Richard J. Light's Making The Most Of College: Students Speak Their Minds

College Success: Chapter 1 is a great recourse for every student whether they are experienced or not. Specifically, descriptions about the best possible choices made to get the most out of your experience are plentiful, and self-assessments are included to evaluate a starting point. If one were to follow the step-by-step advice given, such as overcoming obstacles and enriching your learning experience, it would be close to impossible not to have a great experience at college. The author wasn’t afraid to delve deep into the fact that college is difficult and requires a lot of commitment to follow through. The information given is easily suitable for a wide range of students, including anything from discovering resources many colleges offer,

College is an opportunity to truly discover who you are. Often enough, you hear people saying “You should really major in this field, I think you would really enjoy this career.” or, “Do you think you really want to study that? Have you thought about what you will be doing ten years from now?” filling your mind with self doubt, uncertainty, and the anxiousness of not knowing what you want to do with the rest of your life. Mark Edmundson wrote an article titled, Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here?, published in Oxford American addressing college students and their families how the most important thing college students should focus on is personal growth. When students take their courses seriously their engagement can help finding out who they really are and which future career will lead not necessarily to great financial success, but to a career and life that is very satisfying. Edmundson wants to inspire his audience and have them take what he is saying seriously. Edmundson uses satirical informal language and hypothetical situations to effectively persuade college students to focus on their personal growth in order to create a life and career that is deeply fulfilling.

Andrew Delbanco’s essay “A college Education: What is its purpose?” gives three reasons why college still matters. Delbanco teaches at Columbia University, where he’s the director of American studies and has written several books on the meaning and benefits of college. Delbanco, begins his essay by discussing what college means to each individual student. He states, “For many more students, college means the anxious pursuit of marketable skills in overcrowded, under resourced institutions. For still others, it means traveling by night to a fluorescent office building or to a “virtual classroom” that only exists in cyberspace.” (1) Delbano successfully uses pathos to appeal to his audience’s emotions, his personal experience and anecdotal combine to persuade his readers to consider or realize the importance of receiving a college education, however his essay contains minor flaws that can counteract his claims.

The book The Prince of Los Cocuyos can relate to my transition into college. The first time Richard Blanco came to America and felt out of place. College is all about experinces and getting to know yourself and learning who you really are. It is hard leaving high school and having to transition to college. Being used to teachers reminding you about assingments to now going online and having to remind yourself. As I begin to start my college experience I thought college would be easier no one telling you what you can and cant do, but its really not easier it might honestly be harder. Having to do so many assignments all at once. I feel like college is all about self motivation and being able to push yourself to work hard. Which I actually am

Starting out having to read two books over the summer did not excite me at all, and my willingness to read them was low as they did not seem like books I would enjoy to read. However after reading both books I was very glad to have done it. “Making College Count” and “The Other Wes Moore” were insightful, interesting and thought provoking books. The one gets you thinking about what you want for college and how to make the best of it; the other makes you think about how different life could be for someone based on the choices made and actions taken in life. These two books give great lessons in life and is a good guide on what path in life someone should take for the best possible outcome.

College is an exciting time with plenty of challenges and difficulties. The ones who can overcome these challenges and difficulties will be the ones who get the most out of college and their degree. In my paper I will talk about what a degree means to me personally and professionally. I will also talk about different things I struggle with so far in college and different ways I can improve these difficulties, as well as how I feel about the CSI report that we took and how I believe it compares to me personally.

Gary Colombo, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle in their book “Rereading America” feel that commencing college is a very disturbing experience. So many things we have to deal while starting college, but the major challenges are expanded difficulty levels and higher expectation which we are not familiar over the years of high school. In order to solve this issue, we have to remodel ourselves by taking up the challenge and rethink about our strength and flaws. To succeed in college we need to be mentally strong and dedicated towards our goal.

William G. Tierney, Zoë B. Corwin, Julia E. Colyar, (2005), Preparing for colleges, pp 200-264

The transition from high school to college is a dynamic time in one’s life that parallels the change from childhood to adulthood. Both of these changes are dramatic and, as a result, feelings are difficult to put down into words. A messy combination of emotions fills the heart, surfacing in strange ways. Confident high school seniors go right back to the bottom of the chain when entering college as freshmen. These students start all over, just like entering grade school or high school for the first time. The move up from high school to college signals the switch from dependence to self-sufficiency. From a personal point of view, going through the experience of graduating high school and transferring to a residential college campus at STLCOP, made me realize I was no longer a kid and capable of making my own decisions.

The author was inspired to write this essay because he experienced college the same way all freshmen will experience college. He went through the same exact struggles that they are bound to go through at some point in it, so he was motivated to help them survive school and stick with it no matter how tough it gets. He consistently emphasizes how magnificent the rewards are if one finishes all of college.

Adam Gorlick in “ Got an hour? Boost your grades. Stanford psychologists design 60-minute exercise that raises GPAs of minority student” talks about the transition from high school to college and the difficulties many students face. In his article Adam Gorlick brings up various questions many freshman ask for example, will they fit in but also brings up the issue of being a minority in a new college campus. He later goes on to talk about how these situations during the transition to college are situations that everyone goes through.

Specifics regarding the topic: In my high school today myself along with other high school students overcome obstacles we could have never thought of our freshman year. At the beginning of our college prep four class, students learn that “college should be an adventure” as dr. rouch states in his article to incoming freshman.

Barbara Millis of the United States Air Force Academy reviewed Richard Light’s Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds. She explained that in recent years, many copies of “Harvard Assessment Seminars I and II” had been issued to professors to develop college student’s education further. As well as these books, Light’s book had also been used to broaden the system. Millis further stated that Light’s book involved lengthy interviews that apprehended student’s college lifestyles. The evidence among the interviews were used to collect various data.

Transitioning into higher education presents challenges for all students, whether it’s their age or previous educational history. Numerous individuals are extremely nervous as they are entering into an advanced environment such as higher education. This because college is a new learning environment at a completely different level. However, freshmen find college to be difficult at first because it’s harder for them to adjust. That’s why many universities should have student centers in place to help students. Student centers give students the pathway for flexible learning as it results in being successful in higher education (Baužienė & Vosyliūtė 2015).

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one student to dissolve the bonds which have held him to his high school life, he can get fairly intimidated. Making the transition from high school to college can be a tough one. I remember my experience in such a transition vividly, as it was only a short time ago.