1.2 Adjustments for College Success

Adjustments to College Are Inevitable

College not only will expand your mind, but it may also make you a little uncomfortable, challenge your identity, and at times, make you doubt your abilities. It is hard to truly learn anything without getting messy. This is what education does: it transforms us. For that to happen, however, means that we will need to be open to the transformation and allow the changes to occur. Flexibility, transition, and change are all words that describe what you will experience. Laurie Hazard and Stephanie Carter (2018) believe there are six adjustment areas that first-year college students experience: academic, cultural, emotional, financial, intellectual, and social. Of course, you won’t go through these adjustments all at once or even in just the first year. Some will take time, while others may not even feel like much of a transition. Let’s look at them in brief as a way of preparing for the road ahead:

Academic adjustment. No surprises here. You will most likely—depending on your own academic background—be faced with the increased demands of learning in college. This could mean that you need to spend more time learning to learn and using those strategies to master the material.

Cultural adjustment. You also will most likely experience a cultural adjustment just by being in college because most campuses have their own language (syllabus, registrar, and office hours, for example) and customs. You may also experience a cultural adjustment because of the diversity that you will encounter. Most likely, the people on your college campus will be different than the people at your high school—or at your workplace.

International students face unique challenges as they arrive to Canada. Explore the following website for tips, resources and strategies on how to adjust in your college.

Studying in Canada

Emotional adjustment. Remember that you will experience a wide range of emotions as you enter your college journey. As you step on to the campus for the first time you will feel nervous, excited and anxious all at the same time! As you make friends and get familiar you will feel relaxed, and as assignments and tests come up, you will feel stressed, overwhelmed or eager. You may feel very happy and satisfied upon receiving the grades you expected, or upset for a low grade. These will likely be present in some form throughout your first weeks in college and at stressful times during the semester. Knowing that you may have good days and bad—and that you can bounce back from the more stressful days—will help you find healthy ways of adjusting emotionally.

Financial adjustment. Most students understand the investment they are making in their future by going to college. Even if you have all your expenses covered, there is still an adjustment to a new way of thinking about what college costs and how to pay for it. You may find that you think twice about spending money on entertainment or that you have improved your skills in finding discounted textbooks.

Check out the Financial Aid available at Centennial College

Intellectual adjustment. Experiencing an intellectual “a-ha!” moment is one of the most rewarding parts of college, right up there with moving across the graduation stage with a degree in hand. Prepare to be surprised when you stumble across a fascinating subject or find that a class discussion changes your life. At the very least, through your academic work, you will learn to think differently about the world around you and your place in it.

Social adjustment. A new place often equals new people. But in college, those new relationships can have even more meaning. Getting to know professors not only can help you learn more in your classes, but it can also help you figure out what career pathway you want to take and how to get desired internships and jobs. Learning to reduce conflicts during group work or when living with others helps build essential workplace and life skills.

Adapting to the cultural differences of Canada is important for international students. Explore the website for resources.

Adapting to cultural differences in Canada as an international student

Centennial College – A place for all students

All colleges have services that are accessible to all students. Check out the student services available at Centennial College

Centennial College Student Services for Indigenous Students

Centennial College Black Student Collective

The table Six Areas of Adjustment for First-Year College Students provides a succinct definition for each of the areas as well as examples of how you can demonstrate that you have adjusted. Think about what you have done so far to navigate these transitions in addition to other things you can do to make your college experience a successful one.

Figure 1.2 Six Areas of Adjustment for First-Year College Students Based on work by Laurie Hazard, Ed.D., and Stephanie Carter, M.A.

Now that you are aware of the adjustments that you will require to make in college, let us look into the term College Success.

Defining Success in College

How do you define college success? The definition really depends on you. You might be thinking of measures of college success with grades. For instance, you might be unhappy with anything less than an A in a course or just happy to receive a C grade!  You may link success to your grades and if you fail a course, you may think that college is not for you! Considerable research into college success reveals that having difficulty in or failing in college courses usually has nothing to do with intellect. More often success depends on how fully a student embraces and masters the following skills:

1. Learn how to listen actively in class and take effective notes.
2. Review the text and your reading notes prior to class.
3. Participate in class discussion and maybe even join a study group.
4. Go to office hours and ask your instructor questions.
5. Give yourself enough time to research, write, and edit your assignments in manageable stages.
6. Take advantage of online or on-campus academic support resources.
7. Spend sufficient time studying.

So if you feel you are not smart enough for college, ask yourself if you can implement some of these skills. Overall, students struggle in college, not because of natural intellect or smarts, but because of time management, organization, and lack of quality study time. The good news is that there are ways to combat this, and this course and textbook will help you do just that.

Now it is time to create your personal definition of Success using the reflection questions provided in the activity below.