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Criminology Advisement Page |
How To Succeed in College
Facing a difficult situation or finding a goal difficult to achieve?
I think that success is feeling good about what one is doing. It results from contributing to the support of the larger group which, in turn, supports one’s self. It results from doing the best that one can do and requires constant reevaluation to determine if what one is doing could be improved.
For you, beginning or concluding your college education, success may be defined as finding a life’s work in which you are interested. A kind of work from which you can derive satisfaction in pay, through helping others, and in terms of feeling good about yourself. So, what does it take to succeed, at least in terms of what you can do while you are attending Missouri State? I would suggest that, at a minimum, the following are important things to consider:
Insist on
high quality academic and vocational guidance.
Never settle for less!
Not all advisors are created equal. It pains me to say that, but why should we expect all university-level teachers to excel in everything? Some people in every profession are better at certain things than are other people. So, search for the best advisor you can find - and you are likely to find more than one in your chosen department.
If you are not satisfied with your advisor, talk with him or her about your needs. Clarity and courtesy may resolve the problem. If not, ask that department’s Head to assign you to a different advisor. You’re paying for this. Demand the best! Besides, it’s not an uncommon thing for a student to request.
By the way, if you need some general advice or need very specific information, the Advisement Center, located in University College Hall, has staff members who are a useful resource. Give them a visit or call them at 417-836-5258.
If you aren't in a comprehensive Major (where no Minor is required), think about declaring a second Major or Minor.
You need a minimum of 125 hours of academic credit in order to graduate from Missouri State. If that consisted of three-hour courses, you only need to take about 41 of them and you’ll earn a college degree. And what did it cost? About four to six years of your life (if you’re in the norm) and around $30,000. (By the way, I read recently that in the year 2006 the average cost of an undergraduate degree at a public institution in the United States will be $72,000 {Money Magazine, January, 1997}).
Forty-six (46) of those credit hours will be wrapped up in general education courses including IDS 110. That leaves about 79 hours for a major and/or minor (or a comprehensive Major - which does not require you have a minor). The typical Major is about 40 hours, leaving 39 hours for a Minor. But Minors are typically no more than 21 hours. So, 39 hours minus 21 hours leave 19 hours. What are you going to do with those 19 hours? How about a second Minor?
If you Major in CAS (which is comprehensive and does not require a Minor), you will accumulate about 61 hours in it by the time your graduate. Seventy-nine (79) hours minus 61 hours leaves 18 hours. What are you going to do with those 18 hours? How about another Minor? Or how about combining the 12 hours in your non-CAS/SOC elective category (of the CAS Major) with the left-over 18 hours for a 30 hours major. You can graduate with two majors and still get out with no more than 125 hours!
If none of the alternatives mentioned above are attractive to you, I urge you to consider PLANNING how you will use those hours so that they strengthen your marketability upon graduation. Take more courses in your Major or Minor, or both. Or choose a second Minor which expands your understanding in an area related to your Major or other Minor. Or develop a secondary specialty which may or may not apply to your criminal justice career. Remember, you may lose your position in criminal justice (cut backs, etc.) or decide to leave the field. You may be able to fall back on your second Major or Minor.
If you are anything other than confident about your oral communication skills and written communication skills (including the use of computers), take some courses to shore them up. And don’t forget about the good people at the Writing Center, where you can have someone review your papers and help you with grammar, syntax, organization and all those things it takes to put together a well written document.
And if you need to, remember that you can take three hours per semester, for a total of no more than 12 hours by graduation, of Pass/No Pass courses as long as they are NOT general education courses or courses counted in your Major or Minor.
In conclusion, we know that employers want to hire winners. They want people who can provide evidence of having chosen a goal and succeeding at it. You chose a college degree as your goal. What evidence do you have to show a potential employer that you pursued that goal well and succeeded in achieving it? Do you have a strong grade point average? Did you organize your curriculum to best strengthen and prepare yourself for a career?
Get to know your professors, and let them get to know you!
Some students find it very easy to go to their professors’ offices, introduce themselves and have a little chat. Others find this almost impossible to do. I suggest that you give it a try and be persistent about it. Do this several times each semester with each of your professors. And EVERY time you visit, introduce yourself first thing. Relieve your professors of the anxiety that develops when, and if, they have forgotten your name or couldn’t recall it quickly enough for comfort.
If you are not sure what you would say, how about asking them how they first got interested in the field in which they teach? You know that people love nothing more than to talk about themselves. Well, maybe they enjoy eating more (I do!), but you get my point. By the way, in the back of your Missouri State Undergraduate Catalog you will find a listing of the professors including where they got their degrees. Perhaps you can find something there to use as an opener for your conversation with them.
One thing will lead to another and you will each get to know one another just a little bit better. And if you are expecting to ask any of them for a letter of reference to use with potential employers when you graduate, be SURE to visit them now and then. And when you ask for that letter, bring them a resume and picture of your face so they can file them and bring you back to memory quickly and accurately when they are called upon for the reference.
So, if you're ready to set up an appointment to visit with one of your professors, click here, choose the department the faculty member is in, and email the professor directly. Have fun!
Manage Your Time Wisely
Several of my students recently suggested I add a section on this page dealing with managing one's time. There's a time to play, a time to eat and sleep, and a time to work. You'll find lots of useful information on managing your time more effectively if you visit "The Basics of Studying Effectively."
This can be achieved several ways. One is to observe people you consider to be leaders. What do they do? They need not be told what needs to be done. They take the initiative and do it! They are also able to communicate well enough with other people in order to successfully solicit their assistance. Others follow them because they exhibit intelligence, direction, a goal and are caring and enthusiastic at the same time. The next step is to start behaving this way yourself, if you aren’t already doing so.
Another way is to read and learn about developing leadership skills. Take a little time and read Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. That book has been around since I was a child. And the reason it is still around, and still used regularly by very successful people, is that it contains some important truths. Studied carefully and incorporated into your life, it will make a difference! There are plenty of similar books at bookstores and the library.
Visit campus organizations to see all the student organizations on campus. I'd suggest you join at least one related to your academic studies (like the Criminal Justice Society) and another for purely social or recreational reasons (like backpacking, etc.). Once you're in, you can work your way into leadership positions and hone this very important skill. Your potential employers will look favorably upon such activity. Just being a member of an organization means little.
Following the title of each course below I have tried to provide a reason why a student might take each course. To get a more accurate description of each course (more accurate than can be found in the Missouri State Catalog), contact the professor who teaches the course and ask for two things. First, ask for a simple description of the course as he or she teaches it.
Secondly, ask for a copy of the most recently used course syllabus. By reviewing the syllabus you may gain a better impression of what the course is about. Certainly, if you look over the table of contents of the required readings you will get a clearer idea of course content.
Maintain the highest grade point average you can muster.
Having a high grade point average is certainly not a guaranteed or necessarily accurate measure of one’s intelligence. I think your faculty, and most employers, know that. But it may be a measure of one’s willingness to work hard - and this is what most employers believe. Again, if you defined earning a college degree as an important goal for yourself and only did a mediocre job of it, why would an employer be interested in hiring you when you declare that working for him or her was your goal? If you only perform at a mediocre level, what is the advantage to the employer?
Worse, you are not competing with people who only have a high school degree. Most of your competitors will have a college degree and there may be more of them with near 4.0 GPAs than there are job vacancies! They have high grade point averages, have taken on leadership roles outside the classroom, were involved in extracurricular activities in college, write and speak beautifully and .... need I go on? YOU want to be one of THOSE competitors!
So, develop study skills, learn to take tests with ease, complete every extra credit assignment you can get your hands on, maintain an excellent attendance record and build a group of people around you who are similarly focused on succeeding. Your energies will feed off each other and you will have a greater likelihood of succeeding.
Click here if you’d like to read something that will help you get better grades in college, write better terms papers, perform better on tests and more.
Involve yourself in a high quality internship.
In your junior or senior year, or in both, enroll in an internship in your area of vocational interest, or, if you are thinking of graduate school, something related to that area of study. Internships provide experience and, when you are in a job interview, few things will show you off better than being able to speak from experience. Click here to see the requirements for enrolling in a CRM internship.
An internship will teach you the vocabulary of words and motives found in a profession. The words will make it easier for you to communicate with a potential employer and he or she will soon recognize that you know what you are talking about. And a vocabulary of motives refers to those things you learn about why people in that line of work do what they do. What their values and goals are and much more. If you know and share those values and goals, you are more likely to be hired.
You may also be able to get a letter of reference from your field supervisor (the professional or practitioner in the agency with which you completed your internship - not your professor). That letter should be on agency letterhead. Ask permission to copy it so that you can send it to several different places. When you do take it to your potential employers, they will read it with special attention. After all, it is from someone just like them - a fellow professional. Of course, if your professor will write a letter of reference for you, you want that as well!
Most internships do not pay a salary. This is due to the fact that the agency for which you are an intern will spend a considerable sum paying one or more of their staff members to train, observe and supervise you. That can be very expensive! It actually costs the agency to have you as an intern.
Most agencies support an internship program because they feel an obligation to be a part of the training process. They know you, and many interns like you, are eventually going to enter the field. They want you to be good at what you will do!
You can contact the Internship Supervisor for the Crime and Society program. If an internship opportunity is available to you, be sure to arrange for it at least one full semester before you hope to enroll in it. The deadline date for submitting an application for a Fall semester internship is in April and in November for Spring internships.
CAS Minors may enroll in an internship although the credit hours may not be used in the Minor. They can be used as elective hours and count towards the 125 hours needed to graduate. The grade received becomes a part of the student’s overall grade point average.
CAS Majors are required to satisfactorily complete an internship. In either case, if you’re not sure where you’d like to do your internship, please contact our Internship Supervisor.
Volunteer in at least one organization.
It doesn’t matter whether you volunteer with a religious organization, a community agency, or in something related to the university. The point is to simply give a little of yourself. Help someone. Promote a cause. It’s good for your soul (if you believe in those things) and, without doubt, you and your actions will be looked upon positively by people around you.
When a potential employer is reviewing your resume, your volunteer activities will be one more piece of evidence that you care about people, are willing to give of yourself and that you are thinking and doing something about the needs of others. If possible, obtain a letter of reference from the director or leader of the organization in which you volunteer and use it in your portfolio of letters, awards and other certificates as you apply for work following graduation or for graduate study.
Use the Missouri State Counseling and Testing Center.
The Counseling and Testing Center has some interesting things to offer you, and you’ve already paid for them in your student fees. Among them is the Strong-Campbell-Hall Interest inventory (if it still goes by that name). Take it, and you may get a better idea of which minors, majors, and careers for which you are best suited. They have other tests you may be interested in taking as well. And they aren’t really "tests." About the only way you could fail one would be to answer the questions it asks with answers you think other people want you to give. Just be yourself and answer from your heart.
The Strong-Campbell-Hall Interest Inventory allows you to indicate what your interests and abilities are. Not all things in which you have an interest are things you would like to do for a living. Similarly, not all things you are able to do are things you want to do for a living. Where most of us succeed is in doing something for a living in which we have both an interest and an ability. Strong-Campbell-Hall may help you sort all of that out. It takes about 45 minutes to complete the test and two weeks to get the results back.
When the results come back to the Counseling and Testing Center, they will contact you and ask you to come in for a consultation. (By the way, the whole thing will cost you only $10. It costs over $200 to take outside the university as a non-student!) During the consultation they will interpret the results and show you what areas of study and what occupations you seem best suited.
If you are one of my advisees, feel free to make an appointment with me and together we can review your results and discuss their implications. Sometimes, because I have a little more experience in the criminal justice system than do the good folks at the Center, I can see things in the results that they don’t see and visa versa.
The Counseling and Testing Center also offers counseling. If you encounter a particularly difficult time while you are attending the university, avail yourself of their counseling services. I refer here to anything from test anxiety to the loss of a loved one. The Center has a dedicated, well trained and caring staff which is there to serve you. Share those difficulties with them and perhaps they can help you help yourself to more effectively deal with whatever it is you want help. The service is free to students.
And Use the Office of Career Services
The Office of Career Services is one of the most positive forces on campus. The staff in that office will do their best to facilitate your movement from student to full time employee. Among the many services they offer are one-on-one career counseling - from helping you figure out what you want to do for a living to choosing subjects to study in order to be prepared for your career. They also provide the following services:
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