Keys to Success in College and and Later In Life .... Taking the Course 'Life 101'

Lots of young people currently are actively considering which college to attend in the fall. Some are even questioning whether to attend.


The cost of college and the burdens of debt associated with student loans, as well as the general lack of preparedness for doing college work upon entry, have been discussed in recent posts.


But other than the academics and the costs, what's really important about the overall college experience, all things considered, and what are the long term success factors?


In College, Nurturing Matters summarizes the contents of a recently published study on college and later-in-life success factors:


"A report issued Tuesday by Gallup and Purdue University asked graduates several questions about their college tenures, including the six below, which are listed along with the share of students who strongly agreed with the statements.

• I had at least one professor at [College] who made me excited about learning. (63 percent)

• My professors at [College] cared about me as a person. (27 percent)

• I had a mentor who encouraged me to pursue my goals and dreams. (22 percent)

• I worked on a project that took a semester or more to complete. (32 percent)

• I had an internship or job that allowed me to apply what I was learning in the classroom. (20 percent)

• I was extremely active in extracurricular activities and organizations while attending [College]. (20 percent)

Students who strongly agreed with the above statements were as much as twice as likely to have a strong sense of well-being and engagement at work.

But the sad part was that only 3 percent of respondents strongly agreed with all six measures.

The report has a strong message for students who are asking about which school to attend, for employers who are deciding which people to hire and for colleges that are negotiating their curriculums. It concluded:

“The data in this study suggest that, as far as future worker engagement and well-being are concerned, the answers could lie as much in thinking about aspects that last longer than the selectivity of an institution or any of the traditional measures of college. Instead, the answers may lie in what students are doing in college and how they are experiencing it. Those elements — more than many others measured — have a profound relationship to a graduate’s life and career.”"

Summing Up

Amen to the criticality of the six enumerated success factors cited above.

Looking back on my own experience, I was lucky indeed to be able to meet and get to know many of the people I met and who genuinely took the time to care about me as a person.

Thus, when I think back on formal education as well as my early working years, much more than the books I read, it was the professors and leaders I met and came to know, and the things I experienced (both good and bad) that most influenced whatever success came along later in life.

As the old saying goes, we get out of something that which we put into something, and that's certainly true about our "formative" and early adulthood years spent getting "educated."

Of course, real 'education' is a never ending and lifelong endeavor.

That's my take.

Thanks. Bob.