Monday, January 31, 2011
College not just about academics
The Tartan Online: "Last week, the editorial board of The Tartan wrote a response to a USA Today article concerning a student’s first two years at an American university. The USA Today article reports that 45 percent of students involved in the study it referenced showed no significant gains in learning during their first two years of college and also that students spend less time studying than they did a few decades ago. The Tartan responded that these first two years should be used as building blocks for later study and that, “if the majority of the nation’s college students are unable to get anything out of their first two years, perhaps a re-evaluation of the way students structure their time is necessary.”
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Although I have learned a wealth of knowledge during my four years here at Carnegie Mellon, I would have to agree that the biggest knowledge I am coming away with are non-measurable insights to growing up and being an adult. The work I did on productions was affected and improved by those lessons I learned outside the process, like getting in trouble for not having something done or overlooked, or the complications that come from working and hanging out with the same people. What's great about the university setting is that I get the chance to safely make these mistake and learn from them. Not only that I get to openly discuss them with other students who are dealing with similar issues or issues I may have to deal with. I feel everything that I learned in school would be a waste if I didn't have the lesson outside the classroom and that Drama School pushes here. College more so helped me grow up and mature, kicking and screaming sometimes, so that I could take what knowledge I had learned and utilize it fully and be able to successfully continue to expand my knowledge outside the classroom.
I think the best thing about CMU is that it teaches you things that are immediately applicable. I feel like most everything I learn in my core class I will use again in my life and that is how they are designed to be. If you aren't learning anything from your first two years of school then you are in the wrong school or taking the wrong classes. There is a world of knowledge and you are in an institution to learn it. CMU has structured its program so that if you don't pass core classes then you can't get a degree. I don't know if this is good or bad but it certainly means that you have to work for what you have. Going into a school with a major means you know what you are getting out of your education, it is laid out for you the second that you walk though the front doors freshman year. Additionally I think that you can learn a lot in school personally as well as academically but I think the academics need be there as well or you are in the wrong place.
No matter who I talked to about their college experience they never brought up they learned a particular day in class or what grades they got. It was always about aspects that incorporated the big picture both academic and non. College is really about the time for a student to, of course, learn but at the same time learn about themselves and how the world really works away from their parents and household.
I more or less agree with this - I think college is about the experience. I just read another news article in response to the 45% study that talked about the important life lessons that students learn at college. College offers an opportunity to learn how to become a functioning adult piece by piece, which is great. On the other hand, people pay up to $50,000 a year for this experience, and if they aren't learning something from their classes, what are they bothering to pay tuition for? I think there is an element of both technical and personal learning that need to be taken into consideration.
college is the time for a lot of things. Growing as a person. Learning how to make chili. And most of that stuff isn't reflected in the classroom. Changing your major and dropping a group of friends who are sucking the life out of you don't show up on a resume. But they are things that should be figured out now rather than later. And you wouldn't want to hire someone who hasn't done either of those. It's not just about taking part in campus activities. It's about taking time for YOU activities. Sometimes you go into school thinking you want to be an accountant and come out knowing you want to be an artist. But really, what a miserable accountant you would have made if you hadn't learned that lesson sophmore year.
I had the same response we're seeing in this article and in the comments on the green page to the original article; any of a plethora of clichés about 'getting there' being the part that matters holds true. For book-learnin', students can go to a trade school or read wikipedia; the experiences that I've had here and expect to have define my personality rather than the facts I know. Particularly in a field where many procedural items could be learned on the job rather than in school, the importance of instillment of work ethic cannot be underestimated.
The one thing I absolutely love about Carnegie Mellon is that they care more about your experience than just grades here at college. Of course I can only speak for our drama program but I feel that everything I learn has been helpful in theater and out. And though, we, as drama student don't have the "regular" college experience and testing the time we spend working on crews, shows and projects are our study time. That is when we are learning the most, we are applying the skills we learned in class and will use for the rest of our careers in the theater. Carnegie Mellon Drama has pushed me more than any other class or program ever has before and I feel like I am learning a thousand new things everyday. I disagree that college freshmen aren't learning anything their first year of college and at the very least we are learning everyday skills to get through life just by going out being on our own.
Everyone seems to have the same general consensus about College being more about growing as a person than your grades. I agree, but what's most important is that you get out what you put in. Grades can reflect that. Grades also can be pretty important if any of you want to end up getting into a graduate school. Lucky for us that will also rely on our portfolios and resumes, but the point remains the same. Growing as a person is all well and good, but that can't be an excuse for falling behind.
"23 is the new 18," is a comment I have heard several times but haven't taken seriously until recently. Young individuals used to be forced out of the house at 18 to determine their fate, but with how common college education has become everyone is utilizing the college years for further development of individual self awareness. I think that the "sink or swim" big life decisions are simply delayed for four years. Perhaps the final stage in the adult developmental process is becoming prolonged.
I think this article brings to light two good points that previously escaped me when i read the USA Today article last week.
First the fact that college is an experience and all the personal growth that one goes through. Speaking directly from experience I can easily say that I have changed a lot and had a lot of new experiences so far through my first year at college. Maybe the education needs to be looked at a little bit but personal growth and community are going strong.
The other point that should have seemed obvious to me was that learning cannot be measured by standardized tests, perhaps college stimulates your mind in different ways during the first two years for a different kind of learning during your last two.
I cannot agree with this article enough. While college is about education, it is not strictly about learning information. We are changing as people, not as students while in college. Choosing to study less is a choice we make, and no one can structure that for us. When we get out into the "real world" information is only going to help so much. A large part of the real world, and especially in our field, are the abilities to problem-solve and to quickly recover and move forward when a challenge arises. I've yet to learn a single piece of information that has taught me how to do that. In the "real world" we make choices. We may work, but there are plenty of other things we do. We eat, we sleep, we do laundry. We go out and we enjoy ourselves, and we make sure that we have time to do our work. Studying and information can only teach us so much. It's not just what you know, it's how you use it. In a program like ours, we not only learn skills and information pertaining to theatre, but we actually use it. Many other college students will not use the information they are learning until they get out into the "real world". Spending less time studying, and more time living our lives will better prepare us for life after college than spending all of our time studying.
I found Carnegie Mellon's response to this article highly entertain considering the dismal level of social lives that the mass population of Carnegie Mellon students have. Therefore, of course CMU wold advocate that their program supports academics alongside a social life; they have to advocate or these people would not live a life away from their computers or design studios.
Mind you, I agree with the initial article in concern of the difficulties of the first years. However, similar to what Nicole said, what I leaned has been immeasurable by my gpa and for that I'm most grateful and am appreciating my first college year as a growing experience rather than expecting myself to surpass that step.
I agree semi-heartedly with the Tartan. College has definitely moved away from its traditions of intense study and academic focus to a more rounded type of education. Employers don't want to work with someone who's socially inept, no matter how skilled they are at their job. I've seen this with some of my peers at other institutions and jobs; I don't care how much you know, if you're a jerk I'll work with someone who knows less but isn't quite as socially challenged. I say college moving away from the more studious aspects of education is a largely positive thing.
Like the responses, I agree with this article.
That being said I think something is being overlooked. Often, you do not realize you have learned something until many years later and you look back and realize, hey, that thing I thought was useless was actually tremendously useful. Especially when college students who have not fully discovered the ways of the world or who have not decided on their career or life path yet. So, you may have learned something, you just don't know it yet.
The first two years are supposed to be getting everyone on the same page. And ready to absorb the more direct information regarding their major. Freshman and Sophmores take general education classes to learn lessons on reading, writing, and study habits. Then they begin to really focus and learn methods on actual accounting, or equations, or productions. First they need to rewire the way they think so they are ready students for the more serious classes.
On the other hand, college is hugely about experience now that you can take classes online and blog for debates.
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