I just finished my last senior seminar class with a group I mostly saw as freshmen. I have watched them grow immensely in four years.

One thing I wish I could do for parents helping their kids pick a college:

Connect them with seniors talking about what parts of college mattered most. They sound VERY different than their freshman selves.

My experience is college candidates often are asking the wrong questions.

When they come as seniors for candidates day, I field a lot of questions about vocation, job propsects, ROI, specific classes we offer and why we don’t offer this other class like such-and-such school does.

Those are so the wrong questions.

About 3/4 of my students take a class that changes their mind about their major or their field of study after they get here. That’s why you don’t choose a college based on prospects in X field.

A good college provides space for asking questions about who you are and your place in the world. They challenge you to interrogate your values for the first time probably ever, to keep what fits and consider other ways of seeing.

The vocation part flows from that inquiry.

Today my students gave some retrospective on how THEY have been changed by their education, how they see the world now compared to how they entered.

It’s breathtaking to listen to. If it weren’t for FERPA I’d stream it. It would give you hope.

But those aren’t the questions they ask at candidates day.

My advice to people looking at college:

1. Look for the type of community that will help you grow as a person. That could be a large state school, could be a small private. Everyone is different.

2. Look at opportunities beyond class and major requirements. Vibrant student activitiy and extracurricular culture. A lot of our students work on our student publication @LUBrownWhite even though they aren’t journalism majors. That’s friends and experience for life, man.

3. Don’t focus on curriculum. Look at people. See past professor prestige. Colleges employ smart people - all of them. I’d be more concerned with whether they’re good mentors, advisers, etc. Because that’s where education really is.

4. Choose a place that will let you pivot. If you choose a college based on a major or career, what happens if you change? I studied journalism when you went into print, tv or radio. Thank god I got a liberal arts education, because I could apply what I learned to new contexts.

5. In general, don’t think of a place where college is a place where you go to get a degree in X. It sounds touchy-feely, but if you do four years and don’t emerge a changed, thoughtful, somewhat humbled person I would submit you’ve done it wrong.

The good news is this looks different for everyone. There is no one place. Students have different learning styles, personal relationship styles, and needs.

I’m struck by how many students come to campus without ever having spoken to a professor. That is insane to me.

How can you go in on four years of mentoring and growth without getting to know the person doing the cultivating?

But admissions folks have told me as much. Students pick for the campus and culture, assuming academics are interchangeable parts. I’d disagree with that.

There is a qualitative difference between what students get in our journalism program vs. one they get at Mizzou (a place I love dearly).

It’s not better vs. worse. But they are different approaches. They produce different types of people, in my experience.

Stuff that won’t show up on an admissions pamphlet or U.S. News ranking.

I get a lot of students in my department after starting in (and hating) the business college. We also lose some to Business. Either way, it's a hard pivot at places where your destiny is set at the start.

Anyhow, some thoughts if you’re working on a college plan with your kids. I am mindful of this every year as I see the transformation of our seniors near its completion. It’s an amazing perch I have the privilege of occupying, and I think of it every time I meet a H.S. senior.

@threadreaderapp unroll pls