COL 103 - Note #4

^^Figure 1.1 > Education Pays^^

Earning a college degree will improve your earning potential. This figure breaks down unemployment rates and weekly earnings according to education level. Use this information as motivation to make the most of college. The more education you have, the more likely you are to be employed and the higher your earnings are.

^^Preparing for Graduate or Professional Education^^

Another reason students get a four-year degree is to prepare them to continue their education in a graduate or professional school. If you want to become a medical doctor, dentist, lawyer, or college professor, four-year college degree is just the beginning, but it is a required step path to such professions. Let's say you aspire to be a physician and are planning to get a bachelor's degree in chemistry. Your primary purpose for your degree in chemistry is to gain admittance to medical school. Perhaps you have also considered that if your plans should change, having a degree in chemistry will get your foot in the door in several different industries, so another purpose for your degree is having an edge in the job market after graduation. If you have a long-term goal, work with your academic adviser to make sure you are meeting all the course requirements as you continue on your path.

^^Developing Lifelong Friendships and Professional Networks^^

College will provide you with numerous opportunities to develop a variety of formal and informal social networks. These networks will help you make friends and develop alliances with instructors and fellow students who share your interests and goals. Social networking sites such as Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn provide a way to enrich your real-life social networks in college. Whom you get to know during the college years really does matter. College definitely can and should be fun, and we hope it will be for you. You will meet new people, perhaps go to athletic events and parties, build camaraderie with new friends, and hopefully feel a sense of school spirit. Many college graduates relieve memories of college days throughout their lives, continue to root for their institution’s

athletic teams, return for homecoming and class reunions, and encourage their own children to attend their alma mater.

^^Building Academic Skills^^

In addition to being fun, college is about developing and practicing academic skills. First and foremost, college is about thinking, and it will help students understand how to become careful and critical thinkers who don’t believe everything that they hear or read but instead look for evidence before forming opinions. Being a college student becomes much like a job, with defined duties, expectations, and obligations. Most important is that college will be a set of experiences, and obligations. Most important is that college will be a set of experiences that will help you further define your goals and achieve your own purpose.

^^Considering Other Outcomes^^

Being a college graduate is linked to many other valuable outcomes. Which of the outcomes below interest you the most?

• College graduates are less likely to become unemployed in America’s periodic economic downturns. And of they do become less employed, they are more likely to become reemployed with less interruption of work and earnings.
• College graduates live longer! Now that’s a bigee! They live longer because they eat differently, have different exercise habits, consume less alcohol, and are much less likely to use tobacco than people who do not complete college.
• College graduates stay married to the same person longer. They have fewer children, have them at older ages, and they raise their children differently.
• College graduates have more discretionary recreational time for fun and relaxation and more money to pursue such opportunities.
• College influences your choice of friends for the rest of your life. You will be more likely to have other college graduates as your close friends and social acquaintances.
• College graduates are more likely to be elected to public office.
• College also influences the political ideas and behaviors of citizens.
• College graduates are less likely to be swindled and taken advantage of as consumers.
• College graduates are less likely to be incarcerated.

^^EXPLORING PURPOSE AND SETTING GOALS^^

We have been discussing the overarching importance of college for students and for our society. Now it’s time to focus more specifically on you and the unique purpose and goals that you can achieve in college.

^^Begin with the End in Mind^^

Imagine that you’ve arrived at your graduation day and you’re looking back over your college experience. What can you do that will help you feel good about the time you’ve spent in college and prepare you for your life to come? We want to help you convert your ideas to reality through a plan to achieve the “end” you have in mind. In this section, we’ll explore the most important driver of motivation and success in college: purpose.

^^Considering Purpose^^

Researchers on the college experience have concluded that the number one issue beginning college students have to grapple with is, in one word, purpose. Your sense of purpose will drive many outcomes. It will give you motivation for today, this week, this term, for college overall, and for life. It will shape many of the decisions you make. Purpose provides clarity, direction, commitment, meaning. People who make a clear sense of purpose know who they are, where they have come from, and where they are going. Purpose connects to motivation. And this connection plays out each day for college students in terms of choices they make that either do or do not help them achieve purpose.

To be both fair and realistic, most adults take quite a long time to develop a sense of purpose. For them, college is one of the most important building blocks to leading a purpose-driven life. Think of the high performers you have neither known or know about: athletes, politicians, artists, musicians, soldiers, preachers, parents, teachers. You are looking at individuals with a strong sense of purpose.

The majority of students enter college without a defining purpose but with some notions about what their major will be. But often these are not realistic choices. Students may find that the major and a connected occupation are not going to be a good fit for them. For instance, many students aspire to be physicians but can’t seem to do well in the courses that are required for entry in a medical school. College is designed to help you find appropriate fit between your major, desired career, and ultimate purpose. You may be decided or undecided about your major and purpose. Unlike those in many other countries, U.S. colleges and universities allow students to change their minds about a major; however when you do so these changes can add additional time and expense. But it is infinitely preferable to find a major that is fit for your purpose than to be miserable in pursuing a major and then trying to work in a field that isn’t right for you.

One very basic way to look at purpose is to reflect on these questions: Why am I going to college? Is this college a good fit for me now at this time in my life? Where am I on the scale for choosing purpose in college and in life - very focused on one end of the scale and wide open and undecided, maybe even a little bit indifferent, on the other end?

In this course you will probably be asked to write about such questions and to discuss them with other students. And you will learn about professionals on campus who can help you answer these questions in a comfortable and confidential environment. Your college will have academic advisers, career counselors, personal counselors, and faculty members who are at your service at no additional cost to you. This is part of the college experience and the tuition and fees you have already paid - so take advantage of it!

^^Getting Started with Goal Setting^^

Think about how you define success. Is success about money, friendship, love, sex, or power? Is it about achieving excellence in college and beyond, or is it about finding a sense of purpose in you life. For most people, success is a combination of all these factors and more. Although luck or “who you know” may play a role, first and foremost your success will be the result of international steps you take and your accomplishments. So in your quest for success, where do you start?

^^Identify Your Personal Strengths^^

Do you like to talk, deal with conflict, and stand up for yourself and others? Are you a good reader? If your answers to these questions are “yes,” you may want to consider a career in the legal profession. Are you a good science student, and do you enjoy working with your hands? If so, you might want to think about dentistry. Your campus career center can help you discover your unique strengths - and weaknesses - which can influence your direction as you explore career choices.

^^Ask Yourself Tough Questions^^

Am I here to find out who I am and to study a subject that I am truly passionate about, regardless of whether it leads to a career? To engage in an academic program that provides an array of possibilities when I graduate? To prepare myself for a graduate program or for immediate employment? To obtain specific training in a field that I am committed to? To gain specific skills for a job I already have?

^^Establish Goals for Today, This Week, This Year, and Beyond^^

Although some students prefer to go with the flow and let life happen to them, those students are more likely to flounder and less likely to achieve success in college or in a career. Instead of going with the flow and simply reacting to what college and life present, think instead about how you can take more control over the decisions and choices you make now because these decisions and choices will lay the foundation for the achievement of future life goals. It is easy to make vague plans for the future, but you must determine which short - term steps are necessary if those plans are to become a reality.

College is an ideal time to begin setting and fulfilling short - and long - term goals. A short -term goal might be to read twenty pages from your history text twice a week to prepare for an exam that will cover the first hundred pages of the book. A long - term goal might be to begin predicting which elective college courses you could choose that would help you attain your career goals.

Thinking about a career might seem unrelated to some of the general educational courses you are required to take in your first year. Sometimes it’s hard to see the connection between a history or literature course and what you want to do with the rest of your life. Lewis, whom we met at the beginning of the chapter, was majoring in economics and planning to go to law school. But his favorite elective course was psychology. Let’s consider what Lewis could learn in psychology that would help him understand how to be a better attorney. For instance, psychology might help him understand why people get into legal trouble. If you’re open to learning, you will discover how different courses, even those that seem to have no connection, relate to each other.