3 Things About Undergrad
Things people should tell you before you start school
Similar to my previous post on business school, I feel the need to share my thoughts on what I wish someone told me when I first started/navigated my my college career. For grammar-related things, see response here.
1. Your major ≠ your career.
One of the biggest fallacies of undergraduate education is that your major determines your career. I think a lot of us assume that if we start studying a specific major or concentration, that is where we’re going to end up. For some, that may be true and I’m talking about hardcore scientists and doctors. But for many of us who have a liberal arts education, we have a freedom that scientists and doctors do not: we can be anything. Sometimes, we think that the years of studying and training we had somehow makes us only qualified in that field, but that’s a false assumption. Do not limit yourself and your opportunities because a piece of paper (see diploma) somehow dictates what you’re qualified for and what you’re not.
Throughout your academic career, you will probably get a serious case of tunnel vision — which is fine. We tend to get so hyper-focused on what we’re studying that we forget about all the other things that school has to offer. Going back to the idea of a liberal arts education — undergraduate education teaches us how to learn. There are lessons to be learned in every field outside of our own, we simply need to learn how to apply them.
Now, there are definitely some careers that require you to study extremely hard so that you can go into that field (i.e., medicine) but don’t just limit yourself to all things science. Stretch your mind by learning and doing things outside your field, things outside your comfort zone. Maybe the way ants build tunnels will inspire you to create a blueprint for an energy-efficient building (see here). Or maybe paint viscosity will spark an idea on how to re-imagine blood flow and neuroplasticity — who knows?! There are skills in every field, learnings in every major, and validity in every idea — utilize them and apply them to what you want out of life.
2. Class is a pond, the real world is an ocean.
Everything that you learn in a classroom is most likely just going to be theory or an introductory idea. It’s nothing like the real world because the real world has too many variables for you to actually figure out what’s happening, let alone what’s going to happen. Remember that textbook that tells you if you do x, then y will happen, and then you get z? Yeah... you can throw that out the window. There are no formulas to life and if there was, you’d be able to google it already.
If you think about it, school is like the pond that you learn how to swim in. It teaches you the basics and gets your feet wet. Life, on the other hand, is more like an ocean — there are no barriers, no lifejackets, no lifeguards. If you can’t learn how to swim in this ocean, well then you’re fucked. But remember, once you learn how to swim, it’s only a matter of time before you have to swim in the ocean. It’s going to happen whether you like it or not. So arm yourself with some ocean expeditions (internships), get a feel for it before you’re forced in it and when the time comes, you’ll be a world-class swimmer.
3. Don’t take yourself too seriously
Throughout my four years in college, I have consistently met people who take themselves way too seriously. You know.. that kid with the 4.0 GPA who needs to study all the time, who needs to articulate anything and everything in a grammatically correct/politically correct way, and so on… I think we’ve all seen someone like that (unless you’re that person..) and we can all agree that interacting with people like that can be annoying & boring right? Then don't be that person. I can’t stress this enough because so many people think that good grades translate to a good future, and so they put in hours and hours to get that perfect score. But what exactly does a 4.0 even mean? Does it mean you’re perfect? Does it encapsulate you as a human being? Does it tell people who or what you stand for? Or is it just some arbitrary number that holds way too much of our self-worth?
Not taking yourself too seriously means knowing how to balance when to be serious and when to have fun. This balance will become incredibly important when you create structure for yourself — you don’t want to be burnt out from working too hard or exhausted from partying too hard. Balancing the two will make you a very happy person.
And there will always be someone better at you at something, whether it’s better grades, relationships, alcohol tolerance, etc. Realizing that you can’t be the best at everything will help you move away from your comfort zone and allow you to do new and challenging things. And you’ll feel comfortable doing these things because you’ll realize it’s okay to fail & to be an idiot.
“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all — in which case, you fail by default.” -JK Rowling
The more you try and fail, and pick yourself up afterward, the more prepared you are for the life ahead of you. Live, have fun, explore, and challenge yourself. Do some crazy shit, your children will thank me.
BONUS
4. Only time you should cut class is when that time can be used for something more important (like sleep).
5. Free food is everywhere — go find it.
6. Don’t pick up smoking cigarettes, you’ll never quit.
If you have any thoughts/comments, feel free to add them here or just tweet me @chanstvn. I would love to hear what else undergrads should know when they start their college careers. Carry on fellow youngin’.
