HS Jr. and SR. USNA hopefuls

[Kickflip89]

Huh? I disagree. I say: manage your time and work for GRADES. Unfortunately, college is primarily about grades. It makes sense in a way: the Prof "rewards" you for doing what he thinks is valuable. Obviously, don't compromise your values and just say what he wants, but fight for grades. Sometimes that means NOT going to class to either study for another one or simply because you can study better on your own. Don't skip a lot of class like in high school?? (don't know which one you went to), but make a common sense decision about what works.

I know this isn't PC advice, but it was how I did well in college.

On top of that, like was said, have a balance in your life. Your time in college isn't all about grades. Get involved in a club, sports, a religious group (lots of good collegiate Christian organizations), study abroad or travel, etc. Don't waste your time drinking, but do invest your time in meaningful experiences. Life is too short to waste 4+ years just in books.

Now if you go to the Academy, it's a different story...

Concurr. I went to about 70% of my classes but I studied my @ss off in my own time. I almost always turned in my homework and was always prepared for exams. If I started to get stressed out / fall behind, I would take the day and go to starbucks and sit down with my books and study/do problems until I got it. I didn't go to class those days, but I learned a lot.

Plus...2 or 3 times a semester I would not go to any classes and just take a day off. The beautiful thing about college is...this is ok. Unless you have a class where attendance is required you can manage your time however you see fit. In the end, no one cares as long as you get good grades.

Of course...I wouldn't skip any classes at all for the first 2 months or so, because you absolutely NEED to figure out how much of any one class you can miss and still keep up with the material. And, of course, it's something you do at your own risk. Sometimes the prof will put things on the exam that were only mentioned in the lecture, so definitely be careful.

 

[m0tbaillie]

Unless you have a class where attendance is required[/B] you can manage your time however you see fit. In the end, no one cares as long as you get good grades.

This is fine once you've got a few classes under your belt and you've been in college a couple of semester and get the gist of how things work. But, it's a bad habit for freshmen to get into. I'll admit, I skip classes once in a while but it's because I know how the classes work, what'll be on the exams, etc. - and these are all upper-level classes. I'm talking about 100-level intro classes with 300 people that will either take attendance, or will have a professor slapping questions on the first exam over material he only mentioned during lecture.

 

[Rg9]

This is fine once you've got a few classes under your belt and you've been in college a couple of semester and get the gist of how things work. But, it's a bad habit for freshmen to get into. I'll admit, I skip classes once in a while but it's because I know how the classes work, what'll be on the exams, etc. - and these are all upper-level classes. I'm talking about 100-level intro classes with 300 people that will either take attendance, or will have a professor slapping questions on the first exam over material he only mentioned during lecture.

What? The upper level classes are the ones you DON'T want to skip. Those are the ones you can't learn on your own. The 300+ student classes that are dumbed down to the point where the chemistry prof speaks of the differences between numerators and denominators the entire first week (true story) are the ones you skip.

I'm not saying skip class. I'm saying manage your time. It's a much better attitude to have. I saw too many people get burned out trying to work harder not smarter.

 

[m0tbaillie]

What? The upper level classes are the ones you DON'T want to skip. Those are the ones you can't learn on your own. The 300+ student classes that are dumbed down to the point where the chemistry prof speaks of the differences between numerators and denominators the entire first week (true story) are the ones you skip.

I'm not saying skip class. I'm saying manage your time. It's a much better attitude to have. I saw too many people get burned out trying to work harder not smarter.

I agree. I guess I mostly just said that because at MSU, it's mostly the lower-level 100-level classes that professors take attendance in (swiping IDs) and those are usually the same classes in which they'll throw questions on the test directly from lecture - those are the weed-out courses.

Of my upper-level courses, there are usually one or two per semester where it's a small-ish group and the professor will not take attendance and going to class usually isn't as necessary because there's more group-work. Naturally, this varies from school to school, major to major, but within my major there is a lot more legitimate work done outside of our classes in groups and so attendance isn't as important as it would be for a mandatory 100/200-level. Again, this is obviously going to differ between majors/schools.

 

[wingsB4rings]

Also, if we're reapplying is there anything that I should do differently? I was awesome enough to get wait-listed last year, but not awesome enough to get in.

No need to worry. 4/C Huard got his and he had to go back 34 times.