Project 2: Story

The day you’ve been waiting for is finally here. You pull up outside of the three-story, classic brick building that will be your home for the next nine months. A slow, excited smile spreads across your face. You have arrived at college! The freedom you have been waiting for your whole life is just around the corner, once your family finishes helping you move in.

As you take each trip up the stairs, loaded with everything you think you’ll need (and naturally, some things you won’t) for the next few months, scenes from movies like “Animal House” and “Van Wilder” pass through your head and with each one, your excitement doubles until you can barely contain yourself. You’re exhausted from moving in, but at the same time, feeling as though you could explode at any moment from all the energy coursing through your veins. It’s perfectly normal to feel ecstatic, excited, and really nervous about being on your own, with no one telling you what time to come home or what you can and can’t do. However, you have to be careful.

“Life on campus has many distractions that can keep students from managing their time and keeping up with their studies,” (Prentice Hall Student Success Supersite). All students must find the balance between studying and extracurricular activities. Unfortunately, some learn this lesson too late. Erin Barraco, an administrative assistant, realized too late in her college career that good use of her time would have made all the difference in her success.

“I knew that I was in college to get an education and my degree, but I also knew that college was supposed to be fun. I thought an education in some particular life lessons was also attached to the college experience. It just seemed like I couldn’t balance the two ‘educations’ I was to receive from my time at college.”

“Actually going out was usually reserved for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, but the rest of the week, we spent most of our time in someone else’s dorm room. While others may be doing work, or even at class, I’d be playing a video game or even taking a nap. Instead of going back to my room and getting my books, I would find something else to do, and usually that something else was more tempting than getting my work done,” Barraco said. "Thankfully, I did manage to graduate from Fairleigh Dickinson University in 2005, but only because I put my school work and studying before everything else."

Incoming freshmen are expected to learn, or even already know, how to apply the correct time management skills to succeed in college. Some students were never forced to try to make time for their responsibilities when they were in high school, either because they had less demands on their time or because their parents made sure they obeyed a set schedule. When those students go to college, they have to quickly learn ways to make sure they devote enough time to school work in order to succeed. Some have a hard time trying to achieve the correct balance between work and play.

Jaime Cannici, a 2004 graduate of Monmouth University, learned that without an effective time management plan, she couldn’t succeed at college.

“As soon as I got my first batch of midterm grades, I realized I was doing something wrong. I had never done that badly before, so I had to figure out what it was that I was spending too much time on and then start using some of that time for my school work. It may have taken me a little while, but I finally found the correct balance, and was able to have fun while I was at school, but also do well in all of my classes.”

Students who are concerned about their ability to effectively manage their time can find a great deal of good information on the Internet. One site, prepared by the University of Northern Iowa, gives a student a long list of ideas for ways they could become more successful: “Sites to Promote Academic Success” Also, the publisher of many educational and school books, Prentice Hall, has a site, “Prentice Hall’s Student Success Supersite,” that lists more tips for a student to succeed in college.

University of Connecticut professor David B. Miller tells his students something that other incoming freshman could benefit from: “you’re going to have to attend classes religiously, and learn time management skills, study skills, social skills and note-taking skills, and it’s all going to fall on your shoulders” (“Orientation emphasizes study as key to smooth transition to college”).