success student essay

Success Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on success.

Success Essay- In today’s world everyone wants to be successful but what is a success. The perspective of success varies from person to person. For the record, the people before us have a different view on success and the person after us will have a different view on success.

Moreover, people compare different people performance to evaluate their success. But success is not something that you can copy from others. You have to make your own path to achieving success. In modern-day, people are obsessed with success because of the glamour and lifestyle of successful people .

What formulates a person successful?

There are many ways in the world to be successful. But most people think of celebrities, artist, politicians, and businessmen whenever they heard the word success.

Moreover, they think doing what they will make you successful but that not the case. They forget the most basic thing that makes a person successful that is their hard work, dedication, and the desire to achieve their dream. More importantly, they what they like to do not what that others told them to do. Successful people do what they like to do also they do what they feel correct for their business.

If you look in the dictionary for the meaning of the word success then you will find that it means the achievement of one’s goal or aim . So, basically, anyone can achieve success by simply achieving their aim or goal.

What is the harm of success?

We all knew that we can’t achieve something without sacrificing something. Success also demands various things from you. But these sacrifices will not go in vain if you achieve your goal.

Certainly, many people achieve professional success but in doing so they fail in achieving mental, social and physical success. The tension of lacking behind in other things pulls them apart.

Also, there are cases where people became so obsessed with success that the people around them start to feel uncomfortable around them. In some cases, they have gone mad. Apart from that, people also get depressed if they can’t achieve success like others. So, we can say that there is much harm to success.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Success and hard work

It may sound unfit to some peoples but success depends a lot of hard work. Without it, you can’t become successful. Hard work does not mean that you do laborious work or the work that make you sweat. Hard work means having a healthy body, strong mind, willpower and positive attitude towards things. And for all those things you need energy. So, be attentive to your body and soul.

Besides, do not just work on your program, push your limit, take charge of other things, improve your skills and most importantly keep learning. Apart from that, be with positive peoples, develop positive habits, and do exercise not only for the body but also for your mind.

To sum it up, we can say that success is like a seed that needs a balanced proportion of all the elements of life. And no one can achieve success in a day they have to go through and face different conditions in life for being successful. Above all, success is the feeling of fulfillment that you feel when you achieve your goal.

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• Success Essay

Success is “The accomplishment of aim or purpose”, but is this definition universal? Can it be applied to each and everyone living on this planet? In this success essay, we are going to discuss the various perspectives on success. Success is a very unique concept and a powerful word. We live in a society where people compare and compete with each other’s success or we could say that we live in a success-driven society. A person is judged on his or her success but what does this word imply? Let us try to delve deeper into its meaning via this article.

Long Essay on Success for Students and Children

Success could be considered as the fuel on which the whole world functions efficiently. The perspective of success is different for every individual. For example, for one person success could be to get his or her dream job whereas for others it could be to spend a couple of hours with the family. In this essay on success important points such as how time management leads to success and how hard work and failure are related to success are discussed. This Success essay for students and children explains all the factors that determine success.

One of the most important factors that lead to success is time management. Time is considered to be the most precious asset of our lives. Time is everything and it’s an invaluable entity and once spent it never comes back. So it is important to learn how to manage your time. Time management refers to the process of planning and executing the task and goals to get the maximum. If done properly would lead a person to be successful in his or her life. The amount of time a person invests in improving himself will directly improve the chance of success.

Success and Failure  

“Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.”

Success and failure are inversely proportional to each other. If a person is successful he or she will directly drift away from failure. Achieving success is not easy, if it was easy everyone would have done it, but it’s not impossible. It’s important to know that the road to success is filled with failures and through those failures one becomes successful. It should be understood that failure acts as a stepping stone for success and gives the will to work harder towards his/her goals.

Success and Hard Work 

Success is directly proportional to hard work. The harder one works towards his or her goals the easier it is to achieve success. Hard work doesn’t mean to do laborious work or work that will make you sweat. Hard work means not only working on your goals but also being optimistic towards life and believing in yourself that even if the journey is difficult it can be achieved.

Everyone should keep in mind that the road to success is not easy and it’s difficult but it’s not impossible. Besides working on your goals that would lead a person towards success it is very important to push your limit every day, take charge of your life, and keep learning. 

It is very important to take care of your mind which could be done by eliminating negative thoughts and negative people from your life. Staying positive is a key to success.

How Can You Attain Success?

We have discussed what being successful depends on. Now, let us take a look at what we can do actively to attain that position in our lives. 

Be a risk-taker: Good things come to those who are unafraid of taking risks. You must venture out of your comfort zone and try new things if you ever wish to experience new things and fulfill your goals.

Surround yourself with people who uplift you: Having the right kind of peers and friends is very important if you want to achieve success in life. These people will motivate you and help you strive to do better when you are struggling.

Learn from your mistakes: Failures act as stepping stones. If you do not learn from the mistakes you have made, you will never be able to grow and prosper. Do not be disheartened if you do not succeed in doing everything the first time itself. 

Believe in yourself and keep working hard: There is no shortcut to success. You have to work hard and never give up. 

Learn soft skills: Nowadays, you need to enhance your communication and your time management skills to be able to handle everything life throws at you. Work on bettering your soft skills too.

Remain dedicated: You cannot give in to distractions if you aspire to do well. Take short breaks but never let your mind wander away from the task at hand. Complete your work on time and stay dedicated to your goals.

Short Essay on Success for Students and Children

Success is achieved by those people who work harder every day and manage their time properly. Students should understand the importance of time management. Managing time properly is the key to success. Loss of time is considered to be a loss of opportunities. Time management is what most successful people like Sundar Pichai and Elon Musk do. It is important for students to know what they want to achieve in life and should have a clear vision of their dreams. If a person has a vision in the life of what they want to become, they don’t drift around and will not end up in the wrong place. After having a vision or dream one should invest his or her time in making that dream a reality. That could be done by putting in constant hard work. Sometimes even if one is not talented one can achieve success through hard work and determination. The road to success is not easy it is filled with failures and it is important to understand that through those failures one leads to success. In conclusion, it could be said that managing the time every day and working on your dream even if there are failures in your journey is considered to be the ideal formulae for success.

How Can Success Harm You?

We are all chasing the idea of success but it is important to understand that too much of anything can become toxic or harmful in the long run. You might become so obsessed with being successful that you start disrupting your emotional and physical well-being. This can have rather negative long-term consequences. Moreover, failures are a part of life. If you do not stumble even once, you might become boastful and arrogant. This will drive away even your closest family members and friends. 

There is another side to this debate. If you chase success too much, you will not be able to handle failure. This can lead to depression and the development of several severe mental-health issues. To avoid this, you must focus on all the aspects of success and not run after materialistic accomplishments.

FAQs on Success Essay

1. How can Students be Successful in Academics?  

For students, success in academics could be getting good marks and exceeding everyone’s expectations. Students could achieve success in academics by planning everything accordingly. The first step for excelling in any exam is to know your syllabus completely. The second step is to make a timetable to differentiate what to study. when to study? and to know how much of a particular topic studied is important for the exam. The third step after completing the syllabus is to practice effectively. It is very important to be positive and believe in yourself.

2. What Can be the Impact of Success on People?

Success can have both negative and positive impacts on people. You must know how to navigate the ups alongside the downs in life. It is foolish to presume that success can be attained without sacrifices. People achieve professional success but they fail in achieving mental, physical, and social success. This might cause major mental issues like depression and loneliness. We must learn how to cope up with both our personal and professional lives without giving in to undue stress and anxiety.

3. Why should Young Students be taught the Importance of Hard Work?

As we have discussed in this article, there are no shortcuts to success. You have to keep persevering to be good at what you do. Success cannot be attained overnight. However, inculcating discipline can go a long way in teaching students how to handle whatever life throws at them. Hard work and discipline go hand in hand. You must be disciplined and work hard to achieve your goals. If young students are made to understand this from a tender age, they can go on to achieve great things in life.

4. Why can Success Sometimes Prove to be Harmful?

A famous quote states that you always pass failure on your way to success. We can never learn if we do not make any mistakes. One must learn to take failure in their stride and not let it affect them too much. Success can prove to be harmful when you put too much unnecessary pressure on yourself to do well. This can lead to a decline in your emotional well-being and affect you mentally. Everyone has to face ups and downs in life but you must try to learn something from every experience and grow.

5. How should Students Gain Inspiration to be Successful in Life?

Inspiration can be found anywhere if you try hard enough to look for it. People like Steve Jobs and Sundar Pichai did not become successful in one day. They kept trying out new things and did not shy away from taking risks. Ultimately, their hard work and dedication paved the way to their success. Students should take inspiration from such men and women who have overcome a lot of hurdles in life to reach the position they are in now. This will motivate them to do better too.

Academic Success for Student Essay

Academic success for any student is what each and every student in learning institutions strive to get. Although every student wants to achieve academic success not each and every one of them manages to achieve academic success. This is because there are certain things that one as a student should follow to achieve academic success. Some of the most important factors that one should put into consideration and practice to achieve academic success include the following.

People smart learning style involves many factors or components and affects all round life of an individual. In order to achieve smart learning style as a student you should strive to ensure that you understand concepts and skills in different academic fields. This style means that one should strive in all fields to achieve good performance. You can not be smart in one area while the rest you are poor and say that you are smart, at least in every area you should be smart. (Littlefield, 2009)

Adopting smart learning style is not that easy it calls for balancing of the entire academic fields. This is because if there is no balance in one area you will be smart while the rest you will fail. Strive to have a balance in all academic as well as social areas in life to achieve smart learning style. (Littlefield, 2009)

Critical thinking is one of the major factors that one should put into consideration as a student in order to achieve academic success. Critical thinking means is a situation or a practice whereby as a student you do not just take the literal meaning of something but you think of that particular situation under all dimensions. Critical thinking involves taking into account all the concepts that are related to that particular situation, after taking note of the concepts then analysis of the concepts follows in order to gain deeper understanding of the situation or the concept.

Taking note and understanding all the concepts related to the situation or area of study one is analyzing is very important. This is because through understanding of the concepts it becomes easier to tackle different fields of study that one is involved in. also the skills that one has can play great role in success of the given student academically. For instance, if you have excellent writing skills you can utilize them to gain high achievements academically. There are also other personal strategies that one may have; these strategies can be used positively to achieve high grades academically. For instance in a situation whereby you do not perform well in certain filed you can involve yourself in research on certain concepts that are challenging and at the end of it you find that you have succeeded academically in that field.

Creativeness is another important factor in gaining academic success, being creative means that out of a small and minor thing you can come up with a big idea. Creativeness can work best for a student when combined together with skills and strategies that one as a student has. In order for a student to gain academic success one has to be creative on how to utilize different opportunities to gain success at the end.

However there is more of being a student than achievement of academic success though is the major goal for every student. One should strive to achieve success in all areas of life and it calls for one to have a balanced life. However gaining balanced life to many people is a challenge and it calls for commitment in all areas of life. As much as one is committed to academics he or she should be committed in other areas of life like social activities since they help in building not only the academic part of life but also building ones character. Also through social activities the mind relaxes such that one can understand different academic fields that are being learned.

In order to have a balanced life as a student there are certain changes that one has to make in life. For instance there are certain routines that one is used to that do not help in building balanced life, in order to achieve balanced life and prosper academically some of the routines should be changed. Change of routines calls for commitment and persistence, this is because routine is something that one is used to so changing from those routines is not an easier thing hence call for commitment and persistence. Through this it will be possible to overcome some of the major academic challenges that one goes through.

The last factor that one as a student should put into consideration is adoption of good habits. Practice of good habits is essential in academic success of a student, this is because practice of a certain habit in ones life results to formation of a relevant character in that person. However changing of habits is not an easy thing it calls for commitment and persistence in practice of the habits.

Learning of good habits or changing one’s habit is not easy, at one point I decided to change my study habit which was not very good and to adopt a good study habit. This is one of the things that I found to be very challenging in my life; this is because it was a must for me to through many different changes in life that I was not used to before. I was one of the students who were known for wasting time and not being very serious in my academics and changing from this kind of a lifestyle was a challenge. Though it has been challenging I am happy that today have managed to adapt good study habits and am still pursuing it.

List of reference

Littlefield J. (2009) Smart study strategies. Web.

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, 177 college essay examples for 11 schools + expert analysis.

College Admissions , College Essays

The personal statement might just be the hardest part of your college application. Mostly this is because it has the least guidance and is the most open-ended. One way to understand what colleges are looking for when they ask you to write an essay is to check out the essays of students who already got in—college essays that actually worked. After all, they must be among the most successful of this weird literary genre.

In this article, I'll go through general guidelines for what makes great college essays great. I've also compiled an enormous list of 100+ actual sample college essays from 11 different schools. Finally, I'll break down two of these published college essay examples and explain why and how they work. With links to 177 full essays and essay excerpts , this article is a great resource for learning how to craft your own personal college admissions essay!

What Excellent College Essays Have in Common

Even though in many ways these sample college essays are very different from one other, they do share some traits you should try to emulate as you write your own essay.

Visible Signs of Planning

Building out from a narrow, concrete focus. You'll see a similar structure in many of the essays. The author starts with a very detailed story of an event or description of a person or place. After this sense-heavy imagery, the essay expands out to make a broader point about the author, and connects this very memorable experience to the author's present situation, state of mind, newfound understanding, or maturity level.

Knowing how to tell a story. Some of the experiences in these essays are one-of-a-kind. But most deal with the stuff of everyday life. What sets them apart is the way the author approaches the topic: analyzing it for drama and humor, for its moving qualities, for what it says about the author's world, and for how it connects to the author's emotional life.

Stellar Execution

A killer first sentence. You've heard it before, and you'll hear it again: you have to suck the reader in, and the best place to do that is the first sentence. Great first sentences are punchy. They are like cliffhangers, setting up an exciting scene or an unusual situation with an unclear conclusion, in order to make the reader want to know more. Don't take my word for it—check out these 22 first sentences from Stanford applicants and tell me you don't want to read the rest of those essays to find out what happens!

A lively, individual voice. Writing is for readers. In this case, your reader is an admissions officer who has read thousands of essays before yours and will read thousands after. Your goal? Don't bore your reader. Use interesting descriptions, stay away from clichés, include your own offbeat observations—anything that makes this essay sounds like you and not like anyone else.

Technical correctness. No spelling mistakes, no grammar weirdness, no syntax issues, no punctuation snafus—each of these sample college essays has been formatted and proofread perfectly. If this kind of exactness is not your strong suit, you're in luck! All colleges advise applicants to have their essays looked over several times by parents, teachers, mentors, and anyone else who can spot a comma splice. Your essay must be your own work, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with getting help polishing it.

And if you need more guidance, connect with PrepScholar's expert admissions consultants . These expert writers know exactly what college admissions committees look for in an admissions essay and chan help you craft an essay that boosts your chances of getting into your dream school.

Check out PrepScholar's Essay Editing and Coaching progra m for more details!

Links to Full College Essay Examples

Some colleges publish a selection of their favorite accepted college essays that worked, and I've put together a selection of over 100 of these.

Common App Essay Samples

Please note that some of these college essay examples may be responding to prompts that are no longer in use. The current Common App prompts are as follows:

1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. 2. The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience? 3. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome? 4. Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you? 5. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others. 6. Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?

7. Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you've already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

Now, let's get to the good stuff: the list of 177 college essay examples responding to current and past Common App essay prompts. 

Connecticut college.

• 12 Common Application essays from the classes of 2022-2025

Hamilton College

• 7 Common Application essays from the class of 2026
• 7 Common Application essays from the class of 2022
• 7 Common Application essays from the class of 2018
• 8 Common Application essays from the class of 2012
• 8 Common Application essays from the class of 2007

Johns Hopkins

These essays are answers to past prompts from either the Common Application or the Coalition Application (which Johns Hopkins used to accept).

• 1 Common Application or Coalition Application essay from the class of 2026
• 6 Common Application or Coalition Application essays from the class of 2025
• 6 Common Application or Universal Application essays from the class of 2024
• 6 Common Application or Universal Application essays from the class of 2023
• 7 Common Application of Universal Application essays from the class of 2022
• 5 Common Application or Universal Application essays from the class of 2021
• 7 Common Application or Universal Application essays from the class of 2020

Essay Examples Published by Other Websites

• 2 Common Application essays ( 1st essay , 2nd essay ) from applicants admitted to Columbia

Other Sample College Essays

Here is a collection of essays that are college-specific.

Babson College

• 4 essays (and 1 video response) on "Why Babson" from the class of 2020

Emory University

• 5 essay examples ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ) from the class of 2020 along with analysis from Emory admissions staff on why the essays were exceptional
• 5 more recent essay examples ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ) along with analysis from Emory admissions staff on what made these essays stand out

University of Georgia

• 1 “strong essay” sample from 2019
• 1 “strong essay” sample from 2018
• 10 Harvard essays from 2023
• 10 Harvard essays from 2022
• 10 Harvard essays from 2021
• 10 Harvard essays from 2020
• 10 Harvard essays from 2019
• 10 Harvard essays from 2018
• 6 essays from admitted MIT students

Smith College

• 6 "best gift" essays from the class of 2018

Books of College Essays

If you're looking for even more sample college essays, consider purchasing a college essay book. The best of these include dozens of essays that worked and feedback from real admissions officers.

College Essays That Made a Difference —This detailed guide from Princeton Review includes not only successful essays, but also interviews with admissions officers and full student profiles.

50 Successful Harvard Application Essays by the Staff of the Harvard Crimson—A must for anyone aspiring to Harvard .

50 Successful Ivy League Application Essays and 50 Successful Stanford Application Essays by Gen and Kelly Tanabe—For essays from other top schools, check out this venerated series, which is regularly updated with new essays.

Heavenly Essays by Janine W. Robinson—This collection from the popular blogger behind Essay Hell includes a wider range of schools, as well as helpful tips on honing your own essay.

Analyzing Great Common App Essays That Worked

I've picked two essays from the examples collected above to examine in more depth so that you can see exactly what makes a successful college essay work. Full credit for these essays goes to the original authors and the schools that published them.

Example 1: "Breaking Into Cars," by Stephen, Johns Hopkins Class of '19 (Common App Essay, 636 words long)

I had never broken into a car before.

We were in Laredo, having just finished our first day at a Habitat for Humanity work site. The Hotchkiss volunteers had already left, off to enjoy some Texas BBQ, leaving me behind with the college kids to clean up. Not until we were stranded did we realize we were locked out of the van.

Someone picked a coat hanger out of the dumpster, handed it to me, and took a few steps back.

"Can you do that thing with a coat hanger to unlock it?"

"Why me?" I thought.

More out of amusement than optimism, I gave it a try. I slid the hanger into the window's seal like I'd seen on crime shows, and spent a few minutes jiggling the apparatus around the inside of the frame. Suddenly, two things simultaneously clicked. One was the lock on the door. (I actually succeeded in springing it.) The other was the realization that I'd been in this type of situation before. In fact, I'd been born into this type of situation.

My upbringing has numbed me to unpredictability and chaos. With a family of seven, my home was loud, messy, and spottily supervised. My siblings arguing, the dog barking, the phone ringing—all meant my house was functioning normally. My Dad, a retired Navy pilot, was away half the time. When he was home, he had a parenting style something like a drill sergeant. At the age of nine, I learned how to clear burning oil from the surface of water. My Dad considered this a critical life skill—you know, in case my aircraft carrier should ever get torpedoed. "The water's on fire! Clear a hole!" he shouted, tossing me in the lake without warning. While I'm still unconvinced about that particular lesson's practicality, my Dad's overarching message is unequivocally true: much of life is unexpected, and you have to deal with the twists and turns.

Living in my family, days rarely unfolded as planned. A bit overlooked, a little pushed around, I learned to roll with reality, negotiate a quick deal, and give the improbable a try. I don't sweat the small stuff, and I definitely don't expect perfect fairness. So what if our dining room table only has six chairs for seven people? Someone learns the importance of punctuality every night.

But more than punctuality and a special affinity for musical chairs, my family life has taught me to thrive in situations over which I have no power. Growing up, I never controlled my older siblings, but I learned how to thwart their attempts to control me. I forged alliances, and realigned them as necessary. Sometimes, I was the poor, defenseless little brother; sometimes I was the omniscient elder. Different things to different people, as the situation demanded. I learned to adapt.

Back then, these techniques were merely reactions undertaken to ensure my survival. But one day this fall, Dr. Hicks, our Head of School, asked me a question that he hoped all seniors would reflect on throughout the year: "How can I participate in a thing I do not govern, in the company of people I did not choose?"

The question caught me off guard, much like the question posed to me in Laredo. Then, I realized I knew the answer. I knew why the coat hanger had been handed to me.

Growing up as the middle child in my family, I was a vital participant in a thing I did not govern, in the company of people I did not choose. It's family. It's society. And often, it's chaos. You participate by letting go of the small stuff, not expecting order and perfection, and facing the unexpected with confidence, optimism, and preparedness. My family experience taught me to face a serendipitous world with confidence.

What Makes This Essay Tick?

It's very helpful to take writing apart in order to see just how it accomplishes its objectives. Stephen's essay is very effective. Let's find out why!

An Opening Line That Draws You In

In just eight words, we get: scene-setting (he is standing next to a car about to break in), the idea of crossing a boundary (he is maybe about to do an illegal thing for the first time), and a cliffhanger (we are thinking: is he going to get caught? Is he headed for a life of crime? Is he about to be scared straight?).

Great, Detailed Opening Story

More out of amusement than optimism, I gave it a try. I slid the hanger into the window's seal like I'd seen on crime shows, and spent a few minutes jiggling the apparatus around the inside of the frame.

It's the details that really make this small experience come alive. Notice how whenever he can, Stephen uses a more specific, descriptive word in place of a more generic one. The volunteers aren't going to get food or dinner; they're going for "Texas BBQ." The coat hanger comes from "a dumpster." Stephen doesn't just move the coat hanger—he "jiggles" it.

Details also help us visualize the emotions of the people in the scene. The person who hands Stephen the coat hanger isn't just uncomfortable or nervous; he "takes a few steps back"—a description of movement that conveys feelings. Finally, the detail of actual speech makes the scene pop. Instead of writing that the other guy asked him to unlock the van, Stephen has the guy actually say his own words in a way that sounds like a teenager talking.

Turning a Specific Incident Into a Deeper Insight

Suddenly, two things simultaneously clicked. One was the lock on the door. (I actually succeeded in springing it.) The other was the realization that I'd been in this type of situation before. In fact, I'd been born into this type of situation.

Stephen makes the locked car experience a meaningful illustration of how he has learned to be resourceful and ready for anything, and he also makes this turn from the specific to the broad through an elegant play on the two meanings of the word "click."

Using Concrete Examples When Making Abstract Claims

My upbringing has numbed me to unpredictability and chaos. With a family of seven, my home was loud, messy, and spottily supervised. My siblings arguing, the dog barking, the phone ringing—all meant my house was functioning normally.

"Unpredictability and chaos" are very abstract, not easily visualized concepts. They could also mean any number of things—violence, abandonment, poverty, mental instability. By instantly following up with highly finite and unambiguous illustrations like "family of seven" and "siblings arguing, the dog barking, the phone ringing," Stephen grounds the abstraction in something that is easy to picture: a large, noisy family.

Using Small Bits of Humor and Casual Word Choice

My Dad, a retired Navy pilot, was away half the time. When he was home, he had a parenting style something like a drill sergeant. At the age of nine, I learned how to clear burning oil from the surface of water. My Dad considered this a critical life skill—you know, in case my aircraft carrier should ever get torpedoed.

Obviously, knowing how to clean burning oil is not high on the list of things every 9-year-old needs to know. To emphasize this, Stephen uses sarcasm by bringing up a situation that is clearly over-the-top: "in case my aircraft carrier should ever get torpedoed."

The humor also feels relaxed. Part of this is because he introduces it with the colloquial phrase "you know," so it sounds like he is talking to us in person. This approach also diffuses the potential discomfort of the reader with his father's strictness—since he is making jokes about it, clearly he is OK. Notice, though, that this doesn't occur very much in the essay. This helps keep the tone meaningful and serious rather than flippant.

An Ending That Stretches the Insight Into the Future

But one day this fall, Dr. Hicks, our Head of School, asked me a question that he hoped all seniors would reflect on throughout the year: "How can I participate in a thing I do not govern, in the company of people I did not choose?"

The ending of the essay reveals that Stephen's life has been one long preparation for the future. He has emerged from chaos and his dad's approach to parenting as a person who can thrive in a world that he can't control.

This connection of past experience to current maturity and self-knowledge is a key element in all successful personal essays. Colleges are very much looking for mature, self-aware applicants. These are the qualities of successful college students, who will be able to navigate the independence college classes require and the responsibility and quasi-adulthood of college life.

What Could This Essay Do Even Better?

Even the best essays aren't perfect, and even the world's greatest writers will tell you that writing is never "finished"—just "due." So what would we tweak in this essay if we could?

Replace some of the clichéd language. Stephen uses handy phrases like "twists and turns" and "don't sweat the small stuff" as a kind of shorthand for explaining his relationship to chaos and unpredictability. But using too many of these ready-made expressions runs the risk of clouding out your own voice and replacing it with something expected and boring.

Use another example from recent life. Stephen's first example (breaking into the van in Laredo) is a great illustration of being resourceful in an unexpected situation. But his essay also emphasizes that he "learned to adapt" by being "different things to different people." It would be great to see how this plays out outside his family, either in the situation in Laredo or another context.

Example 2: By Renner Kwittken, Tufts Class of '23 (Common App Essay, 645 words long)

My first dream job was to be a pickle truck driver. I saw it in my favorite book, Richard Scarry's "Cars and Trucks and Things That Go," and for some reason, I was absolutely obsessed with the idea of driving a giant pickle. Much to the discontent of my younger sister, I insisted that my parents read us that book as many nights as possible so we could find goldbug, a small little golden bug, on every page. I would imagine the wonderful life I would have: being a pig driving a giant pickle truck across the country, chasing and finding goldbug. I then moved on to wanting to be a Lego Master. Then an architect. Then a surgeon.

Then I discovered a real goldbug: gold nanoparticles that can reprogram macrophages to assist in killing tumors, produce clear images of them without sacrificing the subject, and heat them to obliteration.

Suddenly the destination of my pickle was clear.

I quickly became enveloped by the world of nanomedicine; I scoured articles about liposomes, polymeric micelles, dendrimers, targeting ligands, and self-assembling nanoparticles, all conquering cancer in some exotic way. Completely absorbed, I set out to find a mentor to dive even deeper into these topics. After several rejections, I was immensely grateful to receive an invitation to work alongside Dr. Sangeeta Ray at Johns Hopkins.

In the lab, Dr. Ray encouraged a great amount of autonomy to design and implement my own procedures. I chose to attack a problem that affects the entire field of nanomedicine: nanoparticles consistently fail to translate from animal studies into clinical trials. Jumping off recent literature, I set out to see if a pre-dose of a common chemotherapeutic could enhance nanoparticle delivery in aggressive prostate cancer, creating three novel constructs based on three different linear polymers, each using fluorescent dye (although no gold, sorry goldbug!). Though using radioactive isotopes like Gallium and Yttrium would have been incredible, as a 17-year-old, I unfortunately wasn't allowed in the same room as these radioactive materials (even though I took a Geiger counter to a pair of shoes and found them to be slightly dangerous).

I hadn't expected my hypothesis to work, as the research project would have ideally been led across two full years. Yet while there are still many optimizations and revisions to be done, I was thrilled to find -- with completely new nanoparticles that may one day mean future trials will use particles with the initials "RK-1" -- thatcyclophosphamide did indeed increase nanoparticle delivery to the tumor in a statistically significant way.

A secondary, unexpected research project was living alone in Baltimore, a new city to me, surrounded by people much older than I. Even with moving frequently between hotels, AirBnB's, and students' apartments, I strangely reveled in the freedom I had to enjoy my surroundings and form new friendships with graduate school students from the lab. We explored The Inner Harbor at night, attended a concert together one weekend, and even got to watch the Orioles lose (to nobody's surprise). Ironically, it's through these new friendships I discovered something unexpected: what I truly love is sharing research. Whether in a presentation or in a casual conversation, making others interested in science is perhaps more exciting to me than the research itself. This solidified a new pursuit to angle my love for writing towards illuminating science in ways people can understand, adding value to a society that can certainly benefit from more scientific literacy.

It seems fitting that my goals are still transforming: in Scarry's book, there is not just one goldbug, there is one on every page. With each new experience, I'm learning that it isn't the goldbug itself, but rather the act of searching for the goldbugs that will encourage, shape, and refine my ever-evolving passions. Regardless of the goldbug I seek -- I know my pickle truck has just begun its journey.

Renner takes a somewhat different approach than Stephen, but their essay is just as detailed and engaging. Let's go through some of the strengths of this essay.

One Clear Governing Metaphor

This essay is ultimately about two things: Renner’s dreams and future career goals, and Renner’s philosophy on goal-setting and achieving one’s dreams.

But instead of listing off all the amazing things they’ve done to pursue their dream of working in nanomedicine, Renner tells a powerful, unique story instead. To set up the narrative, Renner opens the essay by connecting their experiences with goal-setting and dream-chasing all the way back to a memorable childhood experience:

This lighthearted–but relevant!--story about the moment when Renner first developed a passion for a specific career (“finding the goldbug”) provides an anchor point for the rest of the essay. As Renner pivots to describing their current dreams and goals–working in nanomedicine–the metaphor of “finding the goldbug” is reflected in Renner’s experiments, rejections, and new discoveries.

Though Renner tells multiple stories about their quest to “find the goldbug,” or, in other words, pursue their passion, each story is connected by a unifying theme; namely, that as we search and grow over time, our goals will transform…and that’s okay! By the end of the essay, Renner uses the metaphor of “finding the goldbug” to reiterate the relevance of the opening story:

While the earlier parts of the essay convey Renner’s core message by showing, the final, concluding paragraph sums up Renner’s insights by telling. By briefly and clearly stating the relevance of the goldbug metaphor to their own philosophy on goals and dreams, Renner demonstrates their creativity, insight, and eagerness to grow and evolve as the journey continues into college.

An Engaging, Individual Voice

This essay uses many techniques that make Renner sound genuine and make the reader feel like we already know them.

Technique #1: humor. Notice Renner's gentle and relaxed humor that lightly mocks their younger self's grand ambitions (this is different from the more sarcastic kind of humor used by Stephen in the first essay—you could never mistake one writer for the other).

My first dream job was to be a pickle truck driver.

I would imagine the wonderful life I would have: being a pig driving a giant pickle truck across the country, chasing and finding goldbug. I then moved on to wanting to be a Lego Master. Then an architect. Then a surgeon.

Renner gives a great example of how to use humor to your advantage in college essays. You don’t want to come off as too self-deprecating or sarcastic, but telling a lightheartedly humorous story about your younger self that also showcases how you’ve grown and changed over time can set the right tone for your entire essay.

Technique #2: intentional, eye-catching structure. The second technique is the way Renner uses a unique structure to bolster the tone and themes of their essay . The structure of your essay can have a major impact on how your ideas come across…so it’s important to give it just as much thought as the content of your essay!

For instance, Renner does a great job of using one-line paragraphs to create dramatic emphasis and to make clear transitions from one phase of the story to the next:

Suddenly the destination of my pickle car was clear.

Not only does the one-liner above signal that Renner is moving into a new phase of the narrative (their nanoparticle research experiences), it also tells the reader that this is a big moment in Renner’s story. It’s clear that Renner made a major discovery that changed the course of their goal pursuit and dream-chasing. Through structure, Renner conveys excitement and entices the reader to keep pushing forward to the next part of the story.

Technique #3: playing with syntax. The third technique is to use sentences of varying length, syntax, and structure. Most of the essay's written in standard English and uses grammatically correct sentences. However, at key moments, Renner emphasizes that the reader needs to sit up and pay attention by switching to short, colloquial, differently punctuated, and sometimes fragmented sentences.

Even with moving frequently between hotels, AirBnB's, and students' apartments, I strangely reveled in the freedom I had to enjoy my surroundings and form new friendships with graduate school students from the lab. We explored The Inner Harbor at night, attended a concert together one weekend, and even got to watch the Orioles lose (to nobody's surprise). Ironically, it's through these new friendships I discovered something unexpected: what I truly love is sharing research.

In the examples above, Renner switches adeptly between long, flowing sentences and quippy, telegraphic ones. At the same time, Renner uses these different sentence lengths intentionally. As they describe their experiences in new places, they use longer sentences to immerse the reader in the sights, smells, and sounds of those experiences. And when it’s time to get a big, key idea across, Renner switches to a short, punchy sentence to stop the reader in their tracks.

The varying syntax and sentence lengths pull the reader into the narrative and set up crucial “aha” moments when it’s most important…which is a surefire way to make any college essay stand out.

Renner's essay is very strong, but there are still a few little things that could be improved.

Connecting the research experiences to the theme of “finding the goldbug.”  The essay begins and ends with Renner’s connection to the idea of “finding the goldbug.” And while this metaphor is deftly tied into the essay’s intro and conclusion, it isn’t entirely clear what Renner’s big findings were during the research experiences that are described in the middle of the essay. It would be great to add a sentence or two stating what Renner’s big takeaways (or “goldbugs”) were from these experiences, which add more cohesion to the essay as a whole.

Give more details about discovering the world of nanomedicine. It makes sense that Renner wants to get into the details of their big research experiences as quickly as possible. After all, these are the details that show Renner’s dedication to nanomedicine! But a smoother transition from the opening pickle car/goldbug story to Renner’s “real goldbug” of nanoparticles would help the reader understand why nanoparticles became Renner’s goldbug. Finding out why Renner is so motivated to study nanomedicine–and perhaps what put them on to this field of study–would help readers fully understand why Renner chose this path in the first place.

4 Essential Tips for Writing Your Own Essay

How can you use this discussion to better your own college essay? Here are some suggestions for ways to use this resource effectively.

#1: Get Help From the Experts

Getting your college applications together takes a lot of work and can be pretty intimidatin g. Essays are even more important than ever now that admissions processes are changing and schools are going test-optional and removing diversity standards thanks to new Supreme Court rulings .  If you want certified expert help that really makes a difference, get started with  PrepScholar’s Essay Editing and Coaching program. Our program can help you put together an incredible essay from idea to completion so that your application stands out from the crowd. We've helped students get into the best colleges in the United States, including Harvard, Stanford, and Yale.  If you're ready to take the next step and boost your odds of getting into your dream school, connect with our experts today .

#2: Read Other Essays to Get Ideas for Your Own

As you go through the essays we've compiled for you above, ask yourself the following questions:

• Can you explain to yourself (or someone else!) why the opening sentence works well?
• Look for the essay's detailed personal anecdote. What senses is the author describing? Can you easily picture the scene in your mind's eye?
• Find the place where this anecdote bridges into a larger insight about the author. How does the essay connect the two? How does the anecdote work as an example of the author's characteristic, trait, or skill?
• Check out the essay's tone. If it's funny, can you find the places where the humor comes from? If it's sad and moving, can you find the imagery and description of feelings that make you moved? If it's serious, can you see how word choice adds to this tone?

Make a note whenever you find an essay or part of an essay that you think was particularly well-written, and think about what you like about it . Is it funny? Does it help you really get to know the writer? Does it show what makes the writer unique? Once you have your list, keep it next to you while writing your essay to remind yourself to try and use those same techniques in your own essay.

#3: Find Your "A-Ha!" Moment

All of these essays rely on connecting with the reader through a heartfelt, highly descriptive scene from the author's life. It can either be very dramatic (did you survive a plane crash?) or it can be completely mundane (did you finally beat your dad at Scrabble?). Either way, it should be personal and revealing about you, your personality, and the way you are now that you are entering the adult world.

Check out essays by authors like John Jeremiah Sullivan , Leslie Jamison , Hanif Abdurraqib , and Esmé Weijun Wang to get more examples of how to craft a compelling personal narrative.

#4: Start Early, Revise Often

Let me level with you: the best writing isn't writing at all. It's rewriting. And in order to have time to rewrite, you have to start way before the application deadline. My advice is to write your first draft at least two months before your applications are due.

Let it sit for a few days untouched. Then come back to it with fresh eyes and think critically about what you've written. What's extra? What's missing? What is in the wrong place? What doesn't make sense? Don't be afraid to take it apart and rearrange sections. Do this several times over, and your essay will be much better for it!

For more editing tips, check out a style guide like Dreyer's English or Eats, Shoots & Leaves .

What's Next?

Still not sure which colleges you want to apply to? Our experts will show you how to make a college list that will help you choose a college that's right for you.

Interested in learning more about college essays? Check out our detailed breakdown of exactly how personal statements work in an application , some suggestions on what to avoid when writing your essay , and our guide to writing about your extracurricular activities .

Working on the rest of your application? Read what admissions officers wish applicants knew before applying .

The recommendations in this post are based solely on our knowledge and experience. If you purchase an item through one of our links PrepScholar may receive a commission.

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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Essay on Qualities Of A Successful Student

Students are often asked to write an essay on Qualities Of A Successful Student in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Qualities Of A Successful Student

Introduction.

A successful student isn’t just someone who gets good grades. They also show certain qualities that make them stand out. These traits help them excel not only in academics but also in life.

Self-Discipline

A successful student has self-discipline. They manage their time well, prioritize tasks, and avoid procrastination. This helps them complete assignments on time and study regularly, leading to better grades.

Curiosity is another key trait. Successful students have a thirst for knowledge. They ask questions, seek answers, and are always eager to learn new things. This helps them understand and remember lessons better.

Determination

Determination is critical. Successful students don’t give up easily. They face challenges head-on and work hard to overcome them. This determination helps them achieve their academic goals.

Respectfulness

Successful students are respectful. They listen to their teachers and classmates, value their opinions, and treat everyone with kindness. This creates a positive learning environment.

In conclusion, a successful student has self-discipline, curiosity, determination, and respectfulness. These qualities help them excel in school and prepare them for future success.

250 Words Essay on Qualities Of A Successful Student

Being a successful student is not just about getting high grades. One of the most important qualities is hard work. A student who works hard knows that learning takes time and effort. They do not give up easily and are always ready to put in the extra time to understand their lessons.

Time Management

Another key quality is time management. A successful student knows how to plan their day. They make sure they have enough time for studying, doing homework, and rest. They understand that every minute counts and use their time wisely.

Curiosity is also a significant quality. A curious student is always eager to learn new things. They ask questions and try to find answers. They are not afraid of making mistakes because they know that mistakes are part of learning.

Respect is another important quality. A successful student respects their teachers, classmates, and themselves. They listen to others and value their opinions. They treat everyone with kindness and fairness.

Responsibility

Lastly, responsibility is a vital quality. A successful student takes charge of their learning. They complete their assignments on time and prepare for exams well in advance. They understand that their success depends on their actions.

In conclusion, being a successful student is about more than just getting good grades. It involves working hard, managing time, being curious, showing respect, and taking responsibility. These qualities not only help in school but also in life.

500 Words Essay on Qualities Of A Successful Student

A successful student is not defined only by their grades, but also by their habits, skills, and attitude towards learning. There are several qualities that contribute to a student’s success. Let’s explore these qualities in detail.

Hard Work and Diligence

Hard work is one of the most important qualities of a successful student. Success does not come easy; it requires dedication and effort. Successful students understand that they need to put in the time and effort to understand and learn new concepts. They do not shy away from challenges but face them head-on, knowing that it is an opportunity to grow.

Curiosity and Love for Learning

Successful students have a deep love for learning. They are always curious and eager to know more. This quality drives them to explore new topics, ask questions, and seek answers. Their thirst for knowledge helps them to excel in their studies and beyond.

Good time management is another crucial quality. Successful students know how to balance their time between studies, hobbies, rest, and other activities. They plan their day well, ensuring they have enough time for each task. They understand that time is precious and make the most of it.

Responsibility and Discipline

Successful students are responsible and disciplined. They take ownership of their learning, completing assignments on time, and preparing well for exams. They understand the importance of following rules and maintaining discipline, both in and out of the classroom.

Resilience is the ability to bounce back from failures and setbacks. Successful students understand that failure is a part of the learning process. They do not get disheartened by poor grades or difficult subjects. Instead, they learn from their mistakes, pick themselves up, and try again.

Good Communication Skills

Good communication skills are vital for a successful student. They need to express their ideas clearly, both in writing and speaking. This helps them to share their thoughts, ask questions, and engage in meaningful discussions with teachers and classmates.

In conclusion, being a successful student is about more than just getting good grades. It’s about having a positive attitude towards learning, working hard, managing time well, being responsible and disciplined, being resilient, and having good communication skills. These qualities not only help students succeed in school but also prepare them for success in life. Remember, success is not an overnight achievement, but a result of consistent efforts and the right attitude.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on Quarantine Experience
• Essay on Quilt Of A Country
• Essay on Race As A Social Construct

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

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✍️Essay on Success in 100,150 and 200 Words: The Power of Positive Mindset

• Updated on  
• Oct 26, 2023

The concept of success is very simple; if you invest your time wisely and work hard, you will achieve success in no time. But success is not as simple as it sounds; what might sound like success to one might not be the same for another person. It embodies the realization of one’s goals, aspirations, and desires, often accompanied by a sense of accomplishment and fulfilment.

Success is manifested in different aspects, such as career achievements, personal growth, or even the pursuit of happiness. It is a journey filled with determination, perseverance, and often a willingness to learn from both triumphs and setbacks. Ultimately, success is a subjective pursuit that reflects the unique path and definition of achievement for each person.

Table of Contents

• 1 What Makes a Person Successful?
• 2 Essay on Success in 100 Words
• 3 Essay on Success in 150 Words
• 4 Essay on Success in 200 Words

What Makes a Person Successful?

Being successful is very subjective and can vary from person to person. Therefore, here are some common factors which contribute to the success of a person.

• Hard Work and Persistence: Success requires effort and dedication and one has the ability to face challenges.
• Setting Clear Goals: It is very important for one to have specific and attainable goals which will provide direction and motivation. 
• Networking: The person should have the capability to build relations and at the same time be open to opportunities which strike. 
• Time Management: Managing time effectively and priorities is essential for productivity and progress. 
• Self-Discipline: One should be very focused and maintain self-control which will help them achieve long-term goals. 
• Management of Finances: Having a basic understanding of finances and managing them wisely is also very important for attaining financial success. 

Also Read: Essay on Water Conservation

Essay on Success in 100 Words

Success is the culmination of dedication, hard work, and determination. It is not merely the achievement of material wealth, but the fulfilment of one’s goals and aspirations. Success varies from person to person; for some, it’s a thriving career, while for others, it could be having a harmonious family life. 

To attain success, individuals must set clear objectives, persevere through challenges, and learn from failures. Success often involves learning, adapting, and embracing change. It’s the result of resilience and the willingness to keep pushing forward. Ultimately, success is a personal journey, and its definition is unique to each individual.

Essay on Success in 150 Words

Everybody wants to be successful in life, but are they willing to put in all their efforts? Success is not solely measured by wealth or fame but by achieving one’s goals and finding fulfilment. True success is often the result of determination, hard work, and resilience. Setting clear, achievable objectives and being persistent through challenges are crucial components.

Education is a common path to success, providing knowledge and skills that open doors to opportunities. Embracing failure as a stepping stone, learning from mistakes, and adapting to change are essential to achieving success. However, it’s important to recognize that success is subjective and can encompass a broader spectrum of achievements beyond material possessions.

Personal growth, happiness, and a sense of purpose are all part of success. Balancing personal and professional life is key to sustaining it. Ultimately, success is a journey, not a destination, and it’s about realizing your full potential and making a meaningful contribution to the world.

Also Read: Essay on Nature: In 100 Words, 200 Words, 300 Words

Essay on Success in 200 Words

Success is a multifaceted concept, often defined by achieving one’s goals and aspirations. It is a subjective and deeply personal notion, as what constitutes success varies from person to person. However, a common thread in success is the continuous pursuit of one’s ambitions, combined with determination and hard work.

Success is not solely measured by material wealth, but rather by the fulfilment and satisfaction that comes from reaching one’s objectives. It is the result of setting clear goals, developing a plan, and facing all the challenges. The road to success is rarely smooth; it is often marked by setbacks and failures. These obstacles are crucial for personal growth, teaching valuable lessons that contribute to success in the long run.

Moreover, success is not an endpoint; it is a continuous journey. It requires adaptability and the willingness to learn and evolve. Success can be found in various aspects of life, from career achievements to personal relationships and self-fulfilment. It is the balance and harmony between these different facets that lead to a truly successful and meaningful life.

In conclusion, success is a complex and individualized concept, rooted in determination, hard work, resilience, and personal growth. It is not defined solely by external markers but by the fulfilment and happiness, one derives from their accomplishments and the journey to achieve them.

Related Articles

Writing an essay on success requires you to describe this multifaceted concept. Success is achieved when one’s goal and objective is attained. Those who are successful, have fulfilled their highest ambitions in life and work, or are actively striving towards doing so. 

Happiness does not follow success. Contrary to popular belief, living a life that makes you happy can help you achieve your goals and be content. 

You gain from success because it gives you the things you want or need. Setting and achieving attainable goals results in a feeling of well-being. 

For more information on such interesting topics, visit our essay-writing page and follow Leverage Edu ! 

Malvika Chawla

Malvika is a content writer cum news freak who comes with a strong background in Journalism and has worked with renowned news websites such as News 9 and The Financial Express to name a few. When not writing, she can be found bringing life to the canvasses by painting on them.

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Student Success Statement, Essay Example

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I have not chosen San Jacinto College just for the quality of in-class education but also for tremendous opportunities to learn outside classroom. I am excited at the prospects of interacting with the college’s diverse student body. Interaction with students from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds is important to me because geographical and cultural barriers are becoming less relevant due to globalization and it will be very difficult, if not impossible to success in the 21 st century without truly global perspective. In addition, I also plan to actively engage with on-campus student organizations that will help me develop a variety of valuable skills that are essential for success in both college and in the real world. These skills include communication, leadership, teamwork, cross-cultural skills, and organization.

I also plan to acquire work experience while simultaneously pursuing my college education. Managing both academic and work responsibilities will enable me to develop strong work ethics. In addition, work experiences like internships will help me better understand the course material learnt in the class. There is, arguably, no more effective way to understand concepts than by putting them into action.

I also hope to be a source of education to students and other members of San Jacinto Community. I have extensively travelled within the U.S. as well as abroad. In addition, I have served with a number of non-profit organizations such as Red Cross and Habitat for Humanity which has helped me gain valuable insights about life and the world we live in. I look forward to have a great time at San Jacinto and hope the formal and informal education at San Jacinto will enable me to develop strong foundation for future career.

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How to Be a Successful Student

Last Updated: April 27, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Sean Alexander, MS . Sean Alexander is an Academic Tutor specializing in teaching mathematics and physics. Sean is the Owner of Alexander Tutoring, an academic tutoring business that provides personalized studying sessions focused on mathematics and physics. With over 15 years of experience, Sean has worked as a physics and math instructor and tutor for Stanford University, San Francisco State University, and Stanbridge Academy. He holds a BS in Physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara and an MS in Theoretical Physics from San Francisco State University. There are 19 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 658,110 times.

Successful students know how to focus on their studies when it matters while also taking breaks when they need them. They can manage their time wisely, stick to meaningful study schedules, and make the most of their time in the classroom. In the process, successful students also know how to have a good time, and love gaining knowledge as much as they enjoy getting stellar grades.

Developing the Qualities of a Successful Student

• That said, you can’t ignore everything in the world just so you can study. If a friend or family member is having a crisis, you can’t ditch him or her just to study, either.

• Don’t fall into peer pressure, either. In some schools, cheating is considered the norm, and it seems like so many kids are doing it that you might as well join in. This kind of group thinking is very dangerous and can keep you from reaching your full potential.

• That said, most people really shouldn’t focus or do one task for more than 60 or 90 minutes. Getting a 10-15 minute break in between those times can help you regenerate your energy and commit to focusing again.

• Don't compare yourself with anyone. With this, you are insulting yourself.

• If you really find something you’re passionate about in class, then you should do some outside reading to get even more excited about the topic. For example, if you loved reading The Sun Also Rises in class, try reading A Movable Feast or some of Hemingway’s other works on your own, too.

Joseph Meyer

Become an active learner. Learn from your mistakes in order to confidently tackle new lessons. Before jumping into advanced topics, make sure your skills in basic concepts are up to scratch. Utilize online resources and interactive exercises that provide instant feedback to solidify your understanding.

Succeeding in the Classroom

• In order to pay attention, it’s important to keep your eye on the teacher.
• If you’re confused about something, you can quickly ask for clarification. If the lesson goes on and you feel yourself getting more and more lost, it’ll be hard to pay attention.

• At the end of each class, you can also review your notes and prepare questions to ask the next time if anything is unclear. Some teachers want you to wait until the end of the lecture to ask questions. If this is the case with your teacher, be respectful of that.

• You don’t have to raise your hand after every question, but you should make an effort to talk when you have something to say.
• Remember the principle of 3-3-3. In every class, answer at least 3 questions. This may boost up your participation scores.
• Participation is important in group work, too. Successful students work well by themselves and with others.

• If other students are an easy distraction or you feel like you might just talk to them because you're bored of the current topic, ask the teacher if you could move seats. If not, try your best to ignore the distraction and if they continue, ask them politely to stop.
• Try not to think about one class when you’re sitting in another. Be present in the room you’re in and worry about the next class when you get there.

• Don’t worry about people thinking you’re the teacher’s pet if you’re nice to your teachers. You’re just making an effort to be a better student.
• If your teachers like you more, they’ll be more willing to help you and to answer your questions, and will be more understanding if something comes up.

• Don’t worry about people thinking you’re a brown noser. You’re just doing the best you can to absorb the material you need to know.

Succeeding When You Study

• Having a list that you can check off will make you more motivated. You’ll feel accomplished and focused as you check each item off your list.

• If you make a point of blocking off time to study, then you won’t end up planning social events during that time, which will keep you from studying. You may not even realize that your social calendar is booked until you try to make time for your studies.
• You can even set a monthly schedule to make sure you take your material week by week, especially if you have to review for a big exam.

• Visual learners. If you’re a visual learner, then you learn by using images, pictures, and spatial understanding. Charts, diagrams, and color-coded notes may work best for you. When you take notes, flow charts or even some relevant drawings may be more effective than large blocks of words.
• Auditory learners. These types of learners learn best by listening. Try recording your lectures and repeating them, or really honing in on your teacher's words and taking some notes later. You can also repeat your notes or the course materials to yourself or talk to experts or participate in group discussion to study more effectively.
• Physical or kinesthetic learners. These learners learn best when they use their bodies, their hands, and their senses of touch. You can learn by tracing words to reinforce the subject matter, memorizing notes by walking, or by using any activities that make you move around or touch things while learning.

• Taking breaks help to break down the data you have remembered into chunks.
• Listening to music.
• Reading a book.
• Having a nap.
• Take a shower.
• Play video games.
• Surf on social media.
• Successful students know when they need to rest. They can sense when they’re getting tired or when studying is no longer productive. Don’t think it’s lazy for you to take a break and remember that it’s really the best you can do for your studies.

• You can even disable your Internet if you don’t need it to study to keep yourself from being distracted. If you really don’t need your phone, you can turn it off, too.
• If something is worrying you, then devote time to figuring it out and then get back to your studies if you can. If you feel bothered all day, then you won’t be able to get your work done.

• If working in a loud coffee shop hasn’t been going well lately, then try studying in the quiet of your room or even at a park where you can feel alone.

• Successful students are also creative. When they can’t get all the answers they need from a textbook, they look for other people, places, or online sites that can help them.

• Not everyone is a social learner. You can test the water by studying with a friend and then inviting more students to join in.
• Make sure your study group is directed and organized, so you don’t end up getting off-topic too much. If you feel the group is getting off-topic, don’t be afraid to kindly say something.

• Having fun doesn’t keep you from being a successful student. In fact, making time for fun allows you to study better when the time comes.
• Making time for your friendships will also let you relax a bit more about getting an imperfect grade. If your studies are your only interest, then you’ll be putting too much pressure on yourself.

Supercharge Your Studying with this Expert Series

Expert Q&A

• Get a good night’s sleep! This is very important. Your brain will function differently on 4 hours of sleep than it will on 8 hours. Recommendations for sleeping schedules: Ages 1-11 should be getting 10 to 12 hours of sleep a day. Ages 12-17 should be getting a minimum of 7-8 hours. Thanks Helpful 11 Not Helpful 0
• Make time for breakfast in the morning, even if you're in a rush. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, because your body, like cars and lots of other machinery, needs fuel to be able to work properly throughout the day. Going to school on an empty stomach will leave you with more than a few problems. You could get sleepy, you could be too hungry to focus, you'll feel sick or lazy, or powerless. Thanks Helpful 8 Not Helpful 0
• Don't waste your time. Use each and every second productively and carefully. Thanks Helpful 12 Not Helpful 1

You Might Also Like

• ↑ Sean Alexander, MS. Academic Tutor. Expert Interview. 14 May 2020.
• ↑ https://socialwork.wayne.edu/ce/tips
• ↑ https://www.concorde.edu/about-us/blog/career-tips-advice/health-care-training-punctuality
• ↑ https://www.topuniversities.com/blog/study-tips-how-stay-focused
• ↑ http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_focus_a_wandering_mind
• ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/prescriptions-life/201803/how-stop-comparing-yourself-others
• ↑ https://hbr.org/2011/05/the-power-of-small-wins
• ↑ https://learningcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/effective-note-taking-in-class/
• ↑ https://www.apa.org/education/k12/relationships
• ↑ https://www.developgoodhabits.com/study-schedule/
• ↑ https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/studyprocaff/chapter/successful-students-get-it-together/
• ↑ https://www.educationcorner.com/learning-styles.html
• ↑ http://www.educationplanner.org/students/self-assessments/learning-styles-styles.shtml
• ↑ https://success.oregonstate.edu/sites/success.oregonstate.edu/files/LearningCorner/Tools/taking_breaks_from_studying.pdf
• ↑ https://www.onlineschools.org/science-of-study-breaks/
• ↑ https://www.oxfordlearning.com/study-without-getting-distracted-tips/
• ↑ https://www.rasmussen.edu/student-experience/college-life/study-environment-tips/
• ↑ https://news.stanford.edu/press-releases/2017/05/08/studying-strategically-equals-improved-exam-scores/
• ↑ http://kidshealth.org/teen/school_jobs/school/test_terror.html#

About This Article

To be a successful student, pay attention in class and take detailed notes so you're more prepared to do your homework and study for tests. When you have a test coming up, spend a little bit of time each day studying instead of cramming the night before. Also, try to avoid getting distracted while you're studying by putting your phone away and focusing on the task at hand. If you need to, give yourself a short break every 30 minutes so you have something to look forward to while you're studying. For more ways you can be a successful student, like participating in the classroom, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Student Success Essay

                                                                  What All First-Year Students Should Know:  

 The Most Potent, Research-Based Principles of College Success  

                                                                                       by Joe Cuseo  

 Research on human learning and student development indicates that there are four essential principles of academic success in particular, and college success in general: (1) active involvement , (2) utilization of campus resources , (3) social interaction/collaboration, and (4) self-reflection (Astin, 1993; Ewell, 1997; Light, 2001; Tinto, 1993). The objective of this manuscript is to summarize empirical evidence supporting these principles and suggest specific strategies on how these research-grounded principles may be implemented. It is hoped that this information might serve as an action plan that first-year professionals working with first-year students can share with new students, empowering them with a proactive and comprehensive blueprint for college success.

    ACTIVE INVOLVEMENT   

Research indicates that active involvement is the most fundamental and most powerful principle of human learning and college success (Astin, 1993). It can be considered to the touchstone or “home base” of college success, because it provides the basic foundation for all other college-success strategies. The bottom line is this: To maximize success in college, students need to be active agents in the learning process, not passive sponges or spectators.

   The basic principle of active involvement includes the following pair of key components or processes: (a) the amount of personal time a student devotes to learning in college, and (2) the degree of personal effort or energy (mental and physical) that a student puts into the learning process. If students engage in either of the following physical actions with respect to what they are learning, they can be assured that they are investing a substantial amount of involvement and energy in the learning process.

(a) Writing— expressing what they are trying to learn in print (for example, actively writing notes when reading, rather than passively underlining sentences).

(b) Speaking—orally communicating what they are attempting to learn (for example, explaining a course concept to a study-group partner, rather than just looking it over silently).

    ° Amount of Time Spent in Class  

      Since the total amount of time spent on learning is associated with how much students learn and how successful they are in college, this association naturally leads to a very straightforward conclusion: Successful students attend class. College research indicates that there is a direct relationship between class attendance and course grades —as one goes up or down, so does the other. For instance, one study conducted revealed that every 10% increase in the number of student absences in college resulted in a .2 drop in students’ overall grade-point average (Kowalewski, Holstein, & Schneider, 1989).

    ° Amount of Time Spent on Coursework Outside the Classroom    

      Research clearly indicates that the greater amount of time college students spend on academic work outside of class is associated with greater learning and higher grades. For example, one study of over 25,000 college students found that for those students who spent 40 or more hours per week on academic work, the percentage of these students receiving grades that were mostly “ A s” was over three times higher than it was for students who spent 20 or less hours per week on academic work. On the other hand, among students who spent 20 or fewer hours on academic work, the percentage of them receiving grades that were mostly “ C s” or below was almost twice as high as it was for students who spent 40 or more hours per week on academic activities (Pace, 1990a; 1990b).

      ° Active Listening and Note-Taking in Class  

      In college, students will find that professors frequently use the lecture method , which places great demands on their ability to listen carefully and take notes effectively. Research shows that, in all subject areas, the majority of test questions on college exams come from the professor’s lectures and that students who take better class notes get better course grades (Brown, 1988; Kierwa, 2000). The best way for students to apply the strategy of active involvement during a class lecture is to engage in the physical action of writing notes . Writing down what the instructor is saying in class essentially “forces” students to pay closer attention to what is being said, and “reinforces” their retention (memory) of what has been said.

  ° Active Reading Outside of Class  

     Just as writing promotes active listening in class, writing also promotes active reading outside of class. Recording notes on what is being read while it is being read ensures active involvement, because it involves more mental and physical energy than merely reading the material, or passively underlining sentences with a magic marker.

UTILIZING CAMPUS RESOURCES  

College success, like any human behavior, is influenced by both the individual and the individual’s environment . The student’s environment (college campus) is chock full of specialized resources that are available to them in print, on line, and in person, which can strongly support their quest for educational and personal success. Research indicates that students who utilize these resources report higher levels of satisfaction with the college experience and get more out of the college experience.   For example, in a comprehensive review of over 2500 research studies, the following conclusion was reached: “The impact of college is not simply the result of what a college does for or to a student. Rather, the impact is a result of the extent to which an individual student exploits the people, programs, facilities, opportunities, and experiences that the college makes available” (Pascarella & Terenzini, How College Affects Students, pp. 610-611).

   In particular, students who use the following campus resources are more likely to be successful.

  ° Learning Center or Academic Support Center  

     Studies show that students who become actively involved with academic support services outside the classroom, such as the Learning Center or Academic Support Center, are more likely to attain higher college grades and complete their college degree, particularly if they began their involvement with these support services during the first year of college (Cuseo, 2003). It has also been found that students who seek and receive assistance from academic-support services show significant improvement in academic self-efficacy— that is, they develop a greater sense of personal control over their academic performance and develop higher self-expectations for future academic success (Smith, Walter, & Hoey, 1992).

    Despite the multiple advantages of getting involved with academic support services outside the classroom, these services are typically under-utilized by college students, especially by those students who could gain the most from using them (Knapp & Karabenick, 1988; Walter & Smith, 1990). This could be due to the fact that some students feel that seeking academic help is an admission that they are not “smart” or that they cannot succeed on their own.

  ° College Library  

     Successful students do not overlook the fact that librarians are educators from whom they can learn as they do from classroom instructors. Furthermore, the library is a place where students can acquire skills for locating, retrieving, and evaluating information that may be applied to any course they are taking or will ever take. Thus, these are versatile and transferable research skills that students can continually apply throughout their college experience.   As the English author, Dr. Samuel Johnson once said, “The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.”                                                                                                                       

  ° Academic Advisement  

     College students who have developed a clear sense of their educational and career goals are more likely to continue their college education and complete their college degree (Willingham, 1985; Wyckoff, 1999). However, most beginning college students need help with clarifying their educational goals, selecting an academic major, and exploring future careers. For instance, consider the following findings: (a) three of every four beginning college students are uncertain or tentative about their career choice (Frost, 1991); (b) less than 10% of new students feel they know a great deal about their intended college major (Erickson & Strommer, 1991); (c) over half of all students who enter college with a declared major change their mind at least once before they graduate (Noel, 1985); and (d) only one of three college seniors end-up majoring in the same field that they preferred during their first year of college (Cuseo, 2005).  

    These findings point to the conclusion that college students’ do not make final decisions about their major before starting their college experience; instead, they make these decisions during the college experience.  

  ° Career Development Center  

      Research on college students indicates that they are more likely to stay in school and graduate when they have some sense of how their present academic experience relates to their future career goals (Levitz & Noel, 1989). Research also shows that the vast majority of new students are uncertain about what future careers they would like to pursue (Gordon & Steele, 2003).  

  ° Counseling Center  

    Students entering college today are reporting higher levels of stress than in years past

(Astin, Parrot, Korn, & Sax, 1997). The first year in college can be stressful because it represents a major life transition, which requires not only academic adjustments, but also involves significant changes in social relationships, emotional experiences, and personal identity. In fact, studies show that the vast majority of students who withdraw from college do not do so for strictly academic reasons, that is, most students who “drop out” do not “flunk out,” but leave because of other factors (Tinto, 1993).

    These findings point to the importance of students’ focusing not only on their academics, but also on “non-academic” aspects of their adjustment to college and their development as a “whole person.” In fact, s tudies of successful people in the “real world” indicate that social and emotional intelligence (“EQ”) are often more important for personal and professional success than intellectual ability (IQ) (Goleman, 1995).  

  ° Experiential Learning Resources       

    The positive impact associated with student use of these resources is supported by the work of two highly regarded scholars, who reviewed more than 2500 studies on college students, and reached the following conclusion: “On the basis of the extensive body of evidence reviewed, one of the most inescapable conclusions we can make is that the impact of college is largely determined by the individual’s quality of effort and level of involvement in both academic and nonacademic [experiential] activities” (Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991).  

    There are two major ways students can get involved in college life beyond academics and capitalize on experiential learning opportunities outside of the classroom: (a) through involvement in co-curricular (extra-curricular) experiences on campus, and (b) through college-sponsored service learning (volunteer) experiences in the local community.

  1. Co-curricular (“Extra-curricular”) Experiences on Campus.  

    Colleges and universities no longer refer to involvement in campus life outside the classroom as “extra”-curricular activities, because these can be very powerful sources of experiential learning. Thus, they are referred to as “ co” -curricular experiences, because the prefix “co” suggests that they are equal to curricular (course-related) experiences for promoting learning.        

    More specifically, research reveals that students who become actively involved in campus life are more likely to (a) enjoy their college experience, (b) graduate from college and (c) develop leadership skills that are useful in the “real world” of work after college (Astin, 1993). For example, college graduates consistently report that their participation in co-curricular experiences involving leadership helped them to develop skills that were important for their work performance and career advancement. These reports have been confirmed by on-the-job evaluations of college alumni, which indicate that previous involvement in co-curricular activities on campus, particularly those involving student leadership, is the best predictor of successful managerial performance. In fact, these experiences are more strongly associated with the managerial success of college graduates than the “prestige” of the college they attended (Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991). Also, involvement in student leadership activities is associated with improved self-esteem for both men and women (Astin, 1993).

   Furthermore, students who participate in co-curricular experiences usually earn better grades than non-participants, as long as they do not “overdo” it. A good rule-of-thumb is to spend no more than 15-20 hours per week working in co-curricular activities , and to get involved in no more than 2-3 major campus organizations at any one time.

 2. Service Learning ( Volunteer ) Experiences in the Local Community  

     When students volunteer to serve others, they are also serving themselves; in addition to boosting their self-esteem by knowing that they are doing something “good” or doing the “right thing,” volunteering also enables them to (a) acquire learning skills through hands-on experience (hence the term, “service learning ”), (b) strengthen their resumé, and (c) explore areas of work that may relate to their future career interests. Service-learning experience can function as an “exploratory” internship that enables students to “test the waters” and gain real-life knowledge about careers relating to their area of volunteer work, while simultaneously providing them with career-related work experience. Such experience also allows them to network (connect) with professionals outside the college who may serve as excellent resources, references, and sources for letters of recommendation. Furthermore, if these professionals are impressed with a student’s initial volunteer work, they may also turn out to be the students’ future employer.

    Furthermore, research indicates that college students who are involved in co-curricular, volunteer, and part-time work experiences outside the classroom that total no more than 15-20 hours per week actually earn higher grades than students who do not get involved in any out-of-class activities at all (Erickson & Strommer, 1991; Pascarella, 2001). This is probably due to the fact that students who have commitments outside the classroom learn to manage their out-of-class time better, because their structured out-of-class schedule essentially “forces” them to use their time well. On the other hand, students who do not have to show up for anything other than their 13 hours of classes per week may have so much unstructured (“free”) time outside the classroom that they do not get into a regular routine for organizing it. So, instead of effectively using their out-of-class time, they end up wasting or abusing it.

SOCIAL INTERACTION & COLLABORATION

Learning is strengthened when it takes place in a social context that involves human interaction . As some scholars put it, human knowledge is “socially constructed” or built-up through interaction and dialogue with others. According to these scholars, our thinking is largely an “internalization” or internal incorporation of the conversations we have had with other people, and our personal knowledge is largely a product of these interpersonal interactions (Bruffee, 1993). So, if we have frequent, high-quality dialogue with others, we increase the quality of our thinking and the quantity of our knowledge.      

    Four particular forms of social interaction have been found to be strongly associated with improving students’ performance in college and their motivation to complete college: (a) student- faculty interaction, (b) student interaction with academic advisors , (c) student interaction with a mentor , and (d) student- student ( peer ) interaction.  

° Student -Faculty Interaction

     Many research studies have shown that students’ college success is influenced heavily by the quality and quantity of their interaction with faculty members outside the classroom . More specifically, student-faculty contact outside of class is positively associated with the following student developments: (a) improved academic performance,   (b) increased critical thinking skills, (c) greater satisfaction with the college experience, (d) increased likelihood of completing a college degree, and (e) stronger desire to seek further education beyond college (Astin, 1993; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991).

  ° Student- Advisor I nteraction  

     An academic advisor can be an effective referral agent who is in a position to direct students to, and connect them with, campus support services that best serve their needs. An advisor can also help students understand college procedures and navigate the bureaucratic maze of college policies and politics.           

  ° Interaction with a Mentor  

    Research in higher education is beginning to demonstrate that a mentor is someone who can make students feel “significant” and who can encourage or enable them to stay “on track” until they complete their college degree ( Campbell & Campbell, 1997). A mentor can assist students in trouble-shooting difficult or complicated issues that they may not be able to resolve on their own. A mentor is also someone with whom students can share good news, such as their success stories and personal accomplishments. There are many other people on campus who have the potential to be outstanding mentors, such as the following:

- Academic advisors  

- Faculty in the student’s intended major

- Juniors, seniors, or graduate students in the student’s intended field of study  

- Working professionals in careers that interests the student

- Career counselors

- Personal counselors

- Learning assistance professionals (for example, Learning Resource Center)

- Student Development professionals (for example, Office of Student Life)

- Residential Life advisors

- Service-learning professionals

- Financial aid counselors or advisors

- Campus minister .  

° Interaction with Peers ( Student-Student Interaction)  

     Research on college students repeatedly points to the importance of the peer group as a powerful source of social and intellectual support. One study of over 25,000 college students revealed that, when students interact with each other while learning , they achieve higher levels of academic performance and are more likely to complete their college degree (Astin, 1993).  

   Peer interaction is especially important during the first term of college, because this is a stage in the college experience when feeling socially accepted and “belonging” are high-priority needs for new students—many of whom have left the long-time security of their family and hometown friends. Studies repeatedly show that students who have become “socially integrated” or “connected” with other members of the college community are much more likely to complete their first-year of college and continue on to complete their college degree (Tinto, 1993).

° Collaboration with Peers  

    R esearch on students from kindergarten through college has shown that when students collaborate in teams, their academic performance and interpersonal skills improve significantly (Cuseo, 1996). One way in which students can do this is by participating in learning communities , in which the same group of students takes the same block of courses together during the same academic term. Research shows that students who participate in learning community programs are more likely to: (a) become actively involved in classroom learning, (b) form their own learning groups outside the classroom, (c) report greater intellectual gains, and (d) continue their college education (Tinto, 1997, 2000).  

SELF-REFLECTION

Student success requires not only action , but also reflection —that is, reflecting on what they have done , what they are doing , and what they will do . Such reflection or thoughtful review is the flip side of active involvement. Both processes are needed for learning to be complete. Active involvement is necessary for engaging attention —which enables students to initially get information into their brain, and reflection is necessary for consolidation —keeping that information in their brain, by locking it into their long-term memory. In fact, researchers have discovered that there are different brain-wave patterns are associated with each of these two essential processes of human learning (Bradshaw, 1995).

     There are four specific forms of self-reflection that are particularly important for effective learning and college success: (1) self- assessment , (2) self- monitoring , (3) reflecting on feedback , and (4) reflecting on one’s future .

  ° Self- Assessment  

     Simply defined, self-assessment is the process of evaluating one’s personal characteristics, traits, or habits, and their relative strengths and weaknesses. This process is essential for promoting self-awareness , which is a critical first step toward self-improvement, strategic planning, and decision-making. Listed below are key characteristics of the “self” that can strongly influence college success, and therefore, are important target areas for student self-assessment.  

1. Personal Interests : what you like or enjoy doing.  

2. Personal Values : what is important to you; what you care about doing.  

3. Personal Abilities or Aptitudes : what you do well or are have the potential to do well.  

4. Learning Habits : how you go about learning—the usual approaches, methods, or  techniques you use to learn.  

5. Learning Styles —how you prefer to learn, that is, your preferred manner of:           

    (a) receiving information (e.g., reading from books or listening to speakers),  

    (b) perceiving information (e.g., through sight, sound, or touch), and                         

    (c) processing information—how you tend to deal mentally with information that you  have received and perceived (e.g., thinking alone about it or talking about it with  others).                

6. Personality Traits: your temperament , emotional characteristics or social tendencies,  for example, whether you tend to be an introvert or extrovert).  

7. Academic Self-Concept : your personal beliefs about what kind of student you think you    are , and how you perceive yourself as a learner. In particular, two components of academic self-concept play an important role in college success:              

(a)     Academic Self-Efficacy —the degree to which students believe that they are in control of their own academic fate. That is, whether they think their academic success depends largely on themselves (their self-motivation and self-determination) and that they can change for the better (by increasing their effort and improving              their habits); or, whether they believe that academic success depends largely on              factors beyond their control (e.g., their upbringing or present life circumstances),              and that they cannot change or improve their performance (e.g., due to low ability              or insufficient intelligence).  

     (b) Academic Self-Esteem— how you feel about yourself as a student (e.g.,positive, negative, or neutral) and your level of self- confidence in academic  situations (e.g., whether you expect success or fear failure).  

° Self-Monitoring        Research indicates that one key characteristic of successful college students is that they   monitor their own performance, that is, they maintain awareness of (a) how effectively they are learning—for example, they pay attention to whether they are really paying attention in class, and (b) if they are actually learning what they are attempting to learn—for example, if they are truly understanding the material they are studying or merely memorizing it (Weinstein, 1994; Weinstein & Meyer, 1991).

monitor their own performance, that is, they of(a) they are learning—for example, they pay attention to whether they are really paying attention in class, and (b) they are actually learning what they are attempting to learn—for example, if they are truly understanding the material they are studying or merely memorizing it (Weinstein, 1994; Weinstein & Meyer, 1991).

   As part of this self-monitoring process, successful students also maintain awareness of what they are attempting to learn (for example, science or literature) and they self-regulate or adjust their learning strategies in a way that best meets the specific demands of the subject they are trying to learn (Pintrich, 1995). For instance, they read more slowly and stop to test their understanding more frequently when reading technical material in a science textbook than when reading a novel in a literature course. In contrast, unsuccessful students often do not maintain this high level of self-awareness during the learning process, which can result in their not being fully aware of what method they are using to learn, whether the method they are using is most effective for the type of material they are attempting to learn, or if they are actually understanding the material they are attempting to learn.

    Successful students engage in a level of reflective thinking that involves a deeper level of understanding than “surface” memorization of factual knowledge. In particular, successful students take the reflection time needed to transform information into a form that is personally meaningful to them, i.e., they “construct” their own knowledge by connecting what they are learning to what they already know. For example, they put abstract concepts into their own words (paraphrase); they think of illustrative examples from their personal experiences; they integrate or “connect” new concepts with previously learned concepts; and they successfully extrapolate or transfer concepts learned in one context and apply them in different contexts, i.e., they “decontextualize.”  

  ° Reflecting on Feedback  

    Successful students reflect on and make use of information they receive from others on how to improve their performance. In college, successful students are alert to potential sources of valuable feedback they may receive from professors, academic advisors, academic support professionals, and student life professionals. As Grant Wiggins notes: “People can’t learn without feedback. It’s not teaching that causes learning. Attempts by the learner to perform cause learning, dependent upon the quality of the feedback and opportunities to use it” ( Feedback: How learning occurs , 1997. p 1.)                                           

    ° Reflecting on the Future  

     Successful students reflect not only on what they have done and what they are currently doing, they also engage in self- projection —reflecting on what they will be doing in the more distant future . This process of futuristic thinking involves the twin tasks of goal-setting and long-range planning . To achieve success, students need to focus on the “big picture”—their long-term goals and dreams, which inspire motivation, and the “little details”—daily deadlines, due dates, and short-term commitments, which require perspiration.  

  Summary  

   In short, successful college students are active, interactive, collaborative, and reflective learners who capitalize on the full range of campus resources available to promote their academic, personal, and professional success. If I were to provide new college students with a succinct “checklist” of college-success strategies, I’d give them the list on the following page.  

A CHECKLIST SUMMARY OF KEY COLLEGE-SUCCESS  

PRINCIPLES & STRATEGIES  

1. ACTIVE INVOLVEMENT     

    Inside the Classroom:

    þ Get To Class—treat it like a job—if you “cut,” your pay (grade) will be cut.

    þ Get Involved in Class—come prepared, listen actively, take notes, and participate.

    Outside the Classroom:

    þ Read Actively —take notes while you read to increase attention and retention.

    þ Spend a Significant Amount of Time on Academic Activities Outside of Class—make it a   40-hour work week.

2. UTILIZING CAMPUS RESOURCES  

    Capitalize on Academic & Student Support Services :    

    þ Learning Center  

    þ College Library

    þ Academic Advisement

    þ Career Development    

    þ Personal Counseling

      Capitalize on Experiential Learning Opportunities:

    þ Participate in co-curricular experiences on campus.

    þ Participate in service-learning (volunteer) experiences and internships off campus.  

  3. SOCIAL INTERACTION & COLLABORATION  

    Interact with:  

    þ Peers —by joining campus clubs and student organizations.

    þ Faculty —by connecting with them immediately after class, in their offices, or by e-mail.  

    þ Academic Advisors —see them for more than just a signature to register; find an

         advisor you can relate to and with whom you can develop an ongoing relationship.  

    þ Mentors —try to find experienced people on campus who can serve as trusted guides and role models.  

      Collaborate by:

    þ Forming Learning Teams —not only last-minute study groups, but teams that collaborate more regularly to work on such tasks asking lecture notes,

         completing reading assignments, editing writing assignments, conducting library esearch, and reviewing results of exams and course assignments.

    þ Participating in Learning Communities —enroll in two or more classes with the same students during the same term.

  5. SELF-REFLECTION  

    þ Take Self-Assessment Tests—to gain greater awareness of your interests, values, abilities, learning habits, learning styles, self-concept, and personality traits.

   þ Self-Monitor your learning—maintain awareness of how you are learning, what   you are learning, and if you are learning.    

   þ Reflect on Feedback —seek information form others (professionals and peers) on the quality of your performance and what specifically you can do to improve it.

    þ Reflect on Your Future —from time to time, take time from the daily grind to look ahead, set long-term goals, and develop strategic plans for your major, your career, and your life.

Reprinted by permission of the author, July 2010  

Excerpted and adapted from the following source:  

Cuseo, J., Fecas, V. S., & Thompson, A. Thriving in College & Beyond:   Research-Based  

     Strategies for Academic   Success & Personal Development . Dubuque, IA:   Kendall/Hunt. 2007.  

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Success for All? A Call to Re-examine How Student Success Is Defined in Higher Education

• Maryrose Weatherton
• Elisabeth E. Schussler

*Address correspondence to: Maryrose Weatherton ( E-mail Address: [email protected] ).

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996

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A central focus in science education is to foster the success of students who identify as Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). However, representation and achievement gaps relative to the majority still exist for minoritized students at all levels of science education and beyond. We suggest that majority groups defining the definitions and measures of success may exert “soft power” over minoritized student success. Using a hegemonic and critical race theory lens, we examined five years of research articles in CBE—Life Sciences Education to explore how success was defined and measured and what frameworks guided the definitions of student success. The majority of articles did not explicitly define success, inherently suggesting “everyone knows” its definition. The articles that did define success often used quantitative, academic outcomes like grade point average and exam scores, despite commonly cited frameworks with other metrics. When students defined success, they focused on different aspects, such as gaining leadership skills and building career networks, suggesting a need to integrate student voice into current success definitions. Using these results, we provide suggestions for research, policy, and practice regarding student success. We urge self-reflection and institutional change in our definitions of success, via consideration of a diversity of student voices.

INTRODUCTION

Within the United States, there has been a substantial increase in minority populations over the last 10 years, with the United States projected to be “majority minority” by 2045 ( Vespa et al. , 2018 ). However, this demographic shift has not been mirrored within the scientific disciplines in higher education; while more than 30% of the U.S. population identifies as Black, Indigenous, or other person of color (BIPOC), those groups represent only 21% of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) bachelor’s recipients. Furthermore, BIPOC only represent 13% of STEM doctoral recipients, 11% of the STEM workforce, and 4% of R1 faculty ( National Science Foundation [NSF], 2018 ). The trend is similar within the domain of biological sciences, where BIPOC students represent 12% of earned doctorates and 11% of postdoctoral fellows ( Meyers et al. , 2018 ). These differentials in degree acquisition and faculty representation can cascade down to undergraduate and secondary education students. For example, universities lacking diversity in their faculty ranks may see increased stereotype threat to BIPOC students ( Nouwen and Clycq, 2018 ; Park et al. , 2020 ). This can inhibit students’ development of a sense of belonging ( Good et al. , 2012 ; Hurtado et al. , 2015 ), and negatively affect students’ persistence, well-being, and academic achievement.

Differentials in student success have been discussed for at least a quarter century within education research ( Panos and Astin, 1968 ; Boland et al. , 1978 ; Leman, 1999 ), with countless interventions, theoretical models, and diversity initiatives proposed to increase the success of BIPOC students at all levels STEM education. However, the state of BIPOC representation and persistence would suggest that these initiatives have not succeeded within STEM domains broadly or the field of biological sciences specifically. We argue in this Essay that the assumed definition of “success” and its associated metrics may be one factor hindering the very success of the populations we seek to advance.

What Is Success?

To study and facilitate student success, we must first understand what we mean when we say “success.” As with other broad terms like “interest” ( Rowland et al. , 2019 ), the term “success” has a variety of meanings both within and outside the domain of biology education. Student success can be seen in terms of outcomes , like persistence, increase in self-efficacy, and publication rate. However, these concepts can just as easily be seen as components that facilitate success if it is defined as achieving a particular goal. Furthermore, there can be a stark difference in how faculty and students define success ( Dean, 1998 ; Thompson and Jensen-Ryan, 2018 ), as well as how minoritized students (which we use here to include BIPOC, first-generation, low-socioeconomic status, or other underrepresented groups of students) and their majority counterparts define the term ( Tierney, 1992 ; Goyette and Xie, 1999 ; Oh and Kim, 2016 ; O’Shea and Delahunty, 2018 ). For example, in a study at a public California university, Oh and Kim (2016) found that Korean-American undergraduate students most often defined success as reaching the highest levels of academic achievement, while Mexican-American students most often defined success as going to a 4-year university, surpassing the success of their parents, and helping future students find success ( Oh and Kim, 2016 ). These definitions were further aligned with different support needs and levels of student satisfaction. Thus, the meaning of student success depends on the context as well as who you ask, making a singular, unifying definition largely impossible.

Within biology education, we believe that our current definitions of success may lack the requisite diversity to fully capture the contexts of all students. These definitions inform the metrics used in, and conclusions drawn from, empirical research in the field. These, in turn, inform the policies and practices we advocate for, which ultimately affect student outcomes ( Figure 1 ). These definitions are most often created and maintained by those who hold power in the field (e.g., researchers, faculty members, deans, and other university staff), and rarely include meaningful student input, especially from minoritized populations. If these definitions are not created by and for a diverse population, then there will be cascading impacts on outcomes for those left out of the conversation.

FIGURE 1. How success is defined impacts almost every facet of the research process, as well as policies and practices, and ultimately affects student outcomes. Researchers’ definitions of success will impact how they choose to measure the construct, which in turn will impact how data are interpreted and thus what recommendations are proposed. These recommendations often have real-world impacts on student outcomes in higher education in the form of changes in policy or practices such as pedagogies or departmental requirements.

We argue that our current limited discourse around the meaning of student success is maintained, in part, by social hierarchies that can be examined through the lens of hegemony and critical race theory, which are described in the next section. These forces unwittingly reinforce and reproduce social hierarchies within our education system that may hinder the success of certain student populations who may not define success in the same way the majority does. Thus, we argue that a critical evaluation of success within higher education is imperative. In this Essay , we hope to start a conversation surrounding what success means, who should define it, and how an expansion of our definitions may help to facilitate the success of all students.

Why Social Hierarchies Are Relevant to the Definition of Success

The ideas presented in this Essay assume an institutional reproduction of social hierarchies and are framed by cultural hegemony and critical race theory. Gramscian hegemony is used to explain the power relations between dominant and minority groups. Specifically, it explains the ways in which dominant groups exert “soft power” over nondominant groups to secure and maintain control within society ( Gramsci, 2000 ; Borg et al. , 2002 ). This is accomplished via manipulation of cultural beliefs, language, values, and norms to establish the dominant group’s worldviews as universal, natural, or common sense. These understood rules of society are often invisible, yet powerful. Alternative perspectives, norms, and values are actively discredited by making them seem counterintuitive or unnecessary ( Grimm, 2015 ). However, these counterhegemonic ideas are often the values and perspectives held by nondominant members of society. Hegemony is thus maintained, because one cannot hold dissenting ideologies and also achieve social mobility, reinforcing existing social hierarches and forcing minority groups to conform to these dominant structures ( Dawson, 1982 ; Gramsci, 2000 ).

We can examine the hegemonic forces underlying student success using ideas from critical race theory (CRT). CRT challenges dominant narratives around race and racism in education and identifies how these narratives are often used to subordinate minoritized groups and maintain white supremacy in the United States ( Solorzano 1997 ; Yosso, 2005 ; Ladson-Billings and Tate, 2006 ). Solorzano and Yosso (2001) point out that racial stereotypes form the basis for the dominant “deficit notions” of BIPOC. For example, a common narrative in the United States is the idea of meritocracy, or “pulling yourself up by the bootstraps,” whereby minoritized groups can find success if they work hard enough ( Collins, 2018 ; McGee, 2020 ). This narrative shifts blame for unequal outcomes (e.g., wage gaps, lowered academic persistence and achievement) to minoritized groups who “don’t work hard enough” or are deficit in some other way, instead of recognizing the structures and institutions that center power with the majority. Within academia, these stereotypes establish a cultural norm that is upheld through differences in expectations, school funding, and punishment between BIPOC and white students (i.e., the school-to-prison pipeline; Solorzano, 1997 ; Barnes and Motz, 2018 ). While seemingly inert, these dominant frameworks translate into policies and structures that harm minoritized students ( Solorzano and Yosso, 2001 ). For example, school tracking systems ( Rosenbaum, 1976 ; Southworth and Mickelson, 2007 ), intelligence testing ( Rose, 1976 ; Solorzano and Yosso, 2001 ), and disparate resource availability ( Tate, 2008 ; Green et al. , 2017 ) have historically been used to maintain social hierarchies by advancing the education of white students while justifying modern-day segregation and deficit notions of BIPOC students ( Solorzano and Yosso, 2001 ; Yosso, 2005 ; McGee, 2020 ). Using a CRT lens allows us to explore how our current definitions and metrics of success do not come from neutral, unbiased, or meritocratic ideals, as is often assumed; instead they have been founded on racist principles. We believe that acknowledging this is an important first step to counter these hegemonic forces and begin to redress the harm that they have done to our students.

Linking hegemony and CRT to the concept of student success, we see that majority power can be maintained in higher education by normalizing a restrictive view of student success (e.g., success as having a high grade point average [GPA]). By focusing on outcomes like productivity and employability, these dominant definitions of success ignore large parts of students’ well-being (e.g., social, cultural, or personal outcomes). This can be harmful to students who hold “alternative” definitions of success by making them feel as if they do not belong within academia ( Hurtado and Carter, 1997 ; Hurtado et al. , 2015 ; Goyette and Xie, 1999 ; Tibbetts et al. , 2016 ). For example, in a study of Latinx undergraduates, Hurtado and Carter (1997) found that students’ GPAs were not significantly associated with their sense of belonging. For these students, participation in nonacademic activities like membership in religious or community organizations was significantly related to students’ sense of belonging ( Hurtado and Carter, 1997 ). This example suggests that a focus on academic metrics versus other measures, such as social participation, may impede the retention of some minoritized students. Many CRT scholars have noted that within the United States education system, BIPOC students are forced to “assimilate” into dominant, Eurocentric paradigms, including those surrounding work ethic, educational values, and definitions of achievement ( Carter and Segura, 1979 ; Solorzano and Yosso, 2001 ; McGee, 2020 ). Minoritized students in academia are thus faced with two choices: integrate into an environment that is misaligned with their identities and actively discredits their beliefs or leave the system ( McGee, 2020 ). When they choose to leave, this attrition of minoritized students from academia not only prevents the field of biology from achieving diversity and equity goals, but it also limits minoritized students’ social mobility and therefore reinforces existing social hierarchies.

Certainly, we do not think that institutions or educators who promote individual, quantitative definitions of success do so as an active choice to suppress minoritized students. Because hegemonic power flourishes when cultural norms are taken for granted, ideas of what makes a student successful are often built into our academic systems and assumed to be universally true. Even when educators and researchers may wish to reimagine how success is defined and evaluated, institutional structures like yearly evaluations based on pass/fail rates or GPA requirements for degree progression may leave little room for them to introduce “alternative” definitions of success, such as positive mental health, internal development, or community-based outcomes. Education researchers, as intellectual leaders in the field, have an opportunity to examine and resist dominant social hierarchies by refusing to support hegemonic structures while voicing counter-hegemonic structures and narratives. Foucault (1997) suggests that the “reproductive power” of cultural hegemony can be resisted and fought against through critical discourse and inviting new voices into the conversation. It is indisputable that academic definitions of success are both relevant and useful within higher education; however, we argue that alternative views of success must be normalized to advance institutional and societal goals. Thus, by listening to new voices (e.g., amplifying minoritized students’ views of success) and considering new definitions of student success, education researchers can take the first step toward changing the system that is preventing students from achieving success equally.

How Biology Education Researchers Define Success

One window into the discourse around student success can be found in the empirical literature investigating student success in higher education. We believe that current definitions of student success are limited, and that this is true across STEM domains. However, we have chosen to support our argument by sampling the literature within the domain in which the authors have the most knowledge—biology education. To sample how success is discussed and defined in the literature specific to this domain, we explored education research articles that discussed student success in CBE—Life Sciences Education ( LSE ) over the past 5 years. We examined 1) whether and how success was explicitly defined within research articles and 2) how success was measured. We also noted what theoretical frameworks seemed to be shaping research on student success. This literature examination was restricted to biology education and not intended to be comprehensive. Instead, this examination is used as an example of how probing the term “success” can reveal a need for researchers to re-examine their assumptions as well as consider how different metrics and a diversity of student voices may lead to a more complete definition of what it means for students to be successful.

We used a standard literature review methodology to collect these data ( Creswell and Creswell, 2017 ). We searched the online database of LSE on June 14, 2020, using the term “success,” and limited our search to articles published within the last 5 years (2015–2020). This primary search returned 311 articles, which we further narrowed by selecting only research articles (i.e., not reviews, meeting reports, or editorials). After applying this filter, we were left with 248 results.

As we were specifically interested in how success was defined in higher education, we excluded articles that examined student success in K–12 educational settings. Furthermore, we excluded articles that evaluated the success of specific curricular programs (e.g., research examining the success of an intervention aimed at reducing gender bias) as opposed to research on student success, as well as research papers about instructors and faculty, as they did not explicitly study student success. We did not have any exclusion criteria related to subject domain (e.g., math success, physics success, etc.) though most articles published in LSE are related to life sciences education. We also did not exclude any articles on the basis of study time frame or analysis approaches. This left 52 articles related specifically to research on student success in higher education over the last 5 years (see the Supplemental Material for the list of these articles).

The Majority of Articles Discussing Student Success Did Not Explicitly Define the Term

Of the 52 articles, 21 (40%) gave explicit definitions of student success. The other 31 defined student success implicitly through the variables they measured, often equating student success with quantitative student outcomes, such as exam scores and GPA. Of the papers that explicitly defined success, there were four broad categories for how the concept was defined: academic, persistence, career, and social (see definitions in Table 1 ). Academic definitions (e.g., grades, GPA) were the most prevalent in the literature (80%), followed by persistence (e.g., remaining in major) definitions (47%). Career definitions included obtaining a job in STEM (15%). The least common category was social definitions (4%), with only one paper explicitly defining success as it was related to students becoming leaders in their communities. Each article with an explicit definition could be placed in one or more of these four categories.

There Were Many Different Ways to Measure Success, and Most Were Quantitative

Overall, there were 30 distinct measurements of student success in the articles, 13 of which were mentioned more than once. The majority of papers (88%) measured at least one quantitative outcome related to student success; only six papers captured solely qualitative metrics. Of the papers that measured quantitative outcomes, the most common measure of student success was a suite of persistence measurements, followed by exam scores and course grades ( Table 2 ).

Persistence as a measure of student success came up often and in many different variations in the articles. In total, 20 articles (38%) measured student success as some aspect of persistence, attrition, or retention ( Table 2 ). We separated these into five subcategories based on the authors’ description of the outcome variable. Articles that reported “retention” and “persistence” generally were sorted into the first subcategory: “persistence/retention general.” Most often, papers in this subcategory measured persistence or retention in a degree program. Further, “persistence/retention in major” and “persistence/retention in a STEM field” were two different subcategories, with the former being explicitly about changes in students’ declared major, while the latter included postgraduation outcomes, like attaining a career in a STEM field or continuation to a STEM graduate degree. The outcome “intention to persist/remain” was based on student expectations versus actual retention or persistence from a major or course. Finally, there was only one article within the subcategory of “attrition” ( Wilson et al. , 2018 ); this article measured the percent of graduate students that left their programs without an MS or PhD degree over a period of 8 years.

Theories of Student Success Have Changed over Time

As part of the framing for their student success studies, many of the articles cited one or more theories or theoretical frameworks that guided their work. Across the articles we examined, 23 theories were cited, and five were mentioned within multiple papers: self-efficacy, identity, sense of belonging, social cognitive career theory, and social interdependence theory. Theoretical frameworks can influence almost every aspect of a study, from how the research questions are framed, to how concepts are understood and defined, what data are collected, and how the results are interpreted and situated within the broader field ( Anfara and Metz, 2014 ; Creswell and Creswell, 2017 ; Rowland et al. , 2019 ). In studies of student success, the theoretical frameworks that researchers chose likely influenced how they defined success or the success outcomes they hoped to measure. These theoretical frameworks, then, can be vehicles of hegemonic influence that set the standard for how student success is measured and discussed and are thus integral to consider. We will discuss the evolution of the discourse around student success in order to add context to these frameworks and inform our discussion about how to expand our definitions of success.

Although the term “student success” has been discussed in the education literature for more than a century ( Carmichael, 1913 ; Alexander and Woodruff, 1940 ; Brogden and Taylor, 1950 ), most of the theories or frameworks mentioned in the articles we examined were more recent in origin. The five most commonly cited theories in the articles originated within the biology education literature over the past 30 years. However, this empirical research was built on work done in the past, meaning that even these newer conceptions can have old ideas embedded in them that perpetuate racist stereotypes and ideals.

Popularized in the 1950s and 1960s, universal quantitative measures (e.g., ACT, Scholastic Aptitude Test, Graduate Record Examination scores) were some of the first measures of student success ( Capps and Decosta, 1957 ; Kunhart and Olsen, 1959 ). Early theories of student success proposed success as an outcome based on inherent qualities, like personality ( Robertson and Hall, 1964 ). In the 1970s and 1980s, work on student socialization and integration popularized one of the most commonly used metrics of success, persistence ( Table 2 ). Theories during this time built upon previous work by examining how students’ personal characteristics impacted their interactions with their environments, like Tinto’s (1975) theory of student attrition. As the “positive psychology” movement gained traction in the 1990s and 2000s, more modern theories layered “internal development” factors, like motivation and self-regulation, on top of the interactions among personal characteristics and proximal environmental influences to explain student success. For example, social cognitive career theory claims that increasing students’ feelings of self-efficacy and providing them with relevant learning experiences can mediate background and proximal environmental influences on their career decisions and goal attainment ( Lent et al. , 2002 ). This layering introduces new ideas but retains core older ideas about student success.

While new ideas of success push the field forward, much of the discussion is still framed by antiquated, racist notions that undermine these theories’ ability to reflect the experiences of BIPOC students. For example, Binet’s IQ test has been used to justify “genetic determinism” models of minority education equality ( Rose, 1976 ; Solorzano and Yosso, 2001 ). And although the field’s most influential theories are assumed to be broadly applicable, many of them were developed solely on the basis of majority students. For example, Tinto’s influential institutional departure model ( 1975 ) has been critiqued for its exclusive study of “traditional” students (i.e., white, upper-class students) at “traditional” universities (i.e., primarily white, residential, 4-year institutions; Astin, 1985 ; Attinasi, 1989 ; Tierney, 1992 ; Tinto, 1993 ). These limited populations bounded the results drawn from the theory. This has led, for example, to the problematic conclusion that students must detach from their previous communities in order to find success in higher education. Indeed, the opposite has been found for minority and first-generation students, many of whom draw strengths from their connection to their home communities and cultures ( Muñoz and Maldonado, 2012 ; Yao, 2015 ; Burt et al. , 2019 ).

The use of majority students as the foundation for the theories central to the ideas underlying student success is not only problematic, but harmful to minoritized students. When historically underrepresented students do not meet the standards of success established by the theories (e.g., higher attrition rates, lower course grades, etc.) it is assumed that the deficiencies are on the part of the students, and not the theory. As previously mentioned, this “deficit notion” of BIPOC students prevents equitable outcomes between BIPOC and white students. It also forces minoritized students to choose whether to conform to the majority standards of success or live within a system that does not value what they consider to be successful.

Despite the expansion of our theoretical understanding of student success over the past century, many of our definitions and metrics of success have been stubbornly unchanging. We acknowledge that the practicality and ease of quantitative metrics may be one reason why they are so prominent when measuring student success. It takes much less time to gather the course grades of each student in an introductory biology class than it does to collect interview data about their perspectives on success in the course, for example. Furthermore, latent constructs like student well-being or identity are more difficult to measure compared with academic metrics like GPA, as the former are made up of multiple, diverging indicators, and alternative ways to measure these constructs may not yet have been developed and validated for wider usage. Of course, quantitative metrics can have predictive value and can be excellent tools to answer many research questions. However, we argue that measuring quantitative outcomes is not a panacea for understanding how students achieve success in academia. Thus, we argue that, without addressing the ideas that underlie our notions of success, the field will continue to struggle to address the needs and facilitate the success of all of our students.

Who Gets to Define Student Success?

Of the 52 articles in LSE that discussed student success over the past five years, only one article captured students’ own definitions of success, suggesting a paucity of research in this area. This presents an issue if students have different definitions of success than those who determine the field’s definitions, like researchers and institutional decision makers. Indeed, Thompson and Jensen-Ryan (2018) found that undergraduate students expressed definitions of success that included academic outcomes like graduation as well as emotional outcomes, such as not getting discouraged and increasing their self-efficacy and self-confidence. Many students from historically underrepresented backgrounds (e.g., BIPOC, low-socioeconomic status, first-generation students) reject traditional definitions of success. For example, O’Shea and Delahunty (2018) found three themes of success that emerged from interviews with first-generation undergraduates: success as a form of validation, success as defying the odds, and success as positive feelings about one’s trajectory. Interestingly, many of the students interviewed had very clear ideas of what success was not , including obtaining high grades or passing exams ( O’Shea and Delahunty, 2018 ).

Considering these examples of how students’ and researchers’ perspectives on success can differ, we ask why student voices are so rare in the literature on student success. One explanation goes back to the idea of hegemonic power, wherein members of the majority impose their worldview as cultural “common sense” ( Boggs, 1976 , p. 39). Within academia, hegemonically imposed worldviews can present themselves via the belief that definitions of certain terms are homogeneous and that explicitly defining terms like “success,” “persistence,” and “interest” is not necessary. Indeed, our examination of the literature on student success found that success was only explicitly defined in 40% of the articles we examined. Even when success is defined, researchers and other institutional stakeholders may experience difficulty thinking beyond traditional definitions, as they often realized their positions via traditional success measures (e.g., academic success). Thus, the problem becomes apparent—if most researchers define success in similar ways, and these definitions are validated by achieving intended career outcomes, then these definitions are taken for granted and seen as common sense. Therefore, researchers may not see the need to gather student perceptions of any concept whose definition seem so inherent.

In this way, hegemonic influence is hidden within everyday facets of academia, like the language we use to describe and define concepts. However, a critical examination of the discourse surrounding these concepts can reveal a startling lack of ideological diversity. We argue that the hegemonic framing of embedded discourse prevents the field from moving forward toward more inclusive definitions and metrics. To resist this framing, we must collectively examine and make concrete changes to many of the aspects we have discussed here: how success is defined and measured and whose success we are concerned with. As a community of researchers, we have the collective power to expand our own and our institutions’ discourse in order to validate and facilitate all students’ definitions of success. To that end, we present recommendations in the realms of research, policy, and practice that aim to amplify minoritized student voices, encourage deep self-reflection, and bring about equitable institutional change.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The purpose of this Essay was to examine success through a hegemonic and CRT lens to inform a collective discussion about how our current perspectives on student success may be contributing to unequal attainment of success. Despite a concentrated effort over the past 25 years to increase BIPOC “success” in STEM domains, gaps between BIPOC students and their majority counterparts still exist at all levels of STEM education and beyond ( NSF, 2018 ; Meyers et al. , 2018 ). Although the field’s ideas and theories of student success have evolved and gained more nuance over the past 70 years, our definitions and measures still fall short of being fully inclusive. Our limited examination suggests that current definitions and metrics of student success are mostly academic and quantitative and are most often defined by institutional-level stakeholders, such as researchers. Although these theories were developed via research directed at students, there is a paucity of literature that directly asks students their views on success in higher education. Here, we propose recommendations for individual researchers to more explicitly consider success and center student voice in their empirical work. We then provide recommendations for the community as a whole within the areas of research, policy, and practice.

Recommendations for Individual Researchers

To encourage researchers to more critically examine their potential role in the reproduction of social hierarchies in academia, we recommend that they consider their own definitions of student success and how these definitions influence their empirical work. Furthermore, we encourage researchers to consider what definitions of success are highlighted within their research and how they can amplify diverse perspectives and voices within that research. Explicitly considering what perspectives of success they intend to use before beginning their projects will allow researchers to clearly ground their work and accurately describe what they intend to study, which in turn will lead to clarity in definitions, proposed metrics, and interpretation of results.

Before beginning their research, researchers must self-reflect on the biases, hegemonic frames, and societal norms that they have internalized simply as members of society. Much like the qualitative practice of bracketing, this process will not rid researchers of any biases, but makes them visible, so researchers can reflect on how these biases may shape their interpretations ( Creswell and Miller, 2000 ). For resources to guide self-reflection and examination of internal biases, see Gullo et al. (2018) , Killpack and Melón (2016) , Project Implicit (2011) , and Racial Equity Tools (2020) .

i. Does my funding source require institutionally relevant data, like student retention or GPA? If so, does my definition align with these metrics? Do I need to add a second definition if I am collecting other metrics?

ii. How diverse is my intended study population? Are there definitions of success that may more closely align with the views of my intended population?*

iii. How might my study accurately capture the perspectives of minoritized students, as opposed to invoking “safe multiculturalism” (i.e., an unchallenging, stereotypical, or tokenized view of a culture)? For more information on safe multiculturalism, see May and Sleeter (2010) and Yancy (2016) .

iv. Do my intended research questions and theoretical frameworks align with the definition(s) of student success I am considering?

i. Based on my definition, how many measures of success do I need to use?

ii. Should the definition of success be captured using quantitative or qualitative metrics? If I can use both, is one more appropriate given my intended population,* study context, and time constraints?

iii. Am I sure that students define success in the way I am intending to measure it?*

i. Have I chosen this definition of success over others simply because its associated metrics are easy to measure?

ii. Have I explicitly defined success in any communications about my project?

iii. Have I sufficiently articulated a rationale for my definition and measures?

iv. How might the definition of success used in my project be a potential limitation of the study? Have I acknowledged that as part of the study?

*If the answers to some of these questions are unknown, researchers may want to consider a pilot study or a qualitative inquiry into these students’ definitions of success.

We hope the use of these guidelines and associated questions will help researchers appropriately conceptualize success in each study they undertake and encourage researchers to consider how to capture diverse voices and perspectives within their research.

Recommendations for Research, Policy, and Practice

The following section focuses on actions the community can take to disrupt the current thinking about student success in order to reframe it for all students. To reflect the full diversity within STEM, and in consideration of the lack of student voice in the current literature, we suggest a need to truly listen to student perspectives on success at all levels. Lack of student voice is widespread across many domains; indeed, this issue has garnered the attention of the United Nations, which in 2009 proposed “General Comment No. 12—The Right of the Child to be Heard” ( UN, 2009 ). In 2002, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) documented its concern that “in education, schoolchildren are not systematically consulted in matters that affect them” ( UN, 2002 ). We suggest that similar issues are present in higher education, even though the majority of our students are considered adults.

In 2007, Lundy proposed a model to conceptualize article 12 of the UNCRC, and we are adapting it here to guide discussions about how to highlight student voice in research on student success and bring meaningful change within the realms of policy and practice ( Figure 2 ). Article 12 delineates two key rights: 1) the right to be heard and 2) the right to have one’s views given due weight ( Lundy, 2007 ). To successfully implement article 12, Lundy proposed that four elements must be considered: space, voice, audience, and influence. The first two elements, space and voice, relate to students’ rights to be heard. The next two elements, audience and influence, relate to students’ rights to have their views given due weight. We propose that the first two elements of Lundy’s model can be used to inform recommendations for research, and the latter two elements can be used to inform recommendations for research, policy, and practice.

FIGURE 2. This figure highlights four key elements from Lundy’s model, two relating to one’s right to express a view—space and voice—and two relating to one’s right to have their views given due weight—audience and influence. These rights are highly interrelated, and when examined in an academic context, lead to an iterative process for working with students to bring equity to the domains of policy, practice, and research.

Students’ Rights to Be Heard—Recommendations for Research.

A prerequisite for meaningful engagement with students requires the recognition that their opinions are necessary and valid. In regard to discussions of student success, this means we must create space in our discourse where alternative definitions of success are not only allowed but are honored as equally valuable. We believe that the process of making this space can start with this Essay and subsequent conversations. This space will allow the field to begin the process of examining the current hegemonic structures that dominate academia and work to dismantle them.

Student voice is critical to this process. This can be accomplished either informally, through conversations between students and mentors; or formally, through qualitative research regarding how students define success. Involving students in the research process is an empowering way to amplify student voice in our discussion of student success. When applicable, we suggest that researchers employ a community-based participatory research approach, a research strategy that equitably involves community members and researchers in a way that seeks to validate community members’ expertise and empowers non-researchers by sharing the decision-making process (see Minkler and Wallerstein, 2011 ). We also point out that the need to listen to students includes both undergraduate and graduate students. Research on graduate student success is even more limited than for undergraduates, and given the high attrition of graduate students from STEM degree programs ( Chen, 2013 ; Sowell et al. , 2015 ), it is important to also capture their unique perspectives. These conversations can add critical, new perspectives needed by researchers and institutional stakeholders to steer the field in a new direction.

Students’ Rights to Have Their Views Given Due Weight—Recommendations for Research and Policy.

Lundy (2007) recognized that making space and gathering student voice do not necessarily mean that student perspectives will be appropriately heard or acted upon. Indeed, ensuring students maintain their rights is often difficult, especially when their views challenge the dominant thinking, are expensive to enact, or cause controversy ( Lundy, 2007 ). It is important that we are attentive to the latter two elements in Lundy’s model—audience and influence—as merely gathering student perspectives without enacting change (i.e., tokenizing student voice) will not combat systemic issues and may, in fact, be counterproductive ( Alderson, 2000 ).

Students’ perspectives must be presented to the appropriate audiences in order for them to have any influence over research, policy, or practice. Thus, stakeholders at all levels of academic institutions must be exposed to these voices. This can be accomplished broadly through publication and presentation of work that foregrounds student voice and locally through initiatives that present students’ opinions to provosts, deans, department heads, faculty, and other university leadership staff to inform new policies. The UNCRC has warned that “appearing to ‘listen’ to children is relatively unchallenging; giving due weight to their views requires real change” ( UN, 2003 , para. 12).

Individuals (e.g., researchers, students, and staff members) must be engaged in the process of amplifying student voices and expanding our understanding of student success. However, for these recommendations to have lasting effects, the need to expand how success is defined and measured must be understood and enacted by academic institutions and organizations in the field (e.g., NSF, Association of American Universities, American Academy for the Advancement of Science [AAAS]). We discuss this more in the following section. Further, while we present two broad policy suggestions, we urge policymakers to see students not just as respondents or data points, but as partners and cocreators in establishing appropriate policy that serves their unique student populations. For a more in-depth guide to including students in this process, see Lygo-Baker et al. (2019) .

First, we suggest that universities have a policy to incorporate nonacademic measures of success into components of course work or within graduate student evaluations. Many studies have revealed that student mental health and persistence, among other outcomes, are highly impacted by nonacademic factors (i.e., not related to course or grade outcomes) such as creation of a professional network ( Sweitzer, 2009 ), development of metacognitive regulatory strategies ( Green and Macauley, 2007 ; Efklides et al. , 2018 ; O’Shea and Delahunty, 2018 ), and establishment of students’ academic identities ( McAlpine and Amundsen, 2009 ; Oh and Kim, 2016 ; Schnoes et al. , 2018 ). Depending on students’ definitions of success, these factors may be as important, if not more important, than traditionally evaluated outcomes, like GPA, exam scores, or time to degree. This policy would work to honor alternative definitions of success and thus increase sense of belonging for all students in academia. Moreover, incorporating a larger diversity of success metrics will grant advisors, departments, and institutions a more holistic picture of student development and progress.

Second, we suggest that universities add or amplify nonacademic support for students that honors alternative definitions of success. The current hegemonic framing of student success encourages a large amount of institutional support to go toward facilitating academic definitions of success (e.g., tutoring centers, peer coaches, academic advising). While these supports are useful and integral to many students, support structures for nonacademic definitions of success can be equally important to students. Thus, we suggest directing more funding to services such as career centers, which support career-based definitions of success ( Gallup, 2016 ); multicultural student centers and groups, which support community-based definitions of success ( Bell, 2016 ; Tachine et al. , 2017 ); and mental health support, which can work to support definitions of success that include personal growth and development ( Biasi et al. , 2017 ; Vescovelli et al. , 2017 ). By truly listening to, and acting on, the unique voices of students, university leaders can enact changes in institutional policy and structure that may be more likely than current initiatives to facilitate success for all students.

Rethink, Reframe, Start a Conversation—Recommendations for Practice

Our goals to increase representation of minoritized students in STEM, to improve student well-being, and to facilitate student success will only be met once all definitions of success are represented and supported in higher education. However, faculty play a role in everyday interactions with students that can be powerful influencers of success as well. Our perspectives, our biases, our words matter, and we need to carefully reflect on our individual influence. Do we think that graduate students are more successful if they become R1 faculty after graduation than if they become science journalists? Do we have a problem if undergraduates entering our classrooms see success as a “C” as opposed to an “A”? These biases, which come from our own backgrounds as students and researchers, are seemingly innocuous; however, they impact how we interact with students in one-on-one meetings, during office hours, and in the classroom, and therefore impact how supported students feel. Noncontent talk, or the things instructors say that are unrelated to the course material ( Seidel et al. , 2015 ), could be an important way to expose students to multiple, diverse definitions of success or it may reinforce a hegemonic view of student success in university settings. Attention to our own thinking and words and how they impact our discussions with students may be key to breaking down the cycle of hegemonic reproduction in academia. Finally, it is important to acknowledge the difficult work involved in beginning to unpack and examine the facets of internalized racism that underlie the “simple” idea of student success. This work is necessary to move the field forward and build a more equitable environment with diverse conceptions of success.

ENACTING CHANGE

We recognize that raising awareness, encouraging self-reflection, and including student voice may not in and of itself change how success is framed. These steps may be critical to changing the perspectives of individual researchers and adding new definitions and metrics of success but may not be enough to change institutional structures that are deeply embedded in racist social hierarchies. Indeed, a central component of our critical race framework is the notion that racism is not an individual issue, but a deeply ingrained systemic condition ( Ladson-Billings and Tate, 2006; Solorzano and Yosso, 2001 ; Vaught, 2011 ). Thus, in the following section, we highlight some ideas for institutions and organizations to enact lasting structural change as it relates to student success.

First, to properly enact change, we must acknowledge the concept of “empathetic fallacy,” or the incorrect idea that changes will be instituted simply because they are the right thing to do ( Delgado and Stefancic, 2000 ). While making the field’s definitions and metrics of success more diverse and equitable is the right thing to do, this fact is not enough to shift hegemonic structures. Instead, we have provided a table of the benefits of and risks for not expanding our definitions and metrics of success, which we encourage the community to build on ( Table 3 ). These benefits range from positive impacts on student well-being and retention, to more equitable institutional policies and practices and scientific problem solving. Indeed, Freeman and Huang (2015) found that greater author homophily was associated with publication in lower-impact journals and fewer citations, while the opposite was true with more ethnically diverse groups of authors. More diverse teams and institutions solve problems faster ( Reynolds and Lewis, 2017 ), generate more creative solutions ( Dezsö and Ross, 2012 ), and are more resilient in the face of change ( Duchek et al. , 2020 ). Beyond the moral imperative for our field to become more equitable, we argue that combating the current hegemonic structures is essential for future innovation, advancement, and evolution of STEM fields. The risks of not applying these recommendations mirror the current issues with the field that we have discussed previously, including maintenance of social hierarchies, poor student mental health, and continued difficulties meeting diversity and equity goals at academic institutions and within society broadly ( Table 3 ). However, we also must acknowledge that there are costs to these recommendations that also must be taken into account: institutions and individuals must invest time, resources, and emotional energy into enacting these changes.

Changing definitions of success will also require transformative change at the institutional level and beyond. This type of “deep change” or “second-order change” employs multiple change approaches to impact the attitudes, culture, and structure of organizations (Kezar, 2018) and dislodge the current hegemonic cultures, values, and beliefs that currently exist. Although individuals must change as part of this process (first-order change), second-order change involves explicit questioning of the operational frameworks and assumptions under which an organization functions, thus changing not just practices, but ideologies within an institution ( Argyris and Schön, 1997 ; Kezar, 2018).

In the field of STEM education, the efforts to replace lecturing with active learning is one example of second-order change. The benefits of active learning have been known for many years. Early efforts centered on getting individual faculty to change their practices, assuming that diffusion of these innovations would spread active-learning approaches, which is not what happened ( Miller et al. , 2000 ; Bennett and Bennett, 2003 ; Brownell and Tanner, 2012 ). To foster broader change, the Vision and Change initiative was started by individuals who realized that the influence of national organizations such the NSF, AAAS, and disciplinary societies could be used to amplify change ( AAAS, 2011 ). A series of forums and conversations with colleges and universities were organized, exemplifying the second-order change principle of providing opportunities for ongoing collaborative reflection within an institution. National conferences brought together leaders in the field and produced two influential conference reports with data, ideas, and exemplars that individuals and organizations used as levers for change. This highlights another principle of second-order change, using data to illustrate the need for change. NSF actively encouraged research on Vision and Change principles, incentivizing individuals and institutions to prioritize these ideas. While efforts related to Vision and Change have not employed all of the recommendations we suggest in this paper (e.g., including student voice in reforms), we believe it is an illustrative example of institutional change that has made great strides in normalizing active learning as beneficial and lecturing as a potentially harmful to students ( Freeman et al. , 2014 , but see England et al. , 2019 ).

Within our discussion of changing definitions and metrics of success, we believe that similar expansive, enduring initiatives are needed. As seen in the case of Vision and Change , institutional efforts can be amplified by disciplinary societies, foundations, and government agencies. These external influencers can also provide broad policy suggestions and funding initiatives to support systemic change. These efforts are time-consuming, but they represent some of the approaches that would be necessary to change the values, beliefs, and institutional culture surrounding the concept of success.

Student success is a central focus of education, particularly uncovering ways in which minoritized students can achieve representation in STEM at levels equivalent to their representation in U.S. populations. We posit that the lack of diversity in definitions and measures of success is an example of hegemonic influence within academia. Hegemonic power may be unknowingly upheld by researchers, faculty, and other institutional-level stakeholders who consider these dominant ideas of success to be “common sense” or standard. These dominant ideas of success, often stemming from racist structures and theories, reinforce social hierarchies within academia, making it more difficult for minoritized students to achieve social mobility ( Giroux, 1984 ). Movements of counter-hegemony are the only way to subsume dominant cultural norms ( Pratt, 2004 ). Thus, we call on researchers to carefully consider their definitions of success and associated metrics, to fully acknowledge how their conceptualization of success impacts their research, and to make space for and solicit student voice in discussions of student success. We further call on institutions and faculty to consider a more holistic view of student success, and when presented with student voice, to not merely listen, but to give their perspectives “due weight.” And we call on disciplinary societies, government agencies, and other organizations in positions of power and influence to consider how they may play a role in fostering new definitions of success. Finally, we hope that this Essay sparks collective reflection that leads each of us to consider how we participate in hegemonic reproduction, what biases we operate under, and how we can work in our classrooms, with our advisees, and as advocates, to facilitate student success that is as inclusive as we strive to be.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are grateful for the feedback on this article by Miranda Chen Musgrove, Elizabeth Derryberry, Courtney Faber, Nina Fefferman, Joshua Rosenberg, Caroline Wienhold, and Hope Ferguson. We thank the reviewers and editor for their incredibly thoughtful and useful comments on an earlier version of this Essay .

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Submitted: 29 September 2020 Revised: 17 December 2020 Accepted: 30 December 2020

© 2021 M. Weatherton and E. E. Schussler. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2021 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).

We are grateful for the feedback on this article by Miranda Chen Musgrove, Elizabeth Derryberry, Courtney Faber, Nina Fefferman, Joshua Rosenberg, Caroline Wienhold, and Hope Ferguson. We thank the reviewers and editor for their incredibly thoughtful and useful comments on an earlier version of this Essay.

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Essay on Success for Students in English [500 Words Essay]

January 2, 2021 by Sandeep

Essay on Success: Success is beyond power and fame. It is a sense of achievement that comes with a lot of hard work and perseverance. Good utilization of time leads to many opportunities. When we turn our dreams into actions, opportunities lead us to success. Realisation of our dreams and goals with the right motivation is the first step to success. We have to conquer our setbacks and struggles to walk on the path of success.

Essay on Success 500 Words in English

Below we have provided Success Essay in English, suitable for class 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.

Nowadays, everyone wants to be successful. People are so fascinated by the glamour of successful persons that they are obsessed with becoming successful. Everyone has a different viewpoint on success. To decide their success, people compare their achievements with other’s accomplishments. But it cannot be copied from others. A person should realize that there is no single formula to achieve success. Everyone has different goals and dreams, which means that there are various things and mindset by which we can feel better. Therefore, it is important to know what success is.

What is Success?

Success is defined by how satisfied and fun your life is. How glad you are in your life. What is your life without family and friends? Success is peace of mind. Therefore, be very satisfied with the experience, made an effort to do your best and become what you are capable of becoming.

How to Achieve Success

Overnight success is not possible. To be a successful person, you have to work hard with dedication and constancy. You need to choose whether you want to be successful or not. Numerous habits can be practised to become successful and build a life you always wanted.

• Set your goals and take risks to achieve them
• Always be surrounded by successful people
• Go with your gut and flow of things
• You should not have any distractions as your time is limited
• Be appropriate and up to date
• Accept the failures are temporary and learn from it
• Believe in yourself and abilities
• Do time management and be patient and calm
• Work on your weaknesses and check your progress
• Work hard and always be bound by time
• Remain dedicated to the goal and give your 100%
• Identify the important thing and try to complete them first
• Don’t be scared to take the leap and never quit

Difference Between Success and Failure

Many people think that there is a lot of difference between success and failure. However, the reality is that they are very much closer than you think. The difference between the two is your attitude towards them, how well you handle them. When you get success, you become happy, and it changes your perception of everything. To realize that you are successful in something is only after failure is known. Without failure, there cannot be any success. That is because to succeed, you need to have the ability to cope up with failure and convert your failure to success.

The main difference between success and failure is calmness and consistency. Those who succeed and those who are not able to succeed is that they remain calm to their little progress and continue to be consistent even if they failed. Both are good, and you just have learned how to deal with them. Failure motivates you to keep going, provided your mindset is positive. People who learn to deal with them are always happy and become successful.

The Relation Between Success and Hard work

There are plenty of resources available to be successful, often called ‘secrets to success,’ but there is one thing without which you cannot see ongoing success, and that is hard work. Success is something, which does not happen by chance or overnight. It takes consistent hard work to get there. This means you need to be focused and committed to your work without any distractions, no urges of fast results, being calm, and believing in yourself. In the end, it is all about how hard you have worked to reach your goal. However, to invest your time and energy, you will need to understand precisely why hard work matters.

What we want to do — and be — in the world

By establishing what i didn’t want to be, i created my own power structure of sorts, one that made me feel safe and allowed me to pursue the things i did want to be..

My fourth-grade teacher once asked our class to list something “good” that each of our parents had given us. The question was simple enough, but as she wound along the rows of desks collecting answers like flowers for a bouquet, I tapped my foot and felt sweat bead upon my forehead. My mom was easy. She worked day and night to care for her brood of 12 and magically managed to make everything — every meal, every sewn garment, every holiday — special. Despite our growing up in the projects on food stamps, most of my siblings will tell you they didn’t realize we were poor. My dad, however, had me stumped. What could I say about the man whose single “good” gift was to give me the dregs of beer, which he called his “drops,” left in the bottoms of his beer cans?

“The greatest thing my mother has given me is that she’s always there to help me,” I said when my turn came. “And the greatest thing my father has given me,” I stopped and cleared my throat, “is an example of what I don’t want to be.” My teacher looked at me as though I’d just handed her a stem of thorns without a rose on it. But that moment marked the beginning of a different kind of life for me; it got me thinking about what kind of person I wanted — and didn’t want — to be.

Though asking children what they want to be when they grow up has begun to fall out of favor, by fourth grade I’d already narrowed down what I wanted to be: the heavyweight champion of the world like Muhammad Ali, the richest man in the world, or president of the United States. Unlike my siblings, I was at times aware of our poverty, but more than that, I was aware that I was powerless to stop my father from stealing my paper route money from my sock drawer or from filling our home with rage. Perhaps then it’s no surprise that all three things I wanted to be were centered on wielding extraordinary power. And given that children of alcoholics have a “ higher rate of anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem compared with children of nonalcoholics ,” aligning myself with those aspirations from an early age may have helped me shoulder the weight of my father.

But the real power came when I put my fourth-grade pronouncement to the test: The next time my father offered me his “drops,” instead of dutifully cringe-swallowing them, I said no. I’d drawn a line between us, and through the lens of that one tiny word — no — I began to draw other boundaries in my life. I promised myself I’d never take a drink of alcohol; I wouldn’t waste time doing frivolous things; I wouldn’t have sex until I was married (yes, I was raised Catholic, and yes, this was the one rule I broke).

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By establishing what I didn’t want to be, I created my own power structure of sorts, one that made me feel safe and allowed me to pursue the things I did want to be. I worked hard; I studied hard; I questioned everything all the time. I determined that a good education was paramount and worked as a janitor in order to afford private school, which ultimately helped me get to Yale and then Harvard. And while I didn’t become the heavyweight champion or the richest man in the world or the president of the United States, I did become successful enough to eventually buy my hardworking mom a house of her own.

But there was more to it than that. One night when I was coming home late from the library, where I regularly studied after high school until I caught the last bus out of the city, I found my father passed out in the snow outside our house during a frigid Toledo snowstorm. There in that motionless lump, facing hypothermia and possible death, was the man who’d terrified us countless times. I remember how light he felt when I scooped him into my arms — like a baby, I thought.

And though his “drops” were one of the last “good” things he’d ever offered me, as I carried him into our house, I realized I had compassion for him still and always would. That’s what refusing to be like my father gave me, above all else: a heart that would always open and the strength to carry him home.

Tom Seeman is a businessperson and author of “ Animals I Want To See: A Memoir of Growing Up in the Projects and Defying the Odds .”

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Title: a diagramming technique for teaching students to read software engineering research papers: an experience report.

Abstract: Reading scientific research papers is a skill that many students do not learn before entering PhD programs, but it is critical to their success. This paper describes our diagramming technique for teaching this skill, which helps them identify the structure and the scientific argument of the paper. This has made our students more effective readers.

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