Tips from collegiate Cards

Alyssa Clark

SHS graduate Tial Par works on an assignment this past Monday at Butler University. Par expected college to be easier because it somewhat reflected her high school education.

Senior year is when the future starts to become a reality. Many seniors must make the journey from high school to college, which can be really stressful. Luckily, there are people who have survived and can tell how they did so.

SHS alumni share their experiences and advice about school as they are currently making their way through college.

ISU freshman Elijah Housley is currently majoring in philosophy and political science. Next semester, he plans on transferring to IU with the hopes of being in a better environment.

IU sophomore Jensen Smith, class of 2015 valedictorian, attends the Kelley School of Business at IU. He is majoring in marketing and international business, while minoring in Spanish, Portuguese and mathematics.

Butler University freshman Tial Par travelled from Burma when she was nine years old and is currently majoring in Pre-pharmacy.

Brad Davis attended IUPUI but chose to drop out his freshman year in 2015, due to financial reasoning. He plans on going back soon, but he must first take Ivy Tech classes to help improve his grades.

Manage time

According to Smith, the biggest difference between high school and college is that time is up to the students. They are able to choose whether they want to stay on campus and study for finals or start their weekend early.

“You have to have self discipline and time management,” Smith said.

Last semester, Smith says he struggled with this. He stayed up too late and overslept through his 7 a.m. class.

“It made the class a lot harder than it should have been,” Smith said.

Housley agrees with Smith, even though he says he never had a problem with it.

“I wish time management was taught more (in high school)” Housley said. “That is a huge part of survival in college.”

Housley says that setting reminders on his phone really helped him. He also made sure to strictly follow them and not to procrastinate his work.

Balance social and academic life

To most students, college is a perfect opportunity to meet new people and to have a little fun. While it is a time for many students to get out of their comfort zone, Housley warns that it is easy to get caught up in the social aspect and to forget about school work.

“Don’t get too lost in the fun because this is how you fall behind,” Housley said.

Davis agrees with Housley that there is a delicate balance between academics and outside life. However, during Davis’s second year in college, he fell behind because he was too worried about work and his financial situation.

“I didn’t make college a priority, and I didn’t really do anything to try to fix it until it was too late,” Davis said.

Smith says that it’s important to be approachable in college and to make connections, just put school work first.

“Talk to strangers, have fun with it but also know your priorities,” Smith said.

Pay attention in high school

According to all four sources, in order to succeed in college, students should not slack off in high school. Housley says that the AP classes somewhat mimicked college courses, except college courses are a little bit more fast paced. For Housley, AP Literature was the class that most resembled the college curriculum.

Smith says that the teachers at SHS do a fantastic job at teaching college style, which is a lecture and then an open-minded discussion. O’Connor’s Spanish class was the class that prepared him most for college.

“She was a tough teacher, but it was a reflection of some of the toughest stuff in college,” Smith said.

Par says that she found college to be easier than she expected because it closely resembled her high school education.

“It wasn’t hard because I was used to it,” Par said.

Stay organized

According to Par, organization has always been easy for her. She follows her teacher’s syllabus closely and aims to do her school work on time. However, her freshman year in college, she procrastinated a research paper and did not receive the grade she wanted.

After this experience, she learned to not procrastinate when it comes to future homework assignments. Davis says he had trouble staying organized. He had a seven-page paper was due the day before spring break. However, he was not aware of the test that same day. So when he decided to start his spring break early, he got a zero on the test. That was all because he forgot about it.

“It really kicked me into gear,” Davis said.

Since then, he has improved on his organization skills. He says that the syllabus is an important resource and puts it in his phone to keep track of his school work.

“If you don’t live by (the syllabus), then you’re going to be screwed,” Davis said.