<p>Venkat, I dont disagree with anything you said.</p>
<p>dchow, I was in the same situation in freshman year - took a lot of courses but didn’t seem to feel that I was educated or that I was going anywhere with this dilettante behavior.</p>
<p>It’s tough when you take many courses but don’t seem to find anything that you want to pursue next time. My advice is to keep trying, keep challenging yourself with different courses and the like, but with a few twists:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Do not view ‘introduction’ courses as those who will let you know if you are truly interested in the field. These courses are more often that not a very shallow survey course that provides little challenge (unless your prof is tough and expects a lot, then it may be a different matter). Rather, if you are self motivated and want to explore a subject, take intermediate survey classes instead, or audit a intro class so that it doesn’t take up valuable time.</p></li>
<li><p>Don’t expect your students to provide the intellectual conversation. Reserve that time for your professors. A lot of people here on CC pay lip service to intellectual conversation, but the reality is even in such elite/nerdy schools, many rather play the Wii or frisbee outside of class rather than talk about the merits of utilitarianism. You found eigentheory fascinating? Talk to your professor about it - ask him what it applies to, its history, its importance in fields other than math. Chinese history, economics, any subject can and should be explored in detail with professors, which being in Swat, should reasonably be predicted to be enthusiastic to engage with students on such stuff.</p></li>
<li><p>Research, research, research. You mention you like studying on your own. Great! This is your chance to read up beyond what is taught in class. For instance, as an economics major, even without getting econometrics done yet, I ply through economic journals during some of my free time (I do other social things too, christmas) and see how economics bears on various social issues - if I don’t understand the math, I ask the professor. (not blowing my own horn here, this is just what I do, and it’s not to impress others) Similar processes should apply to your areas that you have interest in. If you really get into something, ask them about what research they are embarking on. And if you become certain that you really want to pursue that, ask them for research opportunities. Or an independent study.</p></li>
<li><p>Research opportunities for conferences and publications beyond your school. Many big universities have conferences and journals that are open to all students in US colleges for submissions and participation. Consider doing one or two of those.</p></li>
<li><p>Above all, find at least two professors who believe in you and are willing to serve as your mentor and advisors in your academic and future pursuits. Not those that say ‘Good job’ on your paper and nothing else, but those that are not afraid to say that your work is sub-par when it is really sub-par, but follow it up with teaching and mentoring so that you will know how to produce real, quality work.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Of course, right now, your priority, the way I (limited perspective) see it, is to find what you want to pursue. What do you want? That’s the most difficult question to answer positively.</p>
<p>just get laid?</p>
<p>“How to read
How to speak
How to think
How to learn”</p>
<p>DD already knew how to do all of these things going into college. You are making “intellectual” students sound like airheads until they graduate.</p>
<p>
Nah, you can just read them on your own. A class on Shakespeare will undoubtedly help you understand his plays a lot more in-depth, but since you’re so intellectually curious, why not read them over the summer?
A lot depends on you rather than the system. The profs are there to “teach” you, whether or not you’re truly “educated” in the sense of the word you described depends on you. DT gave you amazing advice so not much to add there, but there are different ways to be educated. Someone might have that “aha” moment perusing texts in the library, while for another it’ll come through research, for someone like you, one on one time with Profs discussing interesting stuff might work better.</p>
<p>The American LAC system is unique, since in most nations, you study 1 subject for 3-4 years, get a degree and move on. The LAC system has sort of become an extension of HS, a more “general education” in a variety of subjects with the specialty reserved for grad school. I can understand both the learning for the sake of learning ideal and the pre-professional ideal. A preLaw student might feel frustrated he can’t study Law for 4 years and obsess over GPA to get into a top school rather than care about being educated in your sense. </p>
<p>And to make the most of your experience, don’t forget to go out and have some fun too! it’s not all about intellectual stuff all the time. Chances are your best memories won’t be reading Homer but having an awesome time with your friends. :)</p>
<p>
After two years of college I read, think, speak and learn very differently than when I was in high school. Obviously everyone entering college can do those things, but while in college you mature and do those things differently. I can’t verbalize it well because I’m in the middle of the process, but a person grows a lot intellectually during college.</p>
<p>true dat ^. I believe the point of college is to hone those skills as well as make you more conscious of how society works.</p>
<p>to the OP, I think you will realize the value of your education once you go back home and realize you’re seeing it in a different light. you’ll also realize the rest of the world doesn’t even come close to being the intellectual utopia that Swarthmore (or any other top college, really) is.</p>
<p>I think you would feel a lot better about what you are learning if your classes were more related to each other in a more specific way - not so broadly. I feel so much better about my next few years in college because I have planned out what courses I am going to take and made sure they were only on what I am seriously interested and what I would be able to utilize later on in life. </p>
<p>I am not saying that you have to know what you want to do for the rest of your life right now but you know the things you are interested in so why don’t you focus on the one thing you really really like and run with it? You like literature but do you want to major in it? If not then don’t take all those classes. If you want to take one, wait until the seminar is open or choose one of those topics and take it and then study the rest on your own.</p>
<p>I have definitely had that ‘aha’ moment and switched from architecture to government and arabic and I am so excited about now courses now. I have to have a minor but I’m not sure what it is yet. Maybe euro studies or history to integrate my interest in european studies - especially conflicts, politics, war and genocide. I am not sure that intro to bio was a required class/core class for you but it would help if you took something like bio and took a science class that related back to what you’re interested in. For example I have to take a second english class so I chose one where the focus was on international conflicts in novels. I have to take a second required government class so I chose one where the prof was interested in international politics.</p>
<p>And I agree, I’m interested in accounting and sociology and infectious diseases but I read up on them on my own. Recently I am reading this book on the history of rome and was so surprised at how much information I have retained from it. I feel like this one book taught me more than a class would. I don’t have enough time to take classes on all of them and they don’t relate to what I want to do in my career so it would be a waste of time and money to take a class where you could buy a book for five bucks and read it in a week. You could always join some sort of club where you have to get involved to benefit from it like some sort of book club or something for those intellectual discussions you want. Even if the college doesn’t have them maybe the community does.</p>
<p>I do not think taking a bunch of intro classes will help. I was seriously bored in intro to sociology because it’s not specific enough. And you’re going to end up wasting so much time taking random classes you’re not going to be able to take what you really want when you finally realize what it is that you want.</p>
<p>Also it might help to do something that doesn’t really have anything to do with working or intellectual anything because after a while it can get emotionally draining and you will feel burnt out if you don’t have some sort of outlet. I’m going to be taking fencing in the fall and I spent a lot of time last year exploring/getting lost in austin with a friend and doing simple things like watching a movie or going to a new place to see what the food is like. Go out and do something with friends, set a time and take the initiative and ask someone to eat dinner with you. If you do get that study group together make an effort to hang out with them outside of studying doing something not related to school. Make sure you do something fun, don’t try to be deep all the time. It’s only been one year right? I think that most people don’t take classes that are all related freshman year unless you are in a strict program. You need to chill out a bit. =P</p>
<p>Thanks, D.T., for the valuable and practical tips.</p>
<p>Leah321: I agree with Venkat89 and rooibos. I think that I’ve sort of become more analytical as a result of my first year here. Especially the English seminar I took. The discussions and papers in that class helped me think straight and organize my thoughts.</p>
<p>Alix2012: I could try to read Shakespeare over the summer, but it’s just hard to read literature by yourself, without a teacher. Professors can provide so much more insight than you can find out on your own, or even by reading analyses. I think it would be so much more interesting if there was a professor to make it come alive. Besides, it is encouraging when there are other people reading the same texts. You can discuss them and work on papers with them. Reading Shakespeare on your own is really solitary, and you probably won’t get as much out of it if you go it alone. I do indeed sort of feel that a liberal arts college is an extension of high school, in that you are taking a wide variety of classes. But at least the instruction is much better. You made a good point when you mentioned that valuable experiences are also to be found outside of academics. I read somewhere that that’s actually where the most memorable experiences are, so I’ll definitely make an effort next year to be more involved in the campus activities.</p>
<p>nerd855: Thanks. I hope that I can connect the courses I had this year with future courses.</p>
<p>holy **** i’m so glad i don’t go to swarthmore after reading this thread</p>
<p>It looks to me like he/she needs one subject to “learn” about.</p>
<p>They mentioned how they wanted to learn about all these subjects but after one year of College all that is happening is that they feel some sort of disappointment from not learning what they thought they would learn.</p>
<p>If you really want to learn something; teach it to yourself.</p>
<p>I could, but then college would seem sort of useless. I did learn in my classes plenty of things I had wanted to learn, like modern Chinese history and multivariable calculus. I think it’s more that I don’t really feel that my courses are building a curriculum; they’re very separate and unrelated.</p>