How to Succeed in College without Really Trying

By now one might wonder from a student's perspective, what's a body to do if a body catch a body coming through the rye. How does one succeed in college at this level, not the Ivies where the rich are perpetuating their status generation to generation hallelujah, but here in the belly of the beast that the Great Society's educational ideals followed by a quarter century of attacks on the Great Society's educational ideals. (That's the part the unreconstructed Gingrich/WSJ types forget to mention when they try yet again to institute "market reforms" into education, but that's another blog.)

How does one get through the core curriculum and onto something one really wants to study? Or, how does one succeed given an utter lack preparation, no matter who's at fault?

Let me give it some thought, but meanwhile, here are two good ideas:
Don't go to college straight out of high school. Wanting to go to college is a noble thing and hoping to get a degree that earns you a good wage is a worthwhile goal. But you will waste your energies unless you really want it. So, try this for a change: go make a life without going to college and see how far you can get. Can you afford to move out of mommy's house? Can you afford to keep your car insured and running? Can you afford to keep up your habit in alcohol, cigarettes, or other drugs? Can you endure 8 hour shifts at Starbucks or Home Depot or waiting tables? If you can, more power to you. You've reached a level of zen happiness that I will never achieve.

More likely, however, you'll realize the state you're in, get motivated to get a degree and then start saving up. It may take a year, it may take two, but the payoff in the ease with which you will slide through college is worth it. And once you've made the realization, start reading: the newspaper, a good book, whatever, just read and keep reading, stuff written at a 13th grade level at least.

The other thought is this, in case you're already in the soup. It doesn't take that much to succeed and the fact is much of what it takes is what it takes to succeed in any business. Sit up, take notes, and go and visit the prof. at office hours. Give a firm handshake, look people in the eye, and pretend to be interested even when you're not. Do those things and the profs will go the extra mile to help you out of the pickle you're in thanks to 12 years of bad schooling or other unfortunate history.

Okay, so that was a blatant commercial blog posting, trying to get people to come to the site and click on the ads, but hey, the market may be god for some things