An article in last week’s New York Times by none other than our favorite–Jeff Selingo–spoke of the three types of college graduate: the Sprinter, the Wanderer, and the Straggler. While doing so, Selingo highlighted many of the challenges facing this generation of college graduates: student debt, job hopping (as a recent post discussed), unemployment, delay of financial independence, and more. He also emphasized the failure of the “one size fits all” approach to higher education, which is something we’ve been toying with the last many weeks in our seminar.
Selingo pointed out early that the journey to adulthood is steadily increasing, and termed the age group of 18 to 25-year olds “emerging adults,” after the term coined by a psychology professor in the 90s. This age group is grappling with feeling simultaneously grown up and not so grown up at the same time, hence the “emerging.” During this age group, not only is the college degree the biggest determinant of their future professional success, but how they navigate their college years is also fundamental.
That’s where the categories come in. You’re a Sprinter if you’ve known what you wanted to major in since entering college; you’ve been lining up increasingly impressive internships summer after summer; you have a job set after college with little or no student debt. Sprinters are the most able to job-hop, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, since it allows important exploration. They can do this because of the lack of student debt weighing them down, which forces college grads to choose money over interest, happiness, location, or the like. Sprinters, therefore, are more likely to take chances with business–you’ll likely see a Sprinter working in an incubator housing fresh start-ups soon after graduation, feeling good about themselves (I assume).
As a Wanderer, you may have had great grades in high school and a stellar GPA in college, but you’re on an uncertain path. You’ve applied for countless jobs in many different fields, to no avail. You’re likely underemployed, meaning overqualified for the job you’re working at, like nearly half of all undergraduates. Or you’ve resorted to graduate school to help you “figure it out”; after all, 30 percent of college graduates are back in school within 2 years. Wanderers may have benefited from a gap year to explore interests and career options before college instead of being thrown into something they didn’t know how to navigate. The longer you wander, Selingo notes ominously, the harder it is to catch up.
If none of the above describe you, you may be a Straggler. This is you if you’re drifting through your twenties, in and out of school, putting academic performance last on your list of “important things to do in college.” You may stay at home after high school and get a job, or join the military. Maybe you’ve found your calling at age 30 while in your parents’ garage. After all, there are 12.5 million 20-somethings with some college credit but no degree out there, virtually no better off than if they’d never gone to college at all.
Point is, there’s a lot more to the “emerging adult” years than just graduating college, like navigating life outside of the classroom and building relationships. These are the things that can determine whether you become a Sprinter, Wanderer or Straggler. Which do you envision yourself as?
