Education, Striving for Success & Happiness

Education, Striving for Success & Happiness Created by happify Science-based activities & games for a happier, healthier life at Happify.com REACHING YOUR GOALS Picture the Process In one experiment, college students who visualized themselves studying did better on their midterms than those who imagined getting a good grade. The first group planned better, hit the books more and WHY? felt less anxious about the test. The Key to Success: GRIT Researchers say "Gritty" students are more perseverance and passion for our long-term goals (a.k.a. grit) is the secret to academic success. likely to graduate from high school, and the characteristic is a better predictor of a diploma than SAT scores. HOW TO BE GRITTIER 1 Pick a goal that's meaningful and engaging to you. FUTURE LAWYER Accept that pursuing your goal won't always be pleasurable. Don't let setbacks discourage you. 4 Never give up! Find Your “Flow" A state of deep absorption in an activity that is intrinsically enjoyable. The experience becomes its own reward. Taking Notes? Leave the Laptop at Home A recent study found that we remember handwritten lecture notes better than typed notes. Join the Club! High school kids who participate in more extracurricular activities feel more satisfied with school. BUT DON'T STOP THERE! College kids who participate in extracurricular activities: A* Get better Have more Feel more Are less likely grades friends connected to to transfer or campus drop out Active Students are Happier and Healthier One study of 14- to 21-year-olds found that more physically active students... Were more satisfied Had fewer symptoms Felt healthier and with life of depression fitter WHAT MAKES STUDENTS HAPPY? Just Graduated? Good for you! College grads are more likely to say they're "very happy" than those without a degree. Quality of Life Matters Applications decrease by 5% when schools land on the Least Happy Colleges that make the Princeton Review's annual Happiest Students list see a 3% increase in applications. Students list. WHAT ASPECTS OF AN MBA PROGRAM MAKE STUDENTS HAPPY? 42.2% 2.7% say self-development say financial reward What Benefits Students Most? A 2014 study found that whether graduates attended a high-ranked or low-ranked college had no impact on their current well-being or workplace engagement. So what mattered? Having a professor who Having a mentor who encouraged them to pursue their goals cared about them and made them excited about learning Being very active in college extracurriculars Feeling that their college prepared them well for life outside of school WHAT'S NEXT? The percentage of college grads in their 20s who are: 44.5% MALE 55.5% FEMALE Live Long and Prosper Did you know that your life expectancy increases along with your level of education? Majors that Make a Difference College grads with the following majors were most likely to say their current job makes the world a better place: 86% ) 83% 80% Nursing Special education Medical technology 79% 78% Biomedical 'Athletic training, 2Social Work, and 3Child & Family Studies (tie) engineering 30% of millennials say meaningful work is the most important measure of a successful career, more important even than a big paycheck. TOP 3 Happiest cities for job-seeking college grads (1 St. George, 2 Charlotte, Houston, Utah North Carolina Texas, What Good Comes Out of an Economic Recession? College grads who earned their degrees during a recession are more satisfied with their jobs (even decades later) than those who went to school during an economic boom. WHY? They're more grateful for what they have and worry less about how they could have done better. "Happiness = F3: food, fun and friends." %3D -Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder University of California, Berkeley commencement speech, 2013 Brought to you by happify" Build skills for a happier life with fun, science-based activities and games at www.happify.com TM Sources Alter, M., Reback, R. (2014) True for Your School? How Changing Reputations Alter Demand for Selective U.S. Colleges. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. Are We Happy Yet? Pew Research Center. (2006) Bianchi, E.C. (2013) The Bright Side of Bad Times: The Affective Advantages of Entering the Workforce in a Recession. Administrative Science Quarterly. Career Advisory Board / DeVry University. How the Recession Shaped Millennial and Hiring Manager Attitudes about Millennials' Future Careers. (2011) CareerBliss.com. CareerBliss Happiest Cities For Job-Seeking College Grads. (2013) Education Matters for Health.Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. (2009) Eskreis-Winkler, L., Shulman, E.P., Beal, S.A., et al. (2014) The grit effect: predicting retention in the military, the workplace, school and marriage. Frontiers in Psychology. Gallup-Purdue Index Inaugural National Report 2014. Gilman, R. (2001) The Relationship between Life Satisfaction, Social Interest, and Frequency of Extracurricular Activities among Adolescent Students. Journal of Youth and Adolescence. MBA Happiness Index 2013. MBA50.com. (2013) Mueller, P.A., Oppenheimer, D.M. (2014) The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking. Psychological Science. Pham, L.B., Taylor, S.E. (1999) From Thought to Action: Effects of Process-Versus Outcome-Based Mental Simulations on Performance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Piko, B.F., Keresztes, N. (2006) Physical activity, psychosocial health, and life goals among youth.Journal of Community Health. Shernoff, D.J., Csikszentmihalyi, M., Shneider, B., et al. (2003) Student Engagement in High School Classrooms from the Perspective of Flow Theory.śchool Psychology Quarterly. Spreen, T.L. (2013) Recent college graduates in the U.S. labor force: data from the Current Population Survey. Monthly Labor Review. Von Culin, K.R., Tsukayama, E., Duckworth, A.L. (2014) Unpacking grit: Motivational correlates of perseverance and passion for long-term goals.The Journal of Positive Psychology. Williford, A.M. (2008) How Institutional Research Can Create and SynthesizeRetention and Attrition Information. Association for Institutional Research. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKgg6eXne5Y %24