21 ACT and Not ready for college

[CorvusCamenarum]

I'd be curious as to what you all have to say about this, particularly any incoming freshmen.

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Personally I find it lamentable but not surprising, given my school's apparent policy of letting you in if you have tuition and a pulse. You should already know how to read and count before you enter university.

 

[gwuMACaddict]

i didn't take the ACT, but can vouch for the fact that most college freshman aren't ready for college...

and not just for academic reasons...

maturity is a huge factor- that i think can influence how one performs academically...

 

[florencevassy]

Good article. I admit that when I was a freshman I was not 100% ready for college. My SAT scores were average and I was pretty immature.

A few days before class started I we had to take Math and Reading tests and those that didn’t receive a certain score had to take a study skills class every week for the first semester. I really disliked the study skills class (although I don’t remember too much about it).

My College also had students in a HEOP (Higher Education Opportuinity Program).

Some info is here:
http://www.rit.edu/~305www/

They arrived at the college a month early and were also in the study skills class. Some students did well and others did not. One friend of mine that was in the HEOP became a lawyer and did very well.

I never did make the honor roll but I received a BA and I spent on semester abroad in Spain (which was one of the best experiences I had in college).

 

[CubaTBird]

I AM READY FOR COLLEGE... watch me prevail... hrm, i never took the ACT but did alright on the SAT.. i think to succeed in college you need a certain frame of mindset more than anything else.. well that and good study habits.

 

[diddy]

I got a 31 on the ACT. I guess I did better than I thought.

 

[kalisphoenix]

I was going to start work on my Master's soon, but being a poverty-stricken bastard the only way to pay was to teach English 110-112 for four semesters. **** that, sez I, I'll become more stupid by reverse osmosis. There are some real @#$%ing specimens at the college level, boys and girls.

 

[ejb190]

i didn't take the ACT, but can vouch for the fact that most college freshman aren't ready for college...

and not just for academic reasons...

I totally agree. When I was a freshman (can it be 10 years ago?) I was amazed by the number of guys that couldn't ballance their checkbooks or do their own laundry. There are so many basic survival skills that we are failing to teach today.

Maturity is a whole 'nother subject. I was thinking about how much different I would have approached grad school if I were to do it today versus five years ago. And it's not the experience I have from having done it, but the experience I have gained since then working with people and a better knowledge I have of myself.

 

[michaelrjohnson]

I felt I did pretty well on the ACTs, I got a 28 (even though one of my highschool buddies got a 34 ).

I loved starting school. I guess I've been told before that I'm more mature than other people my age, but I really just felt excited about the prospect of college. Honestly, there are lots of people who just "go to college" because their parents expect it and pay for it. Putting yourself through school (with tons of loans, yaay) puts a whole different spin on the experience. It's much more rewarding.

 

[Billicus]

I'm going back this fall for my 2nd year of college and I have to say that I feel like I outperformed many of my peers last year. I scored an above average score on the ACT (26) and I don't feel like I would fall into any of those slacker catagories from this article. But the problem isn't always intelligence as I see it: it's a combination of factors including intelligence, priorities, and goals. I saw many people wasting their year by drinking all the time. And many around me obviously aren't setting their hopes very high, so they probably won't make much of their live...

 

[mkaake]

I've found that it's not the people who aren't 'smart' who have trouble in college, it's people who don't have a skill set related to studying. Too many 'smart' kids who never had to study in school get to college, and try to get by that way. Some people do, a lot don't. It's imperitive to know how to set aside time to study.

Of course, I know that there were a whole slew of incoming freshmen at my school a couple years back who pretty much flunked because of Halo...

 

[Toppa G's]

When I got to college (starting 4.5th year next month), I was dismayed to learn how few students had fundamental math and writing skills. I've proofread many a classmate's paper, and end up checking only for spelling and usage errors and the most gregarious of grammar errors. I usually let the less important stuff slide because in many cases changing every error would result in rewriting the entire paper. As far as math goes, some students in my major who started 4 years ago STILL haven't passed introductory college math.

That said, I think a big part of college is getting into the right frame of mind. Telling yourself that you are PAYING for the privilege of going to school (or in the case of scholarships, people are paying for you specifically to go to school) seems like it should be a good motivator for striving to succeed academically. In many cases, it's not enough though.

edit: GTA: San Andreas was released on my school's "Advisement Day" last year (basically a day with a meeting in the morning and no classes), so we were able to get a head start on the game without having to break for classes - video games can definitely be detrimental to one's academic success!

/32
//slashies are fun!

 

[superbovine]

I'd be curious as to what you all have to say about this, particularly any incoming freshmen.

link

Personally I find it lamentable but not surprising, given my school's apparent policy of letting you in if you have tuition and a pulse. You should already know how to read and count before you enter university.

Doing well on the ACT doesn't mean you will not do will in college. it does mean it limits your choices of college. my high school band prof got a 16 on his ACT, but took a his high school band to 3rd in nation and he also earned a spot on the Marine Band which is basically the best wind assemble in the US.

My second roomate in college had a free ride to a state school with a 32 on the ACT and he also got a 1500 SAT with a perfect score in math section. he failed out of college his second semester even though he was one of the math whizes that could do mental math without knowing how to do it.

 

[Demon Hunter]

ACT is a good test. I scored 28 overall, with a 35 in science and a 22 in math. I'm not being sarcastic, that's actually how I perform in those subjects, LOL.

Academics are important but if you don't have some kind of direction in your life, you probably aren't getting the more important education. College in my opinion is about individual growth that grades can't measure.

Interesting facts I read today in the June TIME... 0.2% of rural China is higher-educated, compared with 5.6% of urban China. Anyone know what our numbers are?

 

[RandomDeadHead]

I agree that a high percentage of college freshman are not mentally ready for college life. I was 24 and married when I was a uni freshman, so I did not experience any problems. But alot of my classmates however, did not fair so well. Seems like the first thing they wanted to do after moving out of mommys and daddies house was party and stay drunk. When I was studding with and screwing my wife they were passed out drunk.
We could not afford to both go, so she worked in fast food to play my tuition, and I was the college man. We studied like we were both taking the class, and that helped alot, She was always more studious than I, but back then it was very much still a mans world. Anyway, I'm rambling again, sorry.

As for the ACT, I could give an extremely advanced test to a group of middle school students and they would fail, that doesn't mean that they are not ready for high-school. Seems to me that young people are not getting "dumber" it that the test just keep getting harder.
If I have learned anything in my many moons, it's that tests, pass or fail, are generally a **** indication of actual educational achievement.