by Michael Skinner

Created on: July 31, 2009   Last Updated: August 21, 2009

Fear of the unknown is most often conquered by knowledge. Visit the school you want to go to as often as possible. Get to know as many of the faculty, administration and even students as you can. A secret source of rapport in a new place can be maintenance people, grounds keepers, cafeteria personnel, cooks, and cleaners. They may have been around the campus for years and if you can make a few of them your friends they may help you in unexpected ways in a time of need.

Take some classes on public speaking before you go to college. Being at ease with talking to strangers will pay dividends throughout your life.

Another fear is the fear of failure. You fear that you will flunk out of college, become a penniless loser and wake up in a dingy hotel room in a bath tub full of ice missing a kidney.

The best way to prevent failure at college is to know your limits. If you are not a straight A rocket scientist then don't try to get into MIT. Just because you parents are alumni does not mean you have to or even should attend a certain institution. If you are not PhD material then a community college might be a cheaper and better bet for you. If you had bad grades in high school or struggle with Dick and Jane and Run Spot Run, then this is a big clue that the social promotion you got at your high school has not prepared you for life. Get thee hence to a community college and take as many of the remedial classes as you can in the subjects you struggled with in high school.

You can actually buy some education before you ever attend a college class. Go to the college book store and buy up all the cheat sheets and cram material you can and pore over it in the summer before you got to college. Nothing prevents you from memorizing the parts of speech, the anatomy of the human body, the plays of Shakespeare, the periodic table of elements and the equations of motions for physics long before you ever attend a class. Throw in the basic equations of elementary functions, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus and you may find that your classes are not that bad at all. Part of what an educational experience at an institution of higher learning is all about is providing a common core of experience for all educated people. At the end of our studies we should, among other things, have a touch stone of concepts and allegories upon which we can construct a Brave New World better than the one our parents left us.

Another way to prepare for college is

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