Learn strategies to transition from high school to college and position yourself for college success

A student wearing jeans and reading a book while sitting on steps — LEARNING HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN COLLEGE CAN BE A CHALLENGE WHEN STUDENTS INITIALLY TRANSITION FROM HIGH SCHOOL

Introduction

No matter how many AP/IB classes you took or how many pre-college programs you attended, college is going to be different than anything you’ve experienced.

And since you put in all the effort to get into a great college, you naturally want to make sure that your college experience is just as successful. But what steps can you take to succeed in college?

In this guide, we’ll take a look at ten techniques you can use to ensure you do well in college while also preparing yourself for either a career or further education.

Strategies to successfully transition from high school to college

1. Have a Schedule (and Stick to It)

In high school, your schedule is more or less determined for you. You spend your days going from class to class, while your afternoons are spent on extracurricular activities. And if you’re absent from class without a good reason, the result will likely be disciplinary action.

College is different. While you’ll still have a class schedule, you’ll have much more control over your time overall. This newfound freedom is exciting, but it can also be overwhelming. If you’re not careful, you could miss class and fall behind on your coursework.

To prevent this from happening, you need to make a schedule. You can use your class schedule as a starting point, but you should also fill in the gaps. To start, plan when you’ll get up each day (and be consistent with that time). Next, plan when you’ll do your homework. From there, you can add in extracurricular activities as you have time.

There’s no “perfect” schedule; what matters is having some kind of schedule and sticking to it. This is one of the keys to staying organized in college.

2. Visit the Career Planning Center Early

Your college has dozens of resources available to you at no extra cost, so it’s in your best interest to take advantage of them. One of the most valuable (and most overlooked) resources is the career planning center.

You might think that you don’t need to visit career planning until you’re about to graduate. However, this is much too late.

While the office of career planning can help you when you’re about to graduate, they’re much more useful to you when you still have a few semesters left.

Not only can they help you figure out what career might be right for you, but they can also connect you with opportunities to explore careers. This includes internships as well as meetings with professionals in fields that interest you.

And, of course, the office of career planning can help you polish up your resume and write the cover letters you need to get jobs and internships.

3. Find an Internship

If you graduate college without any work experience, you’re going to have trouble getting a job. While your coursework isn’t meaningless to employers (far from it), real-world experience can make the difference between a company hiring you and someone else.

The best way to gain experience is to find an internship. Internships can take many forms, from spending a summer working full-time at a firm to working as a research assistant for a few hours a week. What all internships have in common, however, is that they teach you things you can’t learn in the classroom, including important soft skills like communication and adaptability.

As mentioned in the previous section, your college’s career planning office is the best place to start when finding an internship. Not only can they show you how to find internships that would be a good fit, but they can also help you with any internship application materials.

Note: Even if you plan to attend graduate school, medical school, or law school after you graduate, you should still do an internship. The right internships can strengthen your application and help you decide if these fields are right for you.

4. Plan Your Coursework

Having a schedule for each semester will help you stay organized on a day-to-day level, but you should also have a larger plan to make sure you’re on track to graduate. This means working with your advisor to figure out which courses you need to take (and when).

This is especially important if you’re in a major with a strict curriculum and specific progression. STEM majors, in particular, should be aware of the various prerequisite courses they need before they can take more advanced classes in their majors. When you combine this with the fact that many advanced STEM courses aren’t offered each semester, proper planning is essential.

In a similar vein, pre-med students should be sure that they’re taking all the classes they need to get into medical school. You don’t want to get to your senior year of college only to realize you need to take classes that won’t fit in your schedule.

5. Study Efficiently

The popular image of studying in college is one of guzzling caffeine, staying up all night to finish assignments, and spending hours studying each day. While you may find yourself doing one (or all) of these things during college, this shouldn’t be your default.

With proper planning and the right study techniques, you can finish all of your work each day while still having time for other activities (including a healthy amount of sleep).

The main reason that people resort to desperate study techniques is procrastination. If you complete every assignment at the last possible minute, then you’re going to be constantly stressed and sleep-deprived.

If, on the other hand, you learn how to read your textbooks efficiently, start writing papers a week in advance, and schedule a time to study each day, you’ll find yourself calm and composed even as your peers are frantic and stressed.

6. Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Help

College can be an overwhelming experience, especially when you’re starting out. If you’re used to achieving at a high level, then you might not be used to asking for help. You might have gotten through all of high school on your work ethic and intelligence alone.

In college, however, you’re bound to run into coursework that’s more challenging than anything you’ve done before. When this happens, don’t be afraid to ask for help. You have many resources available to you, ranging from your professors to your college’s tutoring center.

And this advice applies to situations outside of the classroom, too. From the student health center to career planning, your college has structures in place to help you in all areas of life. Use these resources when you need them, and remember that asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness.

Sometimes, a college just isn’t a good fit no matter what you do. In this case, you may want to look at transferring to a different institution. Here’s how to transfer colleges successfully.

7. Get Involved Outside the Classroom

First and foremost, college is a place to learn and study. It’s an opportunity to go deep on the areas that interest you while also exploring subjects you didn’t have access to in high school. So you’ll be spending plenty of your time studying and attending class.

But don’t let the academic aspect of college be the only thing you do. To get the most out of college, be sure to get involved in activities outside of the classroom.

There are dozens (if not hundreds) of organizations to join and interests to explore. Whether it’s playing an intramural sport, stargazing with the astronomy club, or joining the campus marching band, extracurricular activities present an opportunity to broaden your horizons while making new friends.

Just be sure not to overcommit yourself. You don’t want to be involved in so many activities that you lack the time to take care of yourself (and your studies). If you find yourself doing more things than you can handle, it’s okay to scale back (particularly as you discover what truly interests you).

8. Go to Office Hours

In my experience, office hours are one of the most underused resources available to college students. Your professor (or TA) has taken time out of their schedule to offer you dedicated help, so it’s in your best interest to take advantage of it.

To start, office hours have the obvious benefit of helping you understand material you’re struggling with. You can get more personalized help than would be available in class, taking the time to focus on specific concepts.

Beyond the academic benefits, however, office hours also give you a chance to get to know your professors. Forming these relationships (especially early on) will make it much easier to get quality letters of recommendation and references when you need them.

Plus, getting to know your professors can lead to other opportunities such as research assistantships or selective study abroad programs.

9. Study Abroad (If Possible)

Speaking of studying abroad, I strongly recommend you do so while in college. There are too many benefits to name, ranging from a broadened perspective on the world to the chance to study a language at a deeper level. Not to mention, having a study abroad experience on your resume makes a great point of conversation during a job or professional school interview.

In order to study abroad at all, you’ll need to plan carefully. I recommend talking to your campus’s study abroad office during your freshman year. Even if you don’t plan to study abroad until your junior year, getting in touch with the office of study abroad early will help you plan how you’ll fit a semester (or even a few weeks) abroad into your overall coursework.

Finally, don’t assume you can’t study abroad because you’re a STEM major. While the strict curricula of these majors can make it more difficult to study abroad, it is possible with the right planning. Even if you can’t do an entire semester abroad, you could still fit in a few weeks during summer or winter break.

10. Don’t Neglect Your Health

It’s easy to get so caught up in the excitement and activity of college that you forget to take care of yourself. You can fall into a cycle of all-nighters and constant work more easily than you might think (especially as the semester progresses).

To truly perform at your best, however, you need to be healthy. This means eating exercising regularly, eating a balanced diet, and getting enough sleep.

Let’s start with exercise. If you like to work out in a gym, by all means, do that. But remember there are plenty of other options, including exercise classes and intramural sports. The key is to do something that gets you moving and raises your heart rate.

As for eating healthy, it doesn’t have to be as extreme as you think. You don’t have to give up pizza, but remember that the cafeteria also has a salad bar. And while a couple of cups of coffee a day won’t hurt you, stay away from sugary energy drinks.

Finally, there’s the matter of sleep. I struggled with this a lot in college, mainly because there were so many exciting things going on seemingly at every hour of the day. While there’s nothing wrong with staying up late once in a while, try to find a sleep schedule that gives you at least seven hours of sleep a night (ideally more). You’ll feel much better (and be a more effective student).

Being Successful in College Is Up to You

I hope the advice in this article has been helpful, but I want to remind you of one final thing: college is a learning experience. There’s plenty you can do to prepare (reading articles like this is a great place to start), but there’s also a lot to learn on your own.

You’ve gotten into a great college, so you’re more than capable of being successful at it. Take it seriously, but don’t forget to have fun as well.

About Our Guest Contributor

Ransom Patterson is the editor-in-chief at College Info Geek, a site that helps students study more effectively, become more productive, and get great jobs after graduation. You can learn more about how College Info Geek helps students here.

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