I’ve been a full-time professor since 2006 and served as a graduate teaching assistant for several year before that, and I’m starting to get the hang of this college thing. Students come and students go, but there are certainly some common denominators that successful students share (the same can be said for the unsuccessful students also). I thought it would be nice for me to share some of my observations about what really drives academic success. I should also probably mention that this post is an extended idea which I first posited in a campus publication for incoming students in 2010.
Defining academic success is not as simple as saying “I want straight A’s”. While this is certainly a worthy goal and probably not a bad place to start, it doesn’t quantify the necessary work and learning that it takes to get an A. An interesting thing about success is that it’s quite relative. One student’s C- is another student’s A. Some students are quite satisfied to simply pass the course, while other students would be mortified if his/her GPA nudged itself below 3.90. Success is also determined by the professor and the type of course; for example, I took an advanced multivariate statistics class in graduate school in which an A went all the way down to 80%; contrast that with my courses where an A- ends with a 92%. As long as we understand that success if relative and moderated by a number of factors, we can proceed with this notion.
Let’s be honest – college, particularly at a private institution like the one that employs me, Huntington University, is not simple (or cheap). When visiting with potential students who are still in high school, I am always quick to affirm that “if you are looking for a blow-off major, this is not it. In fact, if you’re looking for a blow-off college, this is not the place for you.” While it’s certainly not difficult to find a blow-off course, major, or institution, if you’re going to spend the amount of money it takes to be educated at a private institution, PLEASE take it with some level of seriousness (particularly if you plan on defaulting on your massive loans at some point in the future). College, if taken seriously by the student, is a lot of hard work, sleepless nights, frustrating assignments, dollar signs, and sometimes even unhappiness. You’ll spend a small fortune to take classes that you’d just simply prefer not to take … but you’ll survive them. You’ll be asked to complete assignments that feel like a complete waste of time (especially if your college is heavy on the liberal arts) … but they’re not. You’ll sit through lectures that are way over your head, far beyond your attention span, way past boring, and appear completely irrelevant to your major … but you might actually learn something. At the very least, as you continue to mature throughout your life, you might actually reach a point where you WISHED you’d paid more attention and put forth a little more effort so you could have enabled learning to take place.
Success, much like learning, is a process. Academic success, like learning, certainly doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a maturation process that takes time, purposeful effort, and probably even a little luck. A metaphor of the caterpillar morphing into a butterfly, or the little acorn emerging as the majestic oak, is probably apt (although perhaps not zoologically or botanically correct). In college, maybe the single most important thing you can learn is how to be successful. Did you catch that? Maybe success shouldn’t be the goal, but rather learning how to be successful. Learning enables you to be an active participant in the process of success (think locus of causality, if you will). When you dynamically engage in the process with the ability to manipulate circumstances and influence outcomes, you help determine your fate (think internal locus of control). Although this doesn’t guarantee success (nothing that’s so dynamic and multifaceted can be guaranteed), it greatly improves your odds.
After observing, interacting with, and teaching hundreds of students, both undergraduate and graduate, since 2001, I’m beginning to understand that this process begins by discovering and cultivating these four indispensable internal qualities:
- Effort. You control how much effort you put into your accomplishments. If you want to be
successful, you’ll work as hard and as intelligently as possible.
Although effort might be difficult to measure, and is probably relative like success, most people know when they are putting forth a commendable effort and when they are not. There doesn’t seem to be much gray area. - Attitude. You determine if a course, assignment, or endeavor is worthy of your time or not. Time is a very precious commodity, and if something is important to you, you will usually spend the necessary time on and exhibit the appropriate attitude for that endeavor. To be successful, your attitude must always be positive, constructive, and optimistic. Students must also understand that their professors WANT them to be successful!
- Passion. When you are passionate about something, it obvious! Passion shows itself in academics
by exhibiting a thirst for knowledge. You must have the desire to learn. Like effort, there is little gray area – you are either passionate about something … or you’re not. - Character. Character is who you are when no one is looking. To be successful, you must be an individual of impeccable character. That means going the extra mile and not taking short-cuts to success. It’s taking the road less traveled; it doesn’t mean that you necessarily enjoy the ride, but you do endure it. For proof, see Frankl, Viktor.
The less than 250 words it took to summarize those qualities are a gross underrepresentation of their importance. In truth, each of the qualities deserves its own post to fully flesh out its significance. But for today, that brief introduction will suffice. To these four core internal qualities, I also want to add two “action items”. These are much more quantitative in nature and are therefore easier to measure and document and are much less unformulated than the four core qualities. To grease the wheels for academic success, students must:
1) Improve time management skills. I firmly believe that this is the number one issue for new college students. Learning how to balance homework (particularly all the reading), sports, friends, work, boyfriend/girlfriend, and other relevant commitments that demand and necessitate time and mental/emotional investment can be quite the challenge. Students have to learn a very difficult balancing act: Don’t leave school work for last, but also don’t ONLY do school work or the college experience will be pretty lame. Finding that tenuous balance is critical, and I highly recommend that students use the resources around them (e.g., their advisors, upperclassmen, appropriate university-provided success services, etc.). I also recommend The Relaxation & Stress Reduction Workbook by Martha Smith, et al. which I have used with good success. This blog also give some great advice.
2) Get involved! There is no such thing as a suck-up in college. The students who stick out in class by asking good questions, participating in out-of-class activities, etc. will be the students who get noticed and make an impression on their professors. Every college offers a myriad of activities that make the college experience more fun and rewarding. I believe that it is critical for students to find something they can put their unique identity on in their college. Get involved in the classroom, in the professor’s (particular their advisor’s) area of interest, and in extracurricular activities. Get involved; get involved; get involved.
Good faculty members demand excellence in their students. We’re not satisfied with mediocrity, nor will a student driven by the desire for success be satisfied with mediocre results. If you want to work hard, think deeply, and be challenged beyond what you’ve experienced before, those opportunities are readily available, and good faculty members are desperately seeking motivated, engaged students to teach, mentor, and encourage.
When it’s all said and done, if a student has put forth extraordinary effort, been fueled by a great attitude, motivated by an unquenchable passion, and led by an inquisitive, curious, and moral character, s/he will greatly improve the chances of academic success. If s/he can learn to master their time and the demands placed on them and find a way to be involved in the life of the university, academic success becomes more likely. And more than that … s/he will be a better person for his/her efforts.
What do you think?
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- Roadmap to College: What College Admissions Officers Look For (education.com)
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