek letters. Fraternities and sororities also engage in philanthropic activities, and they often host parties and other events that may be popular across campus.

Diversity and Multiculturalism

Diversity and multiculturalism are indeed critical pursuits not just on college campuses but in communities, businesses, and organizations around the world. If you are interested in expanding and promoting awareness of this issues on campus and further afield, you can seek opportunities at your college for starters. You will likely find informal gatherings, presentations, campus-wide events, individual students and classes focused on creating diverse, multicultural, and inclusive communities. As an example, here is a list of student clubs relating to culture and diversity at Goucher College.

Civic Engagement and Leadership

Most colleges have many opportunities for you to learn about and prepare for civic engagement and leadership on campus and in the wider community. What is civic engagement? It’s your involvement in protecting and promoting a diverse and democratic society—and clearly, leadership is an important part of this. Student organizations and activities related to these pursuits may be student government associations, leadership courses and retreats, social change projects, service opportunities, social innovation initiatives, and many others.

Service and Volunteerism

If you are like many new college students, you probably already have experience volunteering. It may have been part of your high school requirements. Or perhaps you engaged in volunteering as part of a faith organization or as part of a community fundraising effort. Any of your volunteering can continue in college, too, as your institution will have many special and meaningful ways to stay involved, work on social problems, and contribute to a better world. Service and volunteer efforts may include philanthropy, activism, social entrepreneurship, advocacy, and direct service.

Student Activities

On any college campus, satellite center, or virtual space, students may be involved in activities around the clock on any given day. These activities may include student organization activities as well as special presentations, meetings, performing arts events, sporting events, intramurals, recreational activities, local community activities, holiday events, commemorative events, and so on.

You are heartily encouraged to pursue any interests that enhance your education and enrich your student experience. Your participation can expand your horizons, deepen your interests, and connect you with new people.

Resources for Learning About Campus Organizations

It can seem overwhelming to learn about all the activities, events, clubs, organizations, athletics, performing arts, etc. on campus. Sometimes you may need to dig a little, too. The following resources are a good place to start:

• Your institution’s website: Try a keywords search at your college’s website, using any of the following: student life, college life, student organizations, clubs, student activities office, student services, special events, events calendar, performing arts calendar, athletics calendar, etc.
• Email: Keep alert to the many email messages you receive from campus offices and organizations. They publicize all kinds of activities and opportunities for you to engage with campus and student life.
• Other technology-based support services: Take advantage of other technology-based student support services if they are available. For example, some colleges use an online platform that connects student organizations and allows them to reach out to prospective new members. With this service, you could access a list of student organizations to see which ones you might like to join and see what events are ahead. You can also can search for organizations based on categories or interests.
• Social media: Most institutions keep up-to-date information on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more. Individual groups on campus may also have separate social media presences that you can locate through the institution’s offerings.
• Bulletin boards: Take a look at bulletin boards as you pass through hallways in academic buildings, dining halls, sports facilities, dormitories, even local service centers, and retail stores. You can often find fliers with event details and contact information.
• Friends: Keep a pulse on what others are doing in their spare time. This is also a good way to make new friends and align yourself with others who have similar interests.
• Campus offices for social functions: Make a point to visit the student activities office or the student affairs office. Both often have physical spaces for student organizations.
• Campus offices for academic functions: Inquire with your academic adviser. He or she will likely be knowledgeable about campus organizations related to your interests and may know about local, regional and national organizations, too.

Benefits of Participating in Student Life

How is it that becoming fully involved in student life can have such a positive impact on student satisfaction and academic success?

The National Survey of Student Engagement—a survey measuring student involvement in academic and co-curricular activities—shows that student success is directly linked to student involvement in the institution. In fact, survey results show that the higher the level of student involvement is, the higher student grades are and the more likely students are to re-enroll the next semester. All of this seems to translate to satisfaction. The following lists some of the many benefits and rewards that result from active participation in campus and student life.

• Personal interests are tapped: Co-curricular programs and activities encourage students to explore personal interests and passions. As students pursue these interests, they learn more about their strengths and possible career paths. These discoveries can be lasting and life-changing.
• A portfolio of experience develops: Experience with just about any aspect of college life may be relevant to a prospective employer. Is freshman year too soon to be thinking about résumés? Definitely not! If you gain leadership experience in a club, for example, be sure to document what you did so you can refer back to it (you might want to keep track of your activities and experiences in a journal, for instance).
• Fun leads to good feelings: Students typically pursue co-curricular activities because the activities are enjoyable and personally rewarding. Having fun is also a good way to balance the stress of meeting academic deadlines and studying intensely.
• Social connections grow: When students are involved in co-curricular activities, they usually interact with others, which means meeting new people, developing social skills, and being a part of a community. It’s always good to have friends who share your interests and to develop these relationships over time.
• Awareness of diversity expands: The multicultural nature of American society is increasingly reflected and celebrated on college campuses today. You will see this not only in the classroom but also in the co-curricular activities, clubs, organizations, and events. For example, your college might have a Black Student Union, an Asian Pacific Student Union, a Japanese Student Association, a Chinese Student Association, and many others. Having access to these resources gives students the opportunity to explore different cultures and prepare to live, work, and thrive in a vibrantly diverse world.
• Self-esteem grows: When students pursue their special interests through co-curricular activities, it can be a real boost to self-esteem. Academic achievement can certainly be a source of affirmation and satisfaction, but it’s nice to have additional activities that validate your special contributions in other ways.

All in all, being involved in the campus community is vital to every student, and it’s vital to the college, too. It’s a symbiotic relationship that serves everyone well.

The key to getting the most out of college is to take advantage of as many facets of student life as possible while still keeping up with your academic commitments. That’s pretty obvious, right? What may be less obvious is that focusing exclusively on your academic work and not getting involved in any of the rich and diverse co-curricular activities on campus can come at a real price and even hamper your success.

Lumen Learning, Dave Dillon

A diet is anything that you consume on a regular basis. If you drink Diet Coke for breakfast every day, that’s part of your diet. When people talk about “going on a diet,” they usually mean changing their existing dietary habits in order to lose weight or change their body shape. All people are on a diet because everyone eats! Having a healthy diet means making food choices that contribute to short- and long-term health. It means getting the right amounts of nutrient-rich foods and avoiding foods that contain excessive amounts of less healthy foods. The right mix can help you be healthier now and in the future.

Developing healthy eating habits doesn’t require you to sign up for a gimmicky health-food diet or lifestyle: you don’t have to become vegan, gluten-free, “paleo,” or go on regular juice fasts. The simplest way to create a healthy eating style is by learning to make wise food choices that you can enjoy, one small step at a time. See the ChooseMyPlate website for more guidelines. Additionally, the following current USDA Healthy Eating Guidelines replace the old “food pyramid.”

USDA Healthy Eating Guidelines

Make half your plate fruits and vegetables: Focus on whole fruits, and vary your veggies

• Choose whole fruits—fresh, frozen, dried, or canned in 100% juice.
• Enjoy fruit with meals, as snacks, or for a dessert.
• Try adding fresh, frozen, or canned vegetables to salads, side dishes, and recipes.
• Choose a variety of colorful veggies prepared in healthful ways: steamed, sautéed, roasted, or raw.

Make half your grains whole grains

• Look for whole grains listed first or second on the ingredients list—try oatmeal, popcorn, whole-grain bread, and brown rice.
• Limit grain desserts and snacks, such as cakes, cookies, and pastries.

Vary your protein routine

• Mix up your protein foods to include a variety—seafood, beans and peas, unsalted nuts and seeds, soy products, eggs, and lean meats and poultry.
• Try main dishes made with beans and seafood, like tuna salad or bean chili.

Move to low-fat or fat-free milk or yogurt

• Choose fat-free milk, yogurt, and soy beverages (soy milk) to cut back on your saturated fat.
• Replace sour cream, cream, and regular cheese in recipes and dishes with low-fat yogurt, milk, and cheese.

Drink and eat less sodium, saturated fat, and added sugars

• Eating fewer calories from foods high in saturated fat and added sugars can help you manage your calories and prevent obesity. Most of us eat too many foods that are high in saturated fat and added sugar.
• Eating foods with less sodium can reduce your risk of high blood pressure.
• Use the Nutrition Facts label and ingredients list to compare foods and drinks. Limit items high in sodium, saturated fat, and added sugars.
• Use vegetable oils instead of butter, and choose oil-based sauces and dips instead of those with butter, cream, or cheese.
• Drink water instead of sugary drinks.

Eat the right amount

• Eat the right amount of calories for you based on your age, sex, height, weight, and physical activity level. Visit the USDA SuperTracker, which can help you plan, analyze, and track your diet and physical activity.
• Building a healthier eating style can help you avoid obesity and reduce your risk of diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

Cornell University found that the average adult eats 92% of whatever he or she puts on their plate. One of the challenges is that portion sizes have drastically increased over the last 50 years.Brian Wansink and Katherine Abowd Johnson, “The Clean Plate Club: About 92% of Self-Served Food is Eaten,” International Journal of Obesity, 39 (2015):371–374.

Healthy Eating in College

College offers many temptations for students trying to create or maintain healthy eating habits. You may be on your own for the first time, and you’re free to eat whatever you want, whenever you want. Cafeterias, all-you-can-eat dining facilities, vending machines, and easy access to food twenty-four hours a day make it tempting to overeat or choose foods loaded with calories, saturated fat, sugar, and salt. You may not be in the habit of shopping or cooking for yourself yet, and, when you find yourself short on time or money, it may seem easier to fuel yourself on sugary, caffeinated drinks and meals at the nearest fast-food place. Also, maybe you played basketball or volleyball in high school, but now you don’t seem to be getting much exercise.

On top of that, it’s common for people to overeat (or not eat enough) when they feel anxious, lonely, sad, stressed, or bored, and college students are no exception. It’s incredibly important, though, to develop healthy ways of coping and relaxing that don’t involve reaching for food, drink, or other substances. It’s also important to eat regular healthy meals to keep up your energy.

Lumen Learning, Dave Dillon

Regular Exercise: Health for Life

The importance of getting regular exercise is probably nothing new to you. The health benefits are well known and established: Regular physical activity can produce long-term health benefits by reducing your risk of many health problems, such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, and it can also increase your chances of living longer, help you control your weight, and even help you sleep better.

As a busy college student, you may be thinking, I know this, but I don’t have time! I have classes and work and a full life! What you may not know is that—precisely because you have such a demanding, possibly stressful schedule—now is the perfect time to make exercise a regular part of your life. Getting into an effective exercise routine now will not only make it easier to build healthy habits that you can take with you into your life after college, but it can actually help you be a more successful student, too. As you’ll see in the section on brain health, below, exercise is a powerful tool for improving one’s mental health and memory—both of which are especially important when you’re in school.

The good news is that most people can improve their health and quality of life through a modest increase in daily activity. You don’t have to join a gym, spend a lot of money, or even do the same activity every time—just going for a walk or choosing to take the stairs (instead of the elevator) can make a difference. The following video describes how much activity you need.

Video: Physical Activity Guidelines – Introduction

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Fight or Flight

Our bodies have an automatic “fight or flight” reaction when we perceive a threat. Fighting or running is physical exercise and the result is metabolizing our excessive stress hormones and bringing our bodies and minds back to a more relaxed state. Even though we do not suffer from the same threats cavemen and cavewomen incurred many years ago, we still perceive threats and we still suffer from stress. Exercise has many physical and mental benefits in addition to lowering stress.

Regular physical activity is one of the best things you can do to be healthy. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, its benefits include: controlling weight, reducing risk of cardiovascular disease, reducing risk for type two diabetes, reducing risk of cancer, strengthening bones and muscles, improving mental health and mood, increasing chances of living longer“Physical Activity and Health,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018, http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/everyone/health/index.html.. One assignment I give my students is to have them record all food and drinks consumed in one week, along with keeping records of how much exercise and how many hours of sleep take place. Some students know exactly what they are putting into their body and how they are treating it. But most are surprised at how little one or more of these important aspects are sufficient. Try it. Think of it as an opportunity to see what you actually put into your body, how much exercise and rest you give it.

After a class I was speaking with a student about diet and nutrition and our conversation led to a discussion on the contrast of what some students give their children to eat versus what they eat themselves. It reminded me of the 5-2-1-0 graphic my children recognize at their pediatrician visits. It stands for (each day) 5 or more fruits or vegetables, 2 hours or less recreational screen time, 1 hour or more of physical activity, 0 sugary drinks (more water). Of course, it is designed for kids. But many students would do well for themselves to keep the 5-2-1-0 recommendation in mind“Is your child at risk for obesity?,” CACM Health Center, http://www.camc.org/5210..

Our bodies are more prone to getting sick if they are not well taken care of. Getting sick in the middle of an academic term can have devastating effects on the academic performance.

A much better way to go (as I painfully learned) is to make a schedule, stick to it, prepare and review periodically, get adequate sleep, eat well, and be on an exercise plan.

For optimal concentration levels, work performance and test scores, proper nutrition and adequate sleep have a large effect. My personal opinion is that exercise helps clear the mind, which is so important in our current generations’ overwhelming bombardment of information around us.

Physical Fitness and Types of Exercise

Physical fitness is a state of well-being that gives you sufficient energy to perform daily physical activities without getting overly tired or winded. It also means being in good enough shape to handle unexpected emergencies involving physical demands—that is, if someone said, “Run for your life!” or you had to rush over and prevent a child from falling, you’d be able to do it.

There are many forms of exercise—dancing, rock climbing, walking, jogging, yoga, bike riding, you name it—that can help you become physically fit. The major types are described below.

Aerobic Exercise

Aerobic exercise increases your heart rate, works your muscles, and raises your breathing rate. For most people, it’s best to aim for a total of about thirty minutes a day, four or five days a week. If you haven’t been very active recently, you can start out with five or ten minutes a day and work up to more time each week. Or, split up your activity for the day: try a brisk ten-minute walk after each meal. If you are trying to lose weight, you may want to exercise more than thirty minutes a day. The following are some examples of aerobic exercise:

• A brisk walk (outside or inside on a treadmill)
• Dancing
• A low-impact aerobics class
• Swimming or water aerobic exercises
• Ice-skating or roller-skating
• Playing tennis
• Riding a stationary bicycle indoors

Strength Training

Strength training, done several times a week, helps build strong bones and muscles and makes everyday chores like carrying heavy backpacks (or grocery bags) easier. When you have more muscle mass, you burn more calories, even at rest. Here are some ways to do it:

• Join a class to do strength training with weights, elastic bands, or plastic tubes (if your college has a gym, take advantage of it!)
• Lift light weights at home

Flexibility Exercises

Flexibility exercises, also called stretching, help keep your joints flexible and reduce your risk of injury during other activities. Gentle stretching for 5 to 10 minutes helps your body warm up and get ready for aerobic activities such as walking or swimming. Check to see if your college offers yoga, stretching, and/or pilates classes, and give one a try.

Being Active Throughout the Day

In addition to formal exercise, there are many opportunities to be active throughout the day. Being active helps burns calories. The more you move around, the more energy you will have. The following strategies can help you increase your activity level:

• Walk instead of drive whenever possible
• Take the stairs instead of the elevator
• Work in the garden, rake leaves, or do some housecleaning every day
• Park at the far end of the campus lot and walk to class

Benefits of Exercise and Physical Fitness

Longevity

Exercise, even after age fifty, can add healthy, active years to one’s life. Studies continue to show that it’s never too late to start exercising and that even small improvements in physical fitness can significantly lower the risk of death. Simply walking regularly can prolong your life.

Moderately fit people—even if they smoke or have high blood pressure—have a lower mortality rate than the least fit. Resistance training is important because it’s the only form of exercise that can slow and even reverse the decline of muscle mass, bone density, and strength. Adding workouts that focus on speed and agility can be especially protective for older people. Flexibility exercises help reduce the stiffness and loss of balance that accompanies aging.

Diabetes

Diabetes, particularly type 2, is reaching epidemic proportions throughout the world as more and more cultures adopt Western-style diets (which tend to be high in sugar and fat). Aerobic exercise is proving to have significant and particular benefits for people with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes; it increases sensitivity to insulin, lowers blood pressure, improves cholesterol levels, and decreases body fat. In fact, studies show that people who engage in regular, moderate aerobic exercise (e.g., brisk walking, biking) lower their risk for diabetes even if they do not lose weight. Anyone on insulin or who has complications from diabetes should get advice from a physician before embarking on a workout program.

Brain: Mood, Memory, Creativity

In addition to keeping your heart healthy, helping with weight loss, and helping you live longer, regular exercise can also improve your mood and help keep depression and anxiety at bay. The following video explains why and challenges you to give it a try:

Video: Exercise and the Brain

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If you still aren’t persuaded, check out this slightly longer but excellent Tedx Talk, which describes how aerobic exercise can improve your cognitive functioning, memory, and creativity:

Video: Exercise and the Brain, Wendy Suzuki, TEDx Orlando 2001

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Lumen Learning, Dave Dillon

The Benefits of Slumber

We have so many demands on our time—school, jobs, family, errands, not to mention finding some time to relax. To fit everything in, we often sacrifice sleep. But sleep affects both mental and physical health. Like exercise and a healthy diet, it’s vital to your well-being.

Of course, sleep helps you feel rested each day. But while you’re sleeping, your brain and body don’t just shut down. Internal organs and processes are hard at work throughout the night. Sleep can help you “lock in” everything you’re studying and trying to remember.

“Sleep services all aspects of our body in one way or another: molecular, energy balance, as well as intellectual function, alertness and mood,” says Dr. Merrill Mitler, a sleep expert and neuroscientist at the National Institute of Health (NIH).

When you’re tired, you can’t function at your best. Sleep helps you think more clearly, have quicker reflexes, and focus better. “The fact is, when we look at well-rested people, they’re operating at a different level than people trying to get by on one or two hours less nightly sleep,” says Mitler.

“Loss of sleep impairs your higher levels of reasoning, problem-solving, and attention to detail,” Mitler explains. Tired people tend to be less productive at work and school. They’re at a much higher risk for traffic accidents. Lack of sleep also influences your mood, which can affect how you interact with others. A sleep deficit over time can even put you at greater risk for developing depression.

But sleep isn’t just essential for the brain. “Sleep affects almost every tissue in our bodies,” says Dr. Michael Twery, a sleep expert at NIH. “It affects growth and stress hormones, our immune system, appetite, breathing, blood pressure and cardiovascular health.”

Research shows that lack of sleep increases the risk for obesity, heart disease, and infections. Throughout the night, your heart rate, breathing rate and blood pressure rise and fall, a process that may be important for cardiovascular health. Your body releases hormones during sleep that help repair cells and control the body’s use of energy. These hormone changes can affect your body weight.

“Ongoing research shows a lack of sleep can produce diabetic-like conditions in otherwise healthy people,” says Mitler.

Recent studies also reveal that sleep can affect the efficiency of vaccinations. Twery described research showing that well-rested people who received the flu vaccine developed stronger protection against the illness.

A good night’s sleep consists of four to five sleep cycles. Each cycle includes periods of deep sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, when we dream. “As the night goes on, the portion of that cycle that is in REM sleep increases. It turns out that this pattern of cycling and progression is critical to the biology of sleep,” Twery says.

Sleep can be disrupted by many things. Stimulants such as caffeine or certain medications can keep you up. Distractions such as electronics—especially the light from TVs, cell phones, tablets and e-readers—can prevent you from falling asleep.

Fatigue

In 1989, 11 million gallons of oil were spilled when the Exxon Valdez ran aground. “The National Transportation Safety Board investigation attributed the accident to the fact that [Third Mate Gregory] Cousins, [filling in for the captain], had been awake for 18 hours prior to taking the helm of the Valdez, failed to ‘properly maneuver the vessel because of the fatigue and excessive workload.’ Given what science can tell us about the deleterious effects of sleep deprivation on decision-making, alertness and coordination, a case can be made that had Cousins simply lain down for a brief sleep, one of the greatest environmental catastrophes in recent memory – and $2.5 billion cost for cleanup – might’ve been averted.”Sarah Mednick and Mark Ehrman, Take a Nap! Change Your Life (New York: Workman Publishing, 2006), 10.

“Fatigue has been cited as at least a contributing factor in many of the worst disasters in recent history – the Union Carbide chemical explosion that killed thousands of people in Bhopal, India, and the nuclear catastrophe at Chernobyl, to name just two.”Mednick and Ehrman, Take a Nap! Change Your Life, 12.

Dr. Sara Mednick is a sleep researcher at UC Riverside. Dr. Mednick’s Ted Talk entitled, “Give it Up for the Down State – Sleep: Sarah Mednick at TEDxUCRSalon,” is a resource for more information.

Video: Give it up for the down state – sleep, Sara Mednick, TEDxUCR Salon

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Dr. Mednick’s “Authors@Google: Sara Mednick” video on is a longer lecture on sleep.

Video: Take a Nap! Change Your Life, Sara Mednick Authors@Google 2007

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It’s difficult to do anything well when we’re tired. Studying is difficult, concentration is difficult, writing is difficult and taking an exam is difficult. It’s much more efficient to get adequate rest and study, write, think and perform when we are rested.

This is a link to an article of a National Public Radio interview with Charles Czeisler, the director of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School. This article, an interview with Czeisler and Scott Huettel, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University links media with sleep interruption. These articles chronicle the benefits of getting adequate sleep and consequences of not getting adequate sleep along with questions and answers from the sleep specialists. It’s easy for me to say that you will perform better in your studies if you are getting enough sleep, but here is some proof from experts on the value of sleep.

How Much Sleep Do We Need?

The amount of sleep each person needs depends on many factors, including age, and getting a full night of quality sleep is important. Infants generally require about sixteen hours a day, while teenagers need about nine hours on average. For most adults, seven to eight hours a night appears to be the best amount of sleep. The amount of sleep a person needs also increases if he or she has been deprived of sleep in previous days. Getting too little sleep creates a “sleep debt,” which is a lot like being overdrawn at a bank. Eventually, your body will demand that the debt be repaid. We don’t seem to adapt to getting less sleep than we need; while we may get used to a sleep-depriving schedule, our judgment, reaction time, and other functions are still impaired. If you’re a student, that means that sleep-deprivation may prevent you from studying, learning, and performing as well as you can.

People tend to sleep more lightly and for shorter time spans as they get older, although they generally need about the same amount of sleep as they needed in early adulthood. Experts say that if you feel drowsy during the day, even during boring activities, you haven’t had enough sleep. If you routinely fall asleep within five minutes of lying down, you probably have severe sleep deprivation, possibly even a sleep disorder. “Microsleeps,” or very brief episodes of sleep in an otherwise awake person, are another mark of sleep deprivation. In many cases, people are not aware that they are experiencing microsleeps. The widespread practice of “burning the candle at both ends” in western industrialized societies has created so much sleep deprivation that what is really abnormal sleepiness is now almost the norm.

Many studies make it clear that sleep deprivation is dangerous. Sleep-deprived people who are tested by using a driving simulator or by performing a hand-eye coordination task perform as badly as or worse than those who are intoxicated. Sleep deprivation also magnifies alcohol’s effects on the body, so a fatigued person who drinks will become much more impaired than someone who is well rested. Driver fatigue is responsible for an estimated 100,000 motor vehicle accidents and 1,500 deaths each year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Since drowsiness is the brain’s last step before falling asleep, driving while drowsy can—and often does—lead to disaster. Caffeine and other stimulants cannot overcome the effects of severe sleep deprivation. The National Sleep Foundation says that if you have trouble keeping your eyes focused, if you can’t stop yawning, or if you can’t remember driving the last few miles, you are probably too drowsy to drive safely.

Falling Asleep and Getting a Good Night’s Rest

Many people, especially those who feel stressed, anxious, or overworked, have a hard time falling asleep and/or staying asleep, and this can shorten the amount of time and the quality of sleep when it actually comes. The following tips can help you get to sleep, stay asleep, and wake up feeling well rested:

• Set a schedule: Go to bed at a set time each night and get up at the same time each morning. Disrupting this schedule may lead to insomnia. “Sleeping in” on weekends also makes it harder to wake up early on Monday morning because it resets your sleep cycles for a later awakening.
• Exercise: Try to exercise 20 to 30 minutes a day. Daily exercise often helps people sleep, although a workout soon before bedtime may interfere with sleep. For maximum benefit, try to get your exercise about 5 to 6 hours before going to bed.
• Avoid caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol before bed: Avoid drinks that contain caffeine, which acts as a stimulant and keeps people awake. Sources of caffeine include coffee, chocolate, soft drinks, non-herbal teas, diet drugs, and some pain relievers. Smokers tend to sleep very lightly and often wake up in the early morning due to nicotine withdrawal. Alcohol robs people of deep sleep and REM sleep and keeps them in the lighter stages of sleep.
• Relax before bed: A warm bath, reading, or another relaxing routine can make it easier to fall sleep. It’s also a good idea to put away books, homework, and screens (computer and phone) at least 30 minutes before bed. You can train yourself to associate certain restful activities with sleep and make them part of your bedtime ritual.
• Sleep until sunlight: If possible, wake up with the sun, or use very bright lights in the morning. Sunlight helps the body’s internal biological clock reset itself each day. Sleep experts recommend exposure to an hour of morning sunlight for people having problems falling asleep.
• Don’t lie in bed awake: If you can’t get to sleep, don’t just lie in bed. Do something else, like reading or listening to music, until you feel tired. (Avoid digital screens, though: watching TV, and being on the computer or a smartphone are too stimulating and will actually make you more awake.) The anxiety of being unable to fall asleep can actually contribute to insomnia.
• Control your room temperature: Maintain a comfortable temperature in the bedroom. Extreme temperatures may disrupt sleep or prevent you from falling asleep.
• Screen out noise and light: Sleep with earplugs and use an eye pillow to drown out any bright lights and noise of loud roommates, etc.
• See a doctor if your sleeping problem continues: If you have trouble falling asleep night after night, or if you always feel tired the next day, then you may have a sleep disorder and should see a physician. Your primary care physician may be able to help you; if not, you can probably find a sleep specialist at a major hospital near you. Most sleep disorders can be treated effectively, so you can finally get that good night’s sleep you need.

Lumen Learning

Introduction

A drug is a chemical substance that can change how your body and mind work. Drugs of abuse are substances that people use to get high and change how they feel. They may be illegal drugs like pot, cocaine, or heroin. Or they may be legal for adults only, like alcohol and tobacco.

Medicines that treat illness can also become drugs of abuse when people take them to get high—not because they’re sick and following their doctor’s orders. People can even abuse cough or cold medicines from the store if they ignore the directions and take too much at one time.

People abuse drugs for many reasons:

• They want to feel good. Taking a drug can feel really good for a short time. That’s why people keep taking them—to have those good feelings again and again. But even though someone may take more and more of a drug, the good feelings don’t last. Soon the person is taking the drug just to keep from feeling bad.
• They want to stop feeling bad. Some people who feel very worried, afraid, or sad abuse drugs to try to stop feeling so awful. This doesn’t really help their problems and can lead to addiction, which can make them feel much worse.
• They want to do well in school or at work. Some people who want to get good grades, get a better job, or earn more money might think drugs will give them more energy, keep them awake, or make them think faster. But it usually doesn’t work, may put their health at risk, and may lead to addiction.

Cigarettes and Tobacco

It might surprise you to learn that cigarettes and other forms of tobacco are drugs. It’s legal to use tobacco once you’re 18 or 19 years old, depending on where you live. But it’s not healthy for you at any age.

Tobacco contains nicotine, a substance that excites the parts of the brain that make you feel good. You can get addicted to nicotine just like other drugs.

When you use tobacco, the nicotine quickly gives you a mild rush of pleasure and energy. But it soon wears off, which makes you want to use it some more. Sometimes, the rush of energy that comes with nicotine can make you nervous and edgy.

Electronic cigarettes: Read NIDA’s DrugFacts: Electronic Cigarettes (e-Cigarettes) for information about electronic cigarettes (sometimes called “vaping”), including how safe they are compared to tobacco cigarettes.

Effects of Cigarettes and Tobacco on the Body and Brain

These are just some of the problems cigarettes and tobacco can cause:

Lung diseases: Cigarette smoke causes lung cancer and painful breathing diseases like emphysema. These diseases can happen to people who smoke, or to others around them who breathe in their smoke.

Bad breath, bad teeth, mouth cancer: Cigarettes and other kinds of tobacco stain teeth and cause bad breath. Chewing tobacco can make teeth fall out and lead to cancer of the mouth.

Heart and blood problems: If you smoke, you are more likely to have a heart attack or stroke (sometimes called a “brain attack”).

Hurts babies: If a pregnant woman uses tobacco, her baby might be born too early or too small. This can cause health problems for the baby.

More diseases: Using cigarettes or other kinds of tobacco can lead to heart disease and many kinds of cancer.

Addiction: The nicotine in tobacco is what makes you addicted. When you smoke, the effects wear off quickly. This makes you want to keep using tobacco again and again throughout the day. The more you do this, the more your body and brain get addicted to the nicotine. Fortunately, there are medicines, other treatments, and hotlines that can help people quit tobacco.

Alcohol

Drinks like beer, malt liquor, wine, and hard liquor contain alcohol. Alcohol is the ingredient that gets you drunk.

Hard liquor—such as whiskey, rum, or gin—has more alcohol in it than beer, malt liquor, or wine.

The following drink sizes contain about the same amount of alcohol:

• 1 ½ ounces of hard liquor
• 5 ounces of wine
• 8 ounces of malt liquor
• 12 ounces of beer

Being drunk can make a person feel very silly, angry, or sad for no reason. It can make it hard to walk in a straight line, talk clearly, or drive.

Effects of Alcohol on the Body and Brain

Marijuana

Marijuana is a green, brown, or gray mix of dried, crumbled leaves from the marijuana plant. It can be rolled up and smoked like a cigarette (called a joint) or a cigar (called a blunt). Marijuana can also be smoked in a pipe. Sometimes people mix it in food and eat it.

Marijuana can make you feel silly, relaxed, sleepy, and happy—or nervous and scared. It may change your senses of sight, hearing, and touch. It can also make it hard to think clearly.

Effects of Marijuana on the Body and Brain

These are just some of the problems marijuana can cause:

• Memory problems: Marijuana makes it hard to remember things that just happened a few minutes ago. That makes it hard to learn in school or to pay attention to your job. A recent study showed that if you begin regular marijuana use as a teen, you can lose an average of 8 IQ points, and do not get them back, even if you stop using the drug.
• Heart problems: Using marijuana makes the heart beat fast and raises your risk of having a heart attack.
• Coughing and breathing problems: Marijuana smokers can get some of the same coughing and breathing problems as cigarette smokers. Marijuana smoke can hurt your lungs.
• Drugged driving: Driving when you’re high on marijuana is dangerous, just like driving drunk. Your reactions to traffic signs and sounds are slow. It’s hard to pay attention to the road. And it’s even worse when you’re high on marijuana and alcohol at the same time.
• You stop caring: Over time, marijuana users can get “burnt out.” They don’t think about much or do much. They can’t concentrate. They don’t seem to care about anything.
• Addiction: Although some people don’t know it, you can get addicted to marijuana after using it for a while. This is more likely to happen to people who use marijuana every day, or who started using it when they were teenagers.

Cocaine (Coke, Crack)

Cocaine is a white powder. It can be snorted up the nose or mixed with water and injected with a needle. Cocaine can also be made into small white rocks, called crack. It’s called crack because when the rocks are heated, they make a cracking sound. Crack is smoked in a small glass pipe.

Cocaine can make a person feel full of energy, but also restless, scared, or angry.

Effects of Cocaine on the Body and Brain

These are just some of the problems cocaine can cause:

• You feel sick: Cocaine can cause stomach pain and headaches. It can make you shake, throw up, or pass out.
• No appetite: Cocaine can make you not want to eat. Over time, you might lose a lot of weight and get sick.
• Heart attack and stroke: Cocaine raises your blood pressure and makes your heart beat faster. This can hurt your heart. It can give you a heart attack or stroke (brain injury from a blood clot). Some people die because of it.
• HIV/AIDS, hepatitis: People who inject (shoot up) cocaine can get HIV/AIDS and hepatitis (a liver disease) if they share used needles. People also get these diseases by having unsafe sex. They may forget to use condoms because they’re high on the drug.
• Addiction: It is easy to lose control over cocaine use and become addicted. Then, even if you get treatment, it can be hard to stay off the drug. People who stopped using cocaine can still feel strong cravings for the drug, sometimes even years later.

Heroin

Heroin is a white or brown powder or a black, sticky goo. It can be mixed with water and injected with a needle. Heroin can also be smoked or snorted up the nose.

Heroin causes a rush of good feelings just after it’s taken. But some people throw up or itch after taking it. For the next several hours you want to sleep, and your heart rate and breathing slow down. Then the drug wears off and you may feel a strong urge to take more.

Effects of Heroin on the Body and Brain

These are just some of the problems heroin can cause:

• Sick and itchy: Heroin can make you throw up and feel very itchy.
• You stop breathing: Heroin can slow or stop your breathing. It can kill you.
• HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis: Sharing used needles to inject (shoot up) heroin can give you HIV/AIDS and hepatitis (a liver disease).
• Overdose: People overdose on heroin because they can’t tell how strong it is until they take it. Signs of a heroin overdose are slow breathing, blue lips and fingernails, cold clammy skin, and shaking. You can die from a heroin overdose. People who might be overdosing should be taken to the emergency room immediately.
• Coma: Heroin can put you in a coma. That’s when nothing can wake you up, and you may die.
• Addiction: It is very easy to become addicted to heroin. Then, even if you get treatment, it’s hard to stay away from the drug. People who stopped using heroin can still feel strong cravings for the drug, sometimes years later. Fortunately, there are medicines that can help someone recover from heroin addiction.

Meth (Crank, Ice)

Methamphetamine—meth for short—is a white, bitter powder. Sometimes it’s made into a white pill or a clear or white shiny rock (called a crystal).

Meth powder can be eaten or snorted up the nose. It can also be mixed with liquid and injected into your body with a needle. Crystal meth is smoked in a small glass pipe.

Meth at first causes a rush of good feelings, but then users feel edgy, overly excited, angry, or afraid. Their thoughts and actions go really fast. They might feel too hot.

Effects of Meth on the Body and Brain

These are just some of the problems meth can cause:

• You overheat: Meth can make your body temperature so hot that you pass out. Sometimes this can kill you.
• Crank bugs: Meth can make you feel like bugs are crawling on or under your skin. It makes you scratch a lot. Scratching causes sores on your face and arms.
• Meth mouth: Meth users’ teeth become broken, stained, and rotten. Meth users often drink lots of sweet things, grind their teeth, and have dry mouth. This is called “meth mouth.”
• You look old: People who use meth start looking old. Meth users burn a lot of energy and don’t eat well. This can make them lose weight and look sick. Their hands or body might shake. Their skin looks dull and has sores and pimples that don’t heal. Their mouth looks sunken as the teeth go bad.
• HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis: People who inject (shoot up) meth can get HIV/AIDS or hepatitis (a liver disease) if they share used needles. People also get these diseases by having unsafe sex. They often forget to use condoms because they’re high on the drug.
• Addiction: Meth use can quickly lead to addiction and hurt different parts of your brain. It can cause thinking and emotional problems that don’t go away or that come back again even after you quit using the drug. For instance, you might feel, hear, or see things that aren’t there. You might think that people are out to get you, or start believing strange ideas that can’t really be true.

Prescription Pain Medicine (OxyContin, Vicodin)

Pain medicines relieve pain from surgery or injuries. You need a prescription from a doctor to buy some strong kinds of these medicines. Prescription pain medicines are legal and helpful to use when a doctor orders them to treat your medical problem.

But people sometimes take these without a doctor’s prescription to get high or to try to treat themselves or their friends. Drug dealers sell these pills just like they sell heroin or cocaine. Some people borrow or steal these pills from other people.

Some people think that prescription pain medicines are safer to abuse than “street” drugs because they are medicines. Prescription pain medicine abuse can be as dangerous as heroin or cocaine abuse.

Oxycodone is one pain medicine that people often abuse. Sometimes it goes by the brand names OxyContin^® or Percocet^®. Another one that is often abused is hydrocodone. One of its brand names is Vicodin^®.

Pain medicines are usually white, round, or oval pills. They can be taken whole, smoked, or crushed into a powder that is snorted or injected.

Like heroin, pain pills can cause a rush of good feeling when they’re first taken, but they can also make you want to throw up. They can make you very sleepy, and you can get addicted to them.

Effects of Pain Medicine Abuse on the Body and Brain

These are just some of the problems pain medicine abuse can cause:

• You stop breathing: Pain medicine abuse can slow down or even stop your breathing.
• Coma: Pain medicine abuse can put you in a coma. That’s when nothing can wake you up.
• Addiction: Prescription pain medicines can be as addictive as heroin—especially if they are smoked or injected. Then, even if you get treatment, it’s hard to stay away from the drug. Fortunately, there are medicines that can help someone recover from prescription pain medicine addiction.
• Overdose: Signs of a pain medicine overdose are cold and sweaty skin, confusion, shaking, extreme sleepiness, trouble breathing, and coma.
• Death: Many people die from pain medicine overdoses. In fact, more people overdose from pain medicines every year than from heroin and cocaine combined.

Other Drugs of Abuse

There are many other drugs of abuse, including:

Ecstasy (X, E, XTC) is a pill that is often taken at parties and clubs. It is sometimes called the “love drug” because it makes people feel very friendly and touchy. It also raises body temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure, and can make you feel sad for days after its effects wear off. Click here for more information about ecstasy.

K2 or Spice (fake weed, Skunk) is a drug made from shredded dried plant materials and chemicals. It is usually smoked. The “high” feels about the same as the “high” from marijuana. Spice users sometimes end up in the emergency room with rapid heart rates, vomiting and other uncomfortable side effects. K2/Spice is illegal. Click here for more information about K2/Spice.

LSD (acid) comes in pills or on small pieces of paper that have been soaked in liquid LSD. It makes you see, hear, and feel things that aren’t there. You might see bright colors, pretty pictures, or things that scare you. Click here for more information about LSD.

PCP (angel dust) is a pill or powder that can be eaten, smoked, or snorted up the nose. It makes people feel far away from the world around them. PCP often makes people feel angry and violent, not happy and dreamy. Click here for more information about PCP.

Inhalants are dangerous chemicals that make you feel high when you breathe them into your lungs (also called huffing or sniffing). These chemicals are found in household cleaners, spray cans, glue, and even permanent markers. Inhalants can make you pass out, stop your heart and your breathing, and kill you. Click here for more information about inhalants.

Club Drugs
Some drugs are called “club drugs” because they are sometimes passed around at nightclubs and parties:

• GHB is a liquid or powder that can make you pass out. It’s called a “date rape” drug because someone can secretly put it in your drink. This means that you can’t fight back or defend yourself. Then they will have sex with you without your permission.
• Rohypnol (roofies) is a date rape pill and can also be put in a drink.
• Ketamine (K, Special K) makes you feel far away from what’s going on around you and can feel scary and unpleasant. It is usually taken by mouth, snorted up the nose, or injected with a needle.
• Click here for more information about these drugs.

Bath Salts are drugs made with chemicals like the “upper” found in the Khat plant. They are only sold with the name “Bath Salts” to make them look harmless. These drugs can make you “high” but they can also make you shaky, afraid, and violent. They look like a white or brown shiny powder and are sold in small packages labeled “not for human consumption.” They can be taken by mouth, by inhaling into the lungs, or with a needle. Some people end up in the emergency room or even die after taking bath salts. Click here for more information about bath salts.

When and Where to Get Help 

Here’s a simple way to think about substance use and abuse: If your use of drugs or alcohol is interfering with your life—negatively affecting your health, work, school, relationships, or finances—it’s time to quit or seek help. People who are addicted to a substance continue to abuse even though they know it can harm their physical or mental health, lead to accidents, or put others in danger. The following video dispels some myths about who is at risk of addiction:

Video: Anyone Can Become Addicted to Drugs

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Know that first six weeks of the first semester is an especially critical and vulnerable time for most first-year students. Because lots of students get into the habit of drinking heavily and partying during these early days of college, there’s a risk that excessive alcohol consumption will interfere with successful adaptation to campus life. The transition to college is often difficult, and about one-third of first-year students fail to enroll for their second year.

If you are concerned about your drug or alcohol use, or you need help quitting, visit the student health center or talk with your college counselor. These folks are there to help you—it’s their job to provide information and support.

If you need additional resources or help, the following are good places to check:

• Drug Information Online
• Prevention Hub
• Drug and Alcohol Treatment Hotline: 1-800-662-HELP

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Causes of Stress

As a student, you’re probably plenty familiar with the experience of stress—a condition characterized by symptoms of physical or emotional tension. What you may not know is that it’s a natural response of the mind and body to a situation in which a person feels threatened or anxious. Stress can be positive (e.g., preparing for a wedding) or negative (e.g., dealing with a natural disaster).

Sometimes stress can be good. For instance, it can help you develop skills needed to manage potentially challenging or threatening situations in life. However, stress can be harmful when it is severe enough to make you feel overwhelmed and out of control.

Strong emotions like fear, sadness, or other symptoms of depression are normal, as long as they are temporary and don’t interfere with daily activities. If these emotions last too long or cause other problems, it’s a different story.

Signs and Effects of Stress

• Disbelief and shock
• Tension and irritability
• Fear and anxiety about the future
• Difficulty making decisions
• Being numb to one’s feelings
• Loss of interest in normal activities
• Loss of appetite (or increased appetite)
• Nightmares and recurring thoughts about the event
• Anger
• Increased use of alcohol and drugs
• Sadness and other symptoms of depression
• Feeling powerless
• Crying
• Sleep problems
• Headaches, back pains, and stomach problems
• Trouble concentrating

It’s not only unpleasant to live with the tension and symptoms of ongoing stress; it’s actually harmful to your body, too. Chronic stress can impair your immune system and disrupt almost all of your body’s processes, leading to increased risk of numerous health problems, including the following:“Chronic Stress Puts Your Health at Risk,” Mayo Clinic, 2016, accessed April 27, 2018, http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress/art-20046037.

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Digestive problems
• Heart disease
• Sleep problems
• Weight gain
• Memory and concentration impairment

That’s why it’s so important to learn healthy ways of coping with the stressors in your life.

Ways of Managing Stress

The best strategy for managing stress is by taking care of yourself in the following ways:

• Avoid drugs and alcohol. They may seem to be a temporary fix to feel better, but in the long run they can create more problems and add to your stress—instead of taking it away.
• Manage your time. Work on prioritizing and scheduling your commitments. This will help you feel in better control of your life, which, in turn, will mean less stress.
• Find support. Seek help from a friend, family member, partner, counselor, doctor, or clergy person. Having a sympathetic listening ear and talking about your problems and stress really can lighten the burden.
• Connect socially. When you feel stressed, it’s easy to isolate yourself. Try to resist this impulse and stay connected. Make time to enjoy being with classmates, friends, and family; try to schedule study breaks that you can take with other people.
• Slow down and cut out distractions for a while. Take a break from your phone, email, and social media.
• Take care of your health.
  • Eat a healthy, well-balanced diet
  • Exercise regularly
  • Get plenty of sleep
  • Try a relaxation technique, such as meditation or yoga, or treat yourself to a massage
  • Maintain a normal routine

The following video features a progressive muscle relaxation meditation for you to try. There are many many others available on YouTube and elsewhere.

Video: Progressive Muscle Relaxation Meditation

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If the self-care techniques listed above aren’t enough and stress is seriously interfering with your studies or life, don’t be afraid to get help. The student health center and college counselors are both good resources.

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Mental Health Basics

Knowing how to take care of your mental health when you’re in college is just as important as maintaining your physical health. In fact, there’s a strong link between the two: doctors are finding that positive mental health can actually improve your physical health.

So, what is “mental health?” Mental health can be defined as “a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.”“Mental Health Basics,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013, April 22, 2016. Having good mental health doesn’t necessarily mean being happy or successful all the time. Most people feel depressed, lonely, or anxious now and then, but those with good mental health can take these feelings in stride and overcome them. When such feelings or moods persist and interfere with a person’s ability to function normally, though, it may be a sign of a more serious mental health problem and time to seek help.

The term mental illness refers to mental disorders or health conditions characterized by “alterations in thinking, mood, or behavior (or some combination thereof) associated with distress and/or impaired functioning.”“Mental  Health Basics.” Depression is the most common type of mental illness, and it affects more than 26 percent of the U.S. adult population. It has been estimated that by the year 2020, depression will be the second leading cause of disability throughout the world, trailing only ischemic heart disease.

Evidence has shown that mental disorders, especially depressive disorders, are strongly linked to the occurrence and course of many chronic diseases—including diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, asthma, and obesity and many risk behaviors for chronic disease, such as physical inactivity, smoking, excessive drinking, and insufficient sleep. In other words, if your mental health is poor, you may be at greater risk for disease and poor physical health.

Mental Health Indicators

In the public health arena, more emphasis and resources have been devoted to screening, diagnosis, and treatment of mental illness than mental health. Little has been done to protect the mental health of those who are free from mental illness. There are some known indicators of mental health, including the following:

• Emotional well-being: life satisfaction, happiness, cheerfulness, peacefulness.
• Psychological well-being: self-acceptance, personal growth including openness to new experiences, optimism, hopefulness, purpose in life, control of one’s environment, spirituality, self-direction, and positive relationships.
• Social well-being: social acceptance, belief in the potential of people and society as a whole, personal self-worth and usefulness to society, and a sense of community.

Former surgeon general David Satcher suggests that there are social determinants of mental health—just as there are social determinants of general health—that need to be in place to support mental healthRahn Bailey, “The Social Determinants of Mental Health,” American Journal of Psychiatry 172, no. 9 (September 1, 2015): 913-914.. These include adequate housing, safe neighborhoods, equitable jobs and wages, quality education, and equity in access to quality health care.

There are also some common-sense strategies that you can adopt to support and improve your emotional, psychological, and social health. Not surprisingly, they are very similar to the strategies one uses to cope with stress:

• Eat a balanced diet
• Get enough sleep
• Get regular physical activity
• Stay socially connected with friends and family
• Make smart choices about alcohol and drugs
• Get help if you are anxious or depressed

Depression

Depression is a common but serious mood disorder that’s more than just a feeling of “being down in the dumps” or “blue” for a few days. It causes severe symptoms that affect how you feel, think, and handle daily activities, such as sleeping, eating, or working. To be diagnosed with depression, the symptoms must be present for at least two weeks.

If you have been experiencing some of the following signs and symptoms most of the day, nearly every day, for at least two weeks, you may be suffering from depression:

• Persistent sad, anxious, or “empty” mood
• Feelings of hopelessness, or pessimism
• Irritability
• Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, or helplessness
• Loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies and activities
• Decreased energy or fatigue
• Moving or talking more slowly
• Feeling restless or having trouble sitting still
• Difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions
• Difficulty sleeping, early-morning awakening, or oversleeping
• Appetite and/or weight changes
• Thoughts of death or suicide, or suicide attempts
• Aches or pains, headaches, cramps, or digestive problems without a clear physical cause and/or that do not ease even with treatment

Depression is one of the most common mental disorders in the United States. Current research suggests that depression is caused by a combination of genetic, biological, environmental, and psychological factors. It usually starts between the ages of fifteen and thirty, and is much more common in women. Women can also get postpartum depression after the birth of a baby. Some people get seasonal affective disorder in the winter, when there is less natural sunlight. Depression is one part of bipolar disorder.

Depression, even the most severe cases, can be treated. The earlier that treatment can begin, the more effective it is. Depression is usually treated with medications, psychotherapy, or a combination of the two.

There are days that you will feel down, especially when the demands of college get to you. These feelings are normal and will go away. If you are feeling low, try to take a break from the pressures of college and do something you enjoy. Spend time with friends, exercise, read a good book, listen to music, watch a movie, call a friend, talk to your family, or anything else that makes you feel good. If you feel depressed for two weeks, or the feeling keeps coming back, you should talk to a counselor in the health services/center. They see lots of students who are anxious, stressed, or depressed at college.

Loneliness

Most people experience occasional loneliness, and it’s an especially common experience among first-time college students, who find themselves in an unfamiliar environment with a completely new social scene. Loneliness isn’t necessarily about being alone—you can be surrounded by people and still feel alone. It’s the feeling of being alone that counts, along with feeling empty, unwanted, or isolated. In the following Ted Talk, Sherrie Turkle describes how, in this age of near-constant digital “connection,” loneliness is a challenge that faces us all:

Video: Connected, but alone? Sherry Turkle, TED 2012

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If you’re feeling lonely, try taking Turkle’s advice and start a conversation with someone. College is a great place to meet new people and develop new and interesting relationships. Others in college are new, just like you, and will welcome the chance to connect with and get to know another classmate. Try joining a campus interest group or club, play a team sport, or just ask another student if they’d like to meet for coffee or to study.

If feelings of loneliness persist, and especially if you also feel depressed, you should get help from a counselor or health services.

Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are mental health illnesses that involve emotional and behavioral disturbance surrounding weight and food issues. The most common are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. Eating disorders can have life-threatening consequences.

Anorexia nervosa is characterized by self-starvation and extreme weight loss either through restriction or through binge-purging. This may frequently be a result of body dysmorphic disorder (a condition in which someone feels that their body looks differently than it actually does) or a result of other psychiatric complications such as OCD or depression. Starvation can cause harm to vital organs such as the heart and brain, can cause nails, hair, and bones to become brittle, and can make the skin dry and sometimes yellow or covered with soft hair. Menstrual periods can become irregular or stop completely.

People with bulimia nervosa eat large amounts of food (also called bingeing) at least two times a week and then vomit (also called purging) or exercise compulsively. Because many people who “binge and purge” maintain their body weight, they may keep their problem a secret for years. Vomiting can cause loss of important minerals, life-threatening heart arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat), damage to the teeth, and swelling of the throat. Bulimia can also cause irregular menstrual periods.

People who binge without purging also have a disorder called binge eating disorder. This is frequently associated with feelings of loss of control and shame surrounding eating. People who are diagnosed with this disorder tend to gain weight, and many will have all of the consequences of being overweight, including high blood pressure and other cardiac symptoms, diabetes, and musculoskeletal complaints.

If you think you might have an eating disorder, you should go to the student health center or counseling center and get help. Talk with your family and close friends. Going for help and talking to others about your feelings and illness can be very difficult, but it’s the only way that you’re going to get better. Many colleges have treatment programs for these conditions and trained counselors who can relate to people with an eating disorder.

Anxiety Disorders

People with anxiety disorders respond to certain objects or situations with fear and dread. They have physical reactions to those objects, such as a rapid heartbeat and sweating. An anxiety disorder is diagnosed if a person:

• Has an inappropriate response to a situation
• Cannot control the response
• Has an altered way of life due to the anxiety

Anxiety disorders include the following:

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a type of anxiety disorder. If you have OCD, you have repeated, upsetting thoughts called obsessions. You do the same thing over and over again to try to make the thoughts go away. Those repeated actions are called compulsions. Examples of obsessions are a fear of germs or a fear of being hurt. Compulsions include washing your hands, counting, checking on things or cleaning. Untreated, OCD can take over your life. Researchers think brain circuits may not work properly in people who have OCD. It tends to run in families. The symptoms often begin in children or teens. Treatments that combine medicines and therapy are often effective.

Panic disorder is a kind of anxiety disorder that causes panic attacks. Panic attacks are sudden feelings of terror for no reason. You may also feel physical symptoms, such as

• Fast heartbeat
• Chest pain
• Breathing difficulty
• Dizziness

Panic attacks can happen anytime, anywhere and without warning. You may live in fear of another attack and may avoid places where you have had an attack. For some people, fear takes over their lives and they cannot leave their homes.

Panic disorder is more common in women than men. It usually starts when people are young adults. Sometimes it starts when a person is under a lot of stress. Most people get better with treatment. Therapy can show you how to recognize and change your thinking patterns before they lead to panic. Medicines can also help.

A phobia is a strong, irrational fear of something that poses little or no actual danger. There are many specific phobias. Acrophobia is a fear of heights. You may be able to ski the world’s tallest mountains but be unable to go above the fifth floor of an office building. Agoraphobia is a fear of public places, and claustrophobia is a fear of closed-in places. If you become anxious and extremely self-conscious in everyday social situations, you could have a social phobia. Other common phobias involve tunnels, highway driving, water, flying, animals, and blood. People with phobias try to avoid what they are afraid of. If they cannot, they may experience:

• Panic and fear
• Rapid heartbeat
• Shortness of breath
• Trembling
• A strong desire to get away

Treatment helps most people with phobias. Options include medicines, therapy or both.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a real illness. You can get PTSD after living through or witnessing a traumatic event, such as war, a hurricane, rape, physical abuse, or a bad accident. PTSD makes you feel stressed and afraid after the danger is over. It affects your life and the people around you. PTSD can cause problems like

• Flashbacks, or feeling like the event is happening again
• Trouble sleeping or nightmares
• Feeling alone
• Angry outbursts
• Feeling worried, guilty, or sad

PTSD starts at different times for different people. Signs of PTSD may start soon after a frightening event and then continue. Other people develop new or more severe signs months or even years later. PTSD can happen to anyone, even children.

Medicines can help you feel less afraid and tense. It might take a few weeks for them to work. Talking to a specially trained doctor or counselor also helps many people with PTSD. This is called talk therapy.

Suicidal Behavior

Suicide causes immeasurable pain, suffering, and loss to individuals, families, and communities nationwide. On average, 112 Americans die by suicide each day. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among 15–24-year-olds, and more than 9.4 million adults in the United States had serious thoughts of suicide within the past twelve months. But suicide is preventable, so it’s important to know what to do.

Warning Signs of Suicide

If someone you know is showing one or more of the following behaviors, he or she may be thinking about suicide. Don’t ignore these warning signs. Get help immediately.

• Talking about wanting to die or to kill oneself
• Looking for a way to kill oneself
• Talking about feeling hopeless or having no reason to live
• Talking about feeling trapped or in unbearable pain
• Talking about being a burden to others
• Increasing the use of alcohol or drugs
• Acting anxious or agitated; behaving recklessly
• Sleeping too little or too much
• Withdrawing or feeling isolated
• Showing rage or talking about seeking revenge
• Displaying extreme mood swings

Get Help

If you or someone you know needs help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1.800.273.TALK (8255). Trained crisis workers are available to talk 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

If you think someone is in immediate danger, do not leave him or her alone—stay there and call 911.

Resources

OK2TALK is a community for young adults struggling with mental health problems. It offers a safe place to talk.

Activity

Objectives

• Identify the difference between occasional negative emotions and more serious mental health issues, such as anxiety disorder or depression
• Explore practices for ensuring mental health and emotional balance in your life
• Identify resources for further information and guidance about mental health issues

Directions

• Watch the following Tedx Talk, featuring college student Jack Park. In this talk, Jack shares his story of living with a mental disorder and revisits some of the ways he found help and hope. He makes the case for seeing mental illness in a new light, so that people can begin to address some of the issues associated with suicide, depression, and other preventable mental disorders.

     Video: Shedding Light on Student Depression, Jack Park TEDx Penn

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Write a short (1–2 pages) response paper in which you address the following questions: What do you think of Jack’s practice of changing his “to-do” lists into “want-to-do” lists? What does he hope to gain from this shift? Which coping mechanisms does Jack observe his fellow students using to deal with stress and mental health challenges? What does Jack think is the deeper problem? Why, in Jack’s view, is it hard for people to get help for mental health problems in the same way they might seek help for dental problems? Add your own thoughts about the obstacles you think students may face in getting help for mental health issues.

Nathan Wallace

Lumen Learning

Sexuality is a big part of being human. Love, affection, and sexual intimacy all play a role in healthy relationships. They also contribute to your sense of well-being. Sexual health requires a positive and respectful approach to sexuality and sexual relationships, as well as the possibility of having pleasurable and safe sexual experiences, free of coercion, discrimination, and violence.

Your sexuality is your own private business, of course, but whether you abstain from sexual intercourse or decide to become or continue being sexually active, the decisions you make can affect the health and safety of your sexual partner(s)—just as their decisions can affect yours. Therefore, it’s important to get the facts about what you can do to protect yourself (and your partner) from sexually transmitted disease, unwanted pregnancy, and sexual violence.

Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs)

STDs are diseases that are passed from one person to another through sexual contact. These include chlamydia, gonorrhea, genital herpes, human papillomavirus (HPV), syphilis, and HIV. Many of these STDs do not show symptoms for a long time, but they can still be harmful and passed on during sex.

You can get an STD by having sex (vaginal, anal, or oral) with someone who has an STD. Anyone who is sexually active can get an STD. You don’t even have to “go all the way” (have anal or vaginal sex) to get an STD, since some STDs, like herpes and HPV, are spread by skin-to-skin contact.

STDs are common, especially among young people. There are about twenty million new cases of STDs each year in the United States, and about half of these are in people between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four. Young people are at greater risk of getting an STD for several reasons:

• Young women’s bodies are biologically more susceptible to STDs.
• Some young people do not get the recommended STD tests.
• Many young people are hesitant to talk openly and honestly with a doctor or nurse about their sex lives.
• Not having insurance or transportation can make it more difficult for young people to access STD testing.
• Some young people have more than one sex partner.

Types of STDS

Chlamydia

Chlamydia is a common STD that can infect both men and women. It can cause serious, permanent damage to a woman’s reproductive system, making it difficult or impossible for her to get pregnant later on. Chlamydia can also cause a potentially fatal ectopic pregnancy (pregnancy that occurs outside the womb).

You can get chlamydia by having vaginal, anal, or oral sex with someone who has chlamydia. If your sex partner is male you can still get chlamydia even if he does not ejaculate (cum). If you’ve had chlamydia and were treated in the past, you can still get infected again if you have unprotected sex with someone who has chlamydia. If you are pregnant, you can give chlamydia to your baby during childbirth.

Most people who have chlamydia have no symptoms. However, symptoms can include a burning sensation when urinating and/or discharge from the penis or vagina. If you do have symptoms, they may not appear until several weeks after you have sex with an infected partner. Even when chlamydia causes no symptoms, it can damage your reproductive system.

Chlamydia can be cured with the right treatment. When the medication is taken properly, it will stop the infection and could decrease your chances of having complications later on. Repeat infection with chlamydia is common. You should be tested again about three months after you are treated, even if your sex partner(s) was treated.

Genital Herpes

Genital herpes is an STD caused by two types of viruses. The viruses are called herpes simplex type 1 and herpes simplex type 2.

You can get herpes by having vaginal, anal, or oral sex with someone who has the disease. Fluids found in a herpes sore carry the virus, and contact with those fluids can cause infection. You can also get herpes from an infected sex partner who does not have a visible sore or who may not know he or she is infected because the virus can be released through your skin and spread the infection to your sex partner(s).

Most people who have herpes have no or very mild symptoms and, as a result, don’t know they have it. You may not notice mild symptoms or you may mistake them for another skin condition—like a pimple or ingrown hair.

Genital herpes sores usually appear as one or more blisters on or around the genitals, rectum, or mouth. The blisters break and leave painful sores that may take weeks to heal. These symptoms are sometimes called “having an outbreak.” The first time someone has an outbreak they may also have flu-like symptoms such as fever, body aches, or swollen glands.

Repeat outbreaks of genital herpes are common, especially during the first year after infection. Repeat outbreaks are usually shorter and less severe than the first outbreak. Although the infection can stay in the body for the rest of your life, the number of outbreaks tends to decrease over a period of years.

You should be examined by your doctor if you notice any of these symptoms or if your partner has an STD or symptoms of an STD, such as an unusual sore, a smelly discharge, or burning when urinating.

There is no cure for herpes. However, there are medicines that can prevent or shorten outbreaks. One of these herpes medicines can be taken daily and makes it less likely that you will pass the infection on to your sex partner(s).

Gonorrhea

Gonorrhea is an STD that can infect both men and women. It can cause infections in the genitals, rectum, and throat. It’s a very common infection, especially among young people ages 15–24 years.

Gonorrhea often doesn’t have recognizable symptoms—or they may be mistaken for bladder or vaginal infections. Symptoms include a burning sensation when urinating, abnormal discharge from the penis or vagina, and bleeding between periods. Rectal infection symptoms include itching, burning, and bleeding.

You should be examined by your doctor if you notice any of these symptoms or if your partner has an STD or symptoms of an STD, such as an unusual sore, a smelly discharge, burning when urinating, or bleeding between periods.

Gonorrhea can be cured with the right treatment. Although medication will stop the infection, it will not undo any permanent damage caused by the disease.

It’s becoming harder to treat some gonorrhea, as drug-resistant strains of gonorrhea are increasing. If your symptoms continue for more than a few days after receiving treatment, you should return to a health care provider to be checked again.

HIV/AIDS

HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. It kills or damages the body’s immune system cells. AIDS stands for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. It is the most advanced stage of infection with HIV.

HIV most often spreads through unprotected sex with an infected person. It may also spread by sharing drug needles or through contact with the blood of an infected person. Women can give it to their babies during pregnancy or childbirth.

The first signs of HIV infection may be swollen glands and flu-like symptoms. These may come and go a month or two after infection. Severe symptoms may not appear until months or years later.

A blood test can tell if you have HIV infection. Your health care provider can perform the test, or call the national referral hotline at 1-800-CDC-INFO (24 hours a day, 1-800-232-4636 in English and en español; 1-888-232-6348 – TTY).

There is no cure, but there are many medicines to fight both HIV infection and the infections and cancers that come with it. People can live with the disease for many years, especially if they are diagnosed and treated early. Early diagnosis is also important to reduce the risk of transmitting HIV to others.

Human Papillomavirus (HPV)

HPV is the most common STD. HPV is different from the viruses that cause HIV and HSV (herpes). HPV is so common that nearly all sexually active men and women get it at some point in their lives. There are many different types of HPV. Some types can cause health problems including genital warts and cancers. But there are vaccines that can stop these health problems from happening.

You can get HPV by having vaginal, anal, or oral sex with someone who has the virus. It is most commonly spread during vaginal or anal sex. HPV can be passed even when an infected person has no signs or symptoms. You can develop symptoms years after you have sex with someone who is infected, making it hard to know when you first became infected.

There is no test to find out a person’s “HPV status.” Also, there is no approved HPV test to find HPV in the mouth or throat.

However, there are HPV tests that can be used to screen for cervical cancer. These tests are recommended for screening only in women aged 30 years and older. They are not recommended to screen men, adolescents, or women under the age of 30 years.

Most people with HPV do not know they are infected and never develop symptoms or health problems from it. Some people find out that they have HPV when they get genital warts. Women may find out they have HPV when they get an abnormal Pap test result (during cervical cancer screening). Others may only find out once they’ve developed more serious problems from HPV, such as cancers.

There is no treatment for the virus itself. However, there are treatments for the health problems that HPV can cause:

• Genital warts can be treated by you or your physician. If left untreated, genital warts may go away, stay the same, or grow in size or number.
• Cervical precancer can be treated. Women who get routine Pap tests and follow up as needed can identify problems before cancer develops. Prevention is always better than treatment.
• Other HPV-related cancers are also more treatable when diagnosed and treated early.

Syphilis

Syphilis is an STD that can cause long-term complications if not treated correctly. Symptoms in adults are divided into stages. These stages are primary, secondary, latent, and late syphilis.

You can get syphilis by direct contact with a syphilis sore during vaginal, anal, or oral sex. Sores can be found on the penis, vagina, anus, in the rectum, or on the lips and in the mouth. Syphilis can also be spread from an infected mother to her unborn baby.

Syphilis has been called “the great imitator” because it has so many possible symptoms, many of which look like symptoms from other diseases. The painless syphilis sore that you get after you are first infected can be mistaken for an ingrown hair, zipper cut, or other seemingly harmless bump. The non-itchy body rash that develops during the second stage of syphilis can show up on the palms of your hands and soles of your feet, all over your body, or in just a few places. Syphilis can also affect the eye and can lead to permanent blindness. This is called ocular syphilis. You could also be infected with syphilis and have very mild symptoms or none at all.

Syphilis can be cured with the right antibiotics from your health care provider. However, treatment will not undo any damage that the infection has already caused.

How You Can Protect Yourself Against STDs

The surest way to protect yourself against STDs is to not have sex (practice “abstinence”). That means not having any vaginal, anal, or oral sex. There are many things to consider before having sex, and it’s okay to say no if you don’t want to have sex.

If you do decide to have sex, you and your partner should get tested beforehand and make sure that you and your partner use a condom—every time you have oral, anal, or vaginal sex, from start to finish. Know where to get condoms and how to use them correctly. It’s not safe to stop using condoms unless you’ve both been tested, know your status, and are in a mutually monogamous relationship.

Mutual monogamy means that you and your partner both agree to only have sexual contact with each other. This can help protect against STDs, as long as you’ve both been tested and know you’re STD-free.

Before you have sex, talk with your partner about how you will prevent STDs and pregnancy. If you think you’re ready to have sex, you need to be ready to protect your body and your future. You should also talk to your partner ahead of time about what you will and will not do sexually. Your partner should always respect your right to say no to anything that doesn’t feel right.

Make sure you get the health care you need. Ask a doctor or nurse about STD testing and about vaccines against HPV and hepatitis B.

Girls and young women may have extra needs to protect their reproductive health. Talk to your doctor or nurse about regular cervical cancer screening and chlamydia testing.

Avoid using alcohol and drugs. If you use alcohol and drugs, you are more likely to take risks—like not using a condom or having sex with someone you normally wouldn’t have sex with.

Many STDs don’t cause any symptoms that you would notice, so the only way to know for sure if you have an STD is to get tested. You can get an STD from having sex with someone who has no symptoms. Just like you, that person might not even know he or she has an STD.

There are places that offer confidential and free STD tests. This means that no one has to find out you’ve been tested. Visit GetTested to find an STD testing location near you. If you find out that you have an STD, it’s important to seek treatment—since some STDs can be fatal if left untreated. Although certain STDs (like herpes and HIV) aren’t curable, a doctor can prescribe medicine to treat the symptoms. If you are living with an STD, it’s important to tell your partner before you have sex. Although it may be uncomfortable to talk about your STD, open and honest conversation can help your partner make informed decisions to protect his or her health.

Unintended Pregnancy

Seven in ten pregnancies among single women between the ages of eighteen and twenty-nine are unplanned.“How You Can Prevent Pregnancy,” It's Your Sex Life, MTV, March 11, 2016. As with STDs, the surest way to avoid unintended pregnancy is abstinence, since no birth control method is 100 percent reliable. However, if you are sexually active, it’s important to protect yourself and your partner from pregnancy and HIV and other STDs. Birth control (such as the pill, patch, ring, implant, shot, or an IUD) provides highly effective pregnancy prevention, but it doesn’t protect you from HIV and other STDs. Condoms can reduce the risk to both of you for pregnancy and most STDs, including HIV. Even if you or your partner is using another type of birth control, agree to use a condom every time you have sex.

His condom + her hormonal birth control or IUD = DOUBLE PROTECTION.

If a condom breaks or you have unprotected sexual intercourse, it’s possible to take an emergency contraceptive pill (ECP)—sometimes called a “morning-after pill”—which may prevent a pregnancy from occurring. ECPs generally contain a higher dose of the same hormones found in regular oral contraceptive pills, and they are most effective when used shortly after intercourse (not the next morning, as the name suggests). It’s important to note that ECPs are not abortion pills, and they do nothing to either prevent or cure STDs.

Visit your campus health center or talk to your doctor to get more information about birth control, condoms, and other reproductive and sexual health issues.

Sexual Assault

Sexual assault is any type of sexual activity that a person doesn’t agree to. It can include touching that is not okay; putting something into the vagina; sexual intercourse; rape; and attempted rape. Sexual assault happens on college campuses as well as in communities. One in five women has been sexually assaulted while in college and 80 percent of female rape victims experience their first rape before the age of twenty-five. The following statistics show that sexual assaults usually aren’t random acts of violence carried out by strangers: “The Offenders,” RAINN | Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, March 11, 2016.

• Approximately 4 out of 5 rapes are committed by someone known to the victim.
• 82 percent of sexual assaults are perpetrated by a non-stranger.
• 47 percent of rapists are a friend or an acquaintance.
• 25 percent are an intimate partner.
• 5 percent are a relative.

Date Rape Drugs

One of the great things about being in college is having the chance to meet and get to know so many new people. Protecting yourself against sexual assaults doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice exciting social opportunities. It just means being informed about risks and taking common-sense steps to protect yourself.

One very real risk on college campuses—and elsewhere—is the use of date rape drugs to assist sexual assaults. Date rape drugs are powerful and dangerous drugs that can be slipped into your drink when you are not looking. The drugs often have no color, smell, or taste, so you can’t tell if you are being drugged. The drugs can make you become weak and confused—or even pass out—so that you are unable to refuse sex or defend yourself. If you are drugged, you might not remember what happened while you were drugged. Date rape drugs are used on both women and men.

The three most common date rape drugs are Rohypnol, GHB, and Ketamine:

• Rohypnol comes as a pill that dissolves in liquids. Some are small, round, and white. Newer pills are oval and green-gray in color. When slipped into a drink, a dye in these new pills makes clear liquids turn bright blue and dark drinks turn cloudy. But this color change might be hard to see in a dark drink, like cola or dark beer, or in a dark room. Also, the pills with no dye are still available. The pills may be ground up into a powder.
• GHB has a few forms: a liquid with no odor or color, white powder, and pill. It might give your drink a slightly salty taste. Mixing it with a sweet drink, such as fruit juice, can mask the salty taste.
• Ketamine comes as a liquid and a white powder.

These drugs also are known as “club drugs” because they tend to be used at dance clubs, concerts, and “raves.” The term “date rape” is widely used to describe sexual crimes involving these drugs, but most experts prefer the term “drug-facilitated sexual assault.” These drugs are also used to help people commit other crimes, like robbery and physical assault. The term “date rape” can be misleading because the person who commits the crime might not be dating the victim. Rather, it could be an acquaintance or stranger.

Alcohol and Other Drugs

Alcohol is also a drug that’s commonly used to help commit sexual assault. Be aware of the risks you take by drinking alcohol at parties or in other social situations. When a person drinks too much alcohol,

• It’s harder to think clearly.
• It’s harder to set limits and make good choices.
• It’s harder to tell when a situation could be dangerous.
• It’s harder to say “no” to sexual advances.
• It’s harder to fight back if a sexual assault occurs.
• It’s possible to black out and to have memory loss.

The club drug “ecstasy” (MDMA) has been used to commit sexual assault. It can be slipped into someone’s drink without the person’s knowledge. Also, a person who willingly takes ecstasy is at greater risk of sexual assault. Ecstasy can make a person feel “lovey-dovey” toward others. As with alcohol, it also can lower a person’s ability to give reasoned consent. Once under the drug’s influence, a person is less able to sense danger or to resist a sexual assault.

How and Where to Get Help

Take the following steps if you or someone you know has been raped, or you think you might have been drugged and raped:

• Get medical care right away. Call 911 or have a trusted friend take you to a hospital emergency room. Don’t urinate, douche, bathe, brush your teeth, wash your hands, change clothes, or eat or drink before you go. These things may give evidence of the rape. The hospital will use a “rape kit” to collect evidence.
• Call the police from the hospital. Tell the police exactly what you remember. Be honest about all your activities. Remember, nothing you did—including drinking alcohol or doing drugs—can justify rape.
• Ask the hospital to take a urine (pee) sample that can be used to test for date rape drugs. The drugs leave your system quickly. Rohypnol stays in the body for several hours and can be detected in the urine up to 72 hours after taking it. GHB leaves the body in 12 hours. Don’t urinate before going to the hospital.
• Don’t pick up or clean up where you think the assault might have occurred. There could be evidence left behind—such as on a drinking glass or bed sheets.
• Get counseling and treatment. Feelings of shame, guilt, fear, and shock are normal. A counselor can help you work through these emotions and begin the healing process. Calling a crisis center or a hotline is a good place to start. One national hotline is the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE.

The Hunting Ground documentary film is another source of information to learn more about sexual assault on college campuses.

Activity: Sexual Assault on College Campuses

Objective

• Identify risks of sexual assault, including date rape, and where to get help

Directions

• Watch the following video, in which Emma Sulkowicz, a student at Columbia College, describes the experience and aftermath of being raped by a fellow student—who remains on campus.

Video: My Rapist Is Still On Campus: Sexual Assault In the Ivy League

A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: https://press.rebus.community/blueprint2/?p=257

• Click on the following link, and read the followup article, which describes Emma’s response to the way the university handled her case: “Students Bring out Mattresses in Huge ‘Carry That Weight’ Protest Against Sexual Assault.”
• Write a short essay (2–3 pages) in which you respond to the following questions: What were the results of Emma’s “Carry That Weight” protest? Do you think it was an effective strategy for dealing with the problem of sexual assault at Columbia and other colleges? Why or why not? Who has the responsibility for addressing this problem? (College administrators? The police? All students? Female or male students? Someone else?)  Which approach do you think would have the greatest impact? (Education? Activism? Policy change? Something else?)
• Follow your instructor’s guidelines for submitting assignments.

Lumen Learning

Safety Consciousness on Campus and in College

College and university campuses tend to have a special feel—so special that when you are on campus you may feel you are fully apart from the wider world around you. But the reality is that any campus is subject to the same influences—indeed, crimes—as the towns and cities that flank the campus. And so it is important to be aware of your surroundings, the people near you, and the goings on in your physical spaces and in your virtual spaces at all times.

In this topic, we explore college safety concerns, and share tips and resources to help ensure that you are always safe, protected, and no more than a phone call away from help if you need it.

Safety Consciousness

Safety consciousness is a term describing your awareness of hazards, and your alertness to potential danger. In order to have safety consciousness, you must value safety no matter where you are or what time of day it is.

Your college or university must also be safety conscious—not only by choice, but also by law. In 1990, Congress enacted the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act, which required all schools that receive federal student aid to share information about crime on and around their campuses. The act is now generally just referred to as the Clery Act, in memory of Jeanne Clery, a student killed in her dorm room in 1986.

What does the Clery Act require your college to do? If your college is receiving federal student aid, here are the major legal requirements it must comply with:

• Have emergency notification and evacuation procedures for alerting the campus community about significant emergencies or dangerous situations. Disclose your policies and procedures in the annual security report.
• Issue timely warnings to alert the campus community about crimes that pose a serious or continuing threat to safety. Disclose your policy in the annual security report.
• Keep a crime log that records, by date reported, all crimes reported to the campus police or security department.
• Keep a fire log that records by date reported, all fires in on-campus student housing facilities.
• Collect crime reports from campus security authorities within the institution.
• Request crime statistics from local law enforcement in the jurisdiction where the institution is located.
• Submit crime and fire statistics to the Department of Education via a Web-based data collection.
• Have missing-student notification procedures to aid in determining if a student is missing, and in notifying law enforcement personnel. Disclose your policy and procedures in the annual security report.
• Publish an annual security report containing campus security policy disclosures and crime statistics for the previous three years.
• Publish an annual fire-safety report containing policy disclosures and fire statistics for on-campus student housing facilities for the previous three years.

This valuable set of requirements is important for every student to be aware of. It is readily available to you and your family. You don’t need to be a student to access this information about any school.

Strategies for Staying Safe on Campus and Beyond

One of the best strategies for staying safe on campus and beyond is to ask questions. Take the initiative to learn more about your college surroundings, the community culture, and safety precautions you’d be well advised to implement.Ruth Jones, “College Crimes & Sexual Assault,” Affordable Colleges Online, 2016, accessed February 22, 2016. Below are some questions you can ask to open up important conversations about campus and community safety.

Tips for Staying Safe

Walking, driving, traveling:

• Travel with a buddy.
• Use the campus escort service at night, especially if you are alone.
• If you live off-campus, call someone when you get home.
• Keep moving; don’t linger (especially at night).
• Carry pepper spray or pepper gel.
• Keep a personal alarm (for example, on a keychain).
• If you have a car, lock it.

At home:

• Keep your windows and doors locked.
• Keep the main door to your home, hall or apartment building locked at all times.
• Don’t let anyone into your dwelling that you don’t know.

On campus:

• Keep a close eye on your belongings when you’re in a library.
• Get a locking device for your laptop.
• Participate in a college safety program.
• Be cautious, not paranoid.

Anywhere:

• Make sure your phone is charged.
• Know the phone number for Campus Safety.
• Put emergency numbers in your cell phone.
• Carry emergency cash.
• Speak up if you notice something going on.

For a truly comprehensive list of tips for staying safe on and off campus, visit Campus Crime Prevention Personal Safety Tips from Fort Hayes State University.

Also, don’t hesitate to take advantage of campus and community resources, which may include any of the following:

• Web sites, offices, organizations, and individuals with safety information
• Campus police and campus security
• Local police
• Sexual assault and relationship-violence services
• Shuttle services
• Escort services
• Counseling programs
• Mental health programs
• Substance abuse programs
• Local health care centers
• Campus abuse hotlines

Safety Apps

One of the very best safety measures you can take at any time is to keep emergency numbers handy, either on your phone or in your wallet or backpack or a place where you can easily access them. You may also find it helpful to have a safety app on your mobile device. Consider downloading any of the following free apps.

MOBILE DEVICE SAFETY APPLICATIONS
	bSafe is a personal safety app designed to keep you and your friends safer 24/7. It has features for everyday safety and real emergencies. You can set up your own personal social safety network.
	Circle of 6 U is built specifically for colleges and schools, connecting students to each other and to critical resources on specific campuses. The tool lets you choose up to 6 trusted friends to add to your circle, so that if you get into an uncomfortable or risky situation, with two taps you send your circle a pre-programmed SMS alert message indicating your exact location.
	OnWatchOnCampus: With just 2 taps, your friends and emergency first responders are alerted to your GPS location and that you need help.
	MyForce: This tool offers users instant notifications, monitoring agents, nationwide coverage and fast emergency response. When an alert is sent, the 24/7 safety agents track your whereabouts and pinpoint your exact location. They listen in and assess the details.
	React Mobile: Users can quickly send out a widespread emergency alert without having to access and unlock their phone. You choose which contacts you would like to share your location with. Then your contact list can be sent an email and a text message with a link to your GPS location. You can also send an “SOS Help Me” message to an unlimited number of buddies.
	Watch Over Me: This tool turns your mobile device into emergency tool with just a shake, even if your phone is locked. The shake turns on your phone’s alarm and video camera, and sends an alert to your emergency contacts.

Resources for Learning About Safety in College

Your personal safety both on- and off-campus, and the safety of your family and friends, is a treasure. The more you know about safety, perhaps the more safe you can be and the more safe you can help others be. Here are many resources to help you learn more about safety.

• The Campus Safety and Security Data Analysis Cutting Tool (click on Get data for one institution/campus)
• Frequently asked questions about the Best Colleges rankings and crime reports
• The Handbook for Campus Safety and Security Reporting and HandbookQuestions@ed.gov
• Suggested Resources regarding campus sexual assault training and prevention efforts
• Emergency Management for Higher Education (EMHE) grant program
• Action Guide for Emergency Management at Institutions of Higher Education
• College Drinking Prevention
• Travel Warnings and Consular Information Sheets for student considering traveling abroad

Sexual Assaults

• Not Alone for students and universities regarding sexual assault on campus
• SAFER (Students Active For Ending Rape)
• How to research and discuss sexual assault on college campuses
• National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs working to prevent and respond to violence against members of the LGBTQ community
• RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network)
• 1in6 for men who have been victims of sexual abuse and assault
• Clery Center Help for Victims
• Referrals for Sexual Assault and Rape by State
• Culture of Respect immediate help and legal aid for students, friends and family members who have been victims of on-campus sexual assault
• Joyful Heart Foundation helping sexual violence survivors reclaim their lives
• Male Survivor
• National Alliance to End Sexual Violence
• National Center for Victims of Crime
• National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence
• National Sexual Violence Resource Center
• Stalking Resource Center
• VRLC (Victim Rights Law Center)

Activity: Personal Security

Objective

• Describe strategies for staying safe on campus and elsewhere

Directions

• Make a list of 3–5 campus safety issues you’re personally concerned about. This might include anything from worrying about parking lot security and car break-ins to date rape or hate crime.
• Visit your college Web site, and search for safety and security information that’s relevant to your concerns. Record the name and contact information for each resource you find and any procedures you learn about. For example, if you’re worried about your backpack or computer getting stolen while you’re at school, find out what should you do if it happens. Who should you call, and what might you need to provide? If you come across useful prevention measures (e.g., “record the serial number of your computer somewhere else, so you’ll have it for the theft report”), write those down, too.
• For the assignment, use the information you found to create your own Safety Directory, as below.

Safety Issue	Resource	Phone Number	Address/Web Site	Important Information

• Make sure the information is also stored somewhere in your computer and phone so you can find and use it later. (Add it to your contacts, for instance.)
• Follow your instructor’s guidelines for submitting assignments.

Licenses and Attributions:

CC licensed content, Original:

• Campus Security. Authored by: Linda Bruce. Provided by: Lumen Learning. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-collegesuccess-lumen1/chapter/safety/  License: CC BY: Attribution

CC licensed content, Shared previously:

• Campus Security. Authored by: Hector Alejandro. Located at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/hectoralejandro/3839966929/sizes/l. License: CC BY: Attribution

All rights reserved content:

• Campus Safety – Safety Tips for College Students. Authored by: personalsafetyexpert. Located at: https://youtu.be/iijKh6l8Ssw. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License.

Public domain content:

• Campus Safety. Provided by: US Department of Education. Located at: http://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/campus.html. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright
• Campus Security. Provided by: U.S. Department of Education. Located at: http://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/campus.html. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright
• License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright

Adaptions: Relocated learning objectives.  Some videos removed.

Jacqueline Tiermini

Alise Lamoreaux

Expenses you may encounter:

• How much is the degree or certificate you want to earn going to cost?
• What factors go into the cost of the college?
• What costs are included in tuition?
• What costs are not included in tuition?
• What is college worth to you?
• How much money can you afford to spend on college?
• Where can you get financing for college if you need help paying for it?
• How much money do you think you could afford on a monthly basis to pay back a loan related to financing college?
• What is the current interest rate on student loans?
• Are interest rates all the same?
• What do you think your life will be like after college?

Paying for college is an undeniable component of the educational process. While there are political discussions underway about making college free, at this point in time, students must pay for college themselves or with the help of others. Understanding the factors that combine to create the overall cost of a college education can help a student make decisions about the college that is right for him or her.

Today’s colleges are in a competitive market for students. Thinking about the services you as a student need or want from a college environment can help define what is personally important and what you are willing to pay for.

College costs can be measured by 7 main categories:

1. Tuition: The price you pay for taking college classes is based on the academic program you choose. Tuition is also affected by selecting a school in the state where you live, and by whether the school is public, private, for-profit, or non-profit.
2. Fees: Academic programs may have additional fees beyond tuition costs. For example, a student majoring in culinary arts will need specialized tools to participate in that program. Services the college provides to students can have associated fees. For example, a student health center may have a basic fee that all students must pay whether they use the service or not. Some colleges have dining fees that give students food cards to use on campus. Student fees are not fees students can opt out of. It is important for students to examine a college’s fee structure and maximize the services that are being paid for by fees.
3. Books and supplies: The cost of books and the supplies students will need to complete a program can vary greatly. Books and supplies can add $1000 or more to the annual tuition cost. This is an important factor that is easily overlooked by students. Finding classes that offer low cost book option, open educational resources (OER), or zero textbook cost (ZTC) sections can help reduce the overall cost of college. Students can also check online or with their bookstore for used books or rental options, and/or use reserve books in the library, if available. Sometimes finding a required textbook from Amazon or Chegg or other online sources will be less expensive than purchasing new textbook from the college bookstore. Often, students will end up financing the cost of books and supplies with financial aid. It is important to remember that an additional $1000 financed with aid or credit cards can quickly add up to an unanticipated cost of college.
4. Transportation: Getting to and from college costs vary significantly based on how close a student lives to the college campus and the transportation method selected. Some colleges may have a transportation fee as part of the student fees that might provide mass transit (trains or buses) options for getting to school. Colleges may also have parking fees for those students who drive to the campus. Seasonal weather conditions are another factor in transportation choices. As a student estimating cost of college, remember to think about the entire school year.
5. Living Expenses: Where will you be living while attending college and with whom? The answer to this question determines a major factor in the overall cost of attending college. Living with family may be less expensive for some, but many times is not an option for students. Answers to the question of where you will live and how much it will cost vary greatly. One thing to think about is how much did it cost you to live last year? Will going to school change that and if so, how? Will you have to eat or spend money on groceries/meals differently than in the past? If the college you choose has a dining fee built into your tuition costs, don’t overlook using it. Staying healthy is an important part of college success.
6. Personal Expenses: Another wide open category of cost, but don’t forget you will still need basic health care and hygiene. And you will still have social events and family commitments. Students tend to underestimate how much money will be needed for personal expenses. For example, many students today cannot survive without smart phones, computers, and data plans.
7. Opportunity Cost: Choosing to spend time and money going to college has an opportunity cost. If you are spending time and money on your education, you will not be spending that same time and money somewhere else. One example of this relationship is employment. Attending classes and doing homework may mean you can’t work at a job as much as you want to. It may also mean you will have less time to spend with friends and family. If you have a long commute to school, that may impact other aspects of your daily life.

Financial Aid Basics

Most students will need some form of financial aid to help pay for college. Before accepting an offer of assistance, it is important for a student to understand what each possible offer means and what the student’s responsibility will be after accepting the offer. The Office of US Department of Education offers financial assistance to students in the forms of grants, loans, and work-study programs. Filling out the FAFSA application is the first start towards receiving financial aid for college.

Understanding interest rates and how they impact student loans is essential. Many students shy away from doing the math to understand what their responsibility will be in repaying a loan. It is also essential that students understand the difference between a subsidized and unsubsidized loan. Both types of loans may be offered to a student in an award letter for financial aid. Many of the horror stories about the burden of college debt on students when they graduate from college could be avoided if students better understood options for financing their college education and examined their college selection process in greater detail.

There is a difference between a flat/annual interest rate and a compound interest rate. Compound interest can make you very happy as an investor, but it works against you as a borrower. Subsidized loans do not add interest while a student is attending college. The interest is not compounded while the student is attending college. Unsubsidized loans begin charging interest as soon as you take out the loan, like a car loan would.

Formula for Compound Interest (the formula unsubsidized loans will use)

A= P(1 + r)^t

P= amount borrowed     r= interest rate    t = time (years of the loan)

Example #1

Community College Annual In-State tuition is approximately $4,000 for each year of college

*Stafford unsubsidized loan rate for 2015-2016 is 4.29%

Total cost for loan over 2-year period:

$4,350.56 + $4171.60 = $8, 522.16 (money borrowed first will accrue interest the longest)

The interest accrued on the loan in a 2-year period is $522.16

Example #2

Community College Annual In-State tuition is approximately $6,000 for each year

*Stafford unsubsidized loan rate for 2015-2016 is 4.29%

Total cost for loan over 2-year period:

$6525.84 + $6,257.4 = $12,783.24 (money borrowed first will accrue interest the longest)

The interest accrued on the loan in a 2-year period is $783.24

 Example #3

College offering Bachelor’s Degree In-State Tuition at approximately $10,000 each year

*Stafford unsubsidized loan rate for 2015-2016 is 4.29%

Total cost for loan over 4-year period:

$11,829.63+ $11343.00+ $10,876.40+ 10429.00= $44,478.03

The interest accrued on the loan in a 4-year period is $4,478.03

The key difference between unsubsidized and subsidized loans is the amount of debt a student will leave college owing. Unsubsidized loans charge students interest while they are attending college, so the interest is growing on the loan during that time. A student might think they are borrowing $4,000.00 or $6,000.00, but unsubsidized loans add interest to the amount borrowed that adds up over time. Subsidized loans do not add interest while the student is attending college, so $4000.00 really is $4,000.00, no extras added.

Another important thing to remember when borrowing money for college is that if you add the cost of books and supplies or other needs onto the loan you have taken on for tuition, and you have unsubsidized loans, that extra money also grows over time with interest. While the tuition may have been $4000.00/year, the amount financed was more than that. Example 4 demonstrates this scenario.

Example 4

Instead of owing $8, 522.16 like in Example #1, total cost for loan over 2-year period:

$6525.84 + $5850.00 = $12,626.80 which is $4,104.64 more for the same time period and degree. Be watchful when adding even small amounts of money to your loan balances. It can add up quickly!

Video: Voices of Debt: The Student Loan Crisis – Don’t Major in Debt

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Loan Calculator

Students need to remember that they are consumers when it comes to taking on loans for college. Not thinking about what the debt means after college only compounds the issues. It is important to think about how much could you afford to pay monthly on a student loan once you have completed college. It’s easy to do the math on loan costs. The Smart Student’s Guide to Financial Aid has a free loan calculator that will do the work for you. All you have to do is plug in the numbers. The loan calculator will also give you an estimate of what your annual salary will need to be to be able to repay the loan. Of course, the loan calculator will not know your other financial commitments, so be sure to look at the monthly payment and decide if you afford that additional expense. College debt is considered a partial economic hardship if it requires you to use more than 15% of your discretionary income.

Here are 2 examples using the same colleges costs as the previous examples:

Note: The minimum monthly payment must be at least $50.00; so on the $4,000.00 loan the number of monthly payments was shortened. Also, there isn’t a prepayment penalty for repaying loans early. If you pay as little as $25 more each month on the loan you can shorten the duration of the loan by almost 3 years.

It is also important to realize that even if you don’t finish college, you will have to repay a loan taken out for college. According to an article titled The Feds Don’t Care If You Dropped Out of College. They Want Their Money, students who dropped out of college and ultimately didn’t obtain a degree or certificate, generally don’t earn higher wages after leaving school. Statistics show that students who start college but don’t finish struggle with student debt.

The US government backs loans that are taken out through FAFSA/Federal Student Aid. Repayment is expected. The government has the authority to garnish wages and withhold tax returns as part of repayment of loans that are not paid. Government-backed debt cannot be forgiven in bankruptcy, expect under rare circumstances.

The cost of going to college seems to be constantly increasing. Understanding the opportunity cost both now and in the future needs to be an important part of a student’s decision process when selecting a college and a major. Do the math! There are plenty of resources to help you. Follow your dreams, but be informed.

Financial aid vocabulary is a specialized language that students participating in the process must understand. Try free flashcards that can make learning financial aid vocabulary fun!

Common Financial Aid Vocabulary Definitions

Making It Personal:

1. What is the tuition cost for the college/program you want to enroll in?
2. What additional fees can you expect to pay along with tuition?
3. What kinds of services will you get from the additional fees you pay?
4. Can you estimate the cost of books and supplies for your chosen program?
5. Are you more likely to be a full-time student or a part-time student?
6. What is your plan for paying for college?
7. If you were to take out loans, how much money do you think you would need to borrow?
8. Who is ultimately responsible for your college expenses?
9. Have you filled out the FAFSA application?
10. What do you feel like you need more help with in relation to financing college?

Video: Why Financial Aid Is Broken And A Simple Solution to Fix It, Susan Dynarski (TED Talk)

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Alise Lamoreaux

A scholarship is a financial investment in someone’s potential to succeed. It’s based on past experiences, the possibility of making a difference, and the embodiment of the core values of the organization or person sponsoring the scholarship. As a student applying for scholarships, think about what can you do to demonstrate that you are a worthy investment. What story can you tell that will make someone want to invest in you?

Describe a personal accomplishment and the strength and skills you used to achieve it. (Use no more than 150 words)

Last year I volunteered with the Art Support Services. Art support is a part of Burning Man’s infrastructure that facilitates everything involving massive art installations. Being my second year I went from being a simple volunteer to a volunteer trusted with the duties and responsibilities of a radio. My job entailed communicating with the artists, figure out where they were in the building process then decide what heavy machinery they needed. Next I would radio Heavy Equipment to inform them of the artist’s needs. The most important skill I gained was appropriate radio communication. I learned how to change channels and proper radio etiquette. On the radio I used terms like “ten-nine”, “copy that”, or “affirmative” a personal favorite. Having a radio was a huge feeling of accomplishment, because I got to play a part in coordinating all the pieces that made the art come together.
~ Student #1

• What kind of person would you say Student #1 is?
• Does the person seem dependable?
• Would this person follow through on a task he or she was given?
• What qualities stand out for you about this person when you read this personal statement?
• Would you invest in this person’s future?

Coming back to school after twenty-five years is an accomplishment I’m very proud of. I didn’t graduate from high school when I was supposed to, so the first strength I used was faith that I could come back and do it now. I definitely needed a little courage, going from a forty year old server in a restaurant to a first time college student was a big change. In order to figure out what I wanted to study I researched online, bounced ideas off of friends and even talked to strangers on the street. I tried to keep an open mind and think creatively about my options, and then used my experience and perspective to narrow down the long list of potential interests. Once I decided on a career path and school, I quit my job and moved to a new city, relying heavily on discipline, humor and hope. I can’t tell you how many times I thought about staying in Portland and working at my old job forever, but now that I’m in school, I’m really grateful that I didn’t.
~Student #2

• What kind of person would you say Student #2 is?
• Does the person seem dependable?
• Would this person follow through on a task he or she was given?
• What qualities stand out for you about this person when you read this personal statement?
• Would you invest in this person’s future?

A few years ago I gathered together a group of children from my neighborhood and together we wrote an adaptation of “The Frog Prince.” We then built a stage in the back yard and spent weeks painting sets and creating costumes. When we had finished all the preparations, we pulled couches and chairs into the backyard and invited our whole neighborhood over to watch our play. It was amazing to help guide and motivate the children as they performed their creation; it took an enormous amount of organization and delegation skills to make our production go smoothly. It was incredible to be able to help our community come together and watch neighbors that had lived next to each other for years finally forging connections and becoming friends. It was wonderful to be able to see the children growing in their confidence and sharing their creation with our community.
~Student #3

• What kind of person would you say Student #3 is?
• Does the person seem dependable?
• Would this person follow through on a task he or she was given?
• What qualities stand out for you about this person when you read this personal statement?
• Would you invest in this person’s future?

Thinking about applying for scholarships can seem like an overwhelming prospect, and students have many excuses for not applying. There are so many scholarships available for college that knowing where to start is the first obstacle to the process. Remember, scholarships are the gift of money for college. A gift does not have to be paid back like a loan does.

Scholarships are offered to students who meet a specific requirement established by the sponsor, who may be an individual or an organization. Scholarships can be offered through local, state, or national sponsors. Each scholarship will have its own requirements based on the purpose of the scholarship. Scholarships are a good way to help pay for college without increasing student debt. Students may apply for multiple scholarships. Receiving a scholarship will affect the student’s overall financial aid award because all the student aid added together cannot be more than the cost of attending college. However, it is important to realize that scholarships are gifts and do not have to be repaid, so trying to include a scholarship in your overall financial aid package is a good idea.

Common Excuses For Not Applying For Scholarships

• Scholarships are only for people with good grades or athletic skills
• There aren’t scholarships for someone like me
• You have to be a good essay writer to win a scholarship
• There is too much competition to even try
• Finding scholarships to apply for is hard and takes too much time
• Scholarship awards are for small amounts of money, so it’s not worth it
• Scholarships are only for high school graduates
• GED graduates can’t get scholarships

Finding scholarships requires research and effort on the part of the student, but the effort can have a financially rewarding outcome. Searching for scholarships today is much easier than in the past. Students used to have to comb through books in counselors’ offices and photocopy applications to be put in the mail, snail mail!

The Internet has changed the search process. In today’s scholarship search process, a student can use several websites to help find the treasure. Never pay for help to search for scholarships. Websites that charge fees to find scholarships may be scams. The Scholarship Fraud Prevention Act of 2000 was passed to help increase the penalties for people convicted of scholarship fraud. Before this Act was passed, the Federal Trade Commission was limited to closing operations defrauding consumers. Now the government has the power to incarcerate or fine perpetrators of scholarship fraud.

Free help can be found through the college you have selected to attend as well as through several great websites. Check with student support services at your college to see what services are offered. Scholarship Junkies, Unigo, Fastweb, and Fin Aid are examples of online resources for finding scholarships to apply for. Unigo even has a section for scholarships that don’t require an essay.

Mistakes to avoid when applying for college scholarships

Scholarship committees want to give their money away to deserving students. It’s your job to properly sell yourself so they know why you are the right choice. Build a profile that can’t be ignored, one that showcases your originality, your character and your drive to be successful. Avoid these common mistakes students make. Get your application done right!

Deadlines

One of the major reasons student fail to earn scholarships is due to missing the application deadline. Deadlines matter and once they pass, the opportunity for that scholarship has ended for that year. It is important to pay attention to the time zone the deadline occurs in. The scholarship website may be located in a different time zone than you are. If the deadline says 11:30 pm EST (Eastern Standard Time) that is 8:30 pm PST (Pacific Standard Time). If the scholarship says it’s due by March 15th, it means it. On March 16th you will not be able to submit the application. This is a harsh reality for some students who put off working on their scholarship applications.

Fill Out The Application Correctly

The directions on a scholarship application are not suggestions. These are the basic requirements that you need to fulfill in order to be considered for a scholarship. If you do something careless like emailing your application when you are supposed to mail it or not bothering to format your application correctly, you may not get the scholarship.

Fill Out The Application Completely

Scholarship committees request specific information because they need it. If the scholarship committee does not receive all of that information from you, the scholarship committee will likely look at your application, see that it is incomplete, and move it to the disqualified pile. If your application is submitted online and the information is incomplete, the application will not make it past the computer screening.

Make sure you are eligible for the scholarship

Read the requirements of the scholarship carefully. If there is a specific aspect of the scholarship that you do not meet, find a different scholarship to apply for.

Familiarize yourself with the sponsor of the scholarship

Use the Internet to find out as much as possible about the sponsor of the scholarship. If it is a company or organization, find out what their mission is and what they care about. If the sponsor is a person or in memory of a person, what was the person’s passion?

Proofread Your Application

Always have someone proofread your application before you send it in. This will help reduce any spelling or grammar errors or other mistakes that may be in your application before you send it. If you want to earn some money, you’ll want your application to be as polished as possible!

Scholarship Essay Mistakes

Word count is probably the most common scholarship essay mistake. If the application asks for a word range, hit the range. If it asks for a specific word count, hit the word count as closely as possible. This shows you’re capable of paying attention and satisfying specific requirements. Another common mistake is falling off topic. You want your essay to stand out from all the others. It needs to be unique, but it needs to address the topic given.

Email Address

While a cute or risqué email address can seem clever among your group of friends, it can send the wrong message to a scholarship committee, or the professors at your college. When applying for scholarships, avoid email addresses that use nicknames, profanity, that are offensive, or that have sexual connotations. Instead, create a professional email address to use for scholarship applications and professional correspondence. Keep it simple and straight forward by using variations of your first, middle, and last name.

Personal Statements & Essays

Many scholarship applications request a personal statement or essay to gain a perspective on the student in a more personal way. This is an opportunity for the student to build a unique picture of him or herself. OSAC uses four topics in their application. At Lane Community College, the Foundation (the source of scholarships specific to Lane) uses the same four topics in their applications. A student may use the same answers for both OSAC and Lane Community College’s applications. Check the college you plan to attend and see if you can find their essay questions. Chances are good,  if it’s an Oregon school, it will use the same questions as OSAC.

OSAC’s application limits the number of characters you can use in a response. This is different from a word limit. Be sure to find out if the application you are completing uses words or characters in the directions for space limitations of answers.

• Explain your career aspirations and your educational plan to meet these goals. Be specific.
• Explain how you have helped your family or made your community a better place to live. Provide specific examples.
• Describe a personal accomplishment and the strengths and skills you used to achieve it.
• Describe a significant change or experience that has occurred in your life. How did you respond and what did you learn about yourself?

Sometimes students worry that they don’t have a good answer to the questions posed by the scholarship application. Your answer doesn’t need to be a world-saving event. It needs to show your personality and qualities that will be worth investing in. The examples at the beginning of the chapter demonstrate real-life events that answer the question being posed. Finding small stories to tell will make better statements when you only have limited characters to use.

The personal statements and essays in a scholarship application are the place a student can set him or herself apart from the other applicants. Sitting down and writing an inspiring essay in 1000 characters or 150 words can seem like an impossible task.

One way to get started is to write something less structured. Try writing a random autobiography about yourself. This can be a fun way to start thinking about yourself and your experiences in order to find topics to use for personal statements and essays. It’s your story – you can’t get it wrong. Instructions and examples for writing a random autobiography are in the next chapter.

Alise Lamoreaux

Many students never expected to find themselves in college. Maybe as high school students there were factors in their lives that left them underprepared for college. Maybe a good paying job came along and the person went straight into the work force. Maybe a health problem kept them out of school. Perhaps an unstable home life limited the person’s options. But now, something has changed and college is in the future. Chances are that gaps in the skills needed to be successful in college will show up. Knowing and using the resources available to bridge those gaps will be important to college persistence.

Imagine life as a college student. You have signed up for a required class in the program you have selected. The professor of the class requires a graphing calculator along with textbooks for the course. You show up to class with your required materials and the calculator. The professor starts class by having students get out their calculators. You look down at the device and have no idea how to use it. The professor says that you are expected to know how to use the calculator since it is commonly used in high school, so reviewing its use won’t be part of the class. Now what do you do?

• What would your first reaction to this situation be?
• How would you solve this problem?
• What resources can you think of to help you?
• What obstacles for college success might you encounter?
• How do you feel about asking for help when you need it?

Colleges have an entire system of free resources in place to support students in a variety of ways. Students may feel pressure to succeed on their own because of the independent nature of many college related decisions. As a student, educating yourself about all the resources available at the college you have selected to attend can help you feel part of a community that wants to see you succeed. Asking for help from appropriate resources is not a sign of failure or lack of independence. Many college students hesitate to ask for help and end up in situations that could have been prevented by talking to the right person and knowing important deadlines. Learning to network is a valuable skill to develop while in college.

Community colleges are concerned about providing students with support services. Community college students are frequently commuter students who spend less time on campus than students who are in residency. They are likely to be working and have family obligations. Almost 30% of community college students are parents, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy. Unstable child-care arrangements, for example, can impact a student’s persistence in college.

All of these challenges put students at risk of stopping their educational plan due to life events. Community colleges try to develop comprehensive student support systems to help students overcome the obstacles of life and persist in college. Making students aware of the support systems and how to gain access to the services available is a constant challenge. Students often struggle to match their problem to the right support service, are hesitant to ask for help, and/or wait until the problem is too big to handle. Student persistence and success is the goal for both the students and the college.

• As a student, what kind of support services do you need from a college?
• What is the best method for you to access support services?
• Have you evaluated the support services available at the college you plan to attend?
• How would you rate your social media skills?

Several different models for delivering student support services exist due to the wide variety of students who enroll in community colleges. Many community college students have multiple competing priorities (family, work, school) for their time. Student service models offering an integrated approach to delivering services make it easier for a busy student to access the services they might need. When selecting a college, how student services are delivered and how easily you could access them should be considered.

Technology has introduced more options for connecting and networking with other students and college faculty/staff. Social media, networking, email, text messages, and the college website all help students communicate with peers and college faculty/staff.

 15 Key College Resources to know about

• Academic Advising
• Counseling/Personal Guidance
• Financial Aid & Scholarship Assistance
• Tutoring Options
• The Library & Librarians
• The Health Center
• Career & Employment Services
• Center for Accessibility/Disability Resources
• Multi-cultural Center
• Student Organizations
• Trio Services
• Services for Specific Student Groups
• Information Technology Services
• Faculty Office Hours
• Child care options

The language of college can complicate a student’s ability to ask for help and utilize student support services. It can be hard to figure out from the name of a service exactly what kind of help would be provided by that service. For example, what’s the difference between an advisor and a counselor?  Don’t they both give advice? If counselors aren’t advisors what are they?

Past experiences may inhibit students from accessing support services. Asking for help can feel embarrassing. In high school, students primarily use tutors when they are not doing well in a subject. Students bring that perspective to college with them. In college, tutors can be a key part of a student success plan. In college settings, free tutors staff a variety of centers designed for student success. Writing and math are typical subjects where students need extra support to learn class materials and complete assignments. Students new to college may not realize the top students in their classes are likely to be using tutoring services. Tutors are like assistant teachers. Sometimes it is hard for students new to college to understand the role of tutors and let go of past notions about who uses a tutor and why. Some colleges offer tutoring services online as well as on campus. The college website is the place to find out about the offering related to tutors for the college  you select.

Students with limited time to spend on the college campus may look for tutoring help online via videos to watch. Several excellent websites can be found. Also, there are a variety of apps for smartphones and tablets designed to help students. Support for student success can come in many forms.

Dave Dillon and Thomas Priester

Foundations of Success: Words of Wisdom Conclusion

In the text, the authors told true-to-life stories about their own academic, personal, and life-career successes. When reading FAS: WoW, you explored the following guiding questions:

• How do you demonstrate college readiness through the use of effective study skills and campus resources?
• How do you apply basic technological and information management skills for academic and lifelong career development?
• How do you demonstrate the use of critical and creative thinking skills to solve problems and draw conclusions?
• How do you demonstrate basic awareness of self in connection with academic and personal goals?
• How do you identify and demonstrate knowledge of the implications of choices related to wellness?
• How do you demonstrate basic knowledge of cultural diversity?

Now that you’ve read FAS: WoW, it’s time to pay it forward by composing your own Words of Wisdom story to share with college students of the future. Reflect on the lessons learned during your own college experience this term and use the guiding questions to develop a true-to-life story that can help other college students connect the dots between being a college student and being a successful college student. Submit your story to be considered in the next edition of Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom by emailing your name, institution, and a draft of your short story to opensunyfas@gmail.com. Submissions will be reviewed as they are received, and you will be contacted directly if your submission is reviewed and selected for publication.

The options for textbooks focusing on college student success in college are overwhelming; many textbooks exist at varying levels of rigor and cost (some well over $100). The FAS: WoW series of textbooks provides college students open access textbooks that are student-centered and readable (dare I even say enjoyable). FAS: WoW supports the open access textbook philosophy to help students reduce the cost of attending colleges and universities.

– Thomas Priester