To all of our Scholars... We are Here for You!

Current and graduated South Central Scholars scholarship recipients can use this section to find resources, information, and programs that are available to them as members of the SCS community.

We encourage our scholars to take advantage of the many services that are available to you. These services include:

- Mentorship Program

- Jobs & Internships Program

- Conferences, Workshops & Seminars

- Scholar Monthly newsletter

- Important News & Announcements

Potential scholars can find resources that can help them through the college application and selection process by visiting our Middle & High School Center.

Scholar Jobs & Internships Program

Most internships that SCS has access to our located in Los Angeles County, so most internships that we set up are for the summer. It is important that we receive ALL internship requests By or Before May 16 if you wish to have an internship through us for Summer 2013. To submit a request for internship placement, fill out the Internship Application Form. This will give us the info we need to start working on internships for next summer. For South Central Scholars scholarship recipients ONLY.

Keep in mind that we will need your updated resume (put your name in the document file name) and you may need to submit a separate application later. We are unable to get internships for all who request it, so please also check the Scholar Monthly often for other internship opportunities, and visit your campus's Career Center!

Internship Application Form for South Central Scholars students

Dr. Bill McClure's Not-So-Subtle Hints for Succeeding in College

1. Never miss class. Never be late. Never leave early. Period.

2. College is big business for you. Run your time and you4 career as though it were.

3. Practice time management. It?s a critical skill for survival, promotion, success.

 THIS IS THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT POINT IN YOUR FIRST SEMESTER!!!

 Do a time audit: 15 minute blocks, 3-5 days. Be honest.

4. Choosing courses:

Choose those you like; you'll do better.

Choose good professors over bad ones; talk to your friends.

Choose professors over course material when you have a choice.

Can't get into a full class? Use registration tricks. Everything is negotiable. Be courteous, interested, excited; be there for the first class. Talk to the prof.

5. Get started early. The first week is the most important.

Get your textbooks early. You can sell them back for full price for a while (a short while) if they?re not going to be used by the class. The last edition is often fine, and usually very cheap.

Read the first chapter, or 50 pages, before the first class.

Hit the ground running and well organized.

6. Use your brain effectively.

Read out loud if you can; mouth words if you have to be quiet.

Write, write, write. Writing is magical for learning.

Learn early.

Learn overnight.

Study in short bits of time. 50 min study, 10 min break.

Set study goals at the beginning of each study session (each hour).

Avoid stress. Watch for it; respect it; reduce it. Stress is deadly. The best defense is knowing the class material, and knowing that you know it.

7. Become an expert test taker.

It's important. We live in a very competitive society, and good test-takers do better than poor ones.

Pretest yourself. Old exams are best. See the course home page, or the reserve desk at the library.

8. During the course:

Plan on about 10 hr/four unit course each week. You should do school about 50 hr/week for a normal schedule (class, labs, study; everything). I want these hours during the week; study each course on the same day that you go to lecture. It's better than flipping hamburgers at McD's.

Never turn in homework late, messy, or unedited. Don?t forget to use your spell checker.

Sit in the first few rows. There?s about a 1 letter grade drop between front-row sitters and back-row ones. Sitting in front automatically reduces big classes to small ones. The faculty only really see the students in the first few rows.

Don't sit with your buddies. They?re really nice, but they?re distracting and you need to concentrate.

Concentrate on the lecture. Think about the relation between this lecture?s material and other parts of the course.

Take good notes, but don?t be overly burdened by note-taking.

Set up study groups of 2-4 others. Rotate note-taking among the group.

9. Study tips.

Bright light.

Single place; study only there. Make it your own.

Use study groups.

No music.

10. Memorization.

Absolutely necessary for excellence.

A learnable skill. Don?t be put off if you?re not good at it now. Anyone can learn to memorize.

Many tricks: use all of them. Chunking; mnemonics; remembrance lists; loci method; stories (the more ridiculous the better; only you are thinking of them, and you don?t have to share them).

11. Grades.

We all hate them, but they?re very important in competing for your first job after college (after a few years, experience and performance count more).

Your freshman year counts: don't blow it off.

Have freshman forgiveness at your school? Nice idea; I hope you don?t need it. Use it if you must. If you need it, you?re already in trouble: GO SEE SOMEONE!

Grades are negotiable (up to a point). If you?re near a grade boundary, talk to your TA or (better) your professor. Use your social skills: be pleasant, courteous, concerned; ask for explanations. It helps if you?ve been to office hours and have clearly made an effort, and that the professor knows this.

Grades are sometimes (actually, unpleasantly often) given in error. Check with your TA. Save all your exams, papers, etc.

DON'T BE A LONE RANGER! SEE SOMEONE BEFORE YOU CRATER!

12. Get to know your faculty.

They are really nice people; most of them (unfortunately, not all) truly like students.

You're going to need letters of recommendation. You?ll feel silly and embarrassed in a couple of years asking people whom you?ve never taken the time to meet.

Use office hours. Be there; ask questions about the material. Find out what the faculty member does: in research, for hobbies, etc. No questions about the material? Read more deeply; none of us cover things so well that there are not points of interest further to explore.

Talk to them after or before class, if the room and the timing permit.

13. Find a mentor.

More letters of recommendation!

Get career counseling. You?ll need it when you become an upperclassman, and consider what to do when you grow up.

Find a faculty member whom you like, and ask them to be a mentor.

Take them to lunch. Many universities have take-a-faculty-member-to-lunch programs. We love free lunches (we were all graduate students once).

Change mentors if your change majors, or find a new mentor and keep both.