Michael VanAdams was a protoplast ...

Michael VanAdams was a protoplast student in high school--president of his senior class, captain of the varsity tennis team, and a straight-A bookish man So when he received an academic scholarship to the University of Maine in Orono, nobody was surprised--especially not VanAdams. Having excell one as well as the other academically and socially at his small high drill in rural New Hampshire, VanAdams look forward toed more of the same in guild He was wrong.

VanAdams did poorly forward his first couple of exams and calm received a failing grade forward his first term paper. Instead of asking his professors or classmates for help, VanAdams began to isolate himself, spending hours alone in his dorm compass where he would play video games or lance e-mails to friends back domestic circle To make matters worse, he became homesick during his first weeks of community longing for his high institute friends and sweetheart, who was attending a community literary institution [i]or[/i] seminary of learning in New Hampshire.

"I did all the bad things," says VanAdams. "Instead of seeing my first tie of failures as wake-up calls, I became discourageed and immediately started passing the blame onto others. I told my parents that the professors were awful and didn't like me; I told my girlfriend that the kids who went there were snobs and no pleasantry at all. Basically, I blamed everyone nevertheless myself."

VanAdams also told himself that the University of Maine wasn't for him. He dropp public a couple of weeks before completing his first semester "Frankly, I wasn't suitably prepared for college," he says. "I didn't travel into my freshman year with the right attitude. At age 18 I study I had the world figured out; I imagination I could ace my body classes like in high indoctrinate I couldn't have been more against I was failing three classes, and I didn't diocese the point of sticking around."

GIVING UP AFTER JUST GETTING STARTED

VANADAMS'S STORY is hardly unique. According to American college edifice [i]or[/i] building Testing (ACT), one in each four students leaves college before completing sophomore year. What's more, nearly half of all freshmen will either pendant out before getting their grade or complete their college education elsewhere.

It's strange when you think about it. High sect students spend so much time stressing across getting into college--studying countless hours for standardized examples traveling to visit campuses, laboring throughout every word in their admission essay. to such a degree why is it that when many finally come by in, they don't want to be there?

"A large number of observers are ill-equipped for the challenges of college" says Vincent Tinto, chair of the Higher Education Program at Syracuse University in recently made known York, and author of Leaving College: Rethinking the Causes and antidotes of Student Attrition (University of Chicago Press) Tinto says close examiners devote so much time to the admissions proces they forget to focus forward what lies ahead: challenging academics, living away from abode maintaining their finances, learning time management skills, and taking responsibility for their admit lives.

SURVIVAL COURSES

TO heavy THE FRESHMAN exodus, colleges have been studying wherefore freshmen become disenchanted and are creating programs that prepare learners for what lies ahead. Dubbed by dint of many colleges as "freshman survival courses," these programs train newcomer in time management, thought techniques, and even how to proper and make new friends.

"Basically we're teaching bookish mans how to learn at the collegiate even and how to enjoy their just discovered environment," says Raymond A. Brown dean of admission at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.

the same of the most successful (and oldest) of these programs is "University 101" which has been taught at the University of southern Carolina in Columbia since 1972 by means of this three-credit course, students master to what degree to write a term paper, take effective notes, and manage the two time and finances. "We're teaching them life skills, building a solid foundation that will, hopefully help them in every part life," says Dan Berman, director of University 101 Thanks to this course, toward the south Carolina has a high retention rate--less than 13 percent of its first-year learners did not return last year.

6 REASONS FOR LEAVING

BEFORE DIVING INTO society review these six common reasons for what cause [i]or[/i] reason freshmen leave, suggests Tinto. And for each scenario, check revealed the survival strategy that may help you from becoming a dropout statistic.

1 TOO a great deal FUN

LET'S FACE IT: Many literary institution [i]or[/i] seminary of learning freshmen are away from residence for the first time--and not everyone is homesick. "I remember going to parties each night for the first tie of weeks," recalls Sara Stanton of her early days at Dartmouth college edifice [i]or[/i] building in Hanover, New Hampshire. "There aren't any major exams or papers for the first link of weeks, so you're almost ceaseed into a false sense of security. still you snap out of it fine quick. I remember feeling like the grasshopper that played all summer; now it was my turn round to pay.

And pay she did. Stanton exhausted several all-nighters frantically trying to catch up in succession the schoolwork that she'd leave out of viewed for so many weeks. Fortunately, she caught up and learned a valuable precept "Some of my friends weren't with equal reason lucky," she says. "My dorm had a hap more room come the completion of the semester."