College & Career Planning

BUILDING YOUR FUTURE

Preparing for Academic Success at Regent Universities of Iowa

Building your future is like building a house. Not somebody else’s house—your own. You need to both envision your dream house and create blueprints for building it. High school is a time of choices. In fact, some of the most important choices you’ll make in life face you right now as you sign up for your high school courses.

TAKE THE CHALLENGE

Be ambitious in your planning. Prepare yourself not only to survive in college but also to thrive. The best preparation for college is to take not the minimum courses but the optimum courses. Experience at all three universities points to one definite conclusion: students who succeed best in college are those who build the best foundation in high school. Even if you’re not currently considering attending college, you will still benefit from a strong foundation, since all jobs require much better academic preparation than they did a few years ago.

DRAFT YOUR BLUEPRINT

• 1. Lay your foundation carefully and wisely. It’s tempting to choose a course in which you know you could get a good grade, rather than one that might be difficult for you. But a challenging course will help you when you get to college. During high school you need to develop strong skills in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and reasoning. Courses that will help you do so include English/language arts, mathematics, sciences with laboratory experience, social studies, and foreign language. Your counselor can help you make the right choices. Taking an ambitious course load in high school means you’ll be starting college at an advantage.

  2. Learn to love learning. Every class you take is an opportunity to find something you care about, explore your intellectual horizons, and pursue your interests. View each class as an opportunity and a challenge.

  3. Develop a framework of study and work habits. Practice study strategies that have been shown to work in college: listening and note-taking skills, distributing study time rather than cramming, revisiting, revising, and reflecting. Make every effort to understand the concepts, theories, philosophies, and relationships you’re learning. Students who come to college with proven work and study patterns have a great advantage over students who need to establish them while they’re coping with all the new experiences of being a college freshman.

  4. Experience and explore. While you are in high school, consider taking courses that will allow you to explore a future career, cultivate a talent in the performing or visual arts, or teach you about a scientific field you’ve known nothing about until now. Participate in extracurricular activities. These initiatives are valued in college because they broaden your horizons, enhance your total educational experience, and increase your interaction with other people. Combined with a strong academic program, these activities should make you a confident and successful college student. Taking full advantage of your senior year is a key to both meeting the requirements for admission and taking advantage of courses and experiences that allow you to explore your interests and develop your talents.

REGENT ADMISSION INDEX (RAI)

In 2009, Iowa high school graduates who want to gain automatic admission to Iowa’s public universities must score a 245 or above on the Regent Admission Index, which was approved Monday, December 11, 2006. How to calculate a student’s admission score is listed below. Visit this website for an RAI calculator: www2.state.ia.us/regents/RAI.

These courses are approved as core courses that earn 5 points toward the RAI index at the regent colleges of the University of Northern Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Iowa. One of the components of the RAI formula is the number of core courses you take multiplied by five. In other words, for every one of these courses that you take, you are 5 points closer to the required 245. If you have questions see a counselor.

The following courses have been RAI (Regent Admission Index) approved:

High School Course Requirements: In addition to meeting the Regent Admission Index requirement, students must complete the minimum number of high school courses specified below for the institution to which they’re applying.

For more information: Your high school guidance counselor is an excellent source of information about planning for college. We recommend you speak with your counselor as early as possible about taking courses that will prepare you for success in college. For more information about the Iowa regent universities and admission requirements, visit the websites:

The University of Iowa | Iowa State University | University of Northern Iowa

From the website: Iowa’s Regents Universities Requirements 11/08

PREPARING FOR ACADEMIC SUCCESS AT IOWA’S REGENT UNIVERSITIES