When my brother's child graduated from college, I gave some sarcastic advice about how to succeed in college. They were amused. It was fun, but there was a somewhat serious side as well. My heart is with them as they start their undergraduate education this fall.
The advice is shared below, plus a few more obvious thoughts. There are 40+ years of anecdotes that support these ideas, and empirical studies too. I'll keep it brief.
- Attend class: People who attend class regularly do better than people who don't attend. In your heart, you know it's true. It's easier to keep up than to catch up.
- Turn in the assignments: Your professors can't grade work that's missing, except for giving it an zero. (That high school silliness of receiving 50% credit for work not done isn't going to happen in college.) Receiving zeros will decimate your course average.
- Eat/sleep well: My pediatrician gave me this obvious advice back in the 1980s. It's still true! Insufficient sleep is the unfortunate college norm. Living on energy drinks and pizza won't work for very long.
- Make friends: Every freshman on campus is lonely and bewildered, at least at first. The upside is that they are relatively open to making new friends. Just introduce yourself and start talking to them.
- Your professors want you to succeed. They may seem scary and distant, but the reality is that they'll be delighted to see your interest in learning and growing. Growth is lovely to see. Ask them questions. Seek help when you are lost. Seeking help is true for the larger campus community too, with services like writing support, tutoring, campus health, and counseling.
This exercise in the obvious is not meant to suggest that college students are stupid. Far from it. Even though we know these basics to be true, it's easy to fall into bad habits. This example is all-too-frequent: "I'll miss class today because the boss needed me to work an extra shift." The absences start small and well justified, but then easily become a habit. After a month or the next exam, it becomes apparent that class attendance is poor. Recovery to a good grade is hard once a hole has developed.
Professor Obvious wishes the best to this fall's incoming freshmen and returning students.
P.S. Cool new-to-me word learned during the writing of this post: lapalissade