THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE: MY TWO CENTS
BINGHAMTONREVIEW.COM
The College Experience: My Two Cents By Joe Badalamenti
I
t’s finally over. At time of writing, I am less than four weeks from graduation, the culmination of four years of college life. Now that I’ve reached this stage, I can finally write my obligatory graduation advice article. Not to brag but most advice found in advice articles tends to be either painfully obvious (not that the advice presented here isn’t obvious) or revolve around the meaning of a vague at best, harmful at worst platitude such as the all too common “jUsT Be yOuRsELf ”. If that’s what you’re looking for, then go read Pipe Dream’s annual senior columns. This article will take the form of a general and practical guide to not wasting the remaining years of your education. Some of the major criticisms of college consist of the idea that “You’re wasting four years learning nothing while going into debt.” I disagree, but I do believe that there is a right and wrong way to go through college, hence why I am writing this article. “But why take my advice?” you may ask. While I would love to discuss all of my credentials and accomplishments from my five page CV, let’s just leave it at the fact that I’m graduating and you’re (likely) not. For the 25% of you are graduating, you can simply take notes on what you should’ve done these past four years. Let’s start with the reason you came here in the first place: education. For the majority of your time in college, you will either be in class, studying, or working on something related to your education in some way, so you should have the right attitude for your academics. First, you should create two to three relevant academic goals which correlate with your major. If you don’t have a major or are unsure, then you should focus on settling that as soon as you can. If you’re studying Engineering, Business, Accounting, or some practical field of study, then your goals should relate to gaining experience in your field. If you’re not lucky enough to get an internship, then professional clubs, research, and personal
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projects should provide a similar experience. This should help you stand out among the hundreds of thousands of other students with the same degree. If you’re in a theoretical field or plan on pursuing an advanced degree, then you should focus on learning the core concepts and principles in your field of interest. This would involve not only reading your coursework texts indepth but also reading books, research articles, and other supplemental media that allow you to get a good grip on these concepts. Once you have a solid understanding of these concepts, you can put this knowledge to good use through teaching/tutoring, writing academic papers, or some other means. If you’re in a broad field such as Biology or History, then it may also be beneficial to find and specialize in a sub-area of expertise. Taking History as an example, there is Classical History, Medieval History, American History, Archeology, and many more subfields within the broad category of History. Again, this should be done to both stand out among other students and to make your education more enjoyable as you study the subjects that most interest you. While these goals may not be mandatory for graduation, you still ought to pursue them. If you take responsibility for your education, then you’ll wind up with a solid understanding of your field despite any obstacles or inconsistencies with your college education. While academics and professional activities may play a large role, you are likely going to want a social life during your several years at college. Binghamton, being a large university, offers a large number of communities or clubs for you to join. It is within these that I have had much of my significant social experiences in university. However, you can’t (or shouldn’t) join every club and not all clubs are created equal, so you’ll ideally want to join 2-4 of the best clubs available. Moreover, with the exception of UFest, some clubs may do little advertising
in person, so you may have to seek out these clubs online. Which clubs to join is up to you (except for Binghamton Review, baby), however, these clubs should encourage your development as well as build skills and virtues rather than degrade these qualities. While you can just leave a community mid-way to save time to join another, it’s much easier to find a few good communities and stick with them. Binghamton Review for example will enhance the quality of your writing as well as teach you the importance of communication, analysis, and planning among other skills. You’ll have to spend some time in each club to determine if they are worth your time. One reliable method to do this is to determine the character of the members of the executive board (E-board) as not only are they the most well respected but are the ones literally in charge of the club. If you want a balanced spread of communities, you can join: a physical/athletic club to build fortitude, a professional club to enhance your career development, an extracurricular club to build skills indirectly related to your career and for leisure of course, and a religious club for spiritual guidance and support. Again what clubs or communities you join are up to you, but if you join the right communities, you will end up well rounded as a result. At this point, you should know your career and secondary goals as well as what to do to achieve them. You might realize that you may not
Vol. XXXIV, Issue XII
