Firstly, making friends during the early days of your first semester of college is a very important step on your road to success. Living on campus helps a lot with this process by giving you roommates and a whole building of people to give you support and community in this difficult transition. According to author Janice McCabe in her book Connecting in College, there are three types of friendship groups: tight-knitters, compartmentalizers, and samplers (McCabe). People in the tight-knit group tend to stick with one group of friends in which everyone already knows each other. Individuals in the compartmentalizers group tend to have around 2-4 groups of friends that they bounce back and forth to and from (McCabe). And lastly, those in the sampler group are those who have many friends who do not know each other because that person jumps around so much. Each of these groups have their strengths and weaknesses when it comes to being successful. The strongest of these categories with the least amount of issues seems to be the compartmentalizers. These tend to be the ones that have a group of friends from high school, church, Greek life, etc. (McCabe). People in this category tend to succeed the most academically because they are able to receive support from various types of friend groups, some offer academic advisement and support and others help them socially. Similarly, tight-knitters tend to succeed academically as well, however, this can backfire if the group that they are surrounding themselves with are not academically focused, since this may be the only influence the person is receiving (McCabe). Lastly, in the sampler group, academic success relies mostly on the personal work ethic and motivation of the individual. Since these individuals do not have a stable friend group to rely on for this kind of support, it is shown that you do not need a stable friend group to be academically successful, but it is impossible to know if these individuals would be more academically successful if such an influe
nce was present in their lives (McCabe).
Secondly, taking part in extracurricular activities, such as sports, also helps achieve success by teaching you many life skills that will assist you in several aspects of your life later on. Extra-curricular activities help teach patience and endurance in the face of difficult and stressful situations (Mountain Heights Academy). Clubs that allow their students to take on leadership roles allow their students access to experience in management and working together with others. Likewise, joining a speech and debate club helps overcome public speaking anxiety and gives students exposure to people who have different ideas and opinions than themselves. In many aspects of like as we mature, we will encounter individuals who we may not agree with on certain topics and ideas, but activities like speech and debate help build up the discipline and wisdom we need to handle these situations properly while still getting our point across. Sports and clubs that involve working together build up teamwork skills and gives them practice in holding on to a long-term goal (Mountain Heights Academy). Joining extra-curricular activities forces the individual to make new friends and in turn begins to form special bonds from newly discovered shared experiences and struggles. These groups allow students to make friends from different cultures and friend groups that they would not usually associate with because of a shared interest and passion. Time management is also greatly improved while participating in these events because of the individuals busy schedule (Mountain Heights Academy). The individual is now forced to prioritize the things that are most important to them in their daily lives in order to not become too overwhelmed. Lastly, extra-curricular activities help students discover their interests. Although core classes are designed to prepare students for the future and help them discover their interests, clubs and sports offer opportunities that these classes simply cannot.