Students who earn a college degree attend their classes and study at least 20 hours a week, writes Scott Swail of Educational Policy Institute on College Puzzle. They ask for tutoring help and use the academic support center to learn time management and study skills. During breaks and holidays, they read and work ahead. Finally, they make friends.
Our successful students made friends with other students. They would hang out with them, study with them, and yes, even party with them. They joined clubs, volunteered, and played in intramural sports and academic challenge groups.
Go-it-alone students who skimp on studying and cut classes usually don’t make it to a degree.
Forty percent of low-income four-year college drop-outs leave because of poor academic preparation, concludes a University of Western Ontario study, Learning About Academic Ability and the College Drop-Out Decision (pdf), reported in College Bound.
Many low-income students started their first semester expecting to do well but received low grades, researchers Todd and Ralph Stinebrickner found. It’s not that they didn’t try. They weren’t prepared for the colleges to which they’d been admitted.
College-prep must start earlier to enable low-income students to succeed in college, the authors recommend. That’s especially true for would-be math and science majors. Instead of “encouraging more incoming university students to major in math and science,” they suggest more attention to preparing students for college-level math and science classes.
