Dear Campus Advisor,

This is my second year in college.  My freshman year, for the most part, was disastrous. I was at all of the parties and did little studying. I enjoy my popular social life, but my academic career is in jeopardy. I now find myself on academic probation. I have to meet weekly with my advisor. She monitors my progress and offers me suggestions for tutors. I want to stay focused this year, but I  find myself encountering the same friends I kicked it with last year. How do I stay true to my studies without totally losing my social life? Don't get me wrong. I want to finish school, but is there any way to do it and still be able to kick-it?

Big Ced,  

All is not lost, my socially struggling sophomore. I too enjoyed the party life associated with college.  My problem was that I never wanted to miss anything.  If there was a jam going down, I wanted to be there. Your problem is similar. You do not coordinate your coursework and your extracurricular activities. However, you are equipped with weapons that every student receives at the beginning of every college term syllabi. Your mission?  Read them thoroughly and carry them with you always! Think of your syllabi as time indexes.  Each professor outlines the entire semester of work in her or his syllabus. Each syllabus is your game plan for academic success in each of your courses. Take time to look at the test dates, term papers and assigned readings for each course. Carefully map out your drop-dead study plan, your better-to-drop-dead-than-not-follow-it plan! Resist hitting the party scene this term until you have mastered the academic scene.   Begin to carefully assess how you spend your time. Read First Things First in this issue of THE BLACK COLLEGIAN. Find the time-cheaters you are allowing in your plan. Get rid of them. Free up some time and work ahead. A little extra reading never hurts. Tackle at least one chapter in each of your subjects every night before going to sleep. Minimize the time you spend doing nothing, and you turn time to your advantage. If you do so, I guarantee that you will do well on your tests and still have time to hit the parties but on the weekends. Continue to seek counsel from your advisor. A college degree requires discipline and sacrifice, but a degree is why you are in college. If your friends encourage you to slack off, turn on them and encourage them to study with you. You will do yourself and them a favor because a California study shows that students who study in groups do better than those who don't. So tell your friends that in order for you to chill with them, you have to TCB first, academics.  Advise them to do the same. If you cannot convince your friends to change, change friends. You will find that your social relationships grow stronger when you and your friends share academic and social objectives. Remember, no man is an island; we all need help in our individual efforts. If you modify your behavior, you can turn disadvantage to advantage.  Think analytically.  Solve the mystery of higher living and learning. Don't let them mystify you. 

I can never get my financial aid check on time. My grades are always getting held for past obligations.  I try and try to get my aid on time, yet when I attempt to get my questions answered, I get jerked. The bureaucracy of university politics is making me pull my hair out in clumps.  Please give me the secret formula! 

Dear Mary Worried, 

Don't pull out your hair trying to beat this. No secret exists: As you move up to higher levels of education, career and responsibility, you encounter more situations surrounded by ever-flowing seas of red tape. But bureaucracy is imposing only to those who do not expect it or know how to get around it. Financial Aid Offices maintain a level of red tape to ensure compliance with federal requirements and to earn the public trust. Hint one: Check and reread your financial aid packet. Double check deadlines. Complete the form correctly and on time. Better yet, send in the required paperwork before the deadline. If a problem persists, go personally to the Financial Aid Office, early in the morning. There is a good chance that when you go to the office you will be screened by a receptionist.  Be polite.  No need to attack her because the secretary does not control your money.  Explaining your unique situation to her produces little or no results. Ask for someone in charge. Write down what the person in charge tells you to do and do it. Problem still persists? Hint two: Ask a staff or faculty member where you can find a copy of a faculty/staff directory. From the directory, find the name and phone number of another staff person in the office to talk to. Call that person and set up an appointment. Remember to note down all of the people you speak to their names and titles and the dates and results of your conversation. If nothing happens, return to the directory. Call the director of Financial Aid and leave a detailed account of whom you talked to, what they told you and what happened after you followed their directions. Show that the problem persists. Explain to the director that you have done everything you were told to do, without results. Ask him or her why no one in the department is able to provide adequate assistance. Mention that you plan to leave the same message on the voice mails of the vice-president for Student Affairs and the president, if you do not get immediate results. I am almost certain you will receive not only a prompt phone call from someone in Financial Aid, but also all of the money owed to you. You will be able to make your scheduled payments on time, or you will be given some assistance in meeting your financial obligations, if a delay is unavoidable. This will happen only if you have completed everything you are required to do properly and on time. 

Linda Bates Parker is your Online Campus Advisor. She has authored the Campus Advisor column for THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Magazine for over 13 years. Parker is the director of the Career Development Center at the University of Cincinnati and president of Black Career Women a national organization.

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