Let me answer a few questions from your off-to-college son or daughter: How many high school grads go to college? About half. How many of those will make it to a college degree? About half. How many will flunk out? About 10 percent, the left-over 40 percent will drop out for their own reasons. How many will change their major? About 90 percent, half will change more than once. How many will have an alcohol problem? About 31 percent, according to a Rutgers study in the Journal of Studies of Alcohol and Drugs.
How many girls will leave because of pregnancy? About five percent, and 15 percent of both sexes will contract a sexually transmitted disease. Almost all will blame alcohol for the unsafe behavior.
The risk of alcohol-related deaths of college students increased six percent from1998 to 2000, reports the American Review of Public Health. College students who reported driving under the influence went from 26 to 31 percent, and 500,000 were unintentionally injured while under the influence. Another 600,000 were hit or assaulted, or sexually assaulted, by another drinking student.
For why the 40 percent who have acceptable grades left for their own reasons, the most useful question to ask is, “How far do you live from campus?” If you live far away, you probably work far away. Traffic and parking become a big part of life, and you might be tempted to avoid extra trips to campus for clubs, sports, study sessions or just hanging out. If work and driving “home” take up 30 hours a week, there’s not much college left to quit. Live as close to campus as possible.
Driving is a big part of life, and it is the biggest killer of college students until they are in their thirties. Of course their alcohol habit plays a large role in driving accidents as it does in the career wreckers of pregnancy, health problems, and money and time mismanagement
What can a college student do to keep up course grades? A good way to remember the good habits is with the letters in SNAP. The “S” in SNAP stands for Show Up. The best predictor of low grades is the number of classes missed. Almost all students who drop out start by missing classes for work or sleep. Woody Allen once said, “Eighty percent of life is just showing up,” and he’s right.
The “N” in SNAP stands for Notes. I never had a student flunk who could show me reading notes. All great women and men take notes on their work. A good rule is, “Never turn a page without writing something.” Copy and clean up lecture notes on the same day you take them.
The “A” in SNAP stands for Active Studying. Tests ask you to do something and learning is in the doing. A yellow highlighter cannot write the answers. Get busy. Use a lot of paper.
The “P” in SNAP stands for Planning. It’s easy to squander your time on entertainment, partying and computer games. Select and reserve your time for studying, mark your calendar and stick to it.
In the few days of August that are left before school, review the health issue. If your college-bound takes regular medication has he arranged for refills at college? Does he or she know who to call locally if medical help is needed?
If your son or daughter is cooking for himself, perhaps an additional lesson at the food store about buying healthy food is in order.
Caution your student to avoid all credit card offers (his mailbox will be full of them in the first few weeks). That’s only one suggestion about the money and time management issues that could come up at a family sendoff college shower, an evening when everyone could offer their advice.
