Mind Moves: With so much focus on the Leaving Cert, psychological preparation for college can be forgotten. In the afterglow of success, those students lucky enough to have achieved what they hoped for can overlook the realities of the adjustments that going to college can bring. To ensure that delight does not become distress, this is the time for students to make practical and mental preparation for the third-level experience that lies ahead.
The myth that most educational trauma begins and ends with the Leaving Cert does not serve students well. Media discourses tend to focus on entry to third level as the goal of education, rather than reflecting on what happens when students actually get there.
As educational credentials become an important currency in Irish society, with high local value and easy foreign exchange, being awarded a third-level place can supersede all other considerations, such as students' wish to study, their aptitude, interests, motivation, talents, capacity to apply themselves, plan and time-manage and ability to deal with further exam stress.
Media discourses about student life often sensationalise non-existent or minority activities. They may portray students as privileged consumers of alcohol and taxpayers' money, who combine hedonism with the occasional intellectual foray into esoteric intellectual irrelevance. These negative ascriptions do not do justice to the thousands of young people who are undertaking further study in order to achieve a future for themselves.
Another problem for students is that most have been told (often as encouragement to study for the Leaving Cert!) that going to college is the beginning of the best time of their lives, with carefree student days, the culmination of the school process and the privilege of education as young adults.
But at the start of third-level life, this idealisation can be a terrible burden. For students who are struggling with the normal initial social anxieties, peer negotiations and academic adjustments, such idealisation implies that everyone else is having a wonderful time. It can make students believe that they alone are feeling uncertain, insecure, socially intimidated, emotionally overwhelmed, academically inundated and a bit lost. They can feel guilty, panicky or concerned that they have chosen the wrong college or path in life.
This can be particularly difficult for students who have travelled from other counties or countries, of whom even more adaptations are required and for whom many sacrifices may have been made by parents to get them there.
Despite the orientation courses and supports most colleges provide, it is helpful if students remember that going to college is a change and a challenge. Neither condition is comfortable at the start. Gone is the security of the school structure, however constricted it may have felt last year. Gone is the despised uniform, replaced by the pressure of wearing the right "look" in a label-conscious world. Gone is the sanctuary of the classroom, the personal attention of a cohort of teachers in a relatively confined location.
Finding one's way around a campus, following complex timetables, negotiating relationships with lecturers, tutors and peers, understanding college procedures, integrating into the system and taking responsibility for one's own attendance, study schedules, finances, self care and social life are daunting tasks initially. No wonder it takes time before students become confident and truly feel at home.
Research on student retention shows how important it is that students are absolutely clear about what they want to do, know exactly what the course they have signed up for entails, have a genuine interest in it and have not chosen it because it fell within their expected points capacity. They need to know how many lectures they must attend, for how many hours on how many days, exactly the areas they will be studying and the number of assignments that will be required of them. They should prepare by viewing prescribed textbooks, which gives a preview of course content. Talking to people who are currently doing that course can give information on how others experience it.
Research has identified the factors associated with non-completion. They include "unclear career aspirations, level of prior academic achievement, difficulty with course demands, financial problems, working part time and lack of preparation for third level".
Preparation means that those with past academic struggles are ready to seek supports early before they are overwhelmed. It means that family emotions are worked out in advance. For example, students who are away from home can feel cut off from their families, who in turn may feel that their child has little time for them in their great new college life.
The amount of parental support is also a delicate issue: too much help is non-productive, too little help may expose students beyond their capacities so that they lose confidence and give up.
Going to college is exciting. For many these are indeed glorious years of youth, idealism, energy, mental capacity, innate exuberance, intellectual passion, social conscience and sheer vibrant living. Good practical preparation, psychological rehearsal and realism will help going to college become that good experience that young adults deserve. Good luck to all.
Marie Murray is director of psychology at St Vincent's Hospital in Fairview, Dublin and author of Surviving The Leaving Cert: Points for Parents, published by Veritas.