For the past 30+ years, I’ve helped students prepare for college. We spend hours getting ready for the ACTs and SATs. We discuss which colleges to visit and which colleges to apply to. We write essays and applications. When the acceptances come in, we sort through them and choose the one best suited for that particular student. Then she’s off, a college freshman at last.
Yet four years later, surprisingly few of those bright-eyed, fresh-faced students are parading in front of that school’s president, diploma in hand.
Although their friends all seem to be having a blast — just look at those party pictures on Instagram and Facebook! — they are unhappy. Their roommate is annoying or drunk or worse, their professors don’t have time for them and give boring lectures in large, impersonal halls, the food is boring and fattening, they miss their friends and family, the major they selected turns out to be too hard or just not that interesting and doesn’t seem like it will ever lead to a job, anyway. Now what? Quit? Transfer? Stick it out?
Shockingly, only a little more than half of students who start college ever finish. Many students are doomed to fail from the start: they were just not prepared for the rigor of college-level work. Every year, I get a panicked email from a previous SAT student asking me to help them through freshman writing (which is fairly easy to do online). I’m never surprised. When I see the level of writing on SAT/ACT essays, I know that student will have a tough time in college, no matter what the major is. No matter how strict your AP Literature teacher is, AP isn’t college. No matter how well you did on your AP Economics test, it’s not the same as a first-year economics class in any reasonably selective university.
What can you do to help make sure you can handle college-level work? First of all, take high school work seriously. If you don’t get it now in math, it’s not going to get easier later. Get a tutor, stay after school for extra help, go on Khan Academy online for free review. Don’t just blow it off or blame the teacher. When you get to college, the professor won’t give you a decent grade once you’ve explained that your 11th grade teacher was terrible. Who cares? Take responsibility for your own work now. If you keep getting papers and Social Studies DBQ essays back saying, “Needs more detail,” or “Not organized,” ask to see a paper that got an A for comparison. Find a writing tutor. Ask to write the paper again for a better grade. But it’s not really about the grade — it’s about making sure you know how to write a proper sentence and a well-planned paragraph before you ever sit down in a college class. I love working with 9th and 10th graders whose parents can already see that their student’s writing isn’t adequate. THOSE kids have a good chance of having an easier time in college.
Reading more helps. (You knew I’d say that!) The more you read, the better your writing. It’s that simple.
Another suggestion (and I hope this is not too late) is that freshmen should take the easiest classes they can find. Now is not the time to dive in. Everything about being away at school is disorienting. Your friends and family aren’t there. You look in the mini-fridge and don’t find any food. You open your drawers and don’t find clean clothes. You have no idea what will make your professors happy. No matter how far you go or what you major in, college is not like high school. Don’t add very challenging courses on top of that. Give yourself time to get acclimated to the entire college experience before you tackle those very hard classes. Even an “easy” class will be so different from an easy class in high school that you should give yourself a break. Starting college off with terrible grades won’t make you feel good about the whole experience — and if you decide to transfer, poor grades will hamper your ability to change schools.
So if you find yourself getting poor grades despite turning in your assignments on time, if you’ve tried your best and you still aren’t getting the grades you expect, should you quit, transfer, or stick it out?
I think quitting should be your last option if the problem is academic. If you were smart enough to get in, you’re smart enough to manage this. Try to stick it out. First, you’ll need determination. You may have to party less, you may need to go to the library more. You may need to swallow your pride and go to study groups or the writing center at your school. You may even need to hire a tutor (perhaps a student who took that class successfully the year before or a graduate student).
Staying in the school you’re in will probably allow you to graduate sooner than if you transfer, so it will save your parents (and you, if you’ve taken out loans) quite a bit of money if you can manage to stay where you are. When you transfer, you’ll likely have to retake a class or two, especially if you got poor grades. Some classes you’ve taken in your original school might not have equivalents in your new school. The new school will likely have different requirements for your majors.
If you really find that the teaching assistants aren’t available or aren’t helpful, if you’ve used the writing center to no avail, if you can’t find a tutor, AND if the problem is more pervasive than just one class, you may want to think about transferring to a school with more support. That’s not giving in, that’s being sensible.
Don’t transfer because you don’t like your roommate, your dorm, or your cafeteria. There’s no guarantee any of these will be better in your new school. Don’t transfer because you miss your family. You’ll miss them in your new school, too. But if you can’t manage the work, you might be in the wrong place. Make a plan, and transfer. More than a third of students transfer at least once in their college careers. Choosing a college isn’t an irrevocable decision. Stick it out if you can; transfer if you can’t.
And let me know if I can help.
Wendy Segal
http://www.wendysegaltutoring.com
High School 2 College 
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