Take the Initiative, Psychology Majors

Since the pandemic, like other professors, I have noticed a distinct trend among undergraduates: Their ability to solve their own problems tied to college life has diminished substantially. Many of them have no idea how to advocate for their own needs. They wait for help or postpone seeking it.

During the first week of classes on almost any campus, for example, quite a few students need to change their schedules by adding one class and dropping another. This is entirely normal. Yet I have noticed that some students take no action until the class they want to add is well underway and they are far behind the students already in the class.

What happened? Students who are new to college life may not know who to go to—but those who are in their second or third year of college certainly should. The first line of defense is usually to seek help from one’s academic advisor. First year students at many institutions are increasingly advised by “professional advisors” who do nothing but work out schedule problems and deal with making certain students get into the “right” courses for particular majors or to complete general education requirements.

Of course, this is all predicated on the students in question taking action and asking an advisor for help. Waiting around for someone—say, the Registrar’s Office—to notice that you are under-enrolled (i.e., you need four classes to be a full-time student but you only have three scheduled) is not a good idea. Instead, ask for help by emailing your advisor, a professional advisor, the Registrar’s Office, or even the Dean’s Office of your college within the larger university. The point is that the student himself or herself must be active and not passive—the longer you wait, the more difficult it will be to solve the problem.

Why does this happen? Well, academic socialization in both the secondary and post-secondary educational settings suffered during the pandemic. Many students did not learn to do things for themselves because well-intentioned instructors and administrators swooped in to deal with their problems. Now that the pandemic has receded, the general expectation is that students need to learn (once more) to fend for themselves, as they will need to do once they leave the shelter of their campus and venture out into the job market or onto additional training in graduate or professional school settings.

So, how can you be your own advocate? Call your advisor. If you do not know who your advisor is, call the advising center on campus and ask for one—or seek out the Registrar’s Office to learn who is your advisor of record. If you want to add or drop a class, go to the professor in question and ask how to do that. Seeing this written down seems simple—but when you are unfamiliar with the process or when you assume someone else will do it for you, then you may decide not to act. That’s a mistake, as the semester moves quickly, and assignments—quizzes, exams, papers—pile up, and suddenly you may find yourself struggling to get your work submitted or finished. If you are a parent or guardian, one of the best things you can do to help your student is to encourage him or her to act—even if it is not clear what that action might be. They can ask and then learn. What you should not do as a parent or guardian is intervene in the situation to try to solve the problem for them—that’s likely why they have not taken steps to rectify the matter themselves—yet.

So, if you are a current college student, remember that you should take the initiative to deal with your problems yourself. Doing so is an important life skill you should develop now and not later.