(This post is specifically about Liberal Arts Schools)
It’s day one of your freshman year at a Liberal Arts School. You arrive, wide eyed and ready to learn. Familiar phrases ran through your head,
“These are the best four years of your life!”
“You won’t get this time again”
“You are going to grow so much”
You’re excited to engage with new perspectives and to hopefully discover your own. You’re excited to approach problems with nuance and creativity. You sit in class and you realize– dang, this is not what you signed up for.
Lie #1: Your Major Matters
This might be hard to read. You’ve probably deeply deliberated your major. From the moment you apply, you are directed to specialize, to choose your major. If you enter University undecided, you are told that your first two years exist to explore to define your major. So, how could it not matter?
Well, the title of your major doesn’t necessarily reflect anything in terms of skill, perspective or ability. Take Mark Zuckerberg, for example. He majored in Psychology during college, that’s what it would have said on his Degree. But, he took mostly computer science courses. It was this skill, knowledge and relationships that launched him into his career.
It isn’t the Major that matters but rather the skills, knowledge and experience gained that sets you up for success.
Solution: Develop Technical Skills and Find Work Experiences
Instead of letting your major control you, design a curriculum for yourself using coursework and work experiences. This allows you to leave college with real skills and relationships that will set you up for life beyond undergraduate school. Take control of your education.
Lie #2: We Support Critical Thought
This is the selling point for future entrepreneurs and problem solvers who go to Liberal Arts Universities. Critical thinking is a skill for evaluating multiple perspectives to conduct an objective analysis of an issue in order to form a judgement.
Unfortunately, college systems tend to put students into boxes. You tend to end up with people studying the same things as you without gaining experience from other academic perspectives. You are told when and how you should approach your education, without being able to build critical thinking skills in multiple disciplines.
Solution: Hack College.
I knew immediately that I needed to do college differently. I didn’t fit into one of my university’s academic boxes and I didn’t want to. I wanted to be able to tackle problems from all angles, and that required me to do what I call “hacking the system”.
Lie #3: We Want you to Cultivate a Unique Perspective
Unfortunately, most college curricula don’t have much room for unconventional or unpopular views. Rarely do you hear healthy, academic discussions of varying perspectives in a class lecture. Oftentimes, you are told there exists a limited number of ways to understand something. A point of view is either Left or Right, Moral or Immoral, Intelligent or Stupid, etc. In reality, life is full of ambiguity and people rarely fall into one camp or another. Nobody tells you this in College.
Solution: Look to Relationships for Learning Experiences
If you feel as though you do not have the space to share your opinions or explore nuanced views in class, look to relationships as a source of learning. Instead of creating a social circle of people from similar backgrounds as you, with similar existing beliefs and experiences, seek out people who differ from you in beliefs and perspectives.
Lie #4: What Matters in College Matters Afterwards
So many people in university really commit to their activities during their time in School. They dedicate serious energy and time to campus groups and organizations, which is fine! However, this can also lead to a sense of confusion, sadness and purposelessness after graduation. The truth is, most of these commitments don’t follow you into your postgraduate career.
So, what can you do about it?
Solution: Put Your Skills and Goals in a larger Context
Anything you’ve chosen to do during the little delta that is your time in university is something you have learned from. Understand that you have gained valuable skills that can equip you to follow your goals after graduation. If you are still an undergraduate, make sure you’re thinking in the long term when choosing how to spend your time.
Overall,
Yes, universities lie during information sessions and orientation. But this doesn’t mean you can’t take control of your academic career. You got this, just do it your way.