I’d like to offer the perspective of someone who taught in college across disciplines everywhere from community colleges to Ivy League schools. I started paying attention to the dynamics of how students did based on perceptible abilities and personalities when I first met students in class.
There are a range of factors that determine student success in college. Some are innate. Some reflect the student’s experience in high school. Social class, family system, and general interest are visible in the “typical” student who came into my classroom.
What is interesting is that a lot of these factors had little to do with either a) how the student did in my class and b) how well the student did over the course of her/his degree. I saw valedictorians struggle to get through introductory courses. I saw kids who did a lot of drugs in high school excel.
Over time, I came to see two common denominators to success. The first is a willingness to learn. Regardless of how capable a student is coming in, any student who wants to put the work in can improve. One of my best students ever started off writing F papers. She was writing high A papers by the end of class and she went on to graduate with honors. She put the time in.
The second skill is good writing. Someone who can communicate clearly based on logical, organized thinking is going to do well. This is the only skill in college that cuts across all disciplines and career paths. If you can write well, you can succeed.
The challenge for a lot of students is that writing well takes a lot of time (this point very much is an extension of the first point; a student has to be willing to work at it). The good news is that anyone can get there. We’ve got a range of articles here on CC to provide guidance on the lessons I learned teaching students how to write and you can head over to ecree.com to see how we’re encouraging students to build this skill.