The CLAS Academic Advising Center staff are here to help you succeed at Grand Valley State University. Call 331-8585 or stop in at our center in C-1-140 MAK to make an appointment to discuss your situation and to make a plan for success.

Success in college is in large part based on how willing you are to evaluate and respond to what is working and not working in approaching your college classes. No one feels totally prepared for college. There is always an adjustment period once you begin at any university. However, you would not have been admitted if you were not able to succeed at GVSU.

Some students simply need to do a little fine tuning of the study methods they developed in high school. Some need to step back and rethink how to approach college as well as course material, and then make significant changes.

Four Year Blueprint for Student Success Identifies academic and community landmarks students can use as a guide across their GVSU experience. Also identifies support and services available to students at each stage of their undergraduate program.

Ways that College is Different from High School Identifies the major differences between the high school and college experience.

Self-Evaluation: Learning new approaches all starts, however, with an honest evaluation of what you are doing, or not doing, now. Your professors, your major advisor, and professional advisors can help you with this analysis and make suggestions.

Quantity: Sometimes the necessary changes mean spending more time each week studying. Remember the rule of at least 2 hours of work outside of class each week for every hour spent in class. That means 6 hours of study for every 3 credit hour course.

Quality: However, often students don't need to spend a lot more time studying, but they do need to learn how to spend their study time more effectively. Also, each student finds his/her own method of studying effectively, so you can't just adopt everything that your roommate does and expect that it will work in the same way for you. Nor does it often happen that you simply make a couple of changes and everything is fine. You have to change a few things, be willing to try them out for a few weeks, evaluate whether they are helping, and then keep fine-tuning until you find what works for you. Be persistent!