Why Parents Don’t Expect Added Debt
The Reasons
- Consider these high school grades
• Nearly 55% of high school students graduate with an A+ to A- grade point averages.
• 39% Graduate with Bs1Scott Jaschik, High School Grades: Higher and Higher, July 17, 2017 from Inside Higher Education, July 17, 2017. See also Toppo, Greg, “A’s are on the rise in report cards, but SAT scores struggle.” USA Today.
• That accounts for 90%+2Scott Jaschik, High School Grades: Higher and Higher, July 17, 2017 from Inside Higher Education, July 17, 2017. See also Toppo, Greg, “A’s are on the rise in report cards, but SAT scores struggle.” USA Today of graduates. - Yet research shows that high schoolers spend less than an hour a day on study. (Teachers say they are assigning 3.5 hrs a week in each course.)3Brookings Chronicle of Higher Education research agrees on study time, See also The Almanac of the Chronicle of Higher Education 2017-18.
- Students think college is going to be like high school. It’s not. College needs about 30 hours of study a week. College requires more responsibility. Courses are more difficult, and they move at a faster pace.
- Students have more independence. They choose how to use their time. Too much time hanging out with friends? Online? Gaming?
- In High school: There are lots of opportunities for grades — tests, quizzes, papers, extra credit. A few low grades? There are many more opportunities to “pull them up.”
- In college? Only a few grades. Each is significant. Suddenly students are not earning. the “usual” grades they earned in high school. They’re shocked. They don’t know what’s wrong. They’re doing the same thing they did in high school and got good grades. College is different. Students don’t get this. Here are just a few causes:
• Short-changing study time
• Immature study tactics
• Distracting study places
• Lots of digital interruptions
• Procrastinating
It all backfires. - Even if students are willing to change. They don’t know what to do. They don’t know an alternate study approach.
Year after year… Only a little more than one-third of college students will graduate in 4 years.4Tamar Most College Students Don’t Earn a Degree in 4 Years, Study Finds, Tamar Lewin, The New York Times.
Major reporting agencies now keep statistics for graduating in 6 years because that has become the norm.
Parents are stunned. They didn’t save enough to pay for extra years.
College is different: more free time but also more responsibility. Students need a skilled approach… and that’s what the College Smart® book is all about.
College Smart® Students are armed with the strategies, skills, and the awareness to succeed
Specifically…
- They know how to keep up with the much-faster pace of college. Why? They know how to study efficiently and use mature study tactics.
- They recognize how much needs to be learned and why cramming won’t work.
- They “get” that learning processes must mature each year as courses become more complex. They know that learning is like practicing a sport. Practice improves skills and wins The Big Games.
- They realize that tests and papers take higher levels of thinking, analysis, and insight. Simple multiple-choice, true-false, or matching tests are the things of the past. Students must express themselves in far more complex ways.
- They understand why procrastination and disorganization are deadly. They use their College Smart® Strategies to keep up and still have fun. (see #1)
- They “get” how skills they use in college will transfer as important assets in a career. Their skills should mature year after year.
Consider the alternative.
1 out of 3 college freshmen frequently report feeling “overwhelmed by all I had to do.”5Tamar Most College Students Don’t Earn a Degree in 4 Years, Study Finds, Tamar Lewin, The New York Times.
College is NOT 13th grade. College is very different.
College Smart® students will graduate on time AND save parents piles of money.
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