The video above is an animated makeover of an authentic audio clip from a first-year student focus group. Can you relate to these students’ situations?
One of the most overlooked reasons high school graduates underperform in college is that they—and often their support systems—lack awareness of the critical distinctions between how academic work is structured in high school versus how it unfolds in college. This knowledge gap is not just a minor oversight. It’s a keystone problem that, if left unaddressed, leaves students confused, frustrated, and unprepared to meet the expectations of college-level learning.
With the mounting pressures higher education faces today—declining enrollment, rising tuition costs, and heightened political pressures—student success is more valuable than ever. Quite bluntly, we need students not just to succeed but to thrive. Their educational experience must be more than a transactional exchange of information. It must be a transformational journey. As Paul Ramsden notes in Learning to Teach in Higher Education, students must experience the pleasures of learning as they do academic work (Ramsden, 2003). Students should thrive at our institutions. The work should help them grow intellectually, emotionally, and socially and spiritually.
After two decades investigating how students engage with academic work outside the classroom, I’ve come to a sobering realization: even some of our most capable and hard-working students misunderstand the real reasons for their college struggles. We may quickly blame time management or motivation when they fall short, but their deeper challenges stem from using the wrong approach to academic work.
Below are three key insights that have consistently helped students—and the institutions that serve them—reshape their learning behaviors for measurable improvement.
1. Teach students the key structural difference between high school and college academic environments.
HS vs College Environment Comparison Chart
In high school, teachers perform the heavy lifting of academic regulation. Through daily assignments, guided instruction, and ongoing reinforcement, students move along a “conveyor-belt” model of learning. As long as they stay on the belt—attending class, doing homework, participating—they are generally prepared for assessments.
College, by contrast, demands a radical shift. Professors do not regulate learning in the same way. Instead, students are expected to take full ownership of how, when, and how deeply they learn. This is often referred to as independent learning, but it’s more accurately self-regulated learning. Without an understanding of this structural shift, students struggle to adapt—and the conveyor belt disappears beneath them.
When I lead my Transition Traps Escape Room Experience workshops, students consistently report that understanding this one visual distinction—between regulated and independent learning—completely reframes their academic mindset. Faculty and staff can immediately help students by identifying overlooked academic behaviors and guiding students to restructure their approach.
Students, faculty and staff participants showing off the keys they earned through the escape room challenge, Fall 2024.
2. Address the Great Information Reduction
One of the most jarring realities for new college students is the sharp decline in instructional hours. Compared to high school, students experience a 50% reduction in direct instruction in college (Conley, 2007). This phenomenon, which I call the “Great Information Reduction,” leaves many students disoriented.
If students are saying, “We didn’t cover enough to be tested on this,” they are likely encountering this reduction. Attending class is no longer sufficient. Students must learn how to build meaning from partial instruction, connect fragmented concepts, and proactively fill in gaps. Without preparation for this new academic environment, even consistent attendance and note-taking may leave students underprepared.
3. Upgrade the Formula Students Use for Academic Work
Students approach academic work using internalized “formulas,” often without realizing it. The most common—what I call The Laborer’s Formula—equates time and effort with academic success. You’ll recognize this formula when students say things like, “I studied so long,” or “I worked so hard,” or “I read so much.” These are all outputs, not outcomes. And this formula, while well-intentioned, often leads to exhaustion and underperformance.
Some students upgrade to The Engagement Formula, striving for intensity and focus. In How to Become a Straight-A Student, Cal Newport (2006) notes that top-performing students often self-report their intense focus as the difference-maker. But even this can be misleading. The true differentiator isn’t effort or intensity—it’s strategy.
The most effective approach is The Learner’s Formula. This model emphasizes metacognitive conditions: awareness of how learning happens, intentional planning, self-monitoring, and reflection. It focuses on transforming course content into measurable course outcomes—skills, reasoning, and application—rather than just accumulating knowledge.
As I discuss in How to Successfully Transition Students into College: From Traps to Triumph, adopting The Learner’s Formula equips students to generate academic work that meets the expectations of college-level performance.
Solving the Right Problems Fuel Success
When students stumble academically, it’s easy to blame lack of effort or poor time management. But these are surface-level symptoms. The deeper issue lies in the unspoken, unrecognized shift in how academic work is structured from high school to college. By addressing the structural change in learning regulation, preparing students for the Great Information Reduction, and helping them upgrade the formula they use to approach learning, we can bridge that critical gap.
And when we do? We transform education from a frustrating puzzle into a purposeful path. We shift student experiences from confusion to clarity—and unlock the very transformation that higher education promises.
Ramsden, P. (2003). Learning to Teach in Higher Education. Routledge.
Conley, D. T. (2007). Redefining College Readiness. Educational Policy Improvement Center.
Newport, C. (2006). How to Become a Straight-A Student. Three Rivers Press.
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