They teach you math and grammar, but teachers don’t always teach you all the skills that every student needs to succeed in college. Here are some of the ones you may have missed during high school.
Before starting this article, I would like to start with some information about myself. College was not kind to me. In fact, I would honestly say that I wasn’t ready for it. For those who know me, this can be amazing. I was doing a college driving course before I got old.
The fact is that our school system does little to prepare us for adolescence. Sure, we can learn English, math, science and history, but that’s not enough – and heck, a lot of us haven’t learned it since high school. Dropout rates are high, and for those who are not graduates, this can mean a lot of debt and a lot of embarrassment. In some cases, college may burn you before you work.
People don’t really think about the soft skills you need to succeed on your own, and it’s a bad thing that college students basically expect to be a full-fledged adult when enrolling. A few months ago, everyone treated them like children, and that’s a cultural shock. Before embarking on your first university course, you need to consider the other non-academic skills that every student needs to succeed in college.
Accepting Failure
It is a really toxic mentality that many parents and schools put pressure on their children to tell them that failure is not an option. This sounds encouraging until you realize that it will put a lot of unnecessary pressure on most people not to fail at any cost. The point is, failure is a part of life, and so is rejection. If you can’t accept failure or when someone criticizes you, you lack the basic skills that every student needs to succeed in college.
College is a time of mistakes. College can be emotionally draining if you don’t make mistakes and learn to lift yourself up. You will panic, you will panic, and in many cases, you can leave when you really don’t want to. Many people in college get angry, angry, or even hate because they were not allowed to learn how to deal with failure or difficulties. Don’t be one of them.
Being Assertive
As bad as hearing is for some people, high school doesn’t always end in college. There will be bullies, and you will find yourself “alone” in college. It happened to me. I was not steadfast at that time. Absolutely. I hang out with people who call me “slut”, talk about me behind my back, and humiliate me regularly because it was either lonely or alone.
To make matters worse, a lot of people were pressuring me for a career I didn’t want. And, wanting to please people who should have been happy because I was happy with my work, I went with it. Towards the end of my college days, I hated the subjects I studied and still have a mental barrier against it. I also had to do many years of spiritual research to find out if I had to fight against all the bullies I had ever met – and that I might have to go to another university where I wanted to be free.
Looking back, I realized that I could have had a much easier time if I had been more attuned to people. Sadly, this is a skill that every student needs to succeed in college.
Communication Skills
Social skills are skills that every student needs to succeed in college or life. One reason for this is that people who were popular in high school live better lives than those who were bullies. They soon learned social skills, and were the first to build a network. If you don’t know how to talk to people, you will have a bad time in college and an even worse time in manpower. You just have to be more discriminating with the help you render toward other people.
If you have low self-esteem or anxiety, reading communication can be as helpful as treatment. However, the best thing you can do is get out there and talk to as many people as possible.
Freedom
One of the most insane trends that professors have noticed is how many college students no longer know how to work without their parents. These kids don’t know how to get a job, pack their lunch, wash their own clothes, or even talk to professors without the help of their parent. I firmly believe that learning to minimize work without parental support is an important skill that every student needs to succeed in college.
Staying connected to your parents will deprive you of the ability to know about yourself, the world around you, and what you want in life. Plus, getting along with your parents will make it really hard for you to work after you graduate – or ever, really.
You can’t let mom and dad control every part of your life in college. This is a place of pain where you may need to agree with your parents, or start an escape plan.
Networking
In the “real world”, it’s not often what you know, but who you know. College is an important networking ground, so it makes sense for you to work with others.
If you learn to network professionally and socially, you can make some important connections in your life. The reason the Greek system is so popular in colleges is that it is a legitimate networking tool for many people. Obviously, part of networking is to learn how to make a good impression, be sociable and behave appropriately. If you are not sure if you have mastered it, you may have to wait before going to college. There is nothing wrong with taking a year off to sort things out. Part of Learning Skills Every student needs to succeed in college when you are actually ready to go.
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