1. What was your takeaway from The College Fear Factor reading? In other words, what most made an impression on you, or what did you learn from the readings?
2. Share a quote from the reading and explain why you chose that quote and/or why you found the quote compelling.
3.How meaningful are the stories of individual students, or how do these experiences inform the reader?
4. Is the author using inductive or deductive reasoning with her examples?
Why do they talk about Harvard and the other Ivy League schools? Wasthis surprising to you? Why CHAPTER 2 THE STUDENT FEAR FACTOR I WOULD NOT HAVE expected Eva to panic during her first composition class. Eva's reports of her high school preparation for college, her prior experiences in English classes, and her attitude toward writing in general all suggested that she would feel optimistic about Comp lA. Fur- thermore, she spoke of her family's strong support for postsec- ondary education as well as her own commitment to a career that requires a college degree (that of schoolteacher). Eva as- serted that although her parents had not put a lot of pressure on her (or on her younger sister), they did "make sure we know it's good to come to college." In fact, her parents continually reiter- ated the school-career connection: "You're working now, but you've got to go to school, because you've got to get a career." Eva's mother served as a role model in- this regard: she had re- cently begun a postsecondary degree program to advance her own career goals. Despite the many reasons for Eva to feel at least relatively confident about her ability to succeed, she felt a sense of alarm when she was introduced to the objectives and structure of her first-semester English class: "That first day, when the professor said that it's going to be an essay after an essay, I was scared. I was like, 'Oh, my God, I'm not going to be able to make it.' ... Just the fact that she said, 'Oh, you get an essay af- ter an essay after an essay'-that's what scared me." Eva's case is by no means unique. Regardless of age, ethnicity, THE STUDENT FEAR FACTOR 21 academic background, educational goals, or the path to college, students reveal tremendous anxiety about their educational tra- jectories and ability to succeed in college. This chapter focuses on the "total fear factor," as one student aptly described it-a dimension of the student experience that has emerged in every study I have conducted, across community colleges in different regions of the country and with a highly diverse range of stu- dents. The recurrence of this fear factor in such varied contexts attests to its profound effect in shaping students' college expe- riences. Chapter 2 explores the phenomenon, the nature and source of students' anxiety, and the strategies for managing those fears that students employ. STUDENT ANXIETY Regardless of the path that had led each student to college, en- rolling in college courses proved to be an immensely stressful transition. For recent high school graduates as well as those out- side the "traditional" age range, entering college marked a high- risk and anxiety-provoking transition in their adult lives. Students fresh from high school, for instance, indicated that the transition into college represented a crucial threshold to adulthood. Melanie, a recent high school graduate and a first- semester college student at Lake Shore Community College in the Southwest, described her initiation to college as follows: Here, I've had to really break out of the comfort zone of high school, and I've had to be very much more independent. In high school, if you didn't do homework, you were able to copy off a kid, one of your friends, or you were able to find out information from one of your friends if you skipped a day or whatever. But here, it's pretty much, if I skip, it's my fault. If I don't turn it in, it's my fault. And it's all dependent upon me, and it's made me a lot more independent. It's really pushed me into an area that I don't want to go, but I have to. I mean, it's not, college isn't so much an academic life, but it's also a very social and emotional part of who you are, too. In high school, everyone tells you what to do, they tell you what 22 THE COLLEGE FEAR FACTOR classes to take, they direct you in certain ways, they put you in cate- gories, and they put you in smart classes or dumb classes. And here in college, nobody does that for you. You have to figure it out on your own. I think college makes you a lot more serious. Early in her first semester, Melanie had indeed taken a serious approach to college: She had developed both specific long-term career plans and a detailed strategy for realizing them. She would complete two years of college coursework at Lake Shore Com- munity College. At the same time, she would complete some core requirements through the state university's online program. The next step consisted of transferring to the university, where she would earn a B.A. in psychology, then a Ph.D. She knew that an internship would be required for her to become a psychologist, and she had estimated the time it would take for her to become a practicing psychologist. All these steps, she noted, were crucial if she was not to "waste any time," and she described the effort she put into developing a logical plan. "I've had to figure out degree plans, courses at LSCC that can transfer to Uni- versity, the online courses at State that can transfer to the univer- sity; and as much as the counselors have helped me-l mean, they are really good at what they do-but a lot of this is set on you. And I think that really helps you grow as a person, because in the real world, nobody helps you besides your family. No- body's going to help you. So, yeah, I think I have gotten a little more serious." In many ways, Melanie fit the profile of a successful college student. She had formulated a clear and seemingly realistic edu- cational plan, she was attending school full-time, she could draw financial and emotional support from her family while pursuing her goals, and she evaded the disadvantages that first-generation college goers face. In addition, she spoke positively about her academic preparation for college; for example, Melanie noted how fortunate she had been to attend a high school where "they didn't pressure us to make great grades, but you were more so- THE STUDENT FEAR FACTOR 23 cially accepted within the school if you were a smart kid." And although Melanie had not necessarily earned the highest grades there-she mentioned "doing a lot better, gradewise" at the com- munity college than she had during high school-she had en- joyed the opportunity to take "higher-level" classes, such as Ad- vanced Placement English Literature. During her final semester in high school, she had taken one class at the community college, which made her feel more prepared for her first semester as a full-time student at the college. Despite these advantages, Melanie spoke vividly of the fears she confronted on matriculating. Recalling the anxiety she had felt on the first day of the fall semester, she told me, "When I came on my first day here, as I was walking up through that parking lot-I had to park all the way over there at the other end, because it was, like, crazy packed here, on the first day. I remember walking up, thinking, 'I'm all by myself now.' Not lit- erally, but the decisions that I make from today on, I'm going to have to make on my own. My family can advise me, but when it comes down to the nitty-gritty, the decision that I make is going to be my fault, or it's going to be my achievement. You know what I mean? And I think that was just a lot." This realization, Melanie confided, was too much to handle: "My body just said, 'This is too much stress, this is too much"'- so much that she rushed from the parking lot to the closest women's room, feeling sick to her stomach. MELANIE Melanie took four classes her first semester in college: composition, math, psychology, and French. Taking all four at once was challenging, but she felt that she was a serious student, committed to doing well. Throughout our conversation about her classes, Melanie contrasted her college coursework with her high school experience, and in doing so, consistently highlighted the increased academic pressure of col- lege. For example, she described the fast pace of her French class, . 24 THE COLLEGE FEAR FACTOR as compared with the Spanish classes she took in high school: "I never realized how fast college would be-comparing one year of high school with one semester of college. It's really fast pacing. like, I'm taking French right now, and that has really kicked me in the bum. Because in high school, you have two weeks to learn one section. And here it's like one day you learn a section, the next day you learn an- other section, it's just so fast paced, but I'm doing pretty good .... I think it's just because I've eliminated, like, my close, close friends, and all that kind of stupid high school drama that you go through, be- cause in high school it's not really about academics." Young adults such as Melanie were not the only ones to view the first semester of college as scary, unfamiliar, or life-changing. Individuals well outside the "traditional" college age range also spoke of the stress of assuming the responsibilities of college. Colleen, who had dropped out of high school at the age of fif- teen, decided to return to school when her own children reached school age. At that point, she told herself, "Well, this is the right time for me, and the right time in my life, and I'm mature enough to handle it." Still, she admitted, "it was still really scary. Oh, my God, it was a life-altering change." Because nearly every student viewed a college degree as essen- tial to her future, they were all embarking on high-stakes ven- tures. Many lacked the kind of "college knowledge" typical of middle-class students and remained uncertain about how to approach the degree track and their coursework.1 As a conse- quence, even as the vast majority of students were convinced that their future success hinged on their obtaining a college de- gree, they also revealed tremendous anxiety about the educa- tional and occupational paths they were embarking on. A signifi- cant component of students' stress was directly linked to their doubts about succeeding in college and realizing their career goals/ For some students, this fear-a natural part of any life tran- THE STUDENT FEAR FACTOR 25 sition-was heightened by their past experiences with failure in academic contexts. The frequent mentions of failure in stu- dent interviews included tales of having made bad decisions, per- formed poorly at various levels of elementary and secondary school, failed at specific assignments in high school courses, and failed or dropped classes at the postsecondary level. In addition, many students had fallen down on one or more of the entry-level assessments, whether in reading, writing, or math. In the case of math, the majority of the students I met had failed the test and had been required to enroll in at least one remedial math class before taking courses to fulfill · the college math requirement. Thus, for many students, past failure provided objective evidence of their academic inadequacy. Even students who did not explicitly discuss past failures re- vealed an underlying lack of confidence, and gnawing doubts about their capacity to succeed in college. For many, their very presence at a community college-the least selective and lowest tier of colleges-offered proof of their minimal academic com- petence. In other words, whereas admission to a selective col- lege-or even one that is less selective-offers some indication that a student has th~ capacity to succeed at that school, even this tenuous assurance is not available to students who enter a college with an open-admissions policy. THE FEAR FACTOR By enrolling in college courses, committing to a degree plan, and envisioning long-term objectives that depended on success at the community college, each student had stepped into the role of college student. The many students who seriously doubted their ability to succeed, however, were anxiously waiting for their shortcomings to be exposed, at which point they would be stopped from pursuing their goals. Fragile and fearful, these stu- dents expressed their concern in several ways: in reference to college professors, particular courses or subject matter, and the 26 THE COLLEGE FEAR FACTOR entire notion of college itself-whether at the two- or the four- year level. At the core of different expressions