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May 16, 2005
High school grads (and their parents) might want to read this Times article
Apologies for the long quote, but it's a 9 page feature article. Read the whole thing. (NY Times)
Britney Schmidt was hunched over a spectroscope in a small physics lab, peering into the eyepiece and scribbling numbers in a notebook. No one is more surprised to be there than she is. She arrived on campus in fall 2000 with a clear plan: because she loved creative writing and horseback riding and was active in the Future Farmers of America, she would study English and agriculture. Now she is a fifth-year senior majoring in physics (3.5 G.P.A.) and heading for graduate school in planetary science. "I owe it all to my educational identity crisis," Ms. Schmidt, 22, says with a laugh. "I always knew exactly what I wanted to do. I was independent, I was going to go get it, and I was just going to do amazing things."
College was a disappointment. Professors gave her the impression they would rather be someplace else. Their attitude was, " 'O.K., well, I've got to teach, but I really am interested in research, or I'm really interested in what I'm doing after class,' " she says. "They'd come for an hour and give their lectures and leave. There's not that ownership that you feel in high school. There, I knew all the teachers and all the students. And then I got here and was one of 37,000 people on campus, and really not an important one. I didn't know where I fit in the picture."
All of a sudden, she recalls, "I was just like: 'I have no idea who I am. I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know what I want to do.' I was getting A's in all my classes, but I wasn't being challenged, and I wasn't thinking about new things." She decided that she needed to start over somewhere else, but meanwhile, she enrolled in a semester's worth of general-education requirements - "sampling," as she puts it. Students must take 11 courses in different areas: math, composition, a second language, natural science, humanities, art, non-Western studies, traditions and cultures and individuals and society.
A natural-science class caught her imagination and she began staying after class, talking with the teaching assistants. She had never met a scientist before. "I began to feel like I really belonged," she says. "I would ask the T.A.'s what they were researching, and why. I asked all these questions I'd always thought about but never had the opportunity to ask." As the semester progressed, she felt comfortable enough to approach the professor, Robert Brown.
Professor Brown remembers Ms. Schmidt as "just a face in the crowd" of 160 students until she showed her passion, and then he invited her to get involved in lab work. "Students like Britney who have that extra motivation usually take leadership roles," says Professor Brown, who gave up an appointment at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to combine teaching with research. "I like to challenge them, to make sure they use their gifts." Ms. Schmidt recalls the day he challenged her. "One day, Dr. Brown sat me down and said: 'Look, you're independent enough to come in and ask questions. In my experience, that level of independence is someone who does really well in science. You should really think about giving it a go.' "
...
Ms. Schmidt has been accepted at the University of California, Los Angeles, in planetary physics and at the University of Chicago in cosmo-chemistry but has not decided which graduate school to attend.
She offers this advice to incoming freshmen: "Get out of your comfort zone. You learn so much more when you have to change what you're doing, than if you just came in and said, 'Well, this is me and I'm always going to be like this and I'm always going to study this.' If you think that way, then you never stop to question whether that's what really you're supposed to do. Relax. You haven't lived 20 percent of your life. What's the rush?"
I've known students like Britney. Most of them are in grad school. I wish there were more like them.
Students, if I could give you just one piece of advice it would be: be like Britney.
Posted by William Polley at May 16, 2005 01:47 AM
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Comments
I had the same problem as a freshman that Britney had in college - until I took an economics class. I took it only because of the school's general education requirements, but it hit me during the course that this was my passion. Alas, a lot of college students have to go through the general education boredom before they do figure out what where passions lie - and many never do see the light.
Posted by: pgl at May 16, 2005 11:39 AM
Ah! A higher degree in unemployment. Wheee!
My daughter has two degrees in unemployment.
This is almost as good as a degree in Planitary Biology.
I don't think it makes much difference what she majors in as she most likely will succeed at what ever comes down the pike after college.
Met a young woman who was cooking for a horse packing outfit in the Sierras. She had a masters in some medical field but loved the outdoors and animals. She had spunk, humor and endurance. I would hire her in an instant for any job that needed filling.
Enjoy
Posted by: dilbert dogbert at May 16, 2005 12:43 PM
"I've known students like Britney. Most of them are in grad school."
William, no offense, but I have to wonder what schools these people you know are at. The attitude that college is a place for intellectual grazing and self-discovery may make one a better person, but its certainly not conducive to graduate study at a top institution.
I did a PhD at an elite university, and without exception the ones who excelled were the ones with the most narrow range of intellectual interests, who had fixated on their field early in their undergrad careers and never deviated. Pretty much the opposite of Britney.
"Relax, what's the rush?" This attitude is the kiss of death if you want to be prepared to do well in a PhD program.
Posted by: dave at May 16, 2005 07:11 PM
Dave,
No offense taken. Some of these students are at top schools and some lesser ranked schools. I'm happy for you that you did your Ph.D. at an elite university and that you were surrounded by others who were single-minded in their pursuits.
I don't know if you teach college students or not since you didn't say. But unless you teach at an elite institution, the chances of running into students like yourself are pretty remote. And they don't need much advice either. I didn't think I really needed to say this, but the advice in my post is not really intended for the top 1%. The top 1% can get by without much help from me.
My advice is for the other 99%, some of them will go on to grad school and some will not. I'm especially talking to the ones who are getting 'A's but aren't being challenged, who don't have passion, who are just doing enough to skate by, and who aren't taking charge of their own education. There are a lot of them out there.
I'd love to have a class full of students who are single-minded on getting into an elite Ph.D. program and who are ready to be intellectually challenged right out of high school without any prompting. I'd love to have a class full of students like you. But I don't live in that world. I live in a world where students change majors because a professor inspires them and where a general education course can change the way they think about their world.
Please understand that I fully agree with your thoughts as they apply to students who already have extraordinary focus and drive right out of high school. I have known some of those students too. But I've known more Britneys.
Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy the blog.
Posted by: William Polley at May 16, 2005 08:45 PM