Let’s face it, college can be challenging for even the most successful high school students. There is a large jump in expectations and responsibilities inside and outside of the classroom from high school to college.

To help you start off your college journey strong we interviewed Dr. Alex Rose, Professor of Marketing at the College of Business.

What do professors want you to know so you will succeed in their classes?

First off stay in touch with faculty expectations. Each professor is a little different and checking the syllabus will help you know what they expect from you.

Next don’t fall behind. I recently had a student who did not get the book we were reading until last week and by the time they got the book they were too far behind to catch back up and they dropped the class.

Also reading, at least in my classes, is the key to success. If you think you can just skip the reading and get by you will not get much out of the class. It really helps us when students participate especially in online classes where we cannot interact face-to-face. Nothing frustrates me more than when students don't engage and participate in the class and then complain later on that they did not get anything out of the class.

What do you think are the keys to succeeding in college in general?

Time management is a huge skill to have and develop in college. You need to be able to balance social life, work, studying and homework. You need to be able to organize your time efficiently.

The main thing you need to do to succeed is be self-motivated. No one is going to hold your hand. You have to be self-disciplined and push yourself to succeed in class.

In addition to Dr. Rose’s input, we would add one additional tool to help students succeed and that is Grammarly.

Grammarly is a plugin installed into a Google Chrome browser that is nothing short of ‘incredibly’. If you write your essays in Google Docs Grammarly will automatically check your paper for grammar and highlight any errors you have. Grammarly detects everything from proper word tense, proper comma usage and even poor word choice. This plugin is vital for every student to use and best of all… it's free!

We hope this advice from Professor Rose helps you have a better understanding of what you need to do to succeed as a college student. Professors are here to help you and if you do need help or are not understanding a concept please reach out to them early on. They will be more than willing to help you!