Thank you for this thought provoking piece. My reaction is mixed. On the one hand I tend to agree that many of the benefits of college could be had by other means. This is especially true as knowledge repositories and forums for the exchange of ideas are digitized and democratized. On the other, the social and intellectual space of the university can provide some unique and extremely valuable experiences.
For instance, you suggest, “Instead of sitting and sitting and sitting, why not stand up, walk outside, and talk to people who are doing what you want to do?” As someone who went to college but didn’t go to “class” all that often in the traditional sense, this is exactly what college afforded me. When an idea seized me, I was surrounded by people who could help me explore it and flesh out my understanding - peers and professors and practitioners who formed the ecosystem of the university.
One particularly poignant example comes to mind - I was in a guest lecture on Design Thinking which touched on the idea of engineering public spaces that engender the development of shared values and social fabric in heterogeneous communities. The idea fascinated me.
Later that day, (at an outdoor concert in White Plaza, a student space designed to engender personal/intellectual interaction) I ran into a number of people - an economist deeply interested in interfaith bridge-building, a jazz saxophone playing electrical engineer researching next-gen photovoltaics, an anthropologist interested in conservation and sustainability. We had an exchange of ideas, in turns idealistic and humorous and philosophical and technical, which touched on topics from vertical farm engineering to religious politics - all relating back, amazingly, to the original lecture takeaway about engineered public spaces.
I realize that this encounter represents the university at its best and may not be typical. But I would point also to a couple of other important experiences that I suspect are more typical and are not provided for in many other spaces in American life.
For instance, as a black kid raised by liberal parents of modest means in deeply segregated and blighted communities in DC, I was paired for three of my four years with conservative white and Indian roommates. It was one of the most valuable intellectual and personal experience of my life. I had my values and beliefs tested in ways that were often uncomfortable and which I might not have sought out. I learned powerful things about winter sports, social graces and financial literacy and privilege (my own and others’) that inform my personal and professional path.
Another opportunity that a college experience may afford is the space to test out ideas in the real world, but in a fairly low-risk and potentially high-reward way. Even as I explored broadly in the humanities, I was interning at tech companies and prototyping products and pitching ideas to peers and practitioners in industry, many times as part of class projects. This is an increasingly common model in higher education.
All of this is anecdotal, and I realize it represents a remarkably privileged and perhaps atypical college experience, but I do think it bears witness to some important underlying truths about the unique place and value of the university as a space intentionally structured and uniquely resourced to converge diverse ideas and people in ways uncomfortable and magical.
Musings at the intersection of Facebook, Digital Photography and College Culture.
A new study finds that the students who are least likely to go to college (based on family background, abilities, and friend group) are the ones with the most to gain from a degree.
This article reminded me of something. Stanford was my “dream school” even before I really understood what it was about.
I had a Stanford poster in my locker since the 7th grade and across from my locker back then (coincidentally) there was a framed educational poster on the known sub-atomic particles and the Stanford Linear Accelerator. People thought my preoccupation with the school was absolutely ridiculous, and it was. Stanford was inseparable in my mind from the idea of California, of sunshine and immense opportunity. And it was far away from my parents.
I turned in my application 5mins past the deadline - I was trying to get last minute edits from my brother, who was drunk at the time (he was still telling me how much he loved me, and how great I was when I decided to go ahead and press submit). The invitation to the Farm came last of all my acceptances and up until the second I opened the packet I was sure that my procrastination (I wrote my app essay mostly the day it was due) had done me in. My parents tried to sell me on a certain east coast school, but I could not be persuaded. I’m definitely ready to leave the Farm now, but I have absolutely no regrets about coming here. Cardinal Love!
