Success in College Essay

In my current role as a nurse educator I feel the desire to pursue my dream of obtaining a master’s degree, specializing in nursing education. It has been 27 years since I have sat in the student chair in a classroom; therefore, I anticipate a number of challenges and barriers to overcome. In this paper I will present and describe three challenges that I expect to be faced with over the next two years. I will also discuss the strategies I plan to use to address these challenges.

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.

A Majority of the time I will only read what I have been assigned because reading will not be my preference of task simply because I will lose focus and wonder off into thinking about what my girlfriend might be doing. My useful method that I discovered about myself when reading alone so I can remain focused is looking up summaries of the book like spark notes, before I read so I can understand the text more clearly. It is probably the worst thing to do because it does ruin the suspense or purpose of reading the book anyways, but it helps with remaining concentrated. I feel that I am this way because I am really picky with what I like to read, which in my case may be informative magazines like Men’s health that can teach me something useful. I don 't have the best experiences with reading, possibly because teachers never showed us what

Self- Discipline and scheduling effectively are critical factors when it comes to successfully managing your time. Having self-discipline is a vital necessity, when you are preparing for college success. Deciding to study for an important exam, or hanging out with friends, will need to be carefully decided. If you chose the obvious, Studying, you'd eliminate unwanted stress like, cramming days before the exam. Being self-Disciplined means you have control over your behavior and you do not make decisions on impulse, instead you make your decisions logically. Accomplish everything you can complete today and do not put it off for tomorrow. Creating an effective schedule will be a helpful tool when it comes to your college success. In order to plan

While reading through books I sometimes find myself just saying the words in my head and they begin to have no meaning. By trying to create a picture in my head and linking together what I am reading to something that I heard in the past I find myself able to comprehend the passages in the book. I will then have an understanding of what is being said and will be able to recall what I read at a later time. Any time that I find this happening to me I will stop get up to take a break before I sit back down to read what I missed all over

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.

In my personality assessment I found that I over analyze things and I tend to over think and this is where I make the most mistakes because I do not always learn from my mistakes. I tend to do things over and over again not realizing I am doing it. I am also not very good at accepting change and I am working hard on this in my everyday life. When I get comfortable and someone takes me out of my warm and fuzzy place my mind is like scrambled eggs. What I do is sit think about the positive things that can happen and write it down to try to put myself at ease. My life factors I would have to say I have issues asking for help, I tend

I think the most important skill that a college level student needs is discipline. How many movies have we watched that have college students partying their college years away and then regretting it in the end. A disciplined person can make the most out of a college education. With the rising cost of a college education we need to make the most out of the time we have. The average cost in 2004-2005 of a four year private schools is $20,082 (up 6% from last year) and the average cost of a four year public school is $5,132 (up 10.5% from last year), (2004-2005 College Costs, http://www.collegeboard.com/article/0,3868,6-29-0-4494,00.html). With the rising costs of education a person needs to be disciplined to make the most out of it. All these skills, time management, critical thinking, and discipline are keys to success in college. I began my college education in 1991 and these skills are probably the three that I use the most. Time management is a skill that I have been trying to master since I began my college education. I not only need and utilize this skill for college but for my civilian job. I think being a college student has made me better at managing my time but I find I still struggle. Discipline plays a key role in time management, or at least for me it does. When I make daily lists of things to accomplish I lack the discipline to go back at the end of the day to check off things that I did accomplish.

Written communication is the design of clear concise writing, meaning the organization of the paper is structured in a clear incisive manner. Written communication helps to preserve our thoughts or feelings. We tend to use this form of writing to reminisce with others, whether it be a family member, loved one, or general audience. Being able to express those feelings through written communication allows for capturing the memory, and setting the mood of the message being conveyed.

The dictionary definition of success is “the accomplishment of an aim or purpose”, while this is true, I personally hold a definition of success to a higher standard. With failure being a crucial part of ultimately reaching success, the definition therefore is not simply accomplishing a goal, a task, or overcoming a challenge, rather it is working hard to achieve that goal to the best of one’s ability and learning valuable life or academic lessons along the way. To me it is the knowledge gained that can be applied to other aspects of one’s life that is of utmost importance when working towards a goal, regardless of the outcome.

In the textbook Your College Experience Strategies for Success it says "Students often have trouble concentrating or understanding the content when they read textbooks. This is normal, and many factors contribute to this problem: the time of day, your energy level, your interest in the material, and your study location." Some ways to help concentrate and

Preparing for academic success at the graduate level can be a daunting task. First, one must realize the reason they are in a graduate program to begin with. What goals do you hope to achieve in completing a graduate program? The reasons can be many such as better job opportunities, higher income, or perhaps just for the prestige of earning a graduate degree.

First things first, get a planner. Using a planner is crucial for staying organized. Everybody is different, so the agenda that works best for me may not be the one that works best for someone else. Pick one that works well for you. I begin to organize my planner before classes begin. I start to set up the monthly view in my planner by filling in important information. I pick a different color for each category. I begin with dates like birthdays and holidays. I then start adding important things from other areas in my life in another color, like faith obligations and school clubs. Next, I begin to add important due dates for school in a bright color, like pink. I don’t write down my classes or homework in the monthly view because it would get too chaotic. Instead, I save that for the weekly view. Now I have a month at a glance guide to my semester. I love this system because it is wonderful for figuring out how much time I have left to study before a big exam, or seeing if I have any important events coming up. This is perfect towards the end of the semester when things get more hectic. Next I set up my

All people can be good successful students, if they try hard and use self discipline to push them self harder. Being a successful student doesn't mean you are so smart you get to skip grades, it just means that you get good marks, work well with others, and don't get held back any grades. If you are a person who wants to keep your life on track, it takes hard work, determination, and patience.

I believe that my strategy of being in a quiet place with no distraction is working well. Also my strategy of connection the text with my real life and other classes. I may need to work on being able to stay focused in the book if I do have to get up and do something in the middle of my reading. I am aware of this problem though so I just give myself time to do the reading all in one sitting. I do need to work on annotating the text in a more meaningful way that I can understand if I come back to the article later. Right now I just highlight what stands out to me and write connections in the margins and when I come back to the readings later I don't know what is important and what is