Lionel Anderson is the assistant director of the office of academic resources at Haverford College and an active board member of TeenSHARP, a nonprofit college preparatory program.
In my work, I’ve found there to be an enormous, though perfectly absurd, pressure for smart teenagers to appear smart, autonomous and academically self-sufficient at all times. So often, the attitude among high-achieving students is that they must be capable of independently surmounting nearly everything set before them. And nothing, in their minds, diminishes this veneer like asking for help — especially when so many of them have never needed it before.
Therein lies a maddening irony: our top colleges and universities expend unimaginable sums of money per student to supply the very best academic resources American higher education has to offer while admitting scores of students who — by virtue of their own presumption or, in some cases, the dominant peer culture — regard using said resources as an indication of deficiency.
For years, teachers, guidance counselors and loved ones have made so much of how brilliant, creative and gifted you are that it will be very easy for you to overlook or, worse, look askance at the people stationed to propel you even further once you arrive on campus.
Those hired to guide you through the unknown or to cleverly enhance what you already know are awaiting you eagerly, hoping you will give them the chance to do so. College, by design, will present teaching models, curriculums and an academic culture that will require you to court the unfamiliar.
As you learn what is required to be successful during this phase of your education, identifying and marshaling your resources promptly and effectively will teach you the value of collaboration.
Enhance Your Own Educational Experience
Many of you, of course, will breeze through any and all course work with little assistance. But in the long term, resources with less immediate connection to your G.P.A. are equally important and will serve you far better if you start taking advantage of them now.
Here are a few ways to enhance your educational experience once you are settled in:
- Seek mentors who will help you achieve your postgraduate goals. The pursuit of research prizes and scholarships, as well as graduate school, ought not to begin frantically in the fall of senior year. Find out who is tasked with guiding you toward Fulbright, Marshall, Rhodes and other fellowships.
- Find someone who will work with you meaningfully in your professional development. Whether you spend them volunteering, interning or making discoveries in a lab, you will want your college summers to be high impact. Accordingly, you should begin flirting with the arts of networking, interviewing, composing cover letters and professional e-mails, and so on, no later than your second year of college.
- Study abroad. Few undergraduate experiences will broaden your appreciation for diverse intellectual and cultural traditions, teach you independence and distinguish your evolving résumé like participating in and studying another culture. Find out who oversees the predeparture phases of studying abroad.
Take Advantage of On-Campus Resources
It also behooves you, academic performance notwithstanding, to align yourself early on with advisers, librarians and the writing center.
Meeting one-on-one with or serving as a peer tutor in mathematics, the natural sciences or a foreign language sharpens understanding for both the tutee and the tutor, and allows for a level of inquiry often shied away from in the classroom.
If you have a learning disability, take full and consistent advantage of every accommodation to which you are legally entitled.
Natural Intelligence Is No Substitute for Hard Work
What I hope to remind you of is that college is not an arena to affirm how brilliant you are. Oftentimes it will not. It is, rather, a space for you to discern new challenges and gain an appreciation for how much you, in fact, do not know.
In this process, you will deepen your capacity for learning while accumulating a range of tools and instincts with which you can apply your brilliance. Natural intelligence is not a substitute for hard work, and hard work should not be devalued when combined with tutoring, mentoring or any of the other skill-building services at your disposal.
Whether you’re on your way to college or already enrolled, if you’re willing to invite others into your process of scholarly growth, you will discover rich opportunities to hone your research skills, produce original scholarship, become digitally literate, write, speak publicly and nourish your preprofessional identity. Hopefully, in doing so, you will discover that success in college and beyond can and should be collaborative.
To discuss Mr. Anderson’s advice, please share your thoughts in the comments box below. You may also read previous posts by Mr. Anderson on The Choice.
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