<p>My son was accepted to Penn State and is starting in the LEAP program this summer. Honestly he didn’t do well in high school in terms of his GPA but had a pretty good ACT score, he was involved several time-consuming groups and pushed himself with several AP classes. Overall he is a good (and smart) kid, but often puts off studying and has trouble with some retention. </p>
<p>I’ve heard only great things about Penn State and especially the LEAP program. I’m looking for current or former Penn State students who may have been similar to my son where they can advise me on any suggestions for my son to stay ahead academically. He is currently undecided in selecting a major. I’m looking for any advice I can pass on to him which has helped others (i.e., help from professors, help from other students, setting up study time, study notes from classs?, etc).</p>
<p>This worked well for my daughter. 1. go to class. 2. Start the homework the same day you get the assignment, homework always takes longer than you think. The extra time to mull over the assignment is very important to the learning process. 3. If there are still areas of the assignment you don’t understand you’ll have intelligent questions to take into office hours.</p>
<p>Not a PSU student, but on top of the above suggestions I would recommend finding tutors for any class he suspects will be at all difficult. Having a regularly scheduled tutoring session will give him someone else to be accountable to. That way, if he procrastinates what he’s promised the tutor, he might still be able to get the work done in time for class. Plus tutors are a great way to get another, one on one look at the material.</p>
<ol>
<li>Find The Undergraduate Writing Center and make an appointment for working on his first paper. It is an excellent and underused resource</li>
<li>Find the tutoring groups (free) at Boucke and sign up for whatever is appropriate/offered for his classes. By the time a student decides they need tutoring, it is usually too late.</li>
<li>Never, ever, miss class. </li>
<li>See #3</li>
<li>See #3</li>
<li>Go to the Involvement Fair and pick 2 or 3 groups. Go to the first meetings, and see which 2 he likes best, and join them. Having something else to do is a great way to stay active and connected and productive.</li>
<li>Or sign up for classes at one of the gyms. Or join an intramural team. </li>
<li>Have your student go on eLion and give permission for you to see his grades and bursar’s account. </li>
</ol>
<p>PSU has a rep as a party school, and many freshmen equate that with easy. Penn State is not easy. Classes are very demanding and professors are not babysitters; those students you hear about doing awesome things are highly motivated, driven, and exceptionally competitive people sitting next to yours in class. Advising is “optional” which is to say, there is no one to tell a student they are headed for disaster so they need to be proactive and productive. It is a very good school full of great opportunities – but students have to be grownup enough to take advantage. Those that have come “for the freshman experience” will have that – an experience as a freshman, and then they’ll go home. As the parent, accept that almost all of this advice will be completely ignored and he will sink or swim in his own way. </p>
<p>I’ll add/expand upon a few things written above
As one who instructs and advises students and have observed both success and not so successful stories the number one thing is be prepared for class each day. To do so consider these points.
Read the assignment/text/notes before class. This will introduce you to terms and phrases so that when you sit in class you understand. Also, just in case a professor gets ahead of him/herself (even the great ones do), reading ahead helps you follow
Sit in front and avoid all distractions. Avoid sitting next to friends. Leave the cell phone in your bag. Disable wireless to your computer before you sit down.
Get an appropriate amount of rest. This can’t be stressed enough.</p>
<p>Another important piece of advice is identify a group of SERIOUS students that you can study/work on problems together. However, this should never be your only study time. These group events are not 100% dedicated to study (we all know that). Come to these sessions prepared. Otherwise if you are among those who are not, you will be lost. </p>
<p>I’d like to reinforce what was written above:
…“you’ll have intelligent questions to take into office hours”.
Students who use office hours as a time to gather information cold (without prior attempts to understand) are are not using them properly. Likewise, if you don’t understand something fundamental, going to office hours the last session before exams is unproductive. Professors can have 3-10 students in the office at one time. This is not productive because professors try to help as many as possible, and may not have the time to go into things on a detailed level (PS- the major reason we get comments in SRTEs “i went to office hrs but he/she wasn’t helpful or interested in me…” :)) . In addition, the confused student may feel inhibited among in the presence of his/her peers. Help us, help you.</p>