If it is easier now to park if your driving to campus, snow not with standing, and the class you wait list became available sooner than you thought and the lines in the dining hall are a little shorter and your classes are not completely filled to overflowing, then it is probably spring term or winter term on some campuses. After break fewer students return. This is traditional on most campuses. That is why there seems to be less waiting and fewer students. Because there are fewer students. Some students have simply found other things more pressing. Some need to work full time to save for their next attempt and some will never be back.
But you are.
You signed up again and showed up again for another term. And this is one less term you will be in school in the future. The basic axiom repeated by some on campus, "Live like a student now so you don't have to live like a student later" has a very good chance of being applied to you. Keep up the effective behavior. Nothing persists like persistence. And as of now you've got it.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Friday, January 18, 2013
Quick Review
With your schedule pretty well set and classes starting promptly for this term time will soon be at a premium.
Friends, events, coursework, family, personal maintenance including your job will once again be constant pulls on your time and attention.
Before that all happens and keeps happening Planet College suggest a brief, very brief, time out, not more than 10-15 minutes. During this time out do this. Look at your grade report from last term. You've probably already reviewed it, maybe even a couple of times, with the now familiar combination of anguish and delight and possibly even relief with which you have viewed previous grade reports.
For this review, two things; first, is it satisfactory.? Well if you're still in school and haven't been dis-enrolled then it is at least that satisfactory. Second, you're lowest grade, what was it? If it was passing and you don't have to repeat the course, then that grade is probably really also satisfactory. But is it really?
As you have progressed toward you graduation your skills and discretion regarding classes, school, and just about everything else has been refining. Your expectations of your efforts have been gradually rising. A bumpy rise but still rising.
So, that lowest grade? - What could you have done to improve it? What would you do now? Drop sooner because you just did not have the time? Switch sections because a friend said her instructor was 'easy'? How about attendance? Yes. How often did you miss? Simple, obvious and often overlooked. If you made every session or at least most every session, turned in the assignments and took the final- then it was probably just simply a difficult course for you. You've had this before and will again during your time on Planet College.
But if you made every session you could, unless there was something else you wanted to do, skipped a few assignments here and there and blew through the final in ten minutes because you had to pack for home- then the grade you got- if it was passing- may have been a gift.
Only you know any of this. The past is past and might now only one big catalog of lessons learned, if you learned them.
There, that ten minutes was well spent. Here is the Planet College reminder; In order to graduate you have to go to class.
Friends, events, coursework, family, personal maintenance including your job will once again be constant pulls on your time and attention.
Before that all happens and keeps happening Planet College suggest a brief, very brief, time out, not more than 10-15 minutes. During this time out do this. Look at your grade report from last term. You've probably already reviewed it, maybe even a couple of times, with the now familiar combination of anguish and delight and possibly even relief with which you have viewed previous grade reports.
For this review, two things; first, is it satisfactory.? Well if you're still in school and haven't been dis-enrolled then it is at least that satisfactory. Second, you're lowest grade, what was it? If it was passing and you don't have to repeat the course, then that grade is probably really also satisfactory. But is it really?
As you have progressed toward you graduation your skills and discretion regarding classes, school, and just about everything else has been refining. Your expectations of your efforts have been gradually rising. A bumpy rise but still rising.
So, that lowest grade? - What could you have done to improve it? What would you do now? Drop sooner because you just did not have the time? Switch sections because a friend said her instructor was 'easy'? How about attendance? Yes. How often did you miss? Simple, obvious and often overlooked. If you made every session or at least most every session, turned in the assignments and took the final- then it was probably just simply a difficult course for you. You've had this before and will again during your time on Planet College.
But if you made every session you could, unless there was something else you wanted to do, skipped a few assignments here and there and blew through the final in ten minutes because you had to pack for home- then the grade you got- if it was passing- may have been a gift.
Only you know any of this. The past is past and might now only one big catalog of lessons learned, if you learned them.
There, that ten minutes was well spent. Here is the Planet College reminder; In order to graduate you have to go to class.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
C cruise
This next term will have the usual set of challenges and surprises, just as they all have had so far for you on Planet College. At the onset of a new term it is wise to once again asses your progress and decide what your goals are if you have goals. If you don't well set some. One useful set of goals is grade goals. Students on Planet College have used grade goals to set standards for themselves, their actions and behaviors effectively for a long time.
A grade goal is simple. Here's a class. What grade to you expect to receive?
If you have not been in the habit of setting grade goals here are some Planet College guide lines. First pick one class, just one, but make it one which looks difficult, maybe the one you have had to drop a couple of times and are trying again this term. Maybe the major pre-requisite which seems unusually challenging. Which ever class you pick, this is the class you will set a grade goal for. Now, your goal? Make it a grade of C. (*)Yes. A C. An average grade, a grade of C. Students unfamiliar with grade goal setting often react puzzeled if not outright negatively at this suggestion. No wonder. Most students who attend college are generally expecting more of themselves and their lives than 'average' anything. But by now you have seen that often things just don't turn out that way. So, a grade of C is realistic and doable.
Now that you have the class and the goal there are just a couple of additional acts that are necessary to follow through. First attend every class, never miss a class meeting. Second, meet with the instructor two or three times during the term to inquire personally about your progress. Finally, - and this is serious- find out exactly where the final will be held. Yes. Because, maybe you have had this experience, the final examination for some classes are not held in the usual meeting place. And you don't want to miss the final. That is it. Attend class, get the book and materials for sure, take the final. nothing more to it. This term, put your self on a C cruise and pass that class.
(*) Planet College has endorsed a grade of C as a means to finish college since this site opened. While it is true that most average students can finish and graduate with out ever getting a grade above a C there are sometimes requirements, especially pre-reqs. for some majors that require at least a "B" in order to be admitted to the major. Before attempting this type of pre-requisite class please ask at the department office if there are 'grade' requirements for the major you are seeking to enter. Could be important.
A grade goal is simple. Here's a class. What grade to you expect to receive?
If you have not been in the habit of setting grade goals here are some Planet College guide lines. First pick one class, just one, but make it one which looks difficult, maybe the one you have had to drop a couple of times and are trying again this term. Maybe the major pre-requisite which seems unusually challenging. Which ever class you pick, this is the class you will set a grade goal for. Now, your goal? Make it a grade of C. (*)Yes. A C. An average grade, a grade of C. Students unfamiliar with grade goal setting often react puzzeled if not outright negatively at this suggestion. No wonder. Most students who attend college are generally expecting more of themselves and their lives than 'average' anything. But by now you have seen that often things just don't turn out that way. So, a grade of C is realistic and doable.
Now that you have the class and the goal there are just a couple of additional acts that are necessary to follow through. First attend every class, never miss a class meeting. Second, meet with the instructor two or three times during the term to inquire personally about your progress. Finally, - and this is serious- find out exactly where the final will be held. Yes. Because, maybe you have had this experience, the final examination for some classes are not held in the usual meeting place. And you don't want to miss the final. That is it. Attend class, get the book and materials for sure, take the final. nothing more to it. This term, put your self on a C cruise and pass that class.
(*) Planet College has endorsed a grade of C as a means to finish college since this site opened. While it is true that most average students can finish and graduate with out ever getting a grade above a C there are sometimes requirements, especially pre-reqs. for some majors that require at least a "B" in order to be admitted to the major. Before attempting this type of pre-requisite class please ask at the department office if there are 'grade' requirements for the major you are seeking to enter. Could be important.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
FAFSA Time.
First things first for a new calendar year. Your fafsa. Time to do your fafsa for next school year. That is 2013-2014. Yes it is that time and the sooner the better. Many schools base their awards on a priority system. That is, the sooner your school, or which ever school you will be attending, gets your information, the sooner they can get to work on your award package. Right now, before everything gets real busy, and it always does, get on line, put in your username, put in your pin and start updating your fafsa. You may not have every thing you need, for example, your 2012 employers may not have sent your W-4s, your 2012 earnings reports. Still, you can start now and update the information as it comes in. On Planet College, there is no time like now to take that next important step.
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