Several states offer free tuition programs for students to attend state colleges and universities. The programs require various qualifiers including but not limited to state residency, maximum income cutoff, community service or attendance requirements and/or a minimum 2.5 grade point average in high school. All programs also require parents and students to fill out the FAFSA form to assess financial need. All the Places in the U.S. Where You Can Go to College for Free by Kaitlin Mulhere outlines 37 programs in 19 states. One of these could reduce your cost of a college education by thousands of dollars.
A recent article by Seth Gershenson and Thomas S. Dee was about the impact of unconscious racial and gender bias in K-12 classrooms. The article cites research that clearly shows how this bias hurts minority and female students and, that it is very difficult to effectively counter this bias. To reduce this insidious threat, parents of school-age children must be involved with the schools and specifically their children’s classroom environments. This is even more important today as public schools become more segregated.
I started as a freshman at the University of Tennessee in 1967, not that long after The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination in public places based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. In my entering freshman class of 5,000, I was one of only 67 blacks. We often had to deal with racial insensitivity and, sometimes, outright racial hostility from whites and black students. White students didn’t believe we were smart enough to be there and some black students thought that if you performed well that meant you were “trying to be white”.
In “Black Like Me Meant White Like Them”, Boluwaji Ohumymi writes about his experience several decades after mine. His situation was similar to mine, a minority student in a majority educational setting. Sadly, from my time to his, some things just hadn’t changed enough. He writes about his challenges dealing with black and white students in high school, college, and medical school. He emphasized the importance of mentors to help with being successful in environments that are still like my yesterdays because the absence of this critical assistance could mean academically talented students of color may not be successful in college and beyond.
As you start to make decisions about where you will continue your education after high school, it is important that you consider the support available to you because the isolation of academic achievement is part of college life today and will continue to be into the foreseeable future. With proper planning and outreach, however, these issues can be dealt with successfully just as they were in 1967 when I went college and as they are today, when to some, ‘Black Like Me means White Like Them.’
I recently read an article in The New York Times by Jefferey J. Selingo entitled, “Wanted: Factory Workers, Degree Required” that speaks to the new reality of joining the workforce after high school graduation. Selingo states that the high school diploma is not enough to fill jobs that once sustained the working class. He doesn’t say that everyone must get a four-year college degree however if you don’t, more training will be necessary to compete for increasingly technical factory jobs traditionally defined as “blue collar”. The idea of graduating from high school and getting a “good factory job” and keeping that job until retirement is now completely obsolete. Today’s future factory workers need more training now and more training in the future as manufacturing technologies continually change.
The good news is that employers are working with community colleges to meet this challenge and for students willing to keep learning after high school the additional time spent gaining valuable skills is well worth it. Selingo states that over 40% of middle-skill jobs, jobs that require a high school degree and more specific training after graduation, pay $55,000 a year and, 14% of the jobs pay over $80,000 per year. Additionally, firms are struggling to fill these positions and good job opportunities are out there for those with technical training—no matter what color collar they wear.
On Saturday, January 28, I was honored to be the keynote speaker for the “Get Schooled: How to Get in School and Stay in School” program and panel for parents, students and the community by the Temple of Praise in the District of Columbia. The 15,000 member congregation, dates to 1916 and is committed to the spiritual and social success of the community with education at its core.
When an engaged community like this comes together to exchange ideas and information about Responsibility, Expectations, Attainment and Choice, they empower everyone to REACHfor Success!
In my post, So, How Did You Do Last Semester, I talked about making a plan to better your performance this semester. Here are five steps that will improve your performance in any course in any semester.
Go see your instructors from last semester. Make sure your instructor knows you aren’t there to argue for a better grade. You’re there to find out what grades they have for you on all assignments and tests and how your final average and grade were calculated. You want to find out how you did and how you can do better in the future. In other words, you are there for information and advice. If you actually do deserve a better grade, that will come out in your discussions.
Take this information and your syllabus for that class and match the grades you received with the corresponding assignments. Are there certain assignments you did well? Some not so well? What are they and why did you perform the way you did. Do the same analysis with each test you took? Take the graded test home and figure out why you did problems wrong. By doing this you’ll find out where your test preparation was successful and where it failed you. I’ve found that a student’s poor performance most often comes from poor preparation—not from lack of understanding.
Assess your own commitment in each class during the last semester. Were you in class every day? Did you read the assignment? Were you prepared for class? Did you pay attention, ask questions about what you didn’t understand and take good class notes that you could use later? Did you see your teacher at least once last semester to make sure he/she knew you? This can make the crucial difference if you are close to a better grade.
Based on what you learned, make your “New Semester Resolutions.” Write down at least five things you are going to do next semester to improve your grades. Don’t just say them—write them down and read them every day. Share them with your professors this semester so they know how serious you are about doing well in their classes. This is how you generate and sustain commitment to doing better.
Use your performance in classes to check on how well you are at keeping your New Semester Resolutions. Also, check in with your teachers—they’re there to let you know how you’re doing. Stay on track this way every week of the semester.
These five things are not hard to do—but they do require courage and commitment. Facing a poor or failing grade from last semester takes courage; resolving to do better takes commitment. The biggest challenge is doing this consistently; use what you learn to do even better. This is the secret to college success. Don’t use that standard cop-out that the other students are “smarter than me.” They aren’t. They’re just doing the things I have shared with you in the last two posts. Now that you know better, you can do better.
The holiday break between semesters is over. Everyone – you, your parents, your school—know your grades from fall semester. How’d you do? I hope that you did wonderfully—nothing gives me more pleasure than giving a great grade to a student who has earned it. However, I know that all the grades I gave out last semester weren’t great. I also know that great grades or not, now is the time to figure out what happened last semester.
If you did well, congratulations! Big pat on the back—you deserve it, but don’t stop there. Why did I do well? Don’t take the, “If it’s not broken don’t try to fix it” approach to your achievements. You need to know how to repeat the performance during the spring semester and, if something goes wrong, you need to know how to fix it. Figure out what made the difference and work to repeat those things every semester.
If you didn’t do as well as you wanted last semester—the questions are similar: Why didn’t I? What did I do, or not do. say or not say, that hurt my academic performance. Be painfully honest because if you don’t, you’ll probably make the same mistakes next semester. Don’t promise to work harder but end up doing the same things and expecting different results. Working harder isn’t enough. People work hard and fail every day. You have to learn how to work smarter and harder. What held you back last semester? Who can help you understand your challenges better and help you surmount them? What should your plan be to do better? How will you know day-by-day that you’re working your plan? Only by answering questions like these can you know better and do better in the spring semester and beyond.
Next week, I’ll share proven steps to better grades. Use the sign-up form for my blog on the right, and I’ll let you know when I share more of the unique tools and information I developed to help you get through college successfully.
A recent article in the New York Times is a must read for every parent preparing to send a child to college or, has a child in college now. Titled Text Your Way to College, the author, David L. Kirp, a professor at the University of California, Berkley and a senior fellow at the Learning Policy Institute, presents compelling evidence that shows how important information about college is to students preparing to go there – especially students who are the first in their family to attend college.
Dr. Kirp discusses how students getting more and better information about college before applying has a dramatic impact on the colleges they were accepted to. The students who got this information were “78 percent more likely to be accepted by a top-ranked university …” The effect was even greater when a waiver of application fees was included. Kirp’s research clearly shows how important it is that all students get the information they need before college to make the best decisions – especially first in family college students. More research confirmed the value of texting with students after they begin college as a way of staying in contact with them and continuing the flow of information.
Parents, look for programs like these in your child’s high school. If the programs are not there, work with the schools to start them. If the programs are in place, support them in whatever ways you can to ensure that they continue to serve as many students a possible. If they are in jeopardy, fight for them. They are critically important to college success.
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:
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.
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.
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.
Several states offer free tuition programs for students to attend state colleges and universities. The programs require various qualifiers including but not limited to state residency, maximum income cutoff, community service or attendance requirements and/or a minimum 2.5 grade point average in high school. All programs also require parents and students to fill out the FAFSA form to assess financial need. All the Places in the U.S. Where You Can Go to College for Free by Kaitlin Mulhere outlines 37 programs in 19 states. One of these could reduce your cost of a college education by thousands of dollars.
I recently read an article in The New York Times by Jefferey J. Selingo entitled, “Wanted: Factory Workers, Degree Required” that speaks to the new reality of joining the workforce after high school graduation. Selingo states that the high school diploma is not enough to fill jobs that once sustained the working class. He doesn’t say that everyone must get a four-year college degree however if you don’t, more training will be necessary to compete for increasingly technical factory jobs traditionally defined as “blue collar”. The idea of graduating from high school and getting a “good factory job” and keeping that job until retirement is now completely obsolete. Today’s future factory workers need more training now and more training in the future as manufacturing technologies continually change.
On Saturday, January 28, I was honored to be the keynote speaker for the “Get Schooled: How to Get in School and Stay in School” program and panel for parents, students and the community by the Temple of Praise in the District of Columbia. The 15,000 member congregation, dates to 1916 and is committed to the spiritual and social success of the community with education at its core.
