Vox:
I’m a university professor, with teaching experience at Columbia and Yale. These are the 10 things I’ve suggested to pretty much all the students who’ve ever walked through my door for office hours. I don’t think the advice applies just to the elite colleges. I went to a large but fairly good state school in Canada, the University of Waterloo. My hope is this applies to students of every stripe.
I won’t dwell on what you’ve probably heard already: Get a well-rounded education and enjoy yourself. That’s good advice, and your first and best rules. Here are some other suggestions to help make the most of college.
I think #3 and #6 are very important. How many of these things did you wish you knew before you went to college?
Not a bad list, but I got better advice from a friend who taught: College is not a burger joint where you order what you want, pay your bill on time and they will hand you a degree. College is a membership to a gym, where you pay for use of the best equipment, fantastic and experienced trainers, and 24 hour access to a place which will allow you to learn and do things which will shape and define every other aspect of your life forever – but it’s a time-limited offer, and no one will be there to make you get off your ass and take advantage of it while it lasts.
Gyms don’t require you to arbitrarily use machines just because they need to make sure those areas of the gym are funded. Your analogy is terrible.
I didn’t even know most of this after I graduated. Sometimes I wish I could return my degree for a refund.
I think it’s a great analogy, and wonder if your comment says more about your personal college experience than the analogy itself.
7 – I wish I’d known about my school’s cool offerings abroad at the time, missed the opportunity.
11 – smoke some pot and perhaps drop some acid.
Or perhaps I don’t worship at the altar of ‘higher’ education.