Community College: Don’t be a Dropout

Don’t Be Another Community College Dropout!

Community college can be an effective and efficient alternative to a four-year university.  Community colleges offer programs that are shorter, more career-focused, and at a fraction of the cost.  Plus, they’re usually much closer to home for an easy commute.  Even students looking for a bachelor’s degree should consider a two-year school since many offer transfer programs after you’ve completed two years.  However, you have to be careful to avoid the bane of many community college students’ educational careers: failing or dropping out.

The National Student Clearing House reports that six years after enrolling, only 27% of students completed their two-year school program in the United States.  Probability-wise, a student attending a four-year public school is expected to be twice as likely to graduate when compared to a student at a two-year public school – our private San Diego college tutors are here to help.

There are many, many factors contributing to community college students dropping out or failing their programs.  Chief among these is the difficult learning curve associated with adjusting to a college program and workload and the convenience and seeming necessity of dropping out to work full-time.

If you are taking advantage of the benefits and low costs of community college, then you should be aware of the lower success rates so that you can actively fight to make sure that your college experience is a successful one.  Here is some advice to make your community college experience a successful one.

Give Yourself Outside Accountability

Arguably the hardest part of succeeding in college has to do it by yourself.  You are not required to go to class; you often don’t have parents that are making sure you get good grades and stay on track, and there are so many students that teachers and advisors often don’t have the time to follow up with you and keep you on track.  Essentially, you have to make yourself learn and do everything all on your own – a daunting and difficult task for anyone.

Here’s the secret: you don’t have to do it all on your own if you find others to help keep you on task and held accountably.  It is easy to skip class, shirk assignments, get poor grades, and ultimately give up if it’s only you who knows about it.  It’s easier to stay in bed if there’s no one to nag you to get up and go to class.  It’s easier to skip your homework after a long day of work if no one tells you that you shouldn’t.

You need to find others to hold you accountable during your moments of weakness and help keep you motivated to achieve your goal.  Here are some simple ways to do so:

+ Look to Friends or Family

Telling close friends or family members about your classes and program is often a simple and effective way of gaining outside accountability.  You don’t want to let down your family, do you?  Ideally, find someone who has been through the college process themselves and who is interested in helping you succeed.

A tip that I’ve found helpful is to give someone a copy of your syllabus or put your syllabi up on a wall or the fridge.  That way, someone else can check up to ask you about assignments or if you’re studying for an upcoming test.

+ Join a Study Group

Joining or making a study group with fellow class members is a great way to stay ahead of assignments and studying.  Sometimes there will even be TAs assigned to help students in a weekly designated study session for the class.

Take advantage of these opportunities, but also schedule yourself to go to all of them.  Find a friend and the class and tell them you’ll be going to every study session.  Or, you can host a study group yourself.  This way, people will be expecting you to attend, and you will feel accountable to do so.  Even if you don’t feel like you need the extra studying, go to the groups anyway.  Use it as a chance to get ahead and stay confident.

+ Go to Office Hours

This is advice that I give to all college students, and you can read more about it here.  If you go to all of your professor’s office hours to visit them and work on the class material, then they will begin to expect you and know you.  This can help hold you accountable because you won’t want to skip a class or do poorly and disappoint the professor.

+ Find a Private San Diego Tutor or Advisor

Often, school advisors are too busy to give you their full attention at a large community college.  However, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t still seek out their help and advice.  However, a fool-proof way to have someone keep you focused and accountable in school is to hire a private San Diego tutor.

An experienced tutor can do much more than help you study for an upcoming test in your math class.  An experienced tutor can look over your program requirements and guidelines, take a look at your syllabi and schedule, and help you plan for your success.  A tutor who you see weekly can help you plan, tell you what to do, and check-in to make sure you’re doing it.  They can help you study for classes, teach you lessons in subjects they are experts on, and make sure you aren’t steering off course.  Ask for an experienced tutor who can help you with college advising and scheduling.

Book you private San Diego college tutor today!

Michael C. is currently a private math, science, and standardized test tutor with TutorNerds in Irvine and Anaheim.