Dear Cousin: Study Less, Learn More

Dear Cousin,

Wow, you’re a sophomore in college now! Your freshman year really flew by. It’s great to hear you’re settling in on campus again and have found an apartment already.

I know you’re busy getting ready for your classes to begin, and for your hectic, 24/7 routine to kick-in. So I’ll try to keep this brief.

I hope you don’t find this email presumptuous of me, but I wanted to share a few reflections?—?alright, “advice”?—?on what I learned from my days in college. I know, I know, things are very different now. The world has changed. A lot.

But I do have the benefit of having been out of school for two and a half decades now, and know something about living and working in the “real world.” I’ve suffered my share of setbacks and failures. I also have a nagging suspicion that some things, no matter how much they’ve changed, have remained the same (how does that expression in French go?).

Like any advice you hear?—?and you’ll be hearing a lot over the next few years?—?take it with a grain of salt. Absorb what you think is most useful for you. And then make it your own.

Here goes: Study less, learn more.

What could I possibly mean by this? Skip the library stacks and go out and party every night? Not exactly, no. But looking back at my own days in college, one of my biggest regrets is not having spent more time on activities outside the classroom and the library.

Yes, I did my share of partying, learned to ski, explored caves and saw bats, took road trips with friends to Montreal and New York City and Boston, woke up early to fish for trout before my history of foreign policy lecture, hung out with members of the Dalai Lama’s entourage, went skinny-dipping at night in the reservoir, and did some other crazy things that are not fit to print here.

At the time, though, I was gunning for a high GPA and trying to build my resume for grad school, with a view to getting a job. Those are important goals and I’m not suggesting you discount or neglect them?—?not like you would anyway.

What I am suggesting, is that you spend less time?—?just a little less time at least?—?on pumping up your GPA and filling your resume with activities you think will impress future employers or grad school admissions committees (who, by the way, would much rather hire or admit a mature, well-rounded person with integrity and values than someone with a perfect GPA or GMAT score).

If I could do it all over again, I would have done more of the fun activities I describe above (I remember those pretty clearly, after all these years), and studied less. I would have taken one less history, political science, foreign language or economics course each semester, and spent that time learning photography (something I’ve been trying to pick up in my spare time recently but have discovered is both skill and art), or cooking, or nothing at all.

I would have spent more time getting to know my friends better, spending more time hanging out with them, supporting them when they needed a shoulder to cry on. I would have tried to get to know more of the classmates I sat next to for hours on end in the lecture halls and seminar rooms, but whom I won’t even recognize next year at my 25th reunion.

You’re one of the smartest guys I know, ambitious, mature beyond your years. You’ve got so much potential and so much opportunity ahead of you. I’m sure you’ll be successful, however you choose to define that word.

So enjoy the next few years and squeeze every minute out of them that you can. Because once you graduate, these years will become just memories. Make them good ones.

Stay warm!

Glenn

Thanks for reading! Check out more of my writing on my blog at www.glennleibowitz.com, or follow me on Twitter @glennleibowitz

Image credit: McGraw Hall, Cornell University: Srevatsan Muralidharan / Flickr