早稲田商2010 II

The following is an interview with Professor Richard J. Light of Harvard University. His book, Making the Most of College, is based on a ten-year survey and offers valuable advice to those interested in college life.

Interviewer:

Light: I had originally anticipated that most students would want the leaders of the college to treat them as grown-ups and get out of their way. The surprise is that student after student, 70 to 75 percent, said, "We need advice. We don't know what to do. How do we know how much time to spend on extracurricular activities or homework?" Interviewer: You talk a lot about the importance of finding a faculty adviser or a teacher. How should students do that?

Light: It takes some initiative. If you don't have a reason to go talk to a teacher, invent one. I am a student adviser, and the first thing I ask my freshmen is, "What is your job this semester?" Students always say, "My job is to work hard." And I say, "Excellent, but that is not enough. Your job is to get to know at least one faculty member this semester. Just think, you're going to be here for eight semesters. Even if you succeed only half the time, four years later, you will have four faculty members who can write a job recommendation or serve as a reference." Kids always say they never thought about it that way.

Interviewer: What mistakes do parents make?

Light: Although parents obviously mean well, they generally give poor advice when it comes to picking classes. The students who were less happy took big classes, and then they said they felt their first year was too anonymous. The happier students took a mix of classes that included small seminars. When I asked the unhappy students why they took so many big classes, almost all of them said that's what their parents suggested. Students should be taking small, specialized classes from the start.

Interviewer: What was one of the concrete differences between those students who prospered and those who struggled?

Light: The one word that most sharply differentiated the two groups was the word "time." For a bunch of middle-aged professors like me, the idea of time management is taken for granted, but for students sometimes it's not as obvious. Students really have to keep an eye on how they spend their time, and I have two suggestions for them. The first is to make a thorough evaluation of their schedule. I tell students to keep track of how they spend their time every day for a week. The most important change students need to make is often not how much they study, but when. Studying for a long uninterrupted period of time is much more effective than studying for several short periods. All students are pressed for time and they need to be with their friends and participating in extracurricular activities. It's how you divide up the time that makes the difference.

Interviewer: Why do you emphasize extracurricular activities?

Light: Students who are involved in extracurricular activities are the happiest students on campus and also tend to be the most successful in the classroom. They find a way to connect their academic work to their personal lives. If students can apply what they are learning to their real life, they are more engaged and tend to get more out of it.