Mary Lucey: The dos and don’ts for your first semester at college

From realising the course you chose may not be suitable for you, to keeping on top of assignments, the fact that colleges will do their best to retain their students means there is plenty of academic support and student services support to help college entrants in their initial term, writes Mary Lucey

Good self-discipline is essential from the beginning of the academic year to ensure sufficient attendance in college for success. Photo: Denis Minihane

To settle swiftly into a college course, what matters is that students are registered on a course that matches their strengths, interests, personalities, and career goals. After a brief settling-in period, a student will quickly know if the course they are registered on suits them.

If it doesn’t, the normal pattern that follows with students is that they start to skip classes, avoid their lecturers and start to fall behind. They very quickly get out of their depth with the coursework, resulting in a potential dropout or failure. If a student believes they are on the wrong course then rapid action needs to be taken.