College Success 101: A Professor’s Insider Secrets to Help You Succeed in School

his book may be the most important investment you make this week, this month, this year - or perhaps in your whole life. Whether you are a student buying this book as you embark on your college career or you are a parent who found the title and thought it would be a good read for your son or daughter as he or she left for their freshman year, this book is a great investment (and certainly, a cheap one!). This investment of literally just a few dollars could yield a difference of hundreds of thousands of dollars during the working career of a college student’s future career as it could help one succeed in college and not just graduate, but do well, learn more and earn a higher grade point average.
The information in this book is literally the best kind of investment information out there, because it comes from an insider. This kind of information would literally be illegal in the world of stock investing, coming from an organizational insider with the institution you are about to invest tens - and over time - literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in - all in an attempt to secure a better future, either for yourself as a student or as the parent of a student. And college today is literally the second most costly investment, other than a home, that you will make in your lifetime (and for some of you lucky parents, like myself, that means making similar investments with multiple institutions of higher learning for your 2, 3, 4 or more children). So, from day one on campus, your college career is indeed an investment, and I’m one insider who wants to see you succeed.
Let me introduce myself as your “inside source” on what it takes to succeed in college today. My name is David Wyld, and I am a Professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana (just outside New Orleans). I’ve been teaching management - mostly business strategy and international business courses - at the college level since 1987 and at Southeastern since 1992. And so, with 25 years of experience, I dare say that I have seen it all. I’ve seen technology change the way we teach - both in the classroom and now in the online world. I’ve seen great changes in the nature and composition of the students in college classrooms - and in the professors who teach there. I’ve seen great changes in the learning resources available to college students. Finally, I’ve seen enough circumstances involving “questionable” student and instructor conduct - both in and outside of the classroom - to have an ability to predict how my colleagues and administrators will react in a given situation.
What is the book about? Simply put, it is intended to be a guidebook for students on how to succeed in their college careers. Think of it as a short course in “College Success 101,” where the only real test is the ultimate one - will you live up to your personal potential and be as successful as possible in your college career. In short, will you graduate? Will you graduate on-time? Will you earn the best grades possible each class, each semester, and ultimately, over your college career to earn honors at graduation?
This book is indeed a labor of love, as I want all students who read it to succeed. This is the information that I would want my own son to know as he heads-off to college. This book provides simple, straight-forward advice from an experienced college insider to answer questions such as: How should you pick your major? How should you choose classes to make your schedule? How should you approach your classes? How should you study for tests? What should your strategy be for doing your best on tests, research projects, and on the dreaded group project? How should you interact with other students in your classes and with your professors? And finally, what should you do when things go bad for you in a class or in an entire semester.
So, I hope that you take a chance and make the investment to read College Success 101!