The purposes of a college education
This school year, I have many students in my “Introduction to Computer Systems” class. Like all previous classes, I start the class by asking students about their reasons to go to college, their career plan, and what do they want to do with their lives. Although some students answer about developing technical skills and finding their passion in life, many express that all they want is “To get a higher-paying job,” or “To make a lot of money.” It seems that today students are becoming obsessed with money than anything else. I remind them: “As Computer Science students, you will have a good job and make enough money, but is there anything else that you want in life?” But many of them could not think further than “To be successful,” “To get rich,” “To be famous” or “To buy other materials things.”
A college education is NOT ONLY about learning some knowledge get a job o to build a career BUT ALSO provides students with the opportunity to learn about themselves and their future lives. I often remind students that besides technology, they need to know other subjects to broaden their knowledge. For example, they must understand the impact of technology on society such as pollution, clean water, foods, and the inequality in income distribution, etc. By understanding these issues, they will become a better-informed person of the society. In my opinion, learning only technical but not others is a waste of a college education.
College is also the time to learn about themselves and the world surrounding them. As they are young, their mind is still fresh; it is easier to absorb many things. They should use this time to learn more, to read more, and to study more because time goes fast, someday they will miss this time. I often say: “If you do not learn now, when will you? If you do not plan for the future now, when will you ? If you do not build the skills now, when will you? If you do not know yourself now? When will you? You go to college to learn how to think independently, how to analyze all the facts and data to form your own view. Learning is NOT about academic knowledge but also about yourself and develop your character to become a better person.”
A college education is about exploring and discovering many things to find the passion in life. This is the time where students plan their career and their life in a way that fits their passion and learns about their responsibility to their family, their society, and the world. For many years of teaching, I rarely find any first-year student who is entering college knows what they want to do with their life, but by being exposed to many books, materials, courses, and meeting people from different background and characters, they have the chance to discover themselves and find the things that they care about most. By meeting new friends, especially people with similar goals, passion, and purposes in life, it could change their life too.
In college, students learn many things, trying new things, make mistakes, learn from them and understand that failure is an essential part of growing and maturing. How they learn and overcome mistakes will determine their character and potential for future growth and development. Every student has a unique way of learning that works for them; some learn fast when others slow, but most will identify what works best for them and be a different person than when they enter college.
Last year, a graduate student told me: “I always thought that going to college was getting a degree and a job. But now I realize that I learned a lot after four years, I become more aware of what is happening in the world around me, more mature, and more responsible person than before. Carnegie Mellon was difficult with a lot of expectations and hard work but looking back with all I have learned and the opportunities in front of me; I already knew that I would miss it a lot.”
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
