-Kara, Red group

Most students in this study exhibited active or assertive coping skills. Only two students, Ada and Meg, self-reported behaviors that demonstrate a passive approach to being at Hunter.

M: Do you ask questions?

Ada: Some...not really.Like sometimes I can understand it, or I'll go back and read up on it.

-Ada, Ada interview.

Ada expressed similar discomfort around going to office hours.

Ada: And I didn't go to the professor, I don't know why, but I guess I was like intimidated.

M: Did you think about going to him, or did it not even cross your mind?

Ada:Thought about it, but I wouldn't go.Because if I was going with some, you know, like the buddy system, if I was going with somebody else, somebody, then I'd probably be comfortable….

-Ada, Ada interview

Similarly, Meg demonstrated passive coping skills through her sense of helplessness in following directions for an assignment.

Meg: I went after class. But he was like, he said, "No, this is not what I wanted.Yes I said analysis, but you're doing a book report."I'm telling you what the story's about.Maybe I had a different definition of analysis then he did. I don't know, he wanted to know, I guess, compare the book to areal life situation, I don't know.I still don't know to this day what he wanted in that report.

-Meg, Gray group

It seems likely that there was a natural selection for students with active coping skills in the recruitment process. Most students reported active/assertive behavior and many students expressed that in order to survive at Hunter, one had to exhibit pro-active behavior.This may entail students possessing persistence in seeking academic help outside of class as this respondent stated:

Rose: I've had mostly good teachers and all-right teachers.Um, I don't know, I haven't found someone like, if I wasn't persistent enough.I find like, with the all-right teachers, if you're persistent enough with some of them you just have to be more persistent though.I haven't found someone that was impossible to deal with.

M: So for you it's a matter of how many times you have to go after them.

Rose: Yeah. Rose, Gray group

Active coping skills may also be reflected by students’ wherewithal to navigate administrative processes.This respondent cited the tenacity needed to register for classes.

Hope: ‘Cause I plan to graduate within two years – 2004 in the spring, and I don’t see it that way. I see it even longer.So that’s why…I’m chasing those people around, by this time, they start to hate me.But I’m trying….

-Hope, Yellow group

Some students demonstrated highly assertive coping skills.These students seemed to possess a certain sense of entitlement that helped them advocate for their cause.These students would often enlist the help of faculty or administration, in an attempt to navigate the Hunter College system and its myriad rules.

Emma: I went and met with the Head of the Department, because I had to have him kind of get me into classes that I wasn’t, didn’t have pre-requisites for.So now that he knows me by name…and I actually, specifically took a class underneath him so that he could get to know me better.He’ll help me whenever he can.Because I’ve had to ask for more help.

-Emma, Yellow group

Ally: When I can’t register for classes, I tell the professors that I’m a chemistry majorand that they have to give me the class. Ally, Red group

-Emotional and Psychological Preparedness -

Levels of college readiness were hard to evaluate based on only the students' statements, however, some themes did emerge."Emotional and psychological readiness" are associated with taking responsibility for academic achievement. Since there was very little information about levels of subject knowledge prior to entering Hunter, "academic readiness" is a gauge of college-level study skills, rather than subject specific skill level.

Emotional readiness was indicated both by a willingness to take responsibility for learning and a desire to do so.

Moderator: So, do you make it more challenging yourself?

Jane: Well, you just do all the reading.And when there is a research paper, you do the researchalthough you know that you could get by doing the smallest amount.And I feel that if I didn’t study or do the reading, I probably wouldn’t get an A.I do think that you have to study (at Hunter).

- Jane, Red group

Judy: Well basically all my life I have always wanted to go to New Orleans and I tried to get in last year and like I said I didn’t.My grades from high school were really not that good, and I came here. And I did have a positive experience on a whole, and I got great grades. I really studied hard and I got into the school I want to go to. Although I still am doing an exchange next year for a year as a hunter student, because I just thought that was a great. I mean it’s a great opportunity to go somewhere like __________ which is $25,000 per year and I am paying Hunter’s tuition.I mean it’s a steal. So I am going to do that, and then I am going to go to ________.

-Judy, Blue group

Emma: I mean I enjoy studying.I think that’s one thing that’s great about studying whenever you’re 25 instead of 18 is that you want to be there.

-Emma, Yellow group

Other students made it clear that when they first came to school they did not take responsibility for their academic success.

M: So, when you first started to come to Hunter and you didn't go to class all the time, but that hadn't been your habit in high school.

Wanda: That's right.

M: So why do you think, you sort of talked a little bit earlier, why is it that you didn't go to class all the time? You talked about the open door?

Wanda: OK - this is what happened.The second day in college I bumped into an old friend that had graduated from the same high school.And she was in the Indian Club that's located in Thomas Hunter.She said [imitating] "Oh, you're going to have to meet these people, they're going to love you, oh, we're going to have so much fun."I'm like "OK, fine" [imitating] "And you know in your free time you can come and we can have fun."I'm like "OK free time, you mean that 25 minute break I have.OK, sure, why not." Whatever.And I went and I started to go there very frequently, very often.And I forgot out of that club there's a school.So that's it, subway and there I am, and you know have my lunch, six o'clock my class ends."Yeah what, go home?"OK and I have a friend that graduated and every day we're in the subway, "Ah, another day of no education. Feels good."That's until we got our results, and that was it.

-Wanda, Gray group

M: But up until then you got good grades? (yup)Does your mom say stuff to you about your grades?

Ada: Yeah, she says you have to sit down and study.Like I get distracted easily, so I have to sit down and find a quiet place and sit.But like when it's too quiet I'll end up falling asleep. 'Cause it'stoo quiet. So then I'll have my headphones and she'll be mad because I have my headphones on asking me how I can study while the headphones are on. Ada, Ada interview

Joe: I think that class should be maybe in the second semester, because in the first semester you are like…you learn and you forget.That’s what happened to me.

-Joe, Red group

The lack of such emotional and psychological preparedness has another consequence. Some students allow social considerations, appearing foolish in front of classmates, for example, to determine their academic behavior.

Meg: Yeah, you’re in a lecture and you don’t want to talk

M: You don’t want to talk?

Meg: right cause it’s so big, all these people and if you say something somebody might, oh, sigh or something, if you mention something, so you’re just quiet and listen to shat the teacher’s telling you. And if you have a question most likely, you’ll keep it to youself and then maybe, I don’t know it depends on the person, you’ll go after class and ask the teacher and just, you know, look I had a problem with this, but you wouldn’t ask it in there.

Ada: in lecture, yeah.

Meg: at least I wouldn’t, in the lecture.

M: And you wouldn’t because you were saying like other students might react?

Meg: Right, you know, what if you ask a question or something a dumb question or something.Maybe dumb to me—or, not to me—to you, but you now, I don’t know. Meg and Ada, Gray Group.

Academic Preparedness

Academic readiness refers to possession of college level study skills.

Manny: I am a procrastinator about papers, but I learned at least get a schedule.What I would do is, I wouldn’t start working on it right away – immediately - but I would be thinking about what material do I plan to use. What books, and what sources, what chapters was I planning to use of the textbook.And then, uh, take a visit to the library well in advance, well in the middle, so I can at least have someoutline, you know? Even if I write a portion of it at the library, so I can at least be thinking about it so if it comes down to like a week in advance or the night before, not the night before, but a week before, it wouldn’t technically be cramming or rushing.You know it's thought out and my thoughts have been gathered.You know I could just write.

-Meg, Gray group

(Regarding finals)
Ada: I'm trying, like the first test was Anthropology so I tried to study thedefinitions for Anthropology more, but then I had to I tried to cut, to make it like an hour, and try to study that.'Cause I knew I wasn’t going to study everything, 'cause I had to split it up in two.Like since I had to study for two things, so I studied for Anthropology for an hour forgot about it. And then I studied for Psychology for the other hour.

M: So this is like the night before?(Yeah.)And what about the other classes?Did you have more time to study for those?

Ada: Theater?Yeah, 'cause it was, I had the weekend, for theater.And English, I didn't really study for it. Ada, Ada interview

Not surprisingly, both emotional and academic readiness seems to be related to age and experience.Several participants indicated that they learned from prior mistakes.For example, Wanda told the other participants in the gray group that she had learned to make sure that professors knew her by name now based on her previous mistakes of remaining anonymous in big lecture halls.

Wanda: So I don't think lecture hall is a problem at least not always.I've had good experiences in lecture halls and my humanities professor he knows me, all my professors this semester they know me by name, cause I go to them and I make sure, cause you know I've fallen too many times now.Wanda, Gray group

Similarly, Manny stated that he learned his lesson from his past experiences at another school where he spent most of his time socializing.He now stated that he was more interested in setting goals for himself and accepting responsibility.

Manny: And she said this is why I wanted you to take a semester off. And she gave me the inclination that it was ok to return, and I could go anywhere I wanted to. But I knew that if I went to _______- I might not graduate.

M: It was just too much of a temptation to party?

Manny: In a way, I don’t have the responsibility.I would have gotten probably more money, and I wouldn’t have to worry about housing.And I would have a work study job - you know - so I wouldn’t have as many responsibilities.But here I have a lot of responsibilities.But it’s good. I am thinking one or two steps ahead instead of just playing everything by ear or improvising or just doing the immediate thing. So I am actually setting goals for myself. I am becoming a young adult (laughing).

-Manny, Manny interview

Hope also demonstrated learning through her past experiences. During her interview, she showed the researcher a book she bought to learn better study skills. She was reading the book during her summer vacation for her own knowledge.

M: Did someone recommend that book to you or…?

Hope: No. When um…when I took Pre-Calculus and I took Biopsychology…I was going nuts. ‘Cause I was taking those two classes, the lab of Pre-Cal; I was taking Philosophy.And I don’t know what…History.I was going crazy.And I thought that um… I, I lost my study habits because I couldn’t handle all those, all that material. So when the semester was over I said, “Forget it. I have to go someplace else and find out how to keep up with all of this.”So, I went to Barnes and Nobles and I went there and I looked through everything.And I said, “This is more convenient.”‘Cause it explained the four different areas where we flunk most of the time…especially at the beginning of the semester. So…that’s it …I did it.I read it.

-Hope, Hope interview

-Goals-

Surprisingly, a number of students indicated that that they were at Hunter to learn rather than simply acquire a degree.Quite a few expressed an enjoyment about learning. For example:

Kara: But as long as I go to my classes, and I do my work, and I engage myself in my classes, I’m always having a good time.Considering I work during the day, studying and learning is what is fun for me.

-Kara, Red group

Jane: And sometimes I feel that courses are really easy here, and you kind of have to make theminteresting for yourself, and make them more challenging just because you have an interest in learning.

-Jane, Red group

Manny: Yes.I enjoy doing it.It’s something that I can do.It’s something that I don’t get tired of.I love numbers and problems solving.I do like my accounting classes.I tell my girlfriend that this semester I really love accounting because I knew debit and credit but this is the first semester that I really understood it.You can give me like any problem and I can figure out debit and credit, not because I memorized which one is debit and which one is credit, but because I truly understood it. I guess my biggest quotes that I live by is the bible, it says, “The principal thing is wisdom and with all our wisdom we can under that and in all things...” Basically we can understand and basically it's not about a whole lot of education but understanding what you know and understanding the process.The reason I am patient is because I understand the process and what needs to be done.No, here it get wisdom and with all thy getting you can understand.”

-Manny, Manny interview

These students also tended to have more codes for readiness and higher GPA's.

Grouping Students According to Characteristics

Based on their characteristics (i.e. coping skills, psychological or academic preparedness, and goals) GPA, and parents’ educational level, 13 students were found to cluster in the following three, broad categories: “high achievers,” “active adapters,” and “low achievers.”The remaining 13 students did not provide enough information in the study to make a determination about where theyshould be grouped in these categories.These categories are outlined in the table below:

Table B

Academic orientation, as described by these three groups, was found, at times, to color their experiences of Hunter’s academic, social, and administrative environments.This will be explored in more depth in the following sections.