What should I know about college?
Of course there is increased freedom and workload, but what else catches people by surprise?
#college
2 answers
Ken’s Answer
There are several things that are very important when getting to know about colleges:
- The first is focus. It really helps to develop a career focus before entering college as it will help with the selection of courses and provide a common interest area around which to develop friendships in collge.
- It is also very important to control costs. As you will be faced with many decisions regarding money, it is very important to have some good ideas about reducing costs in college
- It really does not matter what school you attend, as the most important factors are how well you do with the school work, which is an indication to an employer about what kind of employee you will be, and the effort that you put forth in your networking to set up networking connections that will help you throughout your education/career journey. Here is an important video for you to watch: ## http://www.ted.com/talks/julie_lythcott_haims_how_to_raise_successful_kids_without_over_parenting?utm_campaign=social&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_content=talk&utm_term=education ##
Getting to know yourself and how your personality traits relate to people involved in various career opportunities is very important in your decision making process. During my many years in Human Resources and College Recruiting, I ran across too many students who had skipped this very important step and ended up in a job situation which for which they were not well suited. Selecting a career area is like buying a pair of shoes. First you have to be properly fitted for the correct size, and then you need to try on and walk in the various shoe options to determine which is fits the best and is most comfortable for you to wear. Following are some important steps which I developed during my career which have been helpful to many .
Ken recommends the following next steps:
Nicole’s Answer
For me, the most surprising thing when I went to college was the initial "hands off" approach of my professors. You are right in that there is a lot more freedom in college. For the most part, your professors won't be taking attendance and they likely won't be checking to see if you did your homework. But they do expect you to be doing your work. And that will show when you get exams. In some ways it can be a bit of reverse psychology :). It could appear that your professors don't care if you show up to class or if you do you assigned studies. In most cases, their expectation is that if a student is struggling in their class, the student will reach out to the professor. It is less likely that the professor will reach out to the student, as is more the case in high school.
Hope this is helpful and best of luck to you!