You are going to need help to complete this semester and every semester thereafter if you want to complete college—as in graduate—successfully. Everyone does. The only way  to do well every semester, earn a degree and graduate with great job prospects, is to seek and accept  some help along the way. Be it academic, career planning, social or emotional issues – stuff comes up during the semester. That’s the bad news. The good news is that no matter what school you attend, there are resources available to get you the help you need. To access the right advice at the right time the following rules always apply:

1. Never hesitate to ask for assistance. If you think you need help, ask. If you think you’ve got this, ask anyway. In college you are surrounded by a wealth of information; access as much of it as you can, whenever you can. At no other time in life will you be in a place where the primary goal and objective of everyone there is to help you succeed. Rather than take full advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity, students do not ask for help because they don’t want to appear academically weak to their instructors. This can be a fatal mistake. The longer you wait to get help, the further behind you get. Then, the  temptation is to just give up. Don’t do it!  If you ask you’ll get the help you need when you need it and you’ll be on your way to success.
2. Go to the source. When you need information that’s important to your success, always go to the source of that information. And, when you can, go to more than one source to verify what you’ve been told. Don’t go the source that is convenient or that will give you the information you want to hear – like your roommate, Facebook, the Internet or people who can only tell you what they’ve “heard.” Remember, an opinion spoken and repeated twice becomes fact. The first time it’s “I think” the second time it’s “I heard” and the third time it’s a fact! Don’t be misled this way. Go to the person who is responsible for creating and disseminating the information you need. This is even more important at the end of the semester.  You don’t have time to be misled.  You should have already been to see your advisor and talked to your professors. Now, visit the registrar to confirm you’re on track to graduate on time based on the plan you worked out with your advisor. Register with the career services office to get information on the job market. If you don’t get the information you seek directly from the source – it’s all just hearsay.
3. Go to the decision maker. Make sure you are always dealing with the decision maker and that they are empowered with the authority to make a decision and stand by it. No one else can give you the definitive answers you need. Others can tell you about decisions that have been made in the past or what they think about the decision; but if they are not the decision maker, they can’t ensure your outcome. Remember, the only one with something at risk is you. This means going to your advisor for decisions about what courses to take,  when to take them, to get information about any course substitutions you want to make and, to learn about anything on your academic records that you don’t understand.  It means going to your instructor to determine what is needed to complete each of your courses this semester.  Don’t take chances with your success this semester or any other by assuming what you don’t understand is just a “glitch in the system.” That glitch may cost you more time and tuition and it could prevent you from graduating. Always go to the person with  the information you need and  the authority to make a decision you can count on – preferably in writing.

Knowing when, where and who to ask for advice – the 3 keys to success in college and in life.