Underachievement Among College Students

Many high-achieving students do not question their academic success. They do well and are content with the study skills they have developed to ensure that they achieve their goals. However, these students, whose high schools considered them achievers, experience difficulties and sometimes failure in situations where they had previously experienced success. Using a sample of college freshmen who had earned academic warnings or had been placed on academic probation, this research examined each individual and his or her causes of underachievement. Participants attributed their high school successes to minor efforts. Not needing to do much to earn the success they wanted, these students were never taught, nor ever taught themselves, how to work through challenging issues. When these participants encountered challenging coursework in college, they were unprepared to deal with it. Additionally, several other aspects of participants' experiences contributed to their college underachievement: inadequate study skills, poor time management, and internal versus external motivation. Participants felt that the intervention that would best reverse college underachievement was improving their own attitudes and behaviors. Through counseling and other means, gifted students need to learn how to motivate themselves to work when grades do not come easily. Colleges should be aware that even their high- achieving applicants may lack the skills necessary to succeed. In addition to offering study skills courses to underachieving students, colleges should include preemptive strategies for all incoming freshmen, including motivational and time management strategies.