Back to School
 

             So it is off to college to get an education. A college education is a big investment of time and money, so one should know what one will get in return for this investment. While the question “What is a good college education?” likely has many possible good answers, let me share with you a point of view that has experienced twelve years out in the world without one, and decided it would be a good idea to go back and put forth the effort to acquire a good college education.

             First, let me set the stage by telling you a little bit about myself. I grew up in a town of about 40,000 people. After I graduated from high school, I got a job doing technical support for computer manufacturers. It didn’t pay much, but they provided me with enough training to be a competent computer support specialist. Six months into the job, I decided to venture out of my parents’ nest and into the world. I moved to Minneapolis and entered into a contract with a computer consulting firm. I was lucky, as this was during the big internet boom, and anyone with information technology skills had hot prospects. As I acquired experience, I was able to turn my skill set in information technology into a career.

            I found myself in corporate America with a desired skill set, but no degree. Most of the people I worked with had at least a bachelor’s degree, and many had their master’s. What I found through my daily work and interactions with people with various levels of education is that the people with a college education tended to grasp more quickly complex issues or abstract ideas than those who did not. Those with college educations also seemed to recognize nuances, and raise more relevant questions concerning the issues or ideas being discussed. They were able to see beyond their area of expertise, in this case information technology, and more readily incorporate their insights into the big picture. That is to say, even though we were discussing technology issues, they rarely lost sight of the business problem the technology we were working on was trying to address.

            This was not a black and white observation where those with college degrees always had more useful insights than those without, but there was a trend. Dr. Janet Stemwedel, professor of philosophy at San Jose State University, in her article “What’s the Point of a College Education?” provides some insight into why this might be. She points out that a college education gives you a lot of practice thinking about things, and coming up with your own ideas about them. The ability to efficiently and thoroughly think through complex issues is something that does not only apply to one’s career, but also to one’s everyday life. A good college education should increase one’s aptitude with this skill.

            Over the course of time, I forged friendships with several of my coworkers. As these friendships blossomed, I detected another trend between those with college degrees and those with high school diplomas. The breadth of knowledge the college educated had to draw upon when discussing issues was often larger than those who had not attended college. This was not a clearly discernable fact, as things such as experiences can contribute to this perception, but there was again a trend.

            My personal interests and my career revolve around information technology. The majority of my knowledge is directly related to computers and computer systems in some way. Although this is enough to keep me employed, it did not do much to help me deal with challenges outside my job. When discussing current events with my friends, I recognized that those with a college education usually had a more encompassing opinion on the issues of the day. For example, the financial crisis that came to a head in 2008 had a lot of people talking about whether or not we should bail out failing corporations. I did not have a very strong opinion on the topic—or at least, I could not properly articulate it in discussions. Friends who had knowledge of and subscribed to different schools of economic thought had differing opinions on the subject, and they were able to articulate reasoned arguments. Their college education exposed them to economic theory, something that was not necessary for them to do their jobs, but nevertheless which allowed them to gain a better understanding of the world we live in.

            The world I found myself in was filled with many complex issues that would have effects on my life in some fashion or another. Whether those issues are current events, such as economic issues or the debate over healthcare, or whether they were managing my own interests such as finances or my health, the benefits of a broader base of knowledge became clear. Such knowledge helps one obtain a better understanding of issues and allows one to make more informed decisions about them. For this reason, a good college education should expose you to a broad array of subjects.

            It was after making some of these observations that I started doing more self-study, but learning even the basics of a concept on one's own was a much more arduous process than having them explained by a knowledgeable expert in the field. It is for this reason that I decided to go back to college to pursue an education. This is where I find myself now, just starting off on this journey of learning. So far, I have found my educational experience has begun to provide me with a broader foundation of knowledge, and more practice thinking critically about issues. However, there is one component to a good college education that is not an output of education, but an input to it: dedication.

            My first class in my return to school was Macroeconomics. I chose this class to start with because I had been following the financial news, and was intrigued as to where the varying opinions on the current economic conditions were coming from. This provided me with the motivation to study, learn, and passion to understand the concepts presented. This class increased my knowledge of economics and my understanding of it exponentially.

            The second class I took was a mathematics course, and this class did not rouse my curiosity as much. I did only what I needed to get through the class, and did not put forth the same effort to learn and really understand the material as I did with my previous class. I did all the extra credit, so as to pad my final because I knew I would need help. At the end of the course, as in my habit, I reflected on what material was presented and what I had learned from the class. What I found is that my mediocre efforts and extra credit got me a grade I was satisfied with, but I had cheated myself of gaining a truly strong understanding of the subject.

            The lesson I learned is that if one is going to spend the time and money to go to college, one should realize it is not like buying a car or a service. It is buying an opportunity to learn, and what you get out of it is proportional to what you put into it. I made the mistake of focusing on the wrong part of the course: the grade. When I read “Making the Grade,” an article by Kurt Wiesenfeld, a professor of Physics at Georgia Tech, I felt a bit ashamed. In his article, Professor Wiesenfeld points to the dishonesty of students who seek to improve their grades without learning the material. That’s what I felt I did by the healthy boost my grade got from all the extra credit. The next class I take where I am not motivated to learn it, I will have to replace motivation with determination.