Defy the “culture of cool”
If you think sitting in the back of the class, not participating in discussions, and turning in mediocre work is the way to avoid being labeled a nerd or some other derogatory name for someone who is smart and productive, congratulations! You are not original. You are following in a long tradition of losers. You are definitively uncool.
Today’s culture of cool is one in which passivity is preferred. We let televisions talk to us. We let calls and texts come to us. We let Google bring us any piece of information we could possibly want. Being laid back is cool. We’ll wait. Being eager is not cool. It shows desperation, it looks like sucking up, and it’s just too much...work. If it’s important, we’ll get to it eventually.
This attitude will undoubtedly put you on a sure path to doom in college. Because college is about a new-found sense of independence, your level of initiative will be a crucial indicator of how successful you will be. Being interested in a variety of ideas is cool. Asking good, thoughtful questions is cool. Doing a little bit of extra work is very cool. The culture of cool tells you that the minimum is good enough. Go above and beyond what is asked of you, and make a concerted effort to care. Trust me, that will be supercool. And if people make fun of you for trying to be too smart, just remind them that your future six-figure paycheck will be your cool card.
Take a strong position...
Many teachers will want you to demonstrate, either in papers or in speeches, that you have a voice and that you can defend a particular belief. Some students find this a bit scary. Rather, take this as a tremendous opportunity to show how much you have truly thought about your ideas and are willing to take on any disagreements.
Teachers don’t want everyone to have the same points of view. It’s boring. Think like an adult, do your background research or other forms of due diligence, and let ‘er rip. If you think parroting what a classmate has said or trying to predict what a teacher wants to hear is the ticket for an easy grade, you are probably very, very wrong. Be yourself, be original, and prove that you know what you’re talking about. It’s your job to make logical, interesting arguments. Relish those chances to participate in intelligent discourse.
...But be open to all sides
College will likely offer you opportunities to have lots of deep discussions and meet lots of different types of people. Many of them will have rabid disagreements with you and may hate everything you stand for. That’s a good thing! College is a place to truly consider ideas you may never have heard before. Maybe you have never thought about differing religious views. Maybe you have never considered a particular political position from an alternate point of view. Maybe your roommate will have new technique for making grilled cheese sandwiches that will rock your world. Who knows what kinds of things you’ll learn from other people?
This doesn’t mean you should abandon your personal beliefs or give up on things you’ve been raised on your whole life. Being open simply means allowing the possibility that just maybe there are other ways of doing things or other ideas are just as good as yours. And if those ways or ideas, after careful analysis and discussion, end up not being as good as yours, it’s a win-win. You’ve been polite in hearing out other opinions, and you get to maintain your beliefs. And that’s usually how smart people got that way.
Interact with texts
Think of reading as having a dialogue with another person. You should ask your book questions by writing in the margins. The text just might answer you later on. You should mark passages you think are interesting, just as you would nod your head in agreement if someone were speaking. You should make notes of disagreement, just as you might in a conversation. You should make references to other works, authors, or ideas, just as you would do when talking with a smart friend.
For too long, you have probably thought of books or other reading material as simply black words on a white page—distant, dry, and superficial. A good reader does not passively sit in front of a text and expect it to throw information in your face. You have to dig for it. You have to participate in the process of discovery, both of the text and of yourself. Books often provide a reflection of who you are as a person. Being friendly usually brings you more friends, right? Being smart and interesting usually lands you in smarter and more interesting company, right? If you are willing to talk to your books, you’ll be amazed at what they may tell you back.
Embrace criticism
This is probably the most difficult tip to accept. No one likes to be criticized. We all want to feel smart and capable. But that feeling needs to be resisted in college. To be successful in college (and in life), you should seek out people who will give you an honest, and sometimes brutal, assessment of your work. Find teachers that wield their red pens like swords, willing to slash through your work like Indiana Jones in the jungle. The tougher the better. Avoid any teacher who routinely writes “100%” or “Great job!” at the top of everyone’s papers. There is no perfect essay, and opportunities for improvement are everywhere. Trust me, you aren’t learning anything if a teacher doesn’t clearly tell you what could use additional revision in your work.
If you want to impress a teacher, as you’re handing in the first paper of the semester, look him/her right in the eye and say, “I want you to grade this as harshly as possible. Make it bleed. I’m here to get smarter, and I want to see all of my mistakes so I can work on fixing them.” Your teacher will love your initiative...as long as you follow through with your promise.
If you get a D on a paper, it’s not because your teacher dislikes you. It’s because your work is simply not good enough. That’s it. Don’t make excuses. Don’t try to fight it. Just take the teacher’s advice and do the job correctly the next time. And then do it better the time after that. And even better the time after that. Teachers want to see you constantly improving. If everything is perfect from the start, and you already know everything, why are you even in college?
Follow these five pieces of advice, and I assure you that college will be an enjoyable and rewarding experience. While high grades are nice, they are sometimes inaccurate symbols of performance. Instead, your primary goal should be to become as smart as possible. Grades will take care of themselves.
If you think sitting in the back of the class, not participating in discussions, and turning in mediocre work is the way to avoid being labeled a nerd or some other derogatory name for someone who is smart and productive, congratulations! You are not original. You are following in a long tradition of losers. You are definitively uncool.
Today’s culture of cool is one in which passivity is preferred. We let televisions talk to us. We let calls and texts come to us. We let Google bring us any piece of information we could possibly want. Being laid back is cool. We’ll wait. Being eager is not cool. It shows desperation, it looks like sucking up, and it’s just too much...work. If it’s important, we’ll get to it eventually.
This attitude will undoubtedly put you on a sure path to doom in college. Because college is about a new-found sense of independence, your level of initiative will be a crucial indicator of how successful you will be. Being interested in a variety of ideas is cool. Asking good, thoughtful questions is cool. Doing a little bit of extra work is very cool. The culture of cool tells you that the minimum is good enough. Go above and beyond what is asked of you, and make a concerted effort to care. Trust me, that will be supercool. And if people make fun of you for trying to be too smart, just remind them that your future six-figure paycheck will be your cool card.
Take a strong position...
Many teachers will want you to demonstrate, either in papers or in speeches, that you have a voice and that you can defend a particular belief. Some students find this a bit scary. Rather, take this as a tremendous opportunity to show how much you have truly thought about your ideas and are willing to take on any disagreements.
Teachers don’t want everyone to have the same points of view. It’s boring. Think like an adult, do your background research or other forms of due diligence, and let ‘er rip. If you think parroting what a classmate has said or trying to predict what a teacher wants to hear is the ticket for an easy grade, you are probably very, very wrong. Be yourself, be original, and prove that you know what you’re talking about. It’s your job to make logical, interesting arguments. Relish those chances to participate in intelligent discourse.
...But be open to all sides
College will likely offer you opportunities to have lots of deep discussions and meet lots of different types of people. Many of them will have rabid disagreements with you and may hate everything you stand for. That’s a good thing! College is a place to truly consider ideas you may never have heard before. Maybe you have never thought about differing religious views. Maybe you have never considered a particular political position from an alternate point of view. Maybe your roommate will have new technique for making grilled cheese sandwiches that will rock your world. Who knows what kinds of things you’ll learn from other people?
This doesn’t mean you should abandon your personal beliefs or give up on things you’ve been raised on your whole life. Being open simply means allowing the possibility that just maybe there are other ways of doing things or other ideas are just as good as yours. And if those ways or ideas, after careful analysis and discussion, end up not being as good as yours, it’s a win-win. You’ve been polite in hearing out other opinions, and you get to maintain your beliefs. And that’s usually how smart people got that way.
Interact with texts
Think of reading as having a dialogue with another person. You should ask your book questions by writing in the margins. The text just might answer you later on. You should mark passages you think are interesting, just as you would nod your head in agreement if someone were speaking. You should make notes of disagreement, just as you might in a conversation. You should make references to other works, authors, or ideas, just as you would do when talking with a smart friend.
For too long, you have probably thought of books or other reading material as simply black words on a white page—distant, dry, and superficial. A good reader does not passively sit in front of a text and expect it to throw information in your face. You have to dig for it. You have to participate in the process of discovery, both of the text and of yourself. Books often provide a reflection of who you are as a person. Being friendly usually brings you more friends, right? Being smart and interesting usually lands you in smarter and more interesting company, right? If you are willing to talk to your books, you’ll be amazed at what they may tell you back.
Embrace criticism
This is probably the most difficult tip to accept. No one likes to be criticized. We all want to feel smart and capable. But that feeling needs to be resisted in college. To be successful in college (and in life), you should seek out people who will give you an honest, and sometimes brutal, assessment of your work. Find teachers that wield their red pens like swords, willing to slash through your work like Indiana Jones in the jungle. The tougher the better. Avoid any teacher who routinely writes “100%” or “Great job!” at the top of everyone’s papers. There is no perfect essay, and opportunities for improvement are everywhere. Trust me, you aren’t learning anything if a teacher doesn’t clearly tell you what could use additional revision in your work.
If you want to impress a teacher, as you’re handing in the first paper of the semester, look him/her right in the eye and say, “I want you to grade this as harshly as possible. Make it bleed. I’m here to get smarter, and I want to see all of my mistakes so I can work on fixing them.” Your teacher will love your initiative...as long as you follow through with your promise.
If you get a D on a paper, it’s not because your teacher dislikes you. It’s because your work is simply not good enough. That’s it. Don’t make excuses. Don’t try to fight it. Just take the teacher’s advice and do the job correctly the next time. And then do it better the time after that. And even better the time after that. Teachers want to see you constantly improving. If everything is perfect from the start, and you already know everything, why are you even in college?
Follow these five pieces of advice, and I assure you that college will be an enjoyable and rewarding experience. While high grades are nice, they are sometimes inaccurate symbols of performance. Instead, your primary goal should be to become as smart as possible. Grades will take care of themselves.