Your bags are packed and you’re ready to go!
Extra long twin sheets for the dorm bed
– check! Hot plate, top ramen, one spoon – check! No-Doze,
midnight oil, pen and paper – check!
Your bags are packed and you’re ready to go!
Extra long twin sheets for the dorm bed – check! Hot plate, top ramen, one spoon – check! No-Doze, midnight oil, pen and paper – check!
You’re ready! Ready to attend classes, buy books, do homework, turn in papers, study for tests and party on with the best of them.
Aaah! There’s nothing like a bright-eyed young adult heading off to their first college experience – taking tangible steps toward independence and a long dreamed of career.
My hope is that you get where you think you’re going in a timely manner!
My concern is that you don’t know how winding and cluttered the path may be!
I know that some of you will prefer to reinvent the wheel on your personal foray into the future. For those of you open to some unsolicited advice, I’d like to offer some counsel that may ease or straighten out the journey a bit.
(These tidbits were gleaned from my midlife re-entry into higher education. I earned each one by digging, phoning, e-mailing or talking to anyone who would let me make an appointment. Sometimes my obsession with detail averted disasters. Other times, due to faulty or lack of counsel, I gained information through gritty tears and whining lamentations.)
That said, here’s a couple more things to squeeze into your already bulging your suitcase:
Buy and keep a university approved handbook the year you enroll in college. Contiguous years in classes (even 3 credits per semester) mean you only need to fulfill the coursework required at registration to graduate. You may be able to find a handbook later, but it won’t be as easy!
Meet with a counselor before you enroll and regularly afterwards. Once you declare a major, meet with the chair of your department. Get them to sign and date any educational advice they give. Sometimes wrong advice will be honored by the university if you can prove that someone in authority gave it to you.
You probably won’t save all of your course notes and papers, but do keep your green sheet (class syllabus or required readings with course objectives.) These abstracts often come in handy when you need to prove that you have completed a specific body of work. It might mean waiving some classes as well as some entry level tests.
Start a minimal filing system. Ideally, have folders for finances, awards, letters, syllabi, etc. If individual filing is beyond your time limits or personal abilities, just use a box and at least throw everything in one place. Some things really are irreplaceable.
Make your face known to the powers that be. Especially any professors that you like and who seem to like you. You’ll need references at some point in the future and you want the writers of those referrals to be able to say more than, “She got three credits and an A.” If you see a little task that you can help them with, do so. Reciprocity is a powerful tool.
If you’re going to attend a community college for a couple of years and want all of those AA credits to count, you need to be working with the four-year college you hope to attend. If you don’t, you stand a good chance of losing some of your compiled credits. It’s especially important if you’ll be going from a semester to a quarter system or vice versa.
If you know where you want to end up working, meet with a recent graduate working in the field. Colleges are concerned with completion of coursework; the work field is interested in useable information. Sometimes those two intersect, sometimes they don’t.
Be wary of professors who tell you that their course is “equivalent” to a career prerequisite. Some job applications want exact requirements met. Proving equivalency outside of the college classroom can be a Catch-22 nightmare.
Most professors will tell you their personal bias in the first class or in their syllabus. Remember that slant as you listen to their lectures and balance it with the facts at hand no matter how many degrees are stapled to the end of their name.
Grow in character, integrity and philanthropy. These are your first steps in independence. Make them count with more than accrued credits and good grades.
Learn to think critically.
Remember your roots.
Bonnie Evans has lived in Gilroy with her husband Mike for 21 years. They have two grown children and a black lab named Pepper. Her volunteer work centers around end-of-life issues. To support her volunteer efforts, she teaches for Gilroy Unified. Reach her at
bo******@gm***.com.
