If you believe that if your student did well on the ACT or SAT, they will do fine in college, it is just not so. In fact, study after study shows that there is little correlation between these standardized tests and college success. In fact, researchers found that the composite ACT scores of students who graduated and those who dropped out were nearly identical – 24.5 and 24.1 points, respectively.
So, I asked the next logical question… If all the traditional measures of success cannot predict your success in college, what would? I knew there had to be a proverbial canary in the mine somewhere! Then I found it!
A paper, published in the Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory and Practice (everybody reads this one, right!). It turns out that the freshmen who persisted to graduation had significantly higher first-semester GPAs – 2.84 versus 2.20, respectively – compared with peers who left without earning a degree. It was my Eureka moment – “First-semester GPA was the proverbial canary in the coal mine.”
If first semester GPA is the key to student success, I knew I needed to do something to improve students chances of success and so, College Success Academy was born.
Please don’t make the same mistakes that millions of parent’s of incoming freshmen make. The statistics are alarming and speak to the national crises in higher education. The normal orientation and transition methods just don’t work.
It is well known that those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. College is just too expensive and time-consuming not to do everything you can to properly prepare.
In the United States, we have the lowest college completion rate in the developed world. Our dropout crisis doesn’t get discussed a great deal outside of education circles, but it needs to be.
Our education system isn’t built to cater to allow a smooth transition from high school to college and the results are not just financial, but leave in the wake millions of broken dreams, lost opportunities, and uncertain futures.
I knew I had to do something, I knew I had to make a difference, so out of our own necessity and desires arose real solutions that work.
The concept’s I’ve developed in our programs took me years to discover from dozens of different mentors, teachers, students, and a whole lot of trial and error. I wish I’d had something like this when I got started.
I only shared those things that have been proven to work in my own experience and other students’ academic careers. You can have faith, knowing that you’re implementing stuff that has been proven with thousands of different students.
College Preparation is key to a students successful transition to college. We spend so much time focused on getting into college, but very little focused on the process of transitioning from high school to college. At College Success Academy, we are out to change how student’s prepare for college. Did you know…
Thirty percent of college freshman dropout after their first year! And Surprisingly, only around half of the students who enroll in college end up graduating with a bachelor’s degree!
The Fact is College is taking longer and longer to get through with Less than 60 percent of students who enter four-year schools finish within six years.
The average time-to-degree at the (so-called) four-year college hovers at about five years, with only one-third of students graduating in four years and another third taking six or more years to finish.
Alarmingly, of the students that do graduate a third of students transfer before graduating adding thousands of dollars to the cost of their degree.
And the situation at community colleges is no better. Only fifty percent of students graduate within two to four years, while a full quarter of students are taking more than four years to complete their associate’s degree.
Behind these shocking facts and figures are millions of broken dreams, heartaches, and piles of mounting debt.
Your Student Doesn’t Have to Be One Of These Statistics!
It’s not their fault! Students and Parents just don’t realize the challenges faced in transitioning from high school to college. The skills students learned in high school don’t transfer well to the unstructured college environment.
In fact, students are not just unaware of the challenges they will face in college; they are downright overconfident in their abilities.
According to CBS News, 71% of students surveyed rated themselves as being in the top 10% of students in their academic ability. Amazingly, over 70% of students believe they are amongst the top 10%. And the fact remains, even if they are in the top 10%, the approaches that got them there won’t keep them there in college.
We dedicate, so much time, energy, and money on getting into college, but we give little thought to how to transition, how to be successful in this new environment.
The Current Trial And Error Process Is Just Too Costly!
The reality is that Every College Student can succeed academically and obtain a top GPA.
The simple reason why so many college students struggle is that they have not learned how to transition from the structured high school environment to the unstructured college academic environment.
I am Dennis Stemmle, college professor, bestselling author, parent of a college student, and founder of College Success Academy. As a college professor, I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly, when it comes to student performance.
I never knew how big our education problem was until my son became one of those dreaded statistics mentioned earlier.
As a top performing high school student, he got into all his desired colleges, and we just never were worried about him performing well. However, his excitement from his college acceptances, the prospects of moving out of the house, and his embracing his independence, quickly led to frustration, stress, and surprise struggles.
After his first semester, our straight-A high school student found himself on academic probation. That’s when I knew I had to figure out why millions of top high school seniors struggle to succeed in college.
I spent months talking to students, looking for similarities, trends, and kernels of knowledge that could help me understand the challenges and issues faced by students transiting from high school to college.
I gathered together all the tips, tricks, and suggestions from these students and transferred this knowledge to my son who used this information to go from academic probation to Dean’s List the very next semester (One B+ kept him off the President’s List and a perfect 4.0).
I knew I was on to something and I needed to share this knowledge with as many incoming college freshman as possible. As a result, College Success Academy was born.
At College Success Academy, our mission is to help millions of high school seniors and underclassmen successfully transition to college and become more self-reliant, fulfilled, and successful.
Our complete success system will allow your student to hit campus ready to go like a well-seasoned upperclassman. In our course they will learn:
ü How to Demystify the College Experience
ü How You Can Prevent Academic Problems
ü How to Manage Your Grade Point Average
ü Time Management Skills and Strategies
ü How To Conquer Procrastination
ü Classroom Skills You Will Need In College
ü Study Skills That Will Maximize Your GPA
ü Test-Taking Skills To Ace Any Exam
ü How To Write Papers Like A Pro
ü The Most Effective Note Taking Strategies
ü Secrets Hidden in Your Professors Syllabus
ü The Secrets of Top Students
ü How to Interact with Your Professors
ü Managing Stress
ü Financial Discipline & Budgeting
ü How To Leverage Technology
ü …And Much, Much More!
Did You Know, A Low GPA Could Sabotage Your Student’s Income For Years?
According to a recent study of compensation, a third-year analyst made an average total comp of $65,000, if the person’s GPA was 2.8 or less, compared to $77,000 for a GPA of 2.9 to 3.1. The ‘A’ student, with a GPA of 3.8 to 4.0, pulled down an average total comp of $115,700 – a more than $50,000 a year premium over the 2.8 or lower graduate.
The cost associated with transitioning to college is not just financial, they are deeply emotional as well. Reports show, that one-third of all college students report being overwhelmed after just one semester, and according to the American College Health Association, 32% of students say they have felt so depressed “that it was difficult to function.”
Alarmingly, recent statistics say one in ten college students makes a plan for suicide. We owe are students more! We MUST prepare them for their college transition!
Please Share Our Mission
At College Success Academy, our mission is to help millions of high school seniors and underclassmen successfully transition to college and become more self-reliant, fulfilled, and successful.
Please share our mission with your friends and family. If each one can teach one, we can stop this needless heartache and cycle of broken dreams. Please join our mission on Facebook Let’s help all students do College Smarter Not Harder!
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