Preplanning for College
SaveI have taught academic success strategies to many people over the years. There is no denying that college can be challenging. The better the college, often the more it costs and the more competitive it becomes. There are as many ways to achieve your college goals as colleges and resources available. Preplanning for college involves researching, creating a plan, and overcoming obstacles.
Tip One: Preplanning Your College Education
I have taught academic success strategies to many people over the years. There is no denying that college can be challenging. The better the college, often the more it costs and the more competitive it becomes. There are as many ways to achieve your college goals as colleges and resources available. Preplanning for college involves researching, creating a plan, and overcoming obstacles.
When I first attended community college as an older single working resumer student, I was mainly interested in staying busy and learning new things when I wasn't working. It turned out that working while attending college was a great marriage. It gave me just enough money to succeed in college while paying for almost everything else I needed myself. I started filing tuition fee waivers because I needed breathing room for my college and living expenses. I probably have the college world record in filing for tuition fee waivers. It is a wonder my community college is still standing because it certainly gave me every financial break I could find in terms of fee waivers for college classes.
I began researching opportunities in a class called College Success LERN 50. Many community colleges have just such an exploratory career class. There, I learned the power of testing, researching, and preplanning. My professor Dr. Sean Rowley tasked students with two simple but effective ideas:
- Be on time. If you were late to two classes, you would be dropped.
- Be responsible for planning your education.
Being on time sounds easy enough until the semester begins, and you are suddenly fighting to get to the furthest classroom from the parking lot on the campus with 80,000 other students. I looked for the classroom before class started and realized I would have to take the bus if I wanted to beat the sea of students to class.
While planning, I researched what industries I would best fit into via computer-based testing. My community college had a California Employment Development Department testing system that computed three jobs that would be ideal for me. Computer Engineer, Pastor, and Professor.
I had already been a Computer Engineer, and I didn't fancy myself a Pastor, but I did have an aptitude and a desire to become an English Professor. I began planning in earnest my college education to become an English Professor. Researching became invaluable as I learned how many English Teachers and Professors would be needed by the time I graduated.
Creating a Plan. Preplanning and researching skills that I learned in Sean's class were invaluable. What started as "just going to community college to learn something" morphed into becoming an English professor. Pre planning avoids the issue of being stuck in a sea of problems. Preplanning is gathering the information, outlining the roadblocks to success, and developing solutions that you can use when shaping your future. People just winging college without a plan seem to get lost when one hiccup arrives. My preplanning outlined some of the obstacles I needed to solve before they arrived. When unforeseen obstacles or hiccups did come, it was usually the only problem I had to solve.
I needed to start budgeting my money to achieve my dream. For example, I either had to find more money to afford all the books or spend more time doing my homework in the library. Since I already worked off and on campus, I opted for the library route. Some professors would put a copy of their books used in class in the library. Many of the books I needed were already there, and I quickly learned those books disappeared if I didn't plan and start studying before everyone else.
Preplanning before everyone else became a successful habit after a while. Each semester I would start the next semester's plan at the end of the previous semester. I would list the resources I needed. Bus pass: check; money for books: check. I started buying my needed items before leaving campus at the end of the semester. When people returned to campus to fight for books and supplies, I already had mine aside from the last semester. Preplanning saved my high-achieving goals many more times than I could count.
It turns out Work, Life, and Academic Success have something in common. They all generate obstacles that must be overcome. Overcoming obstacles can become fun if you start researching, preplanning, and finding creative solutions to your goals rather than being stuck in the obstacles themselves. Before you set out your career and life goals as vague as I first did, put some effort into finding your exact goals. Be as specific as you can be. Who do you want to become? What is your Dream Career? What skills do you have now? What skills do you need? Why are you selecting these goals? Where do you want to live? How will you pay for it? What will you do when hiccups and obstacles arrive? How will you get to class? How will you pay for books and supplies? What are your values? Where do you want to attend college? Why?
More questions will arise when you begin to answer these questions and create your goals. Let's say you want to drive a car to college. Where will you park it? How much will gas cost? Is it worth it? What kind of car do you want? Will you lease or buy?
Any goal that you have for college success will develop more goals. The more goals you list, the more answers you will generate in advance. The more solutions you can begin to apply to achieving your College Education. What tests do you need to take? What forms do you need? As you get better at researching your goals, your results in overcoming any obstacle will become more apparent as you get better at preplanning.
Don't be one of those students who is always caught in the last-minute trap. Do your due diligence. When your goals are important enough to achieve for yourself, you will begin to generate your answers, and they will be more forthcoming. It is proven that we succeed when we are invested in our success.
Honestly, I had no idea I would become the person I am today the first day I attended community college. I could not foresee or even imagine obtaining an advanced degree. The more effort I poured into my goals, work, fellow students, and my community, the more expectations those crafty professors started to have for me. And the more doors opened to my future. You have to take ownership of your personal, academic, and career goals and find the resources and breaks needed to get where you want to go. When you do this, every once in a while, life will surprise you with something positive that you didn't plan for.
Terrilynn Cantlon
Terrilynn Cantlon is a graduation speaker of a large public community college and a select women’s college high-achieving graduate, a poet, and presently writing “Paradise Found Book II: Escape from Eden.” Her many academic highlights are Teaching and Tutoring across the curriculum. Her passion is teaching English Literature and The Academic Essay, while empowering students to write their best work with a strong academic voice and a solid foundation in the Art of the Essay.Articles & Advice
Featured Articles from The SAGE Scholars Benefit
Networking With Professors As An Incoming Freshman
Effective Study Habits While in College
