Myths about the College Experience

Myth #1

Students go to college to receive an education.

You are not in college to receive an education; you are here to claim an education. You are not satellites or cell-phone antennae, so you will not just absorb information passively. You must claim your education by participating in it—through attendance, note-taking, contributing to class and group discussions, engaging with other students, thinking critically about course material, and completing all assignments on time.  

Myth #2

Professors do not care if students attend class or not.

Professors do care if you attend class. Even professors who do not take attendance believe you should take notes; the proof lies in exams and assignments that require you to incorporate class discussions and lectures. If professors did not want you to be in class, they would require only textbook readings and independent research. Attend every class.

Myth #3

Grades don’t really matter as long as I end up with a degree.

Grades matter to employers and graduate program administrators. Regardless of any debate about the meaning(lessness) of grades, the fact remains that our culture uses grades as an indicator of what a student has achieved in any given course. If you are studying to be a nurse and earn a 2.3 GPA (grade point average), you are going to look less accomplished in a job interview than a nurse who earned a 3.2 or a 3.8. 

Even more important than grades, however, is that you actually learn in your classes. The learning process and the information and skill set that you acquire are often more meaningful to you—personally and professionally—than the grade that appears on your transcript. It is important to work for grades but more important to work for you.

Myth #4

Classes at Miami University Hamilton are easy.

Miami University, with its four campuses, has a philosophy of One University. The College Composition and Geology classes that you take at the Hamilton campus are equivalent to those that Oxford students take. Those classes also have meaning outside the Miami University community; if you transfer to Bowling Green or Ohio State, those institutions will recognize those courses and understand the skill set or knowledge that you should have acquired in taking—and passing—that course. Because these courses have state-wide, or even nation-wide, significance, professors have the same expectations of you as they would if they were teaching at Oxford or Bowling Green or Ohio State.

Myth #5

Professors give grades.

Professors never give students grades; students earn grades. The criteria for earning those grades are spelled out at the beginning of the semester in the course syllabus.