{"id":9952,"date":"2015-02-23T11:47:52","date_gmt":"2015-02-23T08:47:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/campus\/?p=9952"},"modified":"2015-09-30T13:54:46","modified_gmt":"2015-09-30T13:54:46","slug":"8-secrets-of-the-most-successful-college-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/thesauce\/8-secrets-of-the-most-successful-college-students\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Secrets of the most successful college students"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"student<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the Best College Students Do,\u201d a book by historian and educator Ken Bain, draws a road map for how students can get the most out of college, no matter where they go.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

A growing body of evidence suggests that the most significant thing about college is not where you go, but what you do once you get there. Historian and educator Ken Bain has written a book on this subject, What the Best College Students Do<\/em>, that draws a road map for how students can get the most out of college, no matter where they go.<\/p>\n

As Bain details, there are three types of learners: surface,<\/em> who do as little as possible to get by; strategic,<\/em> who aim for top grades rather than true understanding; and deep learners<\/em>, who leave college with a real, rich education. Bain then introduces us to a host of real-life deep learners: young and old, scientific and artistic, famous or still getting there. Although they each have their own insights, Bain identifies common patterns in their stories:<\/p>\n

1. Pursue passion, not A\u2019s.\u00a0<\/b>When he was in college, says the eminent astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, he was \u201cmoved by\u00a0curiosity, interest and fascination, not by making the highest scores on a test.\u201d As an adult, he points out, \u201cno one ever asks you what your grades were. Grades become irrelevant.\u201d In his experience as a student and a professor, says Tyson, \u201cambition and innovation trump grades every time.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. Get comfortable with failure.\u00a0<\/b>When he was still a college student, comedian Stephen Colbert\u00a0began working with an improvisational theater in\u00a0Chicago. \u201cThat really opened me up in ways I hadn\u2019t expected,\u201d he tells Bain. \u201cYou must be O.K. with bombing. You have to love it.\u201d Colbert adds, \u201cImprovisation is a great educator when it comes to failing. There\u2019s no way you are going to get it right every time.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. Make a personal connection to your studies.\u00a0<\/b>In her sophomore year in college, Eliza Noh, now a professor of Asian-American studies at California State University at Fullerton, took a class on power in society: who has it, how it\u2019s used. \u201cIt really opened my eyes. For the first time in my life, I realized that learning could be about me and my interests, about who I was,\u201d Noh tells Bain. \u201cI didn\u2019t just listen to lectures, but began to use my own experiences as a jumping-off point for asking questions and wanting to pursue certain concepts.\u201d<\/p>\n

4. Read and think actively. <\/b>Dean Baker,\u00a0one of the few economists to predict the economic collapse of 2008, became fascinated in college by the way economic forces shape people\u2019s lives. His studies led him to reflect on \u201cwhat he believed and why, integrating and questioning,\u201d Bain notes. Baker says:\u00a0\u201cI was always looking for arguments in something I read, and then pinpointing the evidence to see how it was used.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

5. Ask big questions.\u00a0<\/b>Jeff Hawkins, an engineer who created the\u00a0first mobile computing device, organized his college studies around four profound questions he wanted to explore:\u00a0Why does anything exist?\u00a0Given that a universe does exist, why do we have the particular laws of physics that we do? Why do we have life, and what is its nature? And given that life exists, what\u2019s the nature of intelligence? For many of the subjects he pursued, Bain notes, \u201cthere was no place to \u2018look it up,\u2019 no simple answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

6. Cultivate empathy for others.\u00a0<\/b>Reyna Grande, author of the novels\u00a0Across a Hundred Mountains<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0Dancing with Butterflies<\/i>, started writing seriously in her junior year in college. \u201cWriting fiction taught Reyna to empathize with the people who populated her stories, an ability that she transferred to her life,\u201d Bain notes: \u201cAs a writer, I have to understand what motivates a character, and I see other people as characters in the story of life,\u201d Grande says. \u201cWhen someone makes mistakes, I always look at what made them act the way they do.\u201d<\/p>\n

7. Set goals and make them real.\u00a0<\/b>Tia Fuller, who later became an accomplished saxophone player, began planning her future in college, envisioning the successful completion of her projects.\u00a0\u201cI would keep focused on the light at the end of the tunnel, and what that accomplishment would mean,\u201d she tells Bain. \u201cThat would help me develop a crystalized vision.\u201d<\/p>\n

8. Find a way to contribute.\u00a0<\/b>Joel\u00a0Feinman, now a lawyer who provides legal services to the poor, was set on his career path by a book he read in college:\u00a0The Massacre at El Mozote<\/i>, an account of a 1981 slaughter of villagers in El Salvador. After writing and staging a campus play about the massacre, and traveling to El Salvador,\u00a0Feinman \u201cdecided that I wanted to do something to help people and bring a little justice to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

via TIME<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhat the Best College Students Do,\u201d a book by historian and educator Ken Bain, draws a road map for how students can get the most out of college, no matter where they go. A growing body of evidence suggests that the most significant thing about college is not where you go, but what you do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13763,"featured_media":1579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[403,199,55,1680],"class_list":["post-9952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-capital-campus","tag-college","tag-students","tag-studying","tag-successful"],"better_featured_image":{"id":1579,"alt_text":"","caption":"","description":"","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":640,"height":427,"file":"2012\/09\/student-laptop.jpg","sizes":{"thumbnail":{"file":"student-laptop-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/thesauce\/files\/2012\/09\/student-laptop-150x150.jpg"},"medium":{"file":"student-laptop-300x200.jpg","width":300,"height":200,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/thesauce\/files\/2012\/09\/student-laptop-300x200.jpg"},"tie-small":{"file":"student-laptop-55x55.jpg","width":55,"height":55,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/thesauce\/files\/2012\/09\/student-laptop-55x55.jpg"},"tie-medium":{"file":"student-laptop-272x125.jpg","width":272,"height":125,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/thesauce\/files\/2012\/09\/student-laptop-272x125.jpg"},"tie-large":{"file":"student-laptop-290x195.jpg","width":290,"height":195,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/thesauce\/files\/2012\/09\/student-laptop-290x195.jpg"},"slider":{"file":"student-laptop-640x330.jpg","width":640,"height":330,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/thesauce\/files\/2012\/09\/student-laptop-640x330.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":0,"credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":0,"copyright":"","focal_length":0,"iso":0,"shutter_speed":0,"title":"","resized_images":["150x100","100x100"]}},"post":1573,"source_url":"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/thesauce\/files\/2012\/09\/student-laptop.jpg"},"yoast_head":"\n8 Secrets of the most successful college students - 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