Pathfinder’s wants you to be successful and excel in your college years with a healthy balance of academic work by identifying your personal goals and priorities, academically and financial preparedness, time management, avoiding road blocks, and academic advising.

Is this your first year of college or just entering college after

years of being in the work force? If this is true, do not worry,

Pathfinders will guide you in the path to success.

Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your

ideal future, and motivating yourself to turn a vision of the

future into reality

Setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life

by:

• Knowing precisely what you want to achieve

• Know where you have to concentrate your efforts

Properly-set goals can be incredibly motivating, and as you

get into the habit of setting and achieving goals, you'll find

that your self-confidence builds fast

Smart Goals:A useful way of making goals more powerful is to use the SMART mnemonic. While there are plenty of variants, SMART usually stands for:

S Specific

M Measurable

A Attainable

R Relevant

T Time-bound

Goals are set on a number of different levels:

First you create your "big picture" of what you want to do

with your life, and decide what large-scale goals you want to

achieve.

Second, you break these down into the smaller and smaller

targets that you must hit so that you reach your lifetime goals.

Finally, once you have your plan, you start working to

achieve it.

We start this process with your Lifetime Goals, and work down to the

things you can do today to start moving towards them.

To accomplish these goals, you must build

effective study strategies, communication skills

and maintain your financial health.

This will include researching this information while

also applying it to your daily life in order for it

to determine your success in college

Preparing academically includes understanding your thinking

skills, building them effectively and using effective decision making

Study strategies are also imperative to your success in college by

learning effectively note-taking, test-taking and research skills

Communication skills are also important due to the fact that active

listening and understanding effective communication can affect

your knowledge of the information being received

Preparing financially is important considering tuition, books and the cost of living

Create a budget one that is a vibrant document and is well considered that's used

on an ongoing basis

Using a historical reporting system or a line item method will give you detailed

information on exactly where the money is being spent according to Finance &

Accounting

Most budgets do not work because people do not know how they are spending

their money because of these budgets are not realistic or useable

Monitor and write down for one month’s budget using the college student monthly

budget grid, this will help monitoring and budgeting your finances while in college

Time management skills and strategies are imperative in the success of a college student.Learning how to balance your commitments and deciding where your time should go can be difficult to prioritize Categorize your time and goals into four groupings:

Quadrant I- Urgent and Important Quadrant II- Not Urgent, but ImportantQuadrant III- Urgent, but Not Important Quadrant IV- Not Urgent and Not Important

What can I do without? Examples: Socializing, cell phone, playing video games. All of these can be reduced. You should find more time to accomplish lifetime goals. Have clearly defined goals to help you determine what you should do

with your time.

Time management tools can assist you in keeping track of your commitments and planning your activities

Make a to-do list along with a weekly schedule for short-term goals Make a monthly and semester calendar for long range planning Write your list with your goals in mind and assign each task a priority

You will feel more accomplished by seeing what you have completed and have prioritized your time.

There will always be road blocks in your day to day life. You should always allow excess time in your planning for that reason. Life does not always go as planned, so do not allow stress to interrupt or

destroy your plans and goals.

Always make time to nurture your emotional health.

Your physical health can also be an attribute or road block in your college career.

Make healthy lifestyle choices.

You can also use relaxation techniques to manage your anxiety.

Using all of these techniques, planning and strategizing skills will guarantee your success in

managing road blocks and your time throughout your college terms and your life

They can help you choose classes

Plan your degree

Suggest possible majors

Help you switch majors

Help you switch majors again

Ensure you will graduate on time

Academic advisors are an invaluable resource in keeping your academic career focused and on-track, while you explore new classes, new disciplines, and new futures!

What can an academic advisor do for you?

Course registration problems

Tell you about obscure-but-fascinating

programs in your faculty, and what courses

you should be taking to be eligible

Plan your courses if you’re going on co-op

or exchange programs

Track your credits and make sure you can

actually graduate

Point you to acceptable or popular electives,

especially upper-level courses that don’t

need prerequisites

Direct you to academic and other campus

resources.

Advisors can help you with:

Most academic advising services are open year-round so feel free to email or call your advisor and set-up an appointment if you need to:

If you’re transferring to another faculty

If you’re doing co-op or exchange

Before registering in your graduation year to confirm that you’ve completed all the requirements

Don’t hesitate to contact an advisor if you need to clarify something you read in the or on a website that doesn’t match up with what you’ve heard from your peers.

Pathfinders hope that our information would help you to be

positive and overcome any barriers that you as a student may

encounter.

We strongly believe that if you identify and know your personal

goals and priorities, ask for academic and financial preparedness,

manage you time and avoid road blocks, and accept academic

advising you will be successful in your college years.

“Academic Advising.” Leap we help you learn. UBC, 2009. Web. 4

Nov. 2009. http://leap.ubc.ca/get-started/academic-advising/.

Instructor’s Manual. Time Management (Nov. 9 2009).

http://www.collegesuccess1.com/TimeMoneyM.htm

Naomi Rockler-Gladen. Poor College Study Habits. (Jan 9, 2008)

10 Common Study Skills Mistakes that Students make.

http://studyskills.suite101.com/article.cfm/college_student_study_mis

takes#ixzz0XYH4qHJz

Thundercats. AC Associated Content. (Dec. 12, 2008) More Tips on

How to Tackle College Academically.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1252177/more_tips_on_ho

w_to_tackle_college.html?cat=4