Should I Attend College? Doubts.

College Life
1

This is my first post and I am I need of some advice.

I’ve been accepted to school for fall 2016. The school is just a huge state school so it wasn’t super hard to get into and the standards were kinda low. I obviously know that they rejected someone so it’s okay in that case but I worry that the standards were too low and that I had been accepted basically just because and not for the quality of my work. This worries me because although I got accepted, it doesn’t mean that I’m college work level.

I have a documented learning disability that will allow me to use the appropriate accommodations like getting notes from a TA or taking a test in an alternate location with extra time. All of high school I took “regular” classes and normally pulled A’s-B’s with a few C’s here and there. Math is my hardest subject and it might be the thing that stops me from going. I feel that I’m great at self advocating but I still worried I wont be ready. I would like to do the mature thing and really self reflect on if going to a four year out of HS is a good idea.

I currently fall under the spectrum of “at risk” and I would really like to attend college. I want to make sure that if I commit to this that ill stay committed and finish because I do fall under the spectrum of “at risk.” I obviously know every school is different but my regular subject classes normally are super easy and they don’t require a lot of work. I really would like to attend college and further my education because high school classes were really easy and I found myself bored most of the time. Without going into deep detail about my GPA and test scores, I got average and I feel that neither of them really reflect my ability of obtaining and processing information. I took my SAT only once and got something average enough to attend a state school. Most of my school work in HS was reading a novel and then writing a themed paper on whatever subject the teacher would like to assign. The rest of my classes consisted of “Units” where we focus our curriculum one subject, take notes from power points and then taking a scan Tron exam at the end of each unit.

I would like to note that I cut corners when applying. Because math was a tough subject I only did 3 years all the way up to algebra 2 and then my senior year I decided to take a business math class with a math based science (physics)

I had a few questions directed to anyone who has a student in college, currently a undergrad and recent grad:

What is the average schedule a full time freshman will have?

How many classes a day does the average college freshman take?

How much homework do you feel you had to do a week? (I obviously know that this varies

What type of work do you do?

How easy is it to fall behind?

2

If your school is like most, you will take 4-5 classes in a semester. Most do not meet every day. You are given a syllabus that tells you your “homework” schedule. At college they tend to call it “studying” or “problem sets” that you need to do or “papers” to write. There is no home to go to at college, hence no homework. The point of college is that you are in charge of your learning.

You.

You are the person who makes the difference. No one is there to make you do anything. If you want to cut corners, you will reap the consequences of getting behind and failing or not getting much out of your education. If you study hard, you will reap the consequences of the pleasure of learning. And you will be better equipped to get a decent job. College doesn’t guarantee a great job, but it makes getting a great job more likely.

College offers a lot of distractions. Esp at big state schools there are “parties” that offer in varying amounts booze, drugs, attractive persons to socialize with, music. You can eat what you want, do what you want, go to bed or not as you wish, and your parents are not there to tell you otherwise.

Before you attend college, you may want to ask yourself: Am I ready to study? Am I ready to make notecards and review the material so that I am the one who gets the A on the test? Will I be the person who shows up for X class with Y paper written? Or will I be the person who forgot to schedule the research time and can’t write the paper, who didn’t look at the syllabus and so didn’t know there were problem sets to do or a project to complete with a team. Will I get distracted by the fun or will I be ready to work?

Why do you ask yourself this?

Because college costs a lot of money for you. Also, you being in college means someone else isn’t at that school. In other words: college is a privilege.

My advice based on the tone of your work, honest and sincere as it is, is that you might want to defer your acceptance and take a year off to figure out your interests and values. Maybe use that year to volunteer with homeless shelter, food bank, volunteer.gov, your local parks, environmental protection groups, work at a camp, whatever. After a year, you will have grown and changed. it’s natural! You probably will be ready for college then.

3

Don’t let “At Risk” define who you are. We are all at risk at some point in our lives about something. I know I am at risk of freaking out on Jeep rides when the road is narrow or there is a really steep drop off. I am very afraid of heights and falling. But I don’t let that keep me from enjoying the outings. I just have to work harder to get through certain aspects.

I sense you are already feeling overwhelmed and anxious. Does your college require you to take a math placement exam? My eldest struggles with math. Not all math but some concepts take a lot longer to get. He knows this about himself. He is attending the 5th largest public school in our state with 35K kids that is not super competitive to get into but he love it there. He loves the geography, the town, the things to do, but it wasn’t always this way.

My son took a remedial math course his first year before college algebra. He was afraid to be overwhelmed. It was a great confidence booster. He also only took 12 hours. It is realistically all he could handle and he knew it. The adviser tried to get him to take 15 he said no. 12 was good. He still struggled the first semester, but it was more that he was more homesick than he thought. He went from a top 4 state placing wrestler to a kid away from home, all by himself. None of his friends were going to his school. It was up to him to reach out.

By second semester, he had made the decision that his happiness was up to him. He could not sit back and wait for it. Everything was what he made it be, not sitting back and let things happen. His third semester, he took 15 hours and accounting was one of them. He realized early on that he could not keep up with it and his other classes, so he dropped it and went back to 12 hours. He had a great semester and a great 4th semester, with 12 hours. He is now registered for 12 hours for his 5th semester but will take accounting and one other class over the summer. Math is just a subject he needs to be able to give his full focus to.

He is excelling in all other areas and is really doing well now. It is not perfect by any means, He is still human and all that but he is aware of his strengths and his weaker areas and handles them with the right frame of mind. It is ok not to be strong in everything we do but know the best route in how to accomplish that which is not our strong suit. Don’t say you can’t do it. Say, I know it is going to be hard, but it is not impossible. There are different paths to getting it done.

That non competitive state school is where you can flourish. Non competitive does not mean you are not getting a good education. It doesn’t mean you are surrounded by a bunch of dumb people who could not get in anywhere else. Not everyone who is capable at college work is highly competitive and needs every aspect of their lives challenged. I am that way. My eldest is competitive but he enjoys the physical challenges. Same with my daughter. My spouse and my youngest however are very academically competitive. Be who YOU are. Know your strengths
and weaknesses and find the paths necessary to accomplish what you need to get done. You can do it.
Mom rant over. Good luck.

4

I say take the “At Risk” designation and own it.

That is, go to college, but realize you need to do it at your own pace and you need support. Colleges have SO many support systems that students often don’t take advantage of.

So go to the disabilities office and get your accommodations for note taking/testing in a quiet place.
Talk to your adviser about starting with a slightly less than normal set of classes (e.g., 12 credits)
See if there is learning disability support office and go there and use it.
Go to the writing center to get help with papers.
Pick a major that has minimum math. In HS you have to take 3-4 years of math, but in college usually if you don’t pick a STEM major you may only have to take 1!
Get a tutor immediately for a class you know you will struggle with like Math.

You can do this if you get the support you need…and that is up to you. They want to help you, you only need ask. And don’t feel like you are failure because you use the support…feel like a winner because you are getting the most value out of the college and are making yourself the best YOU you can be!

And general advice:

  1. GO TO CLASS, READ THE CHAPTERS, AND DO THE HOMEWORK!

  2. Go to Professor’s office hours and Ask this question: “I know this is a really difficult class-- what are some of the common mistakes students make and how can I avoid them?” Also talk to them about if they think you have a chance to succeed in the class at this point.

  3. If you have problems with the homework, go to Prof’s office hours. If they have any “help sessions” or “study sessions” or “recitations” or any thing extra, go to them.

  4. Form a study group with other kids in your dorm/class.

  5. Don’t do the minimum…for STEM classes do extra problems. You can buy books that just have problems for calculus or physics or whatever. Watch videos on line about the topic you are studying.

  6. Go to the writing center if you need help with papers/math center for math problems (if they have them)

  7. If things still are not going well, get a tutor.

  8. Read this book: How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less by Cal Newport. It helps you with things like time management and how to figure out what to write about for a paper, etc.

  9. If you feel you need to withdraw from a class, talk to your advisor as to which one might be the best …you may do better when you have less classes to focus on. But some classes may be pre-reqs and will mess your sequence of classes up.

  10. For your tests, can you evaluate what went wrong? Did you never read that topic? Did you not do the homework for it? Do you kind of remember it but forgot what to do?

  11. How much time outside of class do you spend studying/doing homework? It is generally expected that for each hour in class, you spend 2-3 outside doing homework. Treat this like a full time job.

  12. Don’t focus on other things rather than school work at first (sports, partying, rushing fraternities/sororities, video gaming etc etc)? If you get distracted by any issues in dorm life or emotionally go immediately to the counseling center. If you have any medical/mental health issues go immediately to the health center.

  13. Read the syllabus (a document that the professor gives you at the beginning of the semester that tells you what the courses is about, what books to get, when homework/tests are scheduled). Also learn how the online course system at your college works.

5

The fact that you are asking these questions suggests to me that you are ready. :-bd

Great thoughts/suggestions above btw. ^^

You might want to see if your university has a reduced course load accommodation and if you qualify for it. That might be useful, especially as you begin your classes and get a feel for what is required to succeed.

6

Sorry if I missed it in your post-- what’s your major? Depending on what kind of field you plan on entering, your math preparation may be perfectly adequate or (for, say, engineering) somewhat behind.

You definitely sound like someone who will meet any kind of challenges head-on. Good luck! You’ll do great!