Challenging College Sophomores

Being a freshman in college, I set impractical and unrealistic goals for myself. Throughout the year, I had to overcome various obstacles to strive in meeting the goals I had set out for myself. One of my goals during the first year of college was to earn a 4.0 GPA. I thought this would be an easy feat as I was able to academically grow throughout my academic career—excelling from being roughly a 2.6 GPA student to roughly a 4.0 GPA student. One of the biggest obstacles I had to face was taking exams. In high school, I did not need to prepare for exams as much as I do in college. I underestimated my midterms and finals as I did not know that I had to study at least a week ahead of time in order to obtain suitable grades. In high school, I was able to study one or two nights beforehand and still manage to achieve high grades.

For first year students coming straight from high school, college life can either be very exciting or overwhelming depending on how well one prepares for it. Some have the notion that college is fun and is all about partying, while some believe that it is an environment in which they can achieve the ultimate freedom thus escape the stringent rules made by their parents at home. Others look forward to experiencing a different learning environment while being exposed to different cultures and sharing different academic knowledge. Successful assimilation into college life is determined by the student’s capability to transform into the new role of a college student. Numerous students face challenges they have never experienced before which can

Junior year; considered the most difficult year of high school. Junior year wants to make senior year as relaxing and stress free as possible. Part of this preparation: community service and then writing a paper and making a presentation surrounding that service. Kennedy calls this project the integrated service learning (ISLE) project. For my ISLE project, I built houses in New Orleans through Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit organization. I found that when hurricane Katrina and the Levis broke it left a tremendous amount left in its wake. Since the trip would knock all my service hours out in a week and I became interested in the project I went and worked on houses and learned a great deal culture and poverty

As a nontraditional student as well as a Sophomore my goals as well as responsibilities are different from the typical student’s. As a father of three, including a six month old balancing my professional, academic, together with my personal life has been the most challenging aspect of returning to school.

Many college professors find it very important to have parents, students and current instructors aware of the expectations for the upcoming student. By informing students,

I just can’t believe there is only few more days of high school left. As the days are getting closer and closer, it's getting sad. I still remember the day I stepped into Maine East High School as a Freshman, at that time, all I wished for was to graduate from this school with good grades. High school was not the way I imagined, it is way different from what I thought and definitely different from Middle School. Freshman year was the “exploring/adventure” year, finding where each classes were, what activities/clubs were offered at this school and many more. Freshman year went quickly and then Sophomore year came up. Sophomore year was probably the least stressful year in high school but from Sophomore year my family and friends started asking me the scariest question “What are you doing after high school, which career?

As a result, students and parents are starting to prepare for college much later than researchers recommend (Bell et al., 2009; Gibbons et al., 2006). According to research from Bell et al. (2009), students who attend schools with personnel dedicated to college guidance are more likely to feel confident about and familiar with the college application process. This finding is particularly significant, as first-generation college students report lower positive outcome expectations related to attending college, which can in turn impact their intentions, interests, and goals. Furthermore, with prospective first-generation college students reporting greater barriers related to college going, it is essential that counselors dedicated to college access are available to help raise positive expectations, as well as challenge negative expectations for this population (Gibbons & Borders, 2010). Although 65 percent of first-generation college students expressed interest in attending a four-year university in Gibbons et al.’s (2006) research, just 53 percent of all prospective first-generation college students were enrolled in college-preparatory courses. As a result, some counselors have started to realize how the rigor of classes is a systemic barrier

The thought of new adventures I will encounter and the freedom I will gain in college makes me ecstatic. Your First Year of College: 25 Strategies and Tips to Help You Survive and Thrive Your Freshman Year and Beyond written by Randall S. Hansen, who is an entrepreneur who is focused on helping people with college success and health and wellness. “Get enough sleep, take your vitamins and eat right.” Getting enough sleep can improve your focus and agility. The author suggest that if you stay healthy, get enough sleep, and take your vitamins you should have a better chance of avoiding the “Freshman 15.” Without having your parents around to serve you a good balanced meal, one may be tempted to go for the cookies

There can be something eye-opening about meeting someone to whom your life is so similar, yet so different at the same time. The hours of practice and the never-ending passion that begins every day when we wake up and motivates us until we fall asleep. It is extremely mind-boggling that there are music education majors with an entirely different life from the lives we lead at Iowa State.

If I could go back to freshman year to change some stuff I would. First, I would go back and tell myself to not try so hard on my appearance, but still try every once in awhile to look decent. I look at some of my clothes now from 3 years ago and I want to cry at how bad I started high school. Usually I just wear something comfortable now. Second, I would tell myself to lay off the make up. I always had top and bottom eyeliner on and with my black hair, I almost looked emo. That change needed to happen earlier. Third, I would tell myself to get more involved, because now all I do is work when I should be playing basketball or joining a club. The last thing that I would tell myself would be to not date the first guy who

Although almost everyone was or will be a Freshmen they are very misunderstood and stereotyped. Many people portray Freshmen to be small. When people often think of Freshmen they picture them as running everywhere. They are portrayed as Immature the majority of the time. People like to portray them as being loud all as well. The biggest misconception is they are rude. They are portrayed this way because there was a time freshmen were small, Immature and would run everywhere but as time went on Freshmen became less Immature, calmed down as stopped running everywhere and not everyone stayed small. Freshmen should stopped being portrayed in such negative ways and they should be looked at as just fellow students.

As the Assistant Principal on our campus, my role as a collaborative leader is to support our students, instructional and administrative staff and school, to foster a shared vision, in addition, to providing leadership to help increase student achievement for all students. Our goal is to establish high expectations, focusing on results and academic achievement while keeping in mind, all decisions are based on what is best for our students.

Because I believe that we grow by lifting others. During my first years at OU, I’ve always wanted to find someone besides my advisor to help me make better choices regarding my classes. I understand how stressful it is to enroll in a class, which you almost know nothing about except the fact that it is one of the requirements in the curriculum. Eventually, I found that person during my Sophomore year, and it was a blessing. Being able to build an understanding of the class in advance helped me in calming my storms of anxiety and stress. I do believe that those who spent enough time at Michael F. Price College of Business are treasures to the students who’ve just admitted to the Business school. The more we give to those students, the greater

Freshman year, the year of many first; the first time living away from home, the first time being away from friends, the first time a student has control of their own learning. Freshman year requires a lot of discipline, but a lot of students do not possess this trait. The factors that contribute to the success of first year college students are social support, comfort within the college environment, self control,responsibiliy and positive self concept.

First off, adjusting to academic factors in the freshmen year can create stress for students in a variety of ways. First of all, first-year students experience stress while trying to keep up with the new academic workloads in college, which are completely different and more challenging than the workloads in high school. To illustrate this, in Alan Schwartz’s article in the