LEARNING AND SEEKING KNOWLEDGE

Bill Gates did it. So did Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah Winfrey, Steve Jobs, and Ellen Degeneres. They all dropped out of college and went off into the unknown to pursue their dreams. This should be enough to prove to you that you don’t need college. In fact, thanks to the Internet, you can easily access a world class education from massive open online classes offered at Harvard, Yale, and MIT. Today, it’s possible to learn to computer programming online, attend a six month coding bootcamp, and then get hired at your favorite tech company. No need for a BA, MS, or any BS. So why are you here?

Across the country, colleges and universities are getting a bad rap for their increasing corporatization and standardization. Fewer colleges retain a culture and heritage that is unique. Administrators are making more and more money, while tenured positions are disappearing. Adjunct professors teach for less money and prestige than they envisioned and the cost of higher education is responsible for the ridiculous amount of debt that exists in our country. So, once again, what’s the purpose of college?

Historically colleges and universities have been places for pursuing answers to life’s most vexing questions. Starting from Plato’s Academy to the madrasas of the Islamic Empire to Isaac Newton’s Cambridge to Larry Page’s Stanford: these schools were gathering grounds for the great minds, the intellectually curious, and, yes, generally the white male aristocracy to exchange ideas about the nature of reality, write opinions about economics and political science, and conduct research on the natural world. But… isn’t that what Twitter and Reddit is for?

According to a 2015 survey by New America, the top three reasons people attend college were “to improve my employment opportunities,” “to make more money,” and “to get a good job.” Is this why you are here? Or are you here because your parents wanted you to go? Because all of your friends were going? Because you will be the first in your family to attend? Because you can’t imagine anything else? The decision to attend college is personal and there are no right or wrong reasons. What is important, however, is that you understand why you decided to attend and what you hope to achieve.

In order to be a successful college student, you will have to reflect on how you learn, how to create the optimal conditions for learning, and how to get better at learning. Like anything, effective studying is a practiced skill and the methods that worked for you in college won’t necessarily work here. There are numerous distractions, harder classes, and greater competition. Don’t make the mistake I made and take it for granted. For every bad grade early in your academic career, the harder it will be to make up for it.

Some people know what they want to get out of college and how they will achieve it. I’m talking to the aspiring doctors, lawyers, and engineers in the room. But some people have no idea what they want to study. I was certain I wasn’t going to be a doctor. I remember being thoroughly lost, bouncing from class to class, following whatever interested me until I just fell into a major. However, I was lucky enough to take a class just like this one in my first semester. I also took a philosophy class that sent me down a rabbit hole exploring big ideas like Truth, Love, and Justice. I am glad I took the bait.

Whether you know what you want to study or not, much of your success in college will come down to your belief in your abilities. Some people suffer from imposter syndrome, which is when someone suffers from self-doubt and inadequacy despite their accomplishments. The term was coined by Dr. Pauline Clance and Dr. Suzanne Imes. People with imposter syndrome fear that they might be exposed as a “fraud.” Further study elucidated that these feelings occur in a variety of settings from academic environments, new settings, in the workplace, and around new people.

I have faced imposter syndrome. It is actually not an unusual feeling. But as my belief in my abilities increased, the imposter syndrome faded away. But how do you create this self-confidence? It often comes down to how you frame a problem. Dr. Carol Dweck, a psychologist, explains that people can generally be divided into two states of mind: fixed and growth. The former entails that intelligence and mental capacity cannot be changed. You are born with what you have. The latter holds that your abilities and aptitude are highly malleable. The way she explains, is it that you aren’t smart enough to solve a problem, or have you not solved it yet?

One important point of emphasis is that college is a unique opportunity and a privilege. Despite its seeming ubiquity, many people are never able to attend. From meeting expert mentors in a field you are interested in to the chance to make lifelong friends to the time to deepen you knowledge of yourself and the world, college offers incredible experiences. It’s now up to you to make the most of it.