| Greetings!
My eldest child and I have been out visiting colleges again and I have several insights I'd love to share with you.
Young children are often asked: "What do you want to do when you grow up?" "Put out fires." "Teach." "Explore space." Each is an answer you might hear.
During a recent college visit day the question was: "What do you want to study?" Several answers were given by prospective students throughout the room. When the young woman in the front row answered, "Philosophy," I wanted to tap her on the shoulder to say, "You'd better be planning on a PhD if you want to be employed," but I refrained since she might be going to law school or have an alternate plan for building on a philosophy degree. I just know from experience that there are few jobs for people with undergraduate degrees in philosophy.
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Anyway, that experience led me to create the following Top Five Things to Not Forget During Your College Visit (or TFTNFDYC).
- Academic counselors (particularly within the liberal arts) have been telling prospective students for decades that many employers are looking for broadly educated students without professional degrees because they want people who can think critically and they prefer to supply the job-specific training. I would almost classify this as an urban myth. This is not good advice for a broad range of undergraduate students - like the young philosopher. Many students with liberal arts degrees will find that the next natural step is graduate school - again, a path I know well and affirm for those who choose it. It is not, however, a career. (I tried to make it a career, but a wife and bills put an end to that.)
- The day of the lifelong career is over. Most students entering the workforce today will have multiple careers over the course of their lives. So one goal of college should be to prepare them for success in their first post-college careers. (Remember that for some the next step toward the first career will be additional education.)
- One young woman at the college who is nearing graduation shared her experience with the doing / being distinction. Life is filled with what we do, but is driven and given meaning by who we are. Young students should not neglect the question "Who do I want to be?" in their pursuit of the answer to "What do I want to do?" Who you are becoming will inform each of the careers one actually pursues in paying life's bills.
- On a lighter note, avoid allowing the overly perky campus tour guide's perspective to be the only one you hear. They are paid to be perky and optimistic, and are typically selected as people in whom these characteristics naturally occur. Talk with lots of people and ask people for permission to see buildings not on the tour. We received great unsolicited insights and observations from students and staff throughout the school. This was essential to my child's overall impression.
- Finally, never forget that the only financial number that counts is the bottom line. The tuition, room and board costs are meaningless until you know how that number can and will be reduced for your child.
I am excited to be sharing this college exploration with my child because I know that in the end this is less about the school he selects, the major he studies, and the career he pursues, and ultimately about who he is becoming that give each of those decisions meaning and value. Looking back over our shared experience thus far, it is the question of who he is becoming that I trust I have influenced more than the question of what he studies or how he pays the bills.
May you enjoy the process! |
