Graduating from colleges in four years with good grades and professional prospects is about more than academic excellence. College is where students start to learn how to balance freedom and responsibility for success. The two concepts are linked whether students know this or not. Each students earns the right or freedom to choose by making good choices and acting on them successfully. Each good choice earns more freedom to choose in the future. Every poor choice means less freedom to choose in the future. Here are five tips to help you make the decisions that earn you the freedom to be successful:

* Be honest with yourself.  Even if you can’t say it to anyone else, know the truth in your heart and act on it. Let your actions and good decisions tell other people all they need to know about you.

* You are responsible for you – not parents, relatives, advisors, professors, friends or anyone else because only your name will be on that diploma and the transcript that shows how well you did in college. Accept full responsibility for your decisions and actions. Never give someone else the authority to make decisions for you unless you are prepared to be responsible for the decisions they make.

* When you have acted responsibly expect or, if necessary, demand the freedoms that go with it. When you have acted irresponsibly accept and learn from the loss of freedoms that result.

* Treat other people the way you want to be treated. When they act responsibly with you, give them credit for that and tell them you appreciate it. When they act irresponsibility with you make sure they know that too and how you prefer to be treated.

* Managing freedom and responsibility well will have a positive impact on your attitude and actions. You will look for and expect the best of yourself and so will others. Those expectations  will make good decisions easier to make and follow through on.