Achieving Success

Edward Gomez

EDUC 1300-4002

Karla S. Hunter

January 29, 2017

Achieving Success

        Going to college is a wonderful and astonishing adventure to improve any person’s quality of life. Unfortunately, college can also be stressful, and many students may to overcome challenges while attending to college. Either these challenges can obstruct a student from reaching college goals, or a student can learn to overcome their challenges. So, what is the college experience all about? The college experience represents many barriers or obstacles that students may face and must overcome in order to reach college goals. College barriers may include any personal, cultural, campus, academic, financial, or other challenges that have the possibility of holding students back from reaching their college goals There are many barriers that a student may face when they go to college, but one of the most common barrier is the lack of self-esteem that the students might feel by attending any academic institution. Successful students can overcome barriers by using tips and strategies they learned. When students overcome barriers, they can persist and reach college goals.

        There are many barriers that prevent students from reaching that elusive goal of obtaining their college degree. Graduated high school students across the nation are faced with deciding whether to continue their education or enter the workforce. Many seek higher education to improve career opportunities and gain economic prosperity or social mobility. Students may feel uncomfortable in the college atmosphere because they may come from a different cultural background or socioeconomic status, or they may have different levels of educational preparation. Reasons for limited communication and interactions among students and faculty include the absence of similar interests, experiences, and resources, so these differences contribute to low levels of academic self-esteem and difficulty adjusting to the college setting. Students often require developmental coursework and tend to have lower grade point averages, so this results in lack of confidence in their own ability to be academically competitive and successful; however, in addition, lack of family support is another issue for many students. While parents have different opinions about college, many parents view college as a venture too expensive. Furthermore, whether they support their children's college aspirations or not, parents without college experience may not understand the amount of time and academic focus required. This can lead to insufficient levels of emotional support or limited understanding of the commitment necessary for a student to thrive in college. Poor attitude about college can be a barrier to success, so students fell some personal attitudes about college that create college barriers while attending to any academic institution

        Even though college can be frustrating, there are ways to deal with the frustration and overcome this common college barriers. Realistic feelings of confidence and positive self-esteem affect how we think and act, how we feel about others, and how successful we are in life.  Having self-confidence does not mean that we can do everything. Self-confident people have expectations that are realistic, and even when some of their expectations are not met, they continue to be optimistic which allows us to have positive yet realistic views of ourselves and the situations in which we are involved. Surprisingly, lack of self-confidence is not necessarily related to lack of ability. Instead, it is often the result of focusing too much on the unrealistic expectations or standards of others. Challenges to our self-esteem and confidence are a part of everyday life, but the important thing is to learn how to overcome failure and negative experiences. Self-confidence and positive self-esteem can be learned, and this learning will involve changes, new behaviors, and will take time and energy. Building self-esteem and confidence is dependent on breaking old habits and developing new productive ones. There are two key habits that need to be shattered which are the habit of negative thinking and overthinking; however, in addition, students use several strategies that are beneficial for changing personal attitudes that create barriers to academic success. The strategies included self-reflecting, trying harder to succeed, seeking academic assistance which is vital to any student, and understanding the advantages of starting projects early. Students may know how to use academic failure as a motivation to succeed academically.