Emotional Intelligence and College Success

• Emotionally intelligent students get higher grades. Researchers looked at students’ grade point averages at the end of the first year of college. Students who had tested high for intrapersonal skills, stress tolerance, and adaptability when they entered in the fall did better academically than those who had lower overall EI test scores.
• Students who can’t manage their emotions struggle academically. Some students have experienced full-blown panic attacks before tests, others who are depressed can’t concentrate on coursework, and far too many turn to risky behaviors (drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders, and worse) in an effort to cope. Dr. Richard Kadison, chief of Mental Health Services at Harvard University, notes that “the emotional well-being of students goes hand-in-hand with their academic development. If they’re not doing well emotionally, they are not going to reach their academic potential.”³ Even students who manage to succeed academically despite emotional difficulties can be at risk if unhealthy behavior patterns follow them after college.
• Students who can delay gratification tend to do better overall. Impulse control leads to achievement. In the famous marshmallow study performed at Stanford University, researchers examined the long-term behaviors of individuals who, as four-year-olds, did or did not practice delayed gratification. The children were given one marshmallow and told that if they didn’t eat it right away, they could have another. Fourteen years later, the children who ate their marshmallow immediately were more likely to experience significant stress, irritability, and inability to focus on goals than the children who waited. Those children scored an average of 210 points higher on the SAT; had better confidence, concentration, and reliability; held better-paying jobs; and reported being more satisfied with life than those who did not wait. The chart above details the differences between the two groups of students after fourteen years.
• EI skills can be enhanced in a first-year seminar. In two separate studies, one conducted in Australia and another conducted in the United States, researchers found that college students enrolled in a first-year seminar who demonstrated good EI skills were more likely to do better in college than students who did not exhibit those behaviors. A follow-up study indicated that the students who had good EI skills also raised their scores on a measure of EI.