Now accepted to a variety of colleges, the complex work of building consensus toward a final choice begins. Families should seek to select the college with the most opportunities where a student to discover or gain confidence in an inherent aptitude. Thus, I strongly encourage families not to rush the college decision, so as to reduce the risk of malinvestment. …
Like I posited a few days ago, “Why is the American middle class shrinking?” Firstly, it can be argued that personal success, whether economic or humanistic, requires the acquisition of knowledge and the application of such knowledge. However, rote memorization and regurgitation on cue, skills necessary to compete in the modern American academic meritocracy, yet often devoid of higher order…
In a 2015 seminar, Reflection on Your Life, Harvard Professor Richard Light asked a group of first year students: Would you rather understand one idea fully or many ideas at a reasonable surface understanding? Seems like a reasonable question to ask 18 year olds so they can more likely live purposefully during their limited college years. The New York…
Federal student loan interest rates for the upcoming 2020-21 school year will be set lower than the 2019-20 school year. The 2020-21 rates will be as follows: Undergraduate Direct Loans: 2.75% Graduate Student Direct Loans: 4.3% Parent PLUS Loans: 5.3% Student loan interest rates are set annually and apply to any loan taken during that school year. The interest rates…
Choosing an academic major, or a set of college courses in a particular speciality, is not simple. Students often equate “academic major” as “career-training“, yet academic knowledge doesn’t always immediately translate into “job”. Often, students will still need to understand their aptitude, so they can find an application for what they know, or “to get a job.” So, during college,…
Soon-to-be college students would be wise to listen to college graduation speeches. Students can learn how to make more effective choices during college by heeding the advice of those who have achieved a degree of accomplishment and notoriety, increasing their odds of realizing their vision and generally living more purposefully. In 2015, John Waters, film director and artist, discussed the…
Many students, who while at college are “adults in training”, returned home for the remainder of the school year, finishing their studies online. Yet, the unintended consquence is reverting to childhood roles, letting moms “mother” them, as they willingly reliquish the independence they sought by moving away for college in the first place. One first year college student summarized her…
Sanika, a freshmen student at UC San Diego, reflects on her truncated first year of college. ——————————————————————————– I just finished doing panic grocery shopping with my dad in the midst of a pandemic in Sacramento. A week ago, on Monday, I never thought I would even say this sentence. In fact a week ago, I was worried about submitting an essay…
Just because a student starts college doesn’t mean that their mindset has caught up to being a college student. First thing last Monday morning, a first-day-of-college-classes student texted me: since she walked into a classroom, where the class lecture was already underway and was at the wrong classroom to boot. Embarassed, she worried that her classmates would post her mishap…
By Spencer Batute I’m not quite sure how to write one of these personal journey blog posts, as I still don’t feel like I’m at some end goal or vista point that I can look down from and spew some all-seeing knowledge. And I don’t know if I ever will be. But I think that’s the point, and the significance…
