Swarthmore College? the same of the...

Swarthmore College? the same of the toughest liberal arts instructs in the country? No sweat, thinking Esther Zeledon. After all, the Miami resident graduated sixth in her class from Braddock High denomination the largest secondary school in the U with more than 5400 observers In high school, she took 10 AP courses and chanceed mostly A's. She figured work at Swarthmore would be more of the same. "I pondering college was going to be like high school: Do a certain quantity of homework, a test here and there," she says. "I conceit I would be able to come by straight A's."

It didn't take lengthy for Zeledon to realize she wasn't in high academy anymore. The environmental science major quickly discovered the workload was staggering. "I procure about one paper a week for English and undivided every other week for history, as well as 800 pages a week to read," she says. That does not include a five-hour chemistry lab and four hours of pre- and post-lab work, as well as essence like eating and sleeping.

still the worst part, says 19-year-old Zeledon, is that despite lengthy hours of studying, she hasn't managed to venture the top-notch grades that came to such a degree easily in high school. "It is thus difficult to get an A," she says. "I haven't unruffled seen that pretty letter since I got here."

Zeledon's story isn't unique. equable the most successful high sect students can find their academic world move rounded upside down at college. The problem: They haven't been prepared for the vast differences between high gymnasium and college academia.

"Student find that the strategies that serv them in high drill are not good enough for college" says Pat copse campus director of the Learning Resource Center at Rutger University in just discovered Brunswick, New Jersey. "The compass and complexity of the material is in such a manner vastly different, and the expectations of the faculty are entirely different from the expectations of their high seminary teachers."

In high sect says Grove, students are required to memorize and recall information. if it were not that in college, professors expect scholars to truly analyze and understand concepts

guilds are just beginning to recognize that graduating high drill students need mote guidance to make the transition. Many gymnasiums now require freshmen to take orientation courses designed to teach them time management, communication dynamics, and other skills they ne to be auspicious in the brand new world of college

CHOOSING COURSES

In high educate choosing your courses is easy--most are requirements and remarkably few are electives. At many society s however, it's a little more complicated. You prepare a course book that may contain several hundr pages of classes. Which classes you take, the times you take them, the days you take them--it's more or les all up to you.

It doesn't have to be overwhelming, yet You most likely will have an academic adviser to help you. "Your adviser is your university resource broker" says Elizabeth Teagan, director of the University Transition Advisement Center at Texas Tech University in Lubbock The society adviser is familiar with faculty knows what's privationed to fulfill requirements within the university and in your major, and he or she can taint problems that you are likely to miss.

For many scholars one of those problems is filling general education, or gen- requirements. In order to graduate, many guilds require that you take a number of credits in liberal arts disciplines--English, math and science, a foreign language.

"Gen- courses teach a fate of skills that students will ne in their other courses--working in clusters critical thinking, analysis," says Dave Meredith, director of enrollment management for the honors programs at the University of Cincinnati. It's important to balance your schedule with a required math or foreign language course as well.

Getting gen- requirements not at home of the way early can be particularly beneficial to scholars who are still undecided about their major, adds Meredith. "If you can say 'I'm wiping opposite my history requirement,' that can make you be wrought up like you're progressing."

You also want to make fully convinced your schedule is balanced with courses that are extra challenging and any that require less effort. "You shouldn't take biology, calculus, physics, and chemistry together the first semester--that's ridiculous," says Rutger University's Grove

Robin Diana, associate director of the Center for bookish man Transition and Support at Rochester Institute of Technology in just discovered York, suggests meeting with your adviser early in the course selection proces Take a consider at the course sequence for your major with an judgment toward the next four years, nor just the coming semester Then agree what courses you should be raking, says Diana, "so that four years down the road you don't realize you ne pair classes that are not being put forwarded that semester."

Other points to remember:

* Be flexible. At many universities, first-year observers are the last to register. That means that many of the more popular classes and class times have already been filled. "Know that the days and times that you want will probably nor be the days and times you get" says Diana. "Have a Plan A, a Plan B and a Plan C ready to go"