Since it is near the beginning of our term, and I am, again, teaching first year students (which I do only once every three years), I thought I would repost this as a public service…
A couple of years ago the Midwest conference of the Junior State of America asked me to be their keynote speaker. I still have no idea at all why they invited me: it seemed and still seems rather unlikely. I stupidly agreed, and then agonized about what to talk about. The organizers suggested talking about how I got to where I am, but, although there are parts of how I got to where I am that are quite interesting, where I am is not interesting at all. Then, mercifully, the Thursday before the talk two of my students brought one of their friends to meet me in my office. (You can tell how exciting their lives must be!) And they told me to tell her my tips for how to get the most out of college. I was put on the spot and tried, desperately, to remember what my tips are. Fortunately, I did remember. And then I thought, oh, actually, I could talk on Saturday about how to get the most out of college. It’s something I know something about, and that would actually be useful to audience!
Since it is the time of year that some of our readers in the northern hemisphere are getting ready to welcome students to college (I am teaching a small first-year class, which I only do once every three years), and other readers are getting ready to send their kids off to college and, conceivably, one or two readers are getting ready to go off to college themselves, I thought I’d excerpt the part of the talk where I actually give the advice. About 2/3rds of the talk was about what the point of going to college is and I’ll skip most of that, but just say that the point that I gave them was to learn knowledge, skills, attitudes and dispositions that will enable them to make a better contribution to the good of all of us; and to enjoy that learning itself. I know going to college has other purposes, but these are the ones that get neglected by the college recruiters, and school counsellors, and movies, that shape their ambitions about college.
Here goes with the concrete advice:
Work in the summers to support yourself, but during the school year devote yourself as much as you can to schoolwork. Bear in mind that while there’s such a thing as getting into too much debt, there’s also such a thing as working too many hours. Seek balance (Finding it is easier said than done).
Choose classes on the following bases: does the subject interest you?; how big is the class? (seek out small classes even if you are shy; especially if you are shy, because that’s how you’ll learn not to be); how good is the professor?
How do you know who’s a good professor?: Here are some questions to ask about them. Do they engage students? Are they open to a full range of disagreement? (Avoid professors who preach at you, unless you strongly disagree with them, in which case maybe you can learn from them). Do they make you write a lot? (if so, that’s a positive, not a negative) Do they seem to enjoy teaching? (plenty of people enjoy things they are not good at, but very few people are good at things they don’t enjoy). Find out from your friends. Or from your enemies if that’s the best you can do!
Some people enter college knowing what they are going to major in. That’s great for them. But it’s not normal. Most people have to find what they’re interested in. Beyond taking good classes, and really engaging with the material, to discover how interesting you find it, I don’t have lots of advice about this. But, don’t major in something you find uninteresting — you’ll be wasting time.
If you choose a professionally-oriented major, don’t restrict yourself to that major. Take classes in the liberal arts that will challenge and interest you. (See next point). Conversely, if you choose a liberal arts major, donâ’t restrict yourself to the liberal arts, take some professionally oriented classes to learn about professional fields. (This can be more difficult, because professional schools sometimes restrict enrollments to interesting classes to their majors).
The key skills you need coming out of college are to be able to communicate effectively orally and in writing, and to be able to work on solving problems with people you have not chosen to work with: take classes which give you the requisite technical skills for the field you want to enter, but also take classes in which you’ll do more abstract thinking and which you can’t necessarily see how they’ll be relevant to your career.
Go to office hours. Talk to the professor. Students say “but I won’t know what to say”. So here’s what to say. If the material is easy for you go and ask the professor for suggestions of a couple of other things you should be reading. If it is difficult for you, find one or two specific questions to ask about the material. Most professors actually want to talk to students in their office hours. Some don’t, but there’s no need to be embarrassed if that happens — if they are so self-centered that they don’t want to talk to you, they’ll forget who you are as soon as you leave.
For every hour in class spend two hours studying, when you are awake and alert.
Take classes with your friends, and if you’re in a class without friends, make friends in class, and talk to them (and your family) about the material you are learning about. The point is to make learning feel like leisure: doing schoolwork without feeling that you are doing it, which is what happens when you talk about the material with people you want to spend time with anyway. (I think this is really obvious advice, but am surprised how many students don’t just automatically do it, and how few of them have been told to do this by their parents).
You are all interested in politics (This was the Junior States of America). Do yourselves, and the rest of us, a favor. Make friends with people you disagree with about politics. And about religion. And about particular issues. And who are from a different social class than you are. And who are from a different race than you. Exploit the diversity you find, to have a richer more diverse array of friends, and talk to them about things that matter. Learn that you can really disagree, and really argue, about things that really matter, with people who really are your friends.
Feel free to add, subtract, or substitute (which, I suppose, involves adding and subtracting). And to pass the advice on to people who may need it which, if you teach at a college, includes the first year students you will be teaching.
{ 21 comments }
Alan White 09.03.22 at 8:05 pm
These are excellent suggestions Harry.
One I would add is to be alert to and accepting the possibility of changing one’s major and/or career path, and perhaps even more than once, especially in light of data that shows this is a common phenomenon among undergrads already. Emphasize that finding some new field that excites and induces passion is something not to be ignored, even if it appears to fly in the face of more pragmatic concerns. I witnessed this phenomenon (even in my own case) many times 0ver the course of my career–how excitement about a subject area can alter the course of a student’s life, and often for the better.
JD 09.03.22 at 9:26 pm
This is pretty great, Harry, thanks for taking the time to write it up and share it!
John Quiggin 09.04.22 at 1:11 am
“I am teaching a small first-year class”
That’s a sentence you would never read in Australia!
Rolf 09.04.22 at 5:35 pm
Great suggestions, particularly those about 1) making friends with, and engaging, political opposites; and 2) pushing oneself to explore subjects in which you may think you have little interest or talent. I only learned the value of the latter in grad school — but better late than never.
Lewis A Leavitt 09.04.22 at 7:05 pm
It’s advice I’ve been giving for some years based on my own failure
to take that advice. I especially urge students to go to professor’s office
hours—-it’s an opportunity that too few take advantage of.
EB 09.04.22 at 7:27 pm
Good advice. One quibble: students who work during the school year (but no more than 15 hours per week) actually do better than students who don’t. The idea is that your time management skills improve, and you are accountable on a daily basis for showing up and producing.
Tracy 09.05.22 at 2:04 am
Good ideas. I would only add that students should take at least one course a year they don’t want to take, but that can teach them a useful skill. Sure, your GPA might take a dip, but you will be better off by acquiring additional skills. In poli sci – I taught that – I always suggested the students take an additional methods course in another social science discipline, just to cement what they understood and to add a few new wrinkles to what they had learned. Few did, of course, but the ones who tried thanked me for it later.
Matt 09.05.22 at 2:22 am
I’d agree with all of this (and with EB’s point – you might get the same time management skills from non-work activities, but working does have some advantages beyond money, too) but would add one more thing: go to class. This probably had to be said less in the past than now, but now (perhaps especially in Australian universities, but probably elsewhere, too) many, perhaps most, classes are recorded, and lots of students think they have no reason to actually go to class. (This is especially so for large lectures, which are again especially common in Australia – see John’s point above – but is so for others, to.) This is wrong. Most people will learn more if they go to class than if they try to watch the lecture later, despite what they may tell themselves. Part of this is just the discipline of keeping moving forward at a steady pace, but part of it is also that you will tend to pay more attention, learn from others in the class (and meet them, to go w/ the points above) and will be more engaged. You’ll be less likely to think (wrongly) that you can “bing” the lectures or listen to them while doing other things, or listen at 1.5 speed or other things that might be done w/ lots of on-line content. Recorded lectures are good to have as a substitute when in person attendence isn’t possible, but they are much, much worse for learing, and this is especially so for people who are still learning to learn, and learing discipline, like most university students. So, go to class!
engels 09.05.22 at 11:46 am
learn knowledge, skills, attitudes and dispositions that will enable them to make a better contribution to the good of all of us
Afaics most knowledge, skills and dispositions that enable someone to do this (and certainly the ones you list later, such as effective communication) enable them to contribute just as effectively to the bad of us all. It seems to depend on what they are doing and who is paying them to do it (and how much they are getting paid for it above what is equitable).
engels 09.05.22 at 11:56 am
If the purpose of college was to enable to people to contribute to the good of all it’s hard to see how it would survive (let alone be such big business) in a capitalist economy.
Ebenezer Scrooge 09.05.22 at 6:45 pm
I’ll add one. If you’re going to a soulless megaversity, don’t worry! There is a small college hidden within that would be delighted to spend plenty of individual time with you. It is called a “department.” If you can get adopted by the department, they’ll treat you as an honorary grad student: all the personalized perks and none of the agony of grad school. It’s not hard to get adopted, because most undergrads don’t try, except maybe the science nerds.
You’ll still want to take some impersonal megaversity courses outside your department. But your own little college will be waiting for you at the end of the class hour.
Harry 09.06.22 at 3:54 am
Ebeneezer — yes, that’s a great one. Several of the philosophy majors I know well, while they really do love philosophy, say that the sense of community in a manageable space was very attractive to them. One, a leader who essentially recruited several friends to the major, and tons more people to our classes. said that she found a small environment without giving up anything she liked about a big school.
And for a lot of our double majors, Philosophy is the add-on, but its where they find intellectual excitement and a sense of belonging.,
CP Norris 09.06.22 at 1:19 pm
I wonder how well this ever worked, outside certain narrow parameters. Must I befriend people who think I shouldn’t exist? Who think I shouldn’t be allowed in this country? Who think my parents or grandparents shouldn’t be allowed in this country?
Harry 09.06.22 at 7:45 pm
For sure you shouldn’t if you don’t want them to change their minds.
More seriously. No. But most people you disagree with politically don’t believe any of those things, and those that do are disproportionately over 40 and unlikely to be encountered in the dorms.
Alyssa Sciulli 09.06.22 at 11:45 pm
This was a great article to read!
lathrop 09.07.22 at 1:34 am
Adding to Matt @8: Yes, always go to class, never skip. That’s where the professors talk about changes in priorities and schedule; what to especially think about; even with recordings and course software, it should be seen in person with fellow students. This is also how you prove you are interested in the subject; plus part of making friends in class. I learned this in olden times, but I think it still holds. I was occasionally tempted if I was behind in reading, etc. but found there is nothing like being there.
engels 09.07.22 at 10:52 am
always go to class, never skip. That’s where the professors talk about changes in priorities and schedule
What an absurd reason for giving up 15 hours of your week.
engels 09.07.22 at 6:18 pm
A lot of the advice in the comments seems geared to the American system where the “professor” (= lecturer) is judge, jury and executioner over his or her students’ grades for the lecture course, hence the need for presenteeism if not active sucking up. (Not to deny there are good reasons for going to lectures and it might be beneficial, depending on the student.)
lathrop 09.08.22 at 10:09 pm
Well the real excitements were the chain-smoking graduate student teaching requisite English 1 (or whatever it was) who took the department-required book, theatrically tossed it in the trashcan from across the room and proceeded to teach a course in relatively advanced literary criticism using half-a-dozen novels (I remember Mr. Sammler’s Planet and Catch-22).
And the philosophy professor teaching 19th Century European Philosophy who said “there’s just one key philosopher there and one key book so we are going to do a close reading of Hegel’s Phenomenology and try to make sense of it from a modern perspective.” He taught it in a classic closely-reasoned lecture form like Hegel might have I like to imagine.
There were other experiences too, but you can imagine how electric these were for a freshman back in the day. (This was at UCLA, c.1973).
P.M.Lawrence 09.09.22 at 11:25 am
“… very few people are good at things they don’t enjoy”.
I don’t think that can be true, or at any rate not for what I would call “few”, or there would be no such thing as typecasting.
engels 09.09.22 at 2:59 pm
Sounds great and I’m not trying to talk people out of going if so inspired, just think it’s up to the student: they are adults and have other things going on in their lives (even intellectual things). Being forced to attend a lecture because you won’t otherwise be accurately informed about the syllabus or timetable seems irrational.
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