First-Year Motivation and Commitment

What attitudes and behaviors will help you achieve your goals and be successful in college? If you are fresh out of high school, it will be important for you to learn to deal with newfound freedom. Your college professors are not going to tell you what, how, or when to study. If you live on campus, your parents won’t be able to wake you in the morning, see that you eat properly and get enough sleep, monitor whether or how well you do your homework, or remind you to allow enough time to get to class. In almost every aspect of your life you will have to assume primary responsibility for your own attitudes and behaviors.

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If you are an adult student, you might find yourself with less freedom than you had before. You might have a difficult daily commute and have to arrange and pay for child care. You might have to juggle work and school responsibilities and still find time for family and other duties. As you walk around campus, you might feel uncertain about your ability to keep up with academic work. You also might find it difficult to relate to younger students who sometimes don’t seem to take academic work seriously.

YOUR TURN

Write and Reflect

Write some synonyms for the word motivation. Do these words describe the way you feel about college in general? Do they describe the way you feel about all your classes? List the components of college life that motivate you the most or the least.

Whatever challenges you are facing, what will motivate you to be successful? Read the Outcomes of the College Experience box which describes how getting your degree will make a positive difference in your life. What about the enormous investment of time and money that getting a college degree requires? Are you convinced the investment will pay off? Have you selected a major, or is that on your list of things to do after you arrive? Do you know where to go when you need help with a personal or financial problem? If you are a minority student on your campus, are you concerned about how you will be treated?

Such thoughts are very common. Although your classmates might not say it out loud, many of them share your concerns, doubts, and fears. This course will be a safe place for you to talk about all these issues with people who care about you and your success in college.