We spend a lot of our time at Smarten Up working alongside parents to support students as they grow toward adulthood, preparing them for the independence that comes once they leave home. However, data suggests that many students struggle to make that leap at first, as they jump abruptly into a new environment and way of working outside of the context they have carefully learned to navigate. Our Smarter College program addresses this gap in support.
The new context of college is, in several important ways, more complicated than what came before it, and requires different skills. Increasingly, researchers have shown that scores on traditional admissions exams such as the ACT and SAT are not a very good predictor of success in college; high school GPA is a better indicator, suggesting that hard work and good habits are key in either context (Hiss & Vicks, 2014). Still, as Bryan Goodwin and Heather Hein point out in their article “The X Factor in College Success,” most of what determines whether a student will succeed in college (and later in life) “seems to lie outside the tidy box” of either grades or test scores. And although more students than ever are successfully matriculating to some form of university education, only 59% will graduate in five years or less, according to US Department of Education figures from 2015.
This data suggests that students must aim beyond traditional academics to consider the ‘X Factor’ skills they will need as they enter a new period of independence and development. Smarter College is a transition mentorship program that is designed to support students’ movement toward independence and help them to get the most of the college experience they’ve worked so hard to have. Our intention is for these skill lessons to complement the work students are doing in school, so the schedule can (and should) be adapted according to each student’s individual needs. If you have a student preparing for college next year -- particularly in this strange quarantine time, full of uncertainty on every front -- reach out for more information on the Smarter College program.