The Preparedness of Incoming College Students

By: Jasmin Danyal

March 30, 2016

Wayne State University

42 W Warren Ave
Detroit, MI 48202

March 30, 2016

To whom it may concern,
This project consists of a feasibility report about whether high school education prepares
students for college or not. Mainly written to attract professional audiences that have control
over education systems, but it may also interest students who preparing themselves for college.
The goal was to research on this debate and to gather information on the perspectives of students
from Troy High School on this issue. No extremely solutions can be found but there are ideas on
how to make this issue well known to the general public. As people are introduced to this issue,
they may use this information to inform other and to warn students as well. Students can use this
project to search for help in preparing themselves for college.
In the first progress report, online research was done on the matter and there some solutions
that could start preparing students for college:
Share this report through social media so that students who come across it get an
idea of what issues they may encounter in college. I may also get feedback from people
on their outlook on the issue
Talk to classes in high schools about my report and speak to classes as a whole,
gather personal feedback but also open their minds possible solutions.
Make a website or app that can prepare students for college with tips and
guidelines.
I hope this report contains information that interests you enough to help spread this issue. Thank
you for your time in reading this report. If you have any questions or concerns please contact me
through my university email, personal email or phone.
Sincerely,
Jasmin Danyal
jasmin.danyal@wayne.edu
jasmin.danyal@gmail.com
(586)996-1594

Table of Contents
Letter of Transmittal1
Introduction.3
Method6
Research..6
Online Research
1

 Interviews
Conclusion...8
Recommendation.9
Works Cited...10
Appendix I.11

Introduction
Today, there are students who are graduating top of their class and struggling in college
because they are unprepared. Whether it be internal or external issues, it is apparent that the
education that students are being given in high school is not preparing them for the challenges in
college. Changes and solutions found for this issue were not simple enough to be completed in a
two-week time frame, but there may be some possible solutions that could make changes in the
long term, and help students today in the short term. Therefore my approach on find a solution is
not by changing the way kids around educated but by preparing them in ways high school
education is not.

By sharing this report through social media, students who come across it get an idea of
what issues they may encounter in college. There may also be professionals who will become
interested in the matter. Just like any other common issue amongst the public, it could potentially
become viral and powerful people can help make changes in the long run. In the same way, a
group of people could gather and visit schools to spread this issue. They could gather more
personal feedback on the students perspective, which is partially what this report consists of: An
interview with students and what they believe.
In this modern world we live in today, technology has become a great part of our
everyday lives. This is why I believe that a website on app could be constructed to provide tips or
guidelines that every students can follow. Compared the apps available now, this one would
target specifically a student audience who wanting to ensure that they are prepared for college or
students who are currently struggling.
To begin this research, I used my personal knowledge on the issue and through online
research found articles of why this is happening.

Background
In Michigan, there is a core curriculum that has been set, called the Michigan Merit
Curriculum. This curriculum consists of the minimum requirements needed to obtain a high
school diploma. Any school in michigan must make sure that any student who entered 8th grade
during or after the 2005-2006 school year and wishes to receive a high school diploma from a
public school must meet the requirements of the MMC. Districts are allowed to have varied
schedules of the requirement as they wish. As you can see in Figure 1, these requirements have
been modified recently since they specify on what graduating classes these requirements pertain
to.
Adjustments have been made for the changes in learning styles in students and may
continue to change in the future. This comes to show that the government is aware of what skills

are necessary to make a student succeed and what skills have not been met in the past years. If
students follow these requirements fully by gaining the highest amount of knowledge in each
class, they should have the sufficient amount of knowledge to do well in their classes in college.
Unfortunately, for students to retain all that knowledge throughout all four years is highly
unlikely. This is because of vacations where most knowledge is lost or carelessness in retaining
that knowledge throughout the school year. There are students who can get by in highschool with
average scores, finishing assignments last minute (procrastination), and unfortunately sometimes
cheating. Cheating includes using the internet to search for answers or looking at a peer's work.
Even with ideal standards, everything that students learn does not ensure that they will be
capable of managing the workload.

Figure 1: Minimum high school graduation

requirements by the MCC. (to the left)

Method

The plan is to interview students from Wayne State who have attended college in
Michigan collect data during the school week. They were allowed to read over my progress
report memo to get an idea on the issue I am researching on. Consent from the students will be
taken through email before the interviews. Afterwards, the interviewee will be questioned a
second time about their feedback. Before these interviews take place, online research will help
provide information on what clues I should look out for. These clues will support the issue by
providing reasons why the issue takes place. Interview questions and will be constructed so that
all the information gathered is organized. With this plan, the sufficient information needed to
form a well thought out solution for this problem can be gathered within a week. By being a
former high school student and current college student, I am qualified to perform this research.

Research and Results

The first half of research done for this project consisted of online research about the
issue. This is taken from the first Progress Report. Facts about the issue and all aspects about it
was gathered to support the claim. The claim being that students are not prepared for college.
In 2012, ACT, inc. posted a report on the results of the ACT test. They used those results
to see what percentage of the testers were prepared completely for college. Shockingly they
found that most students are not ready to be successful in college. As see in Figure 2, online 25%
out of the 1.7 million high school students who took the ACT met the college readiness
benchmark in all four subjects. In 2015 however, that percentage raised to 28%. Still ACT, inc.
believes that since graduating
classes are not meeting any of the
benchmarks they will have a
difficult time after high school.

Figure 2: Percent of ACT-tested

school graduates meeting college
readiness benchmarks by subject.
(right)

high
2012.

Figure 3: Percent of 2015 ACTtested high school graduates meeting ACT

college readiness benchmarks by subject.
(left)

In an article by Stephanie Farah, she gives five reasons as to why students may not be
prepared for college-level course work. First, she says that students may not be completing the
core curriculum. Which makes sense since the ACT is first taken in their junior year. They may
still have some classes from the core curriculum that they have not completed. Furthermore, top
students may not be as prepared for college as educators and parents would believe. Just because
a student finishes top of their class does not mean they are more prepared than students who are
average students. As mentioned in the introduction, there may be external as well as internal
factors that are causing students to struggle. The third reason states that students may not be
challenging themselves as readers. The grade level at which most high school students is much
lower. Following up, not only are they not worries about their reading skills but also their writing
skills may diminish. Slang and acronyms are used for texting to make it easier. Unfortunately,
over time this can cause them to forget simple grammar rules for writing. Lastly, Farah says that
colleges should adjust their requirements for new generation of students. Colleges may be
accepting students with lower requirements who may not be prepared for the college-level
coursework given today.
To follow up on these findings, an interview/questionnaire was given to two students who
attended a high school in Michigan.
The first student, Shruti, attends Michigan State University as a sophomore. The second
student, Syed, attends Wayne State University as a freshman. Both students believed that school
did in fact prepare them for college, education wise. They felt as if the reading and writing in
their high school career challenged them enough. Syed attended Washtenaw International High
School, which is an IB school. IB schools have stronger curricula than public schools. Shruti
took Honors and AP English classes, therefore her expectations as a student were greater.
Another thing that both students mentioned, is how they have not mastered how to manage their
time. These answers can be seen in the Appendix 1.
Conclusions

Through online research it was apparent that researchers in the matter believed that
students were not meeting full requirements for college and were not being challenged enough as
readers. That may have been seen as the only reason before, but through further research we
conclude that there are other factors. These factors consist of personal unpreparedness of each
student.
In a way, students are book smart but not necessarily street smart. Meaning, student
are being well educated and could be very intelligent but they may have troubles in personal
growth and discipline that strongly affects them in college. Students do not know how to manage
their time wisely and end up procrastinating most of their work. High school education may not
be completely preparing students for college, but there is only so much it can do. That leaves the
only approach that will be the most helpful to be to help struggling college students now and to
prepare high school student via social media.

Recommendations
With the results found, I believe that by following these recommendations we can begin
to make some short term changes in the performance of students, and hopefully enlighten long
term goals and changes.

1. Talk to high schools and students of the matter or Share through social
media. Students of any age would be exposed to this issue before learning about it
themselves. This way students will be mentally prepared for what is to come and can
choose to do something about it or not. They will essentially be aware of what skills they
will have to learn on their own. They could begin to discipline themselves to avoid any
struggles that students are experiencing now. Groups who talk to students and articles
online could include this second recommendation.
2. Construct an app or Website. Professionals and researchers could make a
program that gives students tips and guidelines. These guidelines would teach students
how to discipline themselves and manage their time wisely for example. Some tips could
include how to transition from living with your parents to living in campus. Considering
that some students learn differently from others, this app or website could provide many
alternative ways of gaining the necessary skills for the different learners.

Works Cited
Farah, S. (2013, October 3). Five Reasons Why Your Students May Not Be Prepared for
College-Level Course Work. Retrieved April 02, 2016, from
http://www.collegexpress.com/counselors-and-parents/college-counselors/blog/five-reasonswhy-your-students-may-not-be-prepared-college-level-course-work/
Edwards, H. (2015, February 23). Average ACT Scores by State (Most Recent). Retrieved April
02, 2016, from http://blog.prepscholar.com/act-scores-by-state-averages-highs-and-lows

Sheehy, K. (2012, April 22). Retrieved April 03, 2016, from

http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/high-school-notes/2012/08/22/high-school-studentsnot-prepared-for-college-career
The Condition of College & Career Readiness 2015. (n.d.). Retrieved April 03, 2016, from
http://www.act.org/content/act/en/research/condition-of-college-and-career-readiness-report2015.html?page=0

10

Appendix 1

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