Harry Harrison - 1001 Things Every College Student Needs to Know: (Like Buying Your Books Before Exams Start)

1001 Things Every College Student Needs to Know

Copyright 2008 by Harry H. Harrison Jr.

Published by Thomas Nelson Publishers, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee

All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Project Editor: Lisa Stilwell

Designed by ThinkPen Design, LLC

ISBN-10: 1404104348

ISBN-13: 9781404104341

ISBN-13: 978-1-4185-8056-8 (eBook)

www.thomasnelson.com

Table of Contents

Before you step foot on campus, we need to have a talk.

More kids than ever are applying to college because they know that in this computerized, global economy, a bachelors degree holds the keys to the kingdombut more students than ever are leaving school without a degree. In fact, one in three Americans in their midtwenties are college dropouts. Only 54 percent of college freshmen graduate within six years.

Lets not dwell on how your parents have destroyed their 401(k)s to send you to school. Or how youve taken out student loans that you can only hope to pay back if you have a medical degree. Lets focus on whats actually happening here. Students are showing up on campus unprepared for the course load, ill equipped to prioritize, helpless to solve problems without Mom running interference, and lacking the inner strength to stand up to the pressures, demands, and challenges they will inevitably face the next four years. Or more.

If thats you, dont flee to a community collegethe statistics there are really grim. While there are exceptions, most community-college students never make it to a four-year school. Besides, this is not the time to set your sights low. Kids with just one or two years of college are paid little better than high-school graduates.

The fact is, you need to know a few things. Well, maybe about a thousand things. Because college grades, graduate school, and test scores determine who will carry an American Express Platinum Card in the future. If you graduate from any four-year school, the system is on your side. But the system is definitely against you if you do something brainless. Like leave college. This is a world where the educated get richer and the uneducated get poorer.

So the message here is simple. Dont let something stupid like too much partying, a bad romance, not buying books on time, or chronic disorganization ruin the rest of your life. You need staying power. This book is how to get it.

1. You need to know youll have to beat the odds. According to American College Testing (ACT), one in every four college students leaves before completing their sophomore year. And nearly half of all freshmen will either drop out before obtaining a degree, or theyll leave to complete their degree elsewhere.

2. You need to know your ticket to the upper middle-class is punched with a college degree.

3. You need to know this is the time to shoot for excellence.

4. You need to know youre not entitled to a college degree. In fact, youre no longer entitled to anything.

5. You need to know how to read really, really fast. If you dont, take a speed-reading course.

6. You need to know what it takes to be prepared. The top schools are looking for:

Four years of English or a 21 on the ACT English section (530 SAT verbal)

Four years of math (Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, and an advanced math class for which Algebra II is a prerequisite) or a 24 ACT/540 SAT

One year each of biology, chemistry, or physics or a 20 on the ACT Science

Three years of social studies

Three years of the same foreign language

One year of a fine art

Ranking in the top quarter of your high-school class or ACT of 22 or SAT of 2200 or a 3.0 GPA (4.0=A)

7. You need to know its important to accomplish something during your senior year of high school. Kids who coast that last year arent mentally or emotionally prepared for the workload college will dump on them.

8. You need to know over one-third of the people who drop out of college do so because they cant handle the workload.

9. You need to know homework, responsibility, and self-discipline take on different meanings in college.

10. You need to know that if you avoid taking hard classes in high school, youll lower your odds of graduating from college.

11. You need to know that everything you thought in high schoolabout studying, hard work, achievement, meeting people, how cool you wereis all out the window.

12. You need to know what youre signing up for: constant studying, difficult exams, pressure to perform, organizing your time, prioritizing your work, meeting expectations, and acting like an adult. And some unforgettable parties.

13. You need to know it doesnt matter who you were in high school. Nobody cares. But it does matter who you think you are now.

14. You need to know to forget what Mister Rogers told you years ago: Youre not special. In fact, theres room for improvement.

15. You need to know how to do your homework without your mother threatening you.

16. You need to know how to have an original thought. This ability really helps.

17. You need to know the more college-prep classes you take, the more prepared for college youll actually be.

18. You need to know that if you work your butt off in high school while everybody else is out partying, colleges will pay you to come to their school.

19. You need to know this is when all those AP classes you took pay off. You could actually place out of most of your freshman year, saving you time and up to $25,000.

20. You need to know enough logic to be able to interpret tables and graphs. If you dont, take remedial logic classes now.

21. You need to know how to read an editorial and comprehend what position the author is taking. If youre mystified about whats going on, you need to take remedial reading classes.

22. You need to know that if youve acquired the discipline to keep studying even when youre tired and bored, you can graduate from Harvard early.

23. You need to know to not spend the summer before your freshman year wasted. The smart students already know the first-semesters reading assignments and are getting ahead.

24. You need to know how to practice analytical thinking. Be able to define problems, collect facts, form a hypothesis, conduct an analysis, and develop a solution. (If you dont know the meaning of these words, head to a community college.)

25. You need to know how to brainstorm on your own. The good students arent always eager to share their ideas.

26. You need to know college is a rough place to learn youre not the center of the universe.

27. You need to know to be reading something denser than text messages.

28. You need to know college (like the real world afterward) is all about creative solutions. Those are found in your head.

29. You need to know how to defend your opinions and values. They will be challenged regularly.

30. You need to know you wont get as much praise as you got in high school. College professors dont really care about your feelings or that you worked hard all weekend.

31. You need to know if youre unable to do fundamental computation, you dont need to be taking college math. You need to be taking remedial math. Or acting classes.

32. You need to know to not choose a college because it was featured on MTV.

33. You need to know to judge a college based on things like degrees offered, class sizes, proximity to home, campus life, cost, cost, and cost. These things can all be graduation wreckers.