Tag: Colleges & Universty

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College Success – What Does it Take?

College success is not as difficult for most young students as learning how to take on adult responsibilities. Letting go of adolescence and becoming an adult is more challenging according to Carl Pickardt, Psychologist and adolescent specialist. If you take responsibility for showing up to class regularly, turning papers and work in on time, and sacrificing some of the time spent with friends in favor of more study time, you have won half the battle for achieving college success. Being responsible for meeting the demands of college (ability to respond and step up to the plate) is one of the keys to college achievement.

You already have been using some of the higher level thinking skills needed to succeed in college. You use these skills when you solve your life problems and overcome obstacles. Your lack of success in college will not be because you are not smart enough. There are many different types of intelligence and my experience in working with hundreds of students has shown that practically every student is smart in one way or another. For more information on different types of intelligence other than IQ, you can read the theories of Howard Gardner (Multiple Intelligences), Robert Sternberg (Successful Intelligence) and Daniel Goleman (Emotional and Social Intelligence).

In addition to self-responsibility, there are three other factors you will need to succeed in college:

1. Learning how to learn and study skills — You need to learn how to learn effectively and the ways that you learn best. Most colleges offer at least one college success course which can teach you these skills. These courses also need to be taught to high school students, but sadly few high schools provide them. A good college success course will teach you: how to study and learn, reading comprehension strategies, your best learning styles and types of intelligences, how to set and reach your goals, time management, discovery of your talents and strengths, career exploration, writing skills, note taking, problem solving, and more.

2. Work Ethic — Good study and work habits will lead you to success in college and in the work force. Good study skills will only be effective if you apply them. They will be worthless to you if you do not use them.

3. Motivation — Without motivation you will not consistently use good study skills, work habits and your intelligence and potential. There are two types of motivation, the carrot (pleasure) and the stick (pain). When you use these together you will have a powerful motivational combination. Keep your long-range goals for achieving a college education in your mind’s eye. For example, let’s say you want a degree in secondary education to become a teacher. Visualize and imagine yourself as a teacher who is making a positive difference for your students. Enjoy the positive feelings that come when you see yourself as a great teacher. This is the carrot and a reminder of one of the benefits (pleasure) you will experience by achieving your goal. Also remind yourself of the stick (pain) or the consequences if you do not achieve your goal of completing a degree in secondary education. It can deprive you of becoming a teacher. Reminding yourself of the benefits and consequences will help you to stay motivated and persistent. Also break your long-range goals into small steps. Every step accomplished provides you with positive feedback and will increase your motivation to reach your long-range goals.

You can succeed in college, in your career, and in your life. Where to begin? Start with college success by taking responsibility, learning how to learn effectively and how you learn best, using good study skills and work habits, and by fueling your motivation to succeed. Use these four keys and you will open the door to college success and the gateway to your dreams.

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Have You Considered an Online College Education?

There are a million excuses why people choose not to continue their education. In some cases, it may be the cost, but most of the time it seems that people just end up getting a job and never have the time to go back to school. Thankfully, you can now get an online college education while you are working. Regardless of where you live, how old you are, or what type of job you have, you can still work on getting your degree, just by going to school online.

You may have been told that an online college education is somehow inferior to a traditional college experience, and that is not the case at all. Your diploma looks no different than anyone who went to a traditional school, and your employer does not know that your courses were taken online. In fact, most people find that when they do take classes online, they end up working much harder than they would if they had to sit in a classroom.

Getting an online college education has actually become preferable for many people simply because it is so much easier. You don’t have to drive to campus, find and pay for parking, go to class and sit there four hours. Instead, you sit in your own home, in your pajamas if you wish, and learn where and when you want. Most classes have very loose schedules that can fit in with your work schedule or your lifestyle in general.

If you are younger and think that you might miss out on some of that college experience that everyone talks about, you are right. But the price you pay for that can be hefty. You might miss out on making a few friends and spending nights out partying, but you will graduate with a better education and a head-start on your partying friends.

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Looking For Accredited Online College Courses

With educational trends leaning more towards going to college online, finding accredited college courses is a very important for either the new or continuing college student. Accreditation refers to a college or university that has been accredited, or basically has set forth high standards that have been met by the organizations who off accreditation. Accreditation can be on a regional, national, programmatic or national faith-based accreditors.

The importance of attending an online college that is accredited is highly important, specifically if a particular job you are after (for example, a teaching position) requires accreditation from the institutes that teach you, in order to be able to justifiably certify you. With may hundreds of organizations on the Internet that are not accredited schools, this weeds out those who are not conforming to higher educational standards.

It’s fairly obvious why accreditation is important. If you are considering teaching children, then you must be found to have been educated at least to the highest possible standards possible, and with no more than a B average for competencies in various subject matter.  Naturally, some people might become upset at suggesting that B’s or higher should be considered the “norm”, along with having taken classes by accredited institutions, however, what if that B is not based on grades, and only on competency?

For example, there are colleges who strictly operate on this principle: No grades, only competency that meets a standard of at least a “B” equivalency. Not bad, if you can take exams and other assessments till you can reach that through applying various means to your course of study in order to achieve this. Even people who normally have obtained C’s and D’s in high school, can be found to be highly competent in competency-only online colleges.

While it is certainly easy enough to find online colleges, it isn’t necessarily easy to find the RIGHT online colleges. For example, some online colleges have only one or two full accreditations, while others will have more. The more a school has in accreditations, the more likely your degree will be acceptable where you will be working, whether as a teacher or other business professional.

Some college courses that must be accredited include not only the educational arena, but also IS (Information Science), Library and other Science degrees require them, especially when one is applying for work within these particular disciplines.  It is very important, prior to attending an online college, to know exactly what they have to offer at the time you apply with regard to accreditation as well as what they are working on. Both of these answers should be easily answered by the staff at these schools, since the bottom line is that they really do want students who are competent and can therefore handle competency-based work.  It should be noted that not all online colleges that are accredited go by a competency-based curriculum; many are still quite traditional, utilizing a grading system. Any way you look at it, achieving a college degree is a dream that can be accomplished. Just be on the lookout for accreditation with your college of choice.