Prepare Yourself For College Essay

To many high school students, college seems like a far away land, a mysterious place where everyone wants to be yet not many know how to get there. As children, our parents tell us how much time we have to think about college, and that it is too far down the line to think about. The truth is it is never too early to think about your future. I, like many people, put little thought into my future career and now am lost in an unfortunate mix of indecision and anxiety. Not knowing where you want to be in the future is a hard burden to bear. Many of us tend to find out that we only know what we do not want, not what we actually do want. Do we want to be poor? Absolutely not. Do we want a boring job? Of course we don’t. We all want our

Preparing high school students for college is every parent and teachers goal but sometimes that goal is hard to achieve. Students are not getting a proper education now-a-days and they do not realize that it is going to hurt them after they graduate. A study says, “That composite score dropped to 20.9 among high school students in 2013, the lowest in eight years” (Adams, 2013). That is a very low average and it is because what students are learning in high school just isn’t sticking with them through college. After students graduate they start taking harder classes, some have to start paying their own bills, and so many other changes they are not ready for. It is a big jump to go from high school to college and I think schools can do a better job of preparing students. It is their experience and education in high school that is going to help them in college. If they are not ready they are going to struggle which will result in some not so good outcomes such as having low grades or even worse dropping out. I do not believe that high school education has prepared students for college because there are many useless classes, it is more about memorizing than learning, and students drop out in a year or less because of the workload.

College 101 has been a very informative class. It has taught me a lot about college and the changes you have to make while attending college. I learned a lot about certain programs that the school offers, I knew nothing about these programs before I took this class and I probably never would have known anything about them if I never would have taken this class. In this class I have learned about three important concepts that can be very useful throughout my college years to come. I think time management, determining values and balancing lifestyles are the three most important concepts you need to help you succeed in college.

This year I have learned a lot from College Writing, this class has taught me a lot about my own writing and what makes a good essay. I have learned a lot about myself as a writer and as a person throughout the course. In this reflection of the past semester I will be going through my past papers and talk about what I liked and how I could’ve made them better. I will also be going through the activities that have shaped my writing the most. Hopefully, I will be representing how I have grown as a writer throughout the year because of this class. Before taking this class I was already relatively confident in my writing abilities and was excited to take the class. Now that the course is completed I am even more confident in my writing because of all the new techniques and helpful tips I learned.

While only having been at John Carroll University for a few months, my approach to learning has already drastically changed. Choosing a university to attend is one of the hardest decisions an eighteen-year old has to make. It essentially determines the course of your life and what you are going to do with it. However, even harder than that decision is being able to pursue the education and keep up with the studies that come with a degree. My learning expedition in college thus far has been an ever-changing one, particularly due to the realizations I have come to in the Honors Colloquium: Life of the Mind course this fall. Through the discussions of various scholars on learning, memory, and other similar subjects, in contrast to my previous

college for me is to not only shape me into a productive citizen but to prepare me for my future career and life in the real world. Like most students, I think a portion of college should be devoted to career preparation to ensure the move from college to career is an easy one and to make sure I've gained all college has to offer. Throughout my college career, I will take many courses I don't see the purpose of yet they are somehow related to my major. The purpose of these courses, although they seem unconnected and pointless are a major part of my academic success and future career.

After graduating high school, no one prepares you for college. Most kids when they are finished with high school don’t even fantasize about going back to school. I have always wanted to go to college ever since I was a young kid. I also had dreams of myself going to college, but in my dreams, everything was picture perfect. In reality, college has been very challenging for me. No one tells you about the adjustments and complications that you would have to face to become a successful college student.

A fork in the road only appears as such when both paths are seen as viable options; yet, once one path becomes seen as the only one, the other devolves into a deviation. Where the aberration would require justification to travel down, the perceived correct course would require justification to not travel down. This is precisely how the false question of attending college was presented to me: it was a matter of when not if. Upon inheriting white looking skin, a middle class family, and a pat on the back for bringing home white sheets of papers with little red “A”s written in the top right corner, it was ascertained that I was to be a productive and successful engineer after paying for college with hard-won scholarship money. In short, there were several socio-economic factors that contributed to my eventual position in college.

After graduating from high school, students must choose between going to a public college or a private one. Different colleges prepare students in a variety of ways. Some colleges concentrate on specific fields, while others broaden their selections. There are multiple colleges to choose from. However, different colleges attract different kinds of students. Some students prefer larger class sizes, some prefer a more direct lecture from their professors. Tuition rates might sway a student’s decision when choosing a particular college. With the amount of post-secondary institutions in Florida, students may feel overwhelmed when figuring out which college is the best fit for them. In Miami, Florida, public and private colleges share similarities and differences related to their financial assistance, tuition, acceptance rate, and size class.

Moving my whole life to the United States was a special challenge to me. I had to be familiar with life style, environment, education system, culture, and tradition which are different from my country Iraq. Before I moved to the United States, I spent three years in a university in Iraq; however, these years in the university did not help me to get to the college level in the United States. It was like I needed to start from zero. I did not give up because I have a goal to be a doctor. Therefore, I took ESOL classes, passed Texas Admission Test, and now I am in my Junior year.

But not every student is the same. Some students may find it easier to use the “banking” concept for their way of learning. It all depends on which learning environment the student is more comfortable in. Also, I believe that it depends on which type of class the student is taking. From my experiences, I have noticed that both methods have worked for retaining the necessary knowledge, but each method is best used for different subjects. For more of the memorization type classes, like math and history, I would learn more from the banking concept because those classes are mostly about remembering and memorizing certain formulas and dates in history. Any other way of remembering those math formulas and history dates wouldn’t be as effective. Even as young children we would learn the alphabet and words through memorization. At that young age the children are not mature enough to go through learning by the problem-posing method, they need to use the banking concept. But as for the subjects like the physical sciences, students would benefit more from the problem-posing method. Being involved and actually experiencing how the sciences work is much more beneficial than being lectured on the information.

What has my journey to graduation been like for me? My journey has been a crazy, fun-filled learning adventure. I met many goals and accomplishments I set for myself but I also faced some challenges on the way. For example, I finally met my goal of graduating with a 4.6 GPA and maintaining it. Also, I accomplished completing my last four years of grade school and now I am on the way to college. My last year has been interesting and there are many goals, accomplishments and challenges I can reflect on.

College is a competitive environment; in order to succeed in it a student needs certain skills. Those skills can only be learned. A college professor mentioned that there five basic rules that need to be followed in order to become a good student: study, do all the homework and the assigned reading, attend class, and, most importantly, develop self-discipline and time management 1. In the following lines, a detailed analysis of those different steps will be done. So, let’s get started.

Different people wish to attain kinds of success but in order to fulfill your first success, college is a very important step and part to start with. Besides you need to make the necessary scarifies to accomplish you goals, your motivation and studies are also very important because your studies are dependent upon your motivation. A goal of this kind will determining the direction and degree of your motivation for itself and it can also make the different between success and failure.

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever been questioned about your dream career, or what you want to achieve as an adult, or even now. Chances are you have, but, did you ever take the time to really think about that question and finally distinguish that you want to be an Astronaut or a Surgeon or maybe even a Scientist? Well, if you did then there’s almost no doubt that you’ll need to attend college to acquire the certain level of skills you need to become that person that you dream to be. Obtaining a college degree will almost guarantee that more and more opportunities will come knocking on your door because a college degree is a stepping stone to success and companies and businesses are very much aware of that. Success is what people are looking for and a degree verifies that you qualify to achieve great things. Oh, and did I forget to mention that that vast majority of people with a college degree make a lot more money than people with just a High School diploma or being a High School drop out for that matter. However, aside from qualifying for an immeasurable amount of career options, a College education has shown to help with communicating with others, which might not just help with job benefits, but also with relationships on another level.