While the previous chapters put their focus onto topics such as student debt and issues faced by colleges, chapter 9 is placed into, “the future” section of Selingo’s book. This chapter had mainly discussed different aspects that make a contribution to a college student’s knowledge.
One of the first issues brought up in the chapter had to do with a student’s decision on picking a major. The discussion starts off with how many students initially do not know what their plans for a major are, however towards the end it seems that people do not care about the major a student has at the end of the day.
The reason that majors are not much of an issue had partly to do with how employers would like students who are able to think on their own. Since critical thinking helps people advance in the future. Critical thinking is one of the broader issues the chapter addresses. This is mainly due to how much change can possibly happen in the future and how possibly the current majors that people have might not be reflected in the future.
The rest of the chapter discusses different tasks which student’s should do in their college life that will allow them to have better success in their future. This is not an issue for this chapter, however it contributes to the main theme of, contributions to a college student’s knowledge.
Doing things outside of simply going classes for your major is something Selingo believes is important for students. Having professors, or faculty, who you are able to have non-class related discussions with is something George Kuh feels improves the college experience. Being very engaged in college life is something he feels will better college students in the future.
Other important task such as study abroad, which allows students to broaden their knowledge of the world around them, and research projects, which help to stimulate critical thinking in students, are things that help a student since it is not important to have a lot of knowledge on simply one topic, but to also have some knowledge of all other things not related to your field. This seems to be what Selingo feels will help college students in their future in chapter 9.
