Are you curious?

A new semester has started. Are you looking forward to learning new things?  If not, you may lack what we professors call "intellectual curiousity."  A good student is curious about the world and how it functions. If you don't care what you learn or if you don't learn anything at all, I am sorry for you. It must be hard to go through college like that. I am pleased to see those students who get excited about learning new things. They enjoy college more, and are going to be better prepared for a professional career. Yhey put some fun into my job, too.

It's August. Dig into your courses before they start!

Like a runner springing from the starting blocks, you stand a better chance of getting good grades in your courses if you get off to a good start. Don't wait until the first day of class to find out what it's all about. If you wander the corridors the first day trying to find your classroom and having no idea who the instructor is, that's a clue you're not likely to win the race.

One thing to do is go to the bookstore and take a look at the texts for your courses. You may not want to buy them there---there are other ways to obtain your texts---but spending 15 minutes in the bookstore leafing through the texts to get an idea what they are about is a good idea. Another thing you can do is talk to students in the dorms who have taken the courses: what do they recommend to get a good grade? Also, your course may make use of a  course management system like Blackboard. See if you can access it now. If you can, you may be able to download the syllabi for your courses and perhaps other documents. Read them before the course starts. If they raise questions in your mind, ask those questions on the first day of classes.

Here's the best idea of all: a day or two before classes start, walk by the offices of your instructors. If you see any of them are there, stop in and introduce yourself. Say you're looking forward to taking the course and ask if there's anything you need to do or know. You'll really impress the instructor--hardly anyone does this--and impressing an instructor can pay off in your final course grade!  If the instructors aren't around, stop at the desk of the department secretary and find out when you might be able to see them. It doesn't hurt a bit to know the department secretaries.

Do you have any ideas to add?  If so, write a comment below. I'd like to hear them.

Share an interesting post with your friends

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Are you still a teenager? If so, read this. If not, read it anyway.

Here's an interesting article on how to learn more without studying more. It's about the teenage brain, but has some good ideas for anyone:  http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/on-parenting/2008/09/02/7-ways-to-learn-more-without-more-study.html

Advice on setting up your own internship

Can't find an internship? Make one for yourself. This article on the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation's blog tells you how:  http://blog.directworks.org/?p=71   Some of my students have done this in the past. Doing it requires a little initiative, but hey, if you don't have initiative you might want to re-evaluate your career choice!

Saving Money on Textbooks

There's a rebellion against expensive textbooks going on in universities around the country. $200 plus for a book you'll use one semester is a crime, I agree. So here are some ideas to save money.

First, every college student knows the obvious ways of saving money on textbooks, such as buying used books from other students rather than the bookstore, and buying them from the Internet. If you want a new book, you can try finding international editions on the Web, which are often identical or nearly so to the U. S. edition and less costly.

But more innovative ways are also possible, if you can talk to the professor a few months before the course starts. You might ask the instructor if the class could write and illustrate its own textbook as a semester project using a wiki. Sounds like a lot of work? Not when the entire class is collaboratively writing it. I think you'll learn a lot more this way, and save that $200.

Another possibility arises when you know that the instructor only covers a few chapters from the textbook. Why buy 21 chapters when you're only going to talk about 8 of them! Ask the instructor if he or she can order a "custom textbook" from the publisher that only includes those 8 chapters. Why would a publisher be willing to sell only 8 chapters? I don't really know, but one obvious reason is that selling 8 must be better than selling none. Another reason may be that a used custom book may not have much value and so won't compete with the publisher's own books, later. In fact, you may not be able to sell it to anyone, afterwards, but buying a custom book for $50 or $60 may look better to you than shelling out $200 and getting $100 later for it.

I'd love to hear from you if you can add ideas to the above list.

What's on your mind?

Got a question? Want some advice? Confused? Ask me anything about college, by simply replying to this post. I'll respond. Careful, though, your posts are readable by anyone, so don't ask me how many days you can wear the same pair of undershorts!

Do you party too much sometimes?

Parties where alcohol flows freely can be a lot of fun when you're in college. I know, I was there, once. Maybe this commercial will make you think twice about it, though. It's in French, but you don't have to know a word of French to understand every bit of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfMKktpowx0

Tiger Woods is back, commercially speaking. In case you haven't seen it, here's a link to his new TV commercial. http://www.adgabber.com/video/that-cheating-golfer-1 Like it? I don't. The sponsors could have saved a lot of money by using any other pro golfer just as effectively. What do you think?

Bill Gates has some advice for you

It's a bit dated (he mentions car phones) but the advice is as good as ever. Listen to what a college dropout who made good has to tell you, at this link.

Sure, you want to know your grade, but ...

As the semester draws to a close, students start bugging professors about their grades: "I gotta get a B," "are you sure you received my term paper?" "Is my grade ready yet?" and so on.
Give your profs a break! They know what they're doing (well, most of us do anyway) and they'll post your course grade when they're ready to. Don't be in a rush to get your grade. You had all semester to work on it, and you can wait a week longer.
But you know what I think? A lot of this wasted energy (and that's what it is,wasted) is just an irrational fear of the inevitable. You know you're not going to pass the course, but you hope that somehow the grade will be a D and you're anxious to see if that miracle can happen. Miracles rarely happen, though: that's why they're called miracles.
A few students seem to think that by putting pressure on their instructors, they can intimidate them into recording higher grades than the students earned. Take my word for it: that doesn't work. Antagonizing people to get what you want is not a good strategy in school or elsewhere in life.
The time to worry about your course grade is the first day of class, and every day thereafter. You've heard that before, I'll bet. Why not try it, next semester.

How to keep your blog fresh

I'm as bad as most bloggers: I don't post updates as often as I should. So I figured out one way to be more prolific: post a blog the first day of the month, plus other times during the month. That "first day of the month" is the important part. Try it yourself. So that's my blog entry for this, the first day of May.
Oh, yes, you do have a blog, don't you?!

Polish your manners!

Do you have good manners, or are you occasionally rude, vulgar, and obnoxious? Most of my students are quite well-mannered, but there are a few who occasionally exhibit bad manners. Now's the time to polish your manners, while you are in school, so you don't hurt yourself later on, in your career. Manners are especially important when talking to those who are senior to you in some way, e.g., your family, your professors, your employers, and so on. If you act badly with them, they will lower their opinion of you, and you may not even be aware of the bad impression you made. How do you know if your manners need improving? Your friends and family will occasionally give you hints. Be alert for them. If someone tells you, "you really shouldn't say that," or "you were rude to her," take it to heart and promise yourself you'll try not to act that way again.

I'm not the "sage on the stage" anymore

Like many professors, I've adopted the modern approach to education, which is to set up learning situations so you can teach yourself, rather than spending all class lecturing to you. These situations include simulations, projects, group assignments, etc.
The old paradigm was "the sage on the stage," while students took notes. The new paradigm is "the guide on the side," ready to help you when you need it, but letting you educate yourself. The new way is a lot more fun, and you learn more. But it requires you to make an effort, not just lean back and say "teach me, prof." So go ahead and take charge of your own education!
Of course, the new way isn't perfect. If you have any complaints about it, I'd love to hear them. Just leave a comment.

Should you work your way through college

Which would you prefer: a), you work while in college, perhaps at two jobs or maybe one full-time job, to get the money to pay for it, or b) mom or dad,or some other person, pays all your college costs so you don't have to work at all?

I think I know what your answer is. But a lot of parents, including those who can easily afford to send you to college, don't want to pay. They think it's better for you to learn firsthand about the world of work while in college. They also think you'll appreciate your education a lot more if it isn't handed to you on a platter.

Your argument, and it has merit, is that you can't participate in all the extra curricula activities your school has to offer, if you work. You won't be able to join that club, play that sport, go to that performance, if you are at work all the time you aren't in class. You'll miss out on a lot of fun, fail to make some good friends, and later in life look back on your college experience with some sadness over the campus life you missed.

I worked my way through college and I benefitted in more ways than financially from the effort, such as learning the discipline of getting up early every morning and showing up for work on time. So I lean towards recommending the work route. But if I could do it over again, and could have someone pay for my tuition, books, room & board, etc., I'd do it that way. I'd enjoy the "campus experience." But would I be as ready for the "real world" when I graduated? I don't think so.

I hate "kids."

I hate the word "kids" when its used to mean college students. Some professors will call their students kids when talking to other profs. College students aren't kids anymore. Some are married, some with real kids. Most work. Some are nontraditional students coming back after a few years in the "real world." Some are coming back from military service. They aren't kids.

Worse than when profs use "kids" is when students call each other kids. I hear it often. A student will tell me something like "some kids are just lazy" or "he's a nice kid." Calling each other kids is like saying you're still in high school. At least that's the way I see it. So what should you call yourselves? How about "students," or "the men and women in the class?"

Is this your next job?

I can't resist a funny video. Here's one about a recent college graduate and her new job that I think you'll appreciate. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo97KRbLlAk&NR=1

Keep your passwords handy

Yesterday was the first day of classes. In the two that I held, a total of maybe a dozen students had to run down to the computing center to find out what their system passwords are, so they could do the in-class activities. How do you keep track of all your different passwords? I have a dozen or more, and of course they change from time to time. It isn't easy. The people who run our computer center will tell you not to write them down. But I do, though I'm not as bad as the guy in the cartoon who has post-it notes all over his desktop showing his secret passwords. Do you have a better way of keeping track of them?

Do your instructors treat you with respect?

Some people say that respect is not automatic, that you have to earn it. My approach is that you deserve being treated respectfully until you do something to lose that respect. That's pretty hard to do, since most of the actions that would cause you to lose my respect I'll chalk up to momentary immaturity or loss of cool. There's really only one way you can be sure to lose my respect: when you don't treat me with respect!