College or school, in general, is one of the places where you will be able to experience a lot of challenging moments. These challenging moments could either make or break you but one thing is for sure: it will surely be a rewarding experience. It will be especially so if you have set productive goals for yourself that help you to grow both in mind (knowledge) and heart (values).

It might be one of the places where you will experience a lot of fun times and happy moments but it is also the very place that gives you stress and hectic schedules. Knowing how to set specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound goals for yourself in college is one of the ways in order to cope up with the roller coaster ride that schools are bound to give you and it will help you in making most of your education.

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15 Student Goal Ideas for the School Year

For some students, school is just right around the corner and for some, school had just started or ended. But whatever the case, you can make use of these fifteen student goal ideas that can help you in making most out of your education:

1. Befriend your professors.

As Sun Tzu had once said the immortal words “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer,” you could do the same to your professors whom you have labeled as “enemies” just because they are the ones who serve you the stress in the form of homework, term papers, projects, etc., despite the fact that they are just doing their job, which is to educate you.

Make it a goal that in the current or next school year that you will be able to see your professors more than the tasks they give you because they are more than that. Get to know and befriend at least one professor, know what their personal motivations, desires, and interests are. And when they are successful at the career they have chosen, you may also ask them. You might get lucky if he or she will teach you some tricks that you cannot just read in any textbooks because they are basing on their firsthand experiences. Sometimes, making friends with varying age gap is also one of the best learning experiences you will ever have.

2. Get an on-campus job.

If there is a possibility for you to get an on-campus job, particularly in the department that you are currently in, then make it a goal that you will apply and get hired in one. It is an opportunity for you to achieve the first goal idea mentioned above and it is also another venue for you to learn a thing or two about the life of being an employee. Plus, you can already receive a salary even if you are still studying that you can use as your daily allowance, payment for your school fees, or even just for your saving.

3. Read a difficult text.

Challenge and feed your mind by reading a difficult text. Do not just keep on reading something that revolves just inside your comfort zone because you cannot learn from it. Whatever text it might, be it a text related or not related at all to your field, find a difficult text to read where you will be able to learn new concepts and ideas as well as broaden your vocabulary.

4. Go to your classes but do not be afraid to skip some of it.

When you are a graduating student, with all the tasks and exams that you have on a particular subject, you will feel like ditching and sacrificing one class to make up for the other. While skipping classes is okay once in a while, make sure that your professor is not too strict about attendance or that there is no exam on the subject that you are planning to skip. Just be smart about it.

5. Create habits of thought.

There are a lot of ways that you can learn something that changes every single thing that you know and the way you think that results to the creation of what is called as “habits of thought.” Be it in books, in articles published online, from your friends’ experiences, or your personal experience, you will be able to learn a lot of things from these. When you are to face unusual situations, your mind would not have to worry because it is already filled with a lot of things that could help you in coming up with a solution based on what you have learned.

6. Learn something that shakes your beliefs.

From time to time, allow yourself to learn things that shake your beliefs, be it political or spiritual or some things related to your field. When you do so, it is when you would ask yourself if you have been living under a rock all these years because you just realized it now. At first attempt, this can be difficult because it destroys the beliefs and ideas that you’ve known by heart and stood with conviction but once you will keep it going, you will be able to test those beliefs and ideas. And when these could not hold up after being tested and shaken, allow yourself to have new or updated beliefs.

7. Take a non-major class.

You might be wondering why it is a goal idea to take a non-major class when you current major classes are already difficult enough to handle. At some point in your life, you would have to go out and find things that could challenge you and not the other way around where challenges would come and find you. Sure, it takes additional resources such as time, money, and effort, but just make sure that you would take up something that is worth its price and that you would treat and see as an investment for your future.

8. Join an organization.

If you have a goal from your freshman years where you would just want to sit through classes until graduation, then it is time for you to change that. If you want to grow as an individual, you have to nurture your talents and skills as well as cater to your interests. By doing so, you could join organizations that would fit your interests. You will meet new kinds of people from different backgrounds where you will be able to learn new ideas related to your interests that you do not know yet.

A Study on Student Goals

Educational Goals Example

Goals and Expectations for College and Career Readiness

Grade 6 to 8 Goal Setting Example

Motivational College Student Goals Example

Sample Goal Setting

Short and Long Term Goal for Students Example

9. Do not neglect your diet.

Being a student will make it easy for you to prefer unhealthy food and meals because it is cheaper and quicker to cook. Even if such kind of food is unhealthy, you would still opt for them because it is convenient that way. If you are living away from your parents, it will also be easier for you to eat whatever you find that is convenient and no one will also stop you from eating unhealthy ones. And because of this, it will result in health complications caused by your unhealthy choices of food. Do not make this unhealthy diet a habit because remember, this is a hard habit to break.

10. Relax from time to time.

Despite the mountains of tasks you are given, do not forget to give time for relaxation. Taking breaks could keep you energized when facing your daily student challenges. It releases some of the tension and anxiousness that you feel and this enables you to become more relaxed and focused when doing your tasks. There are various ways students relax. Some go out on a run, hit the gym, eat at some place, read a book, watch series or movies, catch up with friends, travel to the nearby city or town, and, for most students, sleep the whole day. Just make sure that the kind of relaxation you would go for could indeed help you relax and let out some steam.

11. Meet and discuss with a career planning adviser.

If you are in college and are already a graduating student, it will be best if you would try to reach this goal. It is best if you would plan out your future. Sure, it is possible that there will be some instances wherein you would not be able to meet all of your plans when you will already be in the so-called real world, but it will certainly be beneficial for you if you have one. College is the best time for you to plan out for your future since most universities offer various resources that could help you in mapping out your future career. Most universities have career planning advisers who can help you talk about the things you are uncertain about especially those that are related to the career you are planning to take. Who knows? Your initial career plan might change because you have talked things out with a career planning adviser who made you realize that you could fit better in another career plan.

12. Pay attention in classes.

Do you feel lazy taking down notes you are not even going to read anyway? Then make it a goal to pay attention in classes. Even if taking notes down is a time-tested strategy that helps in retaining what was discussed in the lecture, it hinders you to make use of the best asset that you have when it comes to learning and that is our own mind. Having an active mind during classes makes it possible for you to be more engaged in class. When you just write notes down, you are simply listening to what the professor is saying. Plus, it will only make your mind passive and just focused on one thing. When you have an active mind because you were paying attention in your classes, you will be able to think of the ways on how you are going to apply the teachings and concepts discussed by your professor, think of possible arguments to both trivial and relevant matters and issues, and you can even think of the consequences of some ideas that you would encounter in class.

13. Find the cheapest activities.

When you feel burnout at school but broke, you do not have to break you nonexistent bank because there are a lot of cheap activities you can find around the city, town, or even in the very university you are enrolled in. You could go on hiking trails, take trips in the nearby park, play sports at the university ground, etc. Take some time to unwind even if you do not have the budget.

14. Save a part of your allowance.

Even if you are still studying, it is still best for you to save money as early as possible. You could have a savings account and be responsible enough to put something in it at least once a week. You do not have to save so much to the point you would not be eating anymore just to save money.  Your savings do not have to be your savings for your life after studying but it could help you when something big would come along, you would no longer have to rely on your parents and ask for extra because you were already stretching what they have already given to you.

15. Enjoy every moment of your student life.

Most students would already be too worried about their lives after college or school and forget altogether that they have to enjoy every minute as a student. Even if it is stressful, make it a goal to enjoy your student life. Accept the fact that a student’s life can never run out of stress, but on the bright side, know the fact that the lows come with the highs and the highs come with the lows.

Whether you are going to follow some of the goal ideas we have or that you already have your own goals, just make sure that you have already understood all of it as well as the motivation for each of the goals you have made. Whatever goal you may have already in mind, the best goal that you could ever have as a student is that you will be able to involve yourself in various endeavors that will the result to you know more about yourself. Being in school is one of the best experiences you will ever have in your life that soon, when you would grow older and reminisce of your life as a student, you will have no room for regrets.
Hit all of your goals as a student and your future self will thank you for that.