An article recently published by Karen Kelsky, a former professor of anthropology from the University of Illinois, while ostensibly tailored to graduate students, “Graduate School is a Means to a Job,” (Chronicle of Higher Education, 27 March 2012) is actually even more applicable to future undergraduate students. Ms. Kelsky is not shy about having students ask universities to prove their utility. Encouraging such skepticism should be lauded. No institution, no matter how august, should be charging $30-60,000 without being constantly questioned. Here is a cross section of some of her ideas, slightly modified for undergraduates.
If students are planning to enroll in a pre-professional track (e.g. pre-med), it’s absolutely essential to ask what type of record the school has for getting students into quality medical schools. Selecting, or being assigned an advisor, also needs to be vetted. How successful has this advisor been in getting his or her students into graduate programs, internships, jobs after college, or meaningful undergraduate research projects?
Before accepting an admissions offer to a school, students should take time to review professors in key departments of interest, on RateMyProfessor.com. This review should extend to the school’s majors, minors, honors, and independent research offerings. If the school under consideration is private, don’t be deterred by the sticker price; many private schools have an array of scholarships and grants to offset its higher costs. If a school’s department, facilities, and faculty are a good match, and its financial aid awards historically have been generous (which can be found on College Navigator), that school is a meaningful option in the student’s admissions process.
Don’t be ‘dazzled by abstract institutional reputations’ of elite colleges. Students should only be concerned with finding schools that have the best placement rates, either for leading graduate schools or jobs, or whether the school’s curriculum, faculty, and writing seminars truly teach vital communication and thinking skills. Parenthetically, most of the Ivy League faculties, according to RateMyProfessor.com, have significantly lower performance numbers than many of the liberal arts schools (such as Swarthmore, Pomona College, or Amherst) and a number of public schools as well. Performance with its recent graduates is all that matters: reputation and brand are not all that important.
Students need to become entrepreneurial before entering college, or certainly soon after. They need to apply for as many sources of financial support as possible. They also need to realize as their undergraduate years unfold ‘the law of increasing returns’. Getting a summer internship, might then lead to a position with a stipend the next year, which might then lead to a meaningful research project, which will all build measurable experience on student activity lists over the course of their undergraduate years.
While in college, students should take advantage of any opportunities to present their work to as wide an audience as possible. If any public speaking opportunities avail themselves, they should participate. Public speaking is a core skill for any profession.
Students want to become polished and capable as they approach the finish of their undergraduate years. They need to develop a ‘professional persona’ that will establish them as ‘…confident, assertive, sophisticated, and outspoken.” They will also need to banish excessive humility; ‘it inspires contempt.’ It also gets in the way of cultivating recommendations from key professors within the school; such recommendations are critical in future career or graduate school pursuits—they are the lifeblood of the undergraduate experience.
Admittedly, few undergraduate students will follow all or even a majority of the above suggestions. Reading them, however, and attempting to implement just one, might prove the difference in creating a productive and successful college experience. Ms. Kelsky advocates students be assertive, self-reliant, and decisive. This will serve them well, long after their college years have ended.