The Mindset List - What Incoming Freshmen Know

[The Sicatoka]

As a fresh crop of soon to be victims of academia trudge their way to campuses this fall it seems appropriate to think about the world they know, which may not be the one some of the rest of us know.

http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2014.php

[unh_hockey]

Re: The Mindset List - What Incoming Freshmen Know

All of those listed are simply cultural changes; I would be more worried if everyone today was the same as 10 years ago. Part of growing up is creating ones own culture and values, and what happens around us shapes just that. We seek to differentiate ourselves from the previous generation.

One of the biggest changes I would like to see is the mindset towards college in general. College tuition is a small mortgage, and kids who are going into majors with 0 added value are basically wasting money to party. I see a recessed economy as an opportunity to cut the fat and embrace a new mindset about college in general; college should prepare the future contributors to our economy. I know I'll get roasted, but I don't see the value in training someone in majors like womens studies, or hospitality management. Those are something one could learn on their own without spending 60 large to do it.

[Kepler]

Re: The Mindset List - What Incoming Freshmen Know

As a fresh crop of soon to be victims of academia trudge their way to campuses this fall it seems appropriate to think about the world they know, which may not be the one some of the rest of us know.

http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2014.php

In all seriousness, most of that could have been written for the Class of 1999. I assume anything anybody on the Forum has ever heard about is already culturally obsolete.

[Patman]

Re: The Mindset List - What Incoming Freshmen Know

All of those listed are simply cultural changes; I would be more worried if everyone today was the same as 10 years ago. Part of growing up is creating ones own culture and values, and what happens around us shapes just that. We seek to differentiate ourselves from the previous generation.

One of the biggest changes I would like to see is the mindset towards college in general. College tuition is a small mortgage, and kids who are going into majors with 0 added value are basically wasting money to party. I see a recessed economy as an opportunity to cut the fat and embrace a new mindset about college in general; college should prepare the future contributors to our economy. I know I'll get roasted, but I don't see the value in training someone in majors like womens studies, or hospitality management. Those are something one could learn on their own without spending 60 large to do it.

more to the point, if you are going to spend $$$ on school don't do it on the non-paying majors... there are a lot of degrees you can earn anywhere and you won't be able to make nearly as much to justify the debt.

The problem is we've bought into the idea that we're trash if we don't go to the best available option (neglecting the price)... school can get you networking which helps for some majors... but if your goal is to be a social worker or teacher that can done at the cheapest available 4 year school.

----

More than anything else, don't do what some of my TA peers did in a teaching class... think that the new generation is some kind of technological savant/machine. They aren't. Yeah, things change... but not that much.

[Biddco]

Re: The Mindset List - What Incoming Freshmen Know

Many of these apply to me and I haven't graduated yet!

[Puck Swami]

Re: The Mindset List - What Incoming Freshmen Know

One of the biggest changes I would like to see is the mindset towards college in general. College tuition is a small mortgage, and kids who are going into majors with 0 added value are basically wasting money to party. I see a recessed economy as an opportunity to cut the fat and embrace a new mindset about college in general; college should prepare the future contributors to our economy. I know I'll get roasted, but I don't see the value in training someone in majors like womens studies, or hospitality management. Those are something one could learn on their own without spending 60 large to do it.

This viewpoint is a common one, and while I also see some fat to cut, it's also important that we don't throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater...

A college education in the USA should be about much more than job or vocational training. If it were only about job training, community colleges can play that much more role efficiently...

When conceived and executed well, a four year education opens the mind, fills the soul and exposes and challenges people with different experiences, opportunities, and points of view. It should train one to one to think critically, write persausively, and reason through complex issues, no matter what major you choose.

Socially, colleges also help teenagers become effective adults through the skills acquired when merging thousands of people into the same spaces to live, learn, create and lead together, often far from the comforts of home.

In short, it's about much more than your major - It's about creating the modern mind, self discovery and opening your heart to become the a more complete and effective human being, fully able to contribute to society.

I was a history major in college (one of those majors that many find "impractical" ) and frankly while the pure history facts I learned were of marginal value, the experience of reading, writing and thinking with other smart people was of HUGE value. I learned how people created the world we live in, and how people shaped events, and how events shape our world. Writing big papers forced me to find and shape information into a coherent point of view. Reading great books and having professors help me to understand them helped me to see how big ideas work (or not). I use THOSE
skills every day, even if I can't quite remember who signed the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.

Additionally the experiences I had working for the college newspaper and living in a fraternity house were defining personal experiences that really shaped who I am, how I perform and what I value.

When I hire young people now as an executive, majors and GPAs are much smaller considerations than many young people believe. I look for capable and expansive minds. We can teach people about our business, but we want minds that are supple, flexible and able to pull ideas from different places into coherency. That's what a good college can do for a young mind.

[Patman]

Re: The Mindset List - What Incoming Freshmen Know

I will say this... and I did this to some extent via curiosity and math... college is best done (from a non-technical standpoint... us chem/phys/bio,math,engineering) if it is spent trying to figure out and learn how the world works. I know I took my understanding of math and try to figure out what it may say about mechanics of things and behaviors of systems. Not from the literal perspective but from more of having the ability to get a feel for how things work in society.

Being able to better gauge the world around you will often leave you a lot further ahead than your peers. "problem solving" and "knowing how to learn" comes off of that in some way. Figure out the processes of life for yourself and how the processes of things go on around you and you've won at least half the battle out there.

Its rare for a college student to have that level of self-awareness... you tend to see that in people going to college the "2nd time around" or later in life but nevertheless, learning how things work in the broad picture is monumental because you can apply it every day.

[Markt]

Re: The Mindset List - What Incoming Freshmen Know

Their professors, who might be tempted to think that they are hip enough and therefore ready and relevant to teach the new generation, might remember that Kurt Cobain is now on the classic oldies station.

OK, that one hurt a little bit.

[Kepler]

Re: The Mindset List - What Incoming Freshmen Know

This viewpoint is a common one, and while I also see some fat to cut, it's also important that we don't throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater...

A college education in the USA should be about much more than job or vocational training. If it were only about job training, community colleges can play that much more role efficiently...

When conceived and executed well, a four year education opens the mind, fills the soul and exposes and challenges people with different experiences, opportunities, and points of view. It should train one to one to think critically, write persausively, and reason through complex issues, no matter what major you choose.

Socially, colleges also help teenagers become effective adults through the skills acquired when merging thousands of people into the same spaces to live, learn, create and lead together, often far from the comforts of home.

In short, it's about much more than your major - It's about creating the modern mind, self discovery and opening your heart to become the a more complete and effective human being, fully able to contribute to society.

I was a history major in college (one of those majors that many find "impractical" ) and frankly while the pure history facts I learned were of marginal value, the experience of reading, writing and thinking with other smart people was of HUGE value. I learned how people created the world we live in, and how people shaped events, and how events shape our world. Writing big papers forced me to find and shape information into a coherent point of view. Reading great books and having professors help me to understand them helped me to see how big ideas work (or not). I use THOSE
skills every day, even if I can't quite remember who signed the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.

Additionally the experiences I had working for the college newspaper and living in a fraternity house were defining personal experiences that really shaped who I am, how I perform and what I value.

When I hire young people now as an executive, majors and GPAs are much smaller considerations than many young people believe. I look for capable and expansive minds. We can teach people about our business, but we want minds that are supple, flexible and able to pull ideas from different places into coherency. That's what a good college can do for a young mind.

From personal experience, I agree -- it's the liberal arts mission The universities have really compromised themselves as a forum for that mission by driving costs so high. Guys from working class backgrounds coming out of the army in the 40's and 50's used to get incredibly rich experiences and become writers, artists, philosophers and historians, but that rarefied air is back behind class barriers again. The universities sold their soul to business and unsurprisingly became irrelevant for helping expose young people to the genuinely important things that commerce and engineering exist to serve.

Doesn't really matter in the long run -- the soul will always re-emerge somewhere else. Once it was the churches, then the universities, some other institution will be created by the searchers to meet their (and our) need.