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Welcome to Fall Compass
College should be a launchpad, not a stumbling block. Fall Compass is here to make sure your transition isn’t just smooth—it’s transformative. Don’t leave your success to chance. Let’s build your foundation now.


All Posts
Spring Break and After
As spring unfolds, students begin to look ahead towards summer work, housing for next year, course registration, or possible shifts in major. These forward‑looking tasks often collide with the reality that many are still consolidating the routines and academic practices needed to manage the present term. The tension between planning and coping is developmentally typical: students are asked to make decisions with incomplete information about their interests, capacities, and em
sethmessinger
4 days ago1 min read
Spring Recalibration
At what point does a student stop being new? That feeling probably starts to creep in during the spring term. Whether your student is in a semester, trimester or quarter system, as the trees start to re-leaf the recognition begins to settle: I’m not at the beginning anymore. However, there is much to remind them that they are still newcomers to school, just maybe more seasoned and dealing with a mix of ideas and feelings. Early assumptions about college begin to fray, early s
sethmessinger
Mar 31 min read
Grades
For almost everyone connected to higher education winter break is behind us. Fall grades have arrived and were a cause for celebration or concern. It is the concern that I want to address, especially for those students whose grades were middling. The role that higher education and majors play as promissory notes for the future has led to the encroachment of what might be termed corporatized thinking about the meaning of grades – especially in terms of ROI (return on investmen
sethmessinger
Jan 212 min read
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