I’m a freshman at a small liberal arts college. For reference, it’s a pretty solidly second tier school and I am on a full tuition merit scholarship. It’s a very nurturing / positive environment, which is something I really wanted (coming from a very competitive and cutthroat HS). I love my small classes and individual attention from teachers, but I’m starting to be troubled by how laid back the student body is. I don’t want to come off as patting myself on the back for being ~special~ because I definitely have found smart and interesting people here — it’s just that the collective vibe is so relaxed that it feels very difficult to motivate myself. The professors are overall even more supportive than my HS teachers were, and it occasionally verges on hand holding. I went to the club fair but a lot of the organizations seem just like ways to hang out with friends and that’s it. This is something that other people have mentioned as well.
Does anyone have advice for making yourself motivated and ambitious in a very laid back environment? I’m going to take a slightly harder course load next semester and hopefully that will help. It’s just a weird transition and I’m not sure how I can really challenge myself here. Any advice would be great!!
Take more classes (5 instead of 4), join the leadership program if there’s one, I assume you’re in the honors program so use it to the max, especially if you can get elected to something that has decision powder and a budget, organize an event through a club or in the honors dorm, look into studying away (domestic exchange, nse…)second semester sophomore year and abroad first semester junior year.
Get involved with research in your field. Aim to apply to present at NCUR next year. http://www.cur.org/ncur_2017/
Study abroad or away.
Do a service project in an area you’re passionate about.
Learn to play the bagpipes.
Participate in a sport.
Get job experience in your field or do internships.
Look at getting an internship or research position with a professor.
If you know other students who feel like this, maybe try to start a club together.
Take harder/advanced courses.
I wouldn’t necessarily take an additional class, unless there’s something you’re interested in learning. I would spend the additional time doing the other things suggested - like research, an internship, a job, starting a club that caters to your professional or personal interests, etc.
Also - a laid-back vibe is a good thing, and not necessarily mutually exclusive with being motivated and ambitious. I went to a small LAC that had a very laid-back vibe, but my classmates were very ambitious and motivated - I know lots of doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, tech professionals, business professionals and other successful alumnae from my college. It is possible to encourage success and ambition without a cutthroat, ultra-competitive atmosphere. In fact, it may be hard to envision that if that’s the kind of culture that you come from in HS, but that’s the reality.
Some things may feel like hand-holding to you because you are so used to being left to your own devices to figure things out that maybe you haven’t appropriately calibrated the difference between appropriate and inappropriate support (not a knock on you - that’s not your fault). And many college student organizations are just about hanging out and making friends. That’s okay, too! Everything in balance.
It sounds like you have a great situation there aside from your posted problem. Congrats on your full ride! Score!
I think the first year is always an adjustment and you will find that the subsequent years will be more challenging and fulfilling than the English 101 or math 101 courses you take freshman year. I suspect the school is more worried about losing you than anything so they are doing a bit of hand holding of the freshman to ensure none fall between the cracks and end up leaving. Sounds like a wonderful school.
Enjoy your time there. You are truly blessed with such a great opportunity.
It sounds like you have an overall very nice situation so the idea would be to find something to pique your interest.
I would agree that doing research could be a great outlet. Talk to a professor or two in your area of study to see if they could use a volunteer – if not now then perhaps starting next fall. My D went to a LAC and was involved in a number of research projects-- she started as a volunteer and ended up getting a paid research position over the summer as well as during the school year. She worked closely with a couple of different professors on projects. And as a bonus she will be the a co-author (with the prof.) of a journal article based on their research – and I’m sure all of this helped her in terms of grad school applications.
Would you mind disclosing what school you are at? My D is looking at a couple of 2nd tier LACs for this fall but she is concerned they will be not laid back enough for her (smart but sometimes lazy) personality
Motivation and ambition are hard to come by if you don’t have a goal. In high school, your goals were spelled out for you. In cutthroat environments, your goal is often survival and your motivation becomes beating-the-other-guy.
Those artificial (and destructive) crutches are gone now and you have to figure out things on a deeper level. Take advantage of the support your college provides to map out various paths you can take: grad school, careers, professional school, etc. For each of those, there is groundwork that you can start laying now. Maybe once you clear your head from your past environment, it will be easier to become motivated.
Thank you all for your replies! You gave me some perspective on how lucky I am to be in this environment. One thing I have been involved in is a girls in tech volunteer thing and I’m thinking about working on some free online coding classes this semester (since I didn’t take a CS class but might want to major in it). There’s also a professor who researches diversity in STEM who I might reach out to about helping with research. Is it appropriate to email and ask even though I haven’t taken a class with her?
Thank you all for your help!
@stlarenas if you pm me I can definitely tell you! I just don’t want the school name to come up under this thread bc it’s a really wonderful school that isn’t discussed much on CC — and i don’t think my experience (or at least complaining about it) is very representative.
I think you could email the prof. I would introduce yourself (ex. name, major, any related classes you have taken), let the prof. know why you are particularly interested in his/her work, and ask if he/she is looking for people to volunteer to help with his/her researcher and if he/she would be willing to meet with you at a mutually convenient time.
Absolutely appropriate to contact the professor. An email is definitely appropriate. If she has posted office hours you could even look in and introduce yourself in person if she’s not busy. You’re already showing interest in her field with your volunteer work and the fact that you are thinking about a CS major but haven’t yet taken the plunge is something that she would be very likely to understand (and maybe even want to chat with you about) given her area of expertise.
