Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds

Why do some students in the United States make the most of college, while others struggle and look back on years of missed opportunities? What choices can students make, and what can teachers and university leaders do to improve more students' experiences and help them make the most of their time and monetary investment? And how is greater diversity on campus--cultural, racial, and religious--affecting education? How can students and faculty benefit from differences and learn from the inevitable moments of misunderstanding and awkwardness?

Two Harvard University Presidents invited Richard Light and his colleagues to explore these questions, resulting in ten years of interviews with 1,600 Harvard students. Making the Most of College offers concrete advice on choosing classes, talking productively with advisors, improving writing and study skills, maximizing the value of research assignments, and connecting learning inside the classroom with the rest of life.

The stories that students shared with Light and his colleagues about their experiences of inspiration, frustration, and discovery fill the book with spirit. Some of the anecdotes are funny, some are moving, and some are surprising. Many are wise--especially about the ways of getting the best, in classroom and dormitory, from the new racial and ethnic diversity.

Filled with practical advice, illuminated with stories of real students' self-doubts, failures, discoveries, and hopes, Making the Most of College presents strategies for academic success.

The students were asked to describe their best teachers, the classes that had the greatest impact on their lives, the social experiences on campus that have been most valuable to them, and the things that universities could do to further strengthen the educational environment. What makes a great professor? (It's not theatricality.) What makes a great class? (It's not the quality of the PowerPoint slides.) What makes for great advising? (It's not telling students to get their requirements out of the way.) How can teachers constantly improve their classes? (It's not by handing out an evaluation form at the end of the term.)

Light places particular emphasis on the social environment that universities provide for their students. This is something that has been woefully neglected for more than a generation on many large campuses, and attention to it by faculty is badly needed. I am an advocate of decentralized residential colleges within large universities, and such colleges can provide precisely the kind of environment that Light recommends: stable, rich, genuinely diverse, and full of opportunity.

One popular topic is notable for its absence: technology. There is no discussion of teaching via the web, nothing about distance learning, nothing about video conferencing, yadda, yadda, yadda. The message is clear: outstanding education comes from personal contact, not remote access.

If you are a college professor, this book may be the only general-purpose "education" book that you will ever need. And if you are a student, or the parent of a student, this straightforward guide will help you "make the most of college."


A Must Read for Every Educator   May 12, 2001
Courtney L. Lewis (Kingston, PA USA)
26 out of 33 found this review helpful

Richard Light has written a volume that every college educator, high school principal/teacher, and parent should read. His insights into the college experience, ranging from living arrangements to coursework to volunteer experiences are drawn from hundreds of interviews with current and graduated Harvard students. Although at first glance, the reader might want to make the assumption that Harvard students are different from the norm, quite the opposite is true. Light's lecturing at various higher education institutions has come up with correlations from large state universities and small liberal arts colleges alike.

The main crux of the study isn't overly shocking - students need close contact with faculty and other students who will challenge their minds and engage their hearts. Attention from others is the key correlating factor to having a successful and rewarding college experience. Of particular interst are the chapters on diversity and on study skills; both might be of particular interest to high school educators in terms of equipping high school students with the personal and study skills necessary to succeed in college.


This is a MUST for students, parents AND educators   November 24, 2001
Blaine Greenfield (Belle Meade, NJ)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful

Read MAKING THE MOST OF COLLEGE: STUDENTS
SPEAK THEIR MIND by Richard Light . . . this is a book
that is definitely NOT for everybody . . . but if you're a high
school or college student, a parent of either, or a teacher or
administrator at any level of education, then you should
obtain a copy and devour it as soon as possible! . . . Light,
a professor at Harvard's Graduate School of Education,
researched students at that institution for over 10 years . . . but
what he has to say applies to virtually any school at any level.

I've been teaching for some 30 years--can you believe it? (I was
a child prodigy, of course, having started at the tender age of
7. NOT.) . . . Yet even I managed to get several ideas that I plan
to implement just as soon as I can.

I liked the author's use of verbatim quotes from
students . . . in addition, his overall findings made sense to me:
1. Learning outside of classes, especially in residential settings
and extracurricular activities such as the arts, is vital.

2. A large number of students say they learn significantly more
in courses that are highly structured, with relatively many quizzes
and short assignments.

3. Professors increasingly are encouraging students to work
together on homework assignments.

4. Some undergraduates, when asked to identify a particularly
profound or critical experience at college, identify a mentored
internship not done for academic credit.

5. For most students the impact of racial and ethnic diversity on
their college experience is strong.

6. Students who got the most out of college, who grew the most
academically, and who are happiest organize their time to include
activities with faculty members, or with several other students
focused around accomplishing substantive academic work.

7. I was surprised by students' strong attitude toward writing.

8. A large majority of undergraduates describe particular
activities outside the classroom as profoundly affecting their
academic performance.

9. Students talk about [foreign] languages with special
enthusiasm.


A must read for college bound families   August 12, 2001
Kevin C. Kropf (Albion, MI USA)
12 out of 15 found this review helpful

As an admission officer for a selective liberal arts college, I know I am biased about this subject, but this truly is a great book offering insights about an effective four year college education.

Professor Light does an excellent job of weaving a tapestry of tales from college students about the seminal events of their collegiate experiences. Having just read the Game of Life and The Shape of the River which were primarily statistical analyses, the first hand account style was both fresh and easy to comprehend (although some empirical data would have been nice).

The chapters on interaction with faculty are problably the most useful for families and prospective students, while the final chapters on diversity are most applicable to colleges themselves. Of course what other colleges have the ability to shape a diverse class like Harvard? Some of the ideas presented are great for schools who are 20-30% multi-cultural.

Students and families who take the key lessons from this book to heart and utilize it when selecting a college will find an institution that will be value-added and will make a difference in the student's life.


making the most of college: students speak their minds   September 23, 2001
ed goldberg (Lawrenceville, New Jersey)
8 out of 10 found this review helpful

A Book About College Life Unlike Any Other.

Reading this book actually made me a bit emotional. I bought it as a gift for two nephews now at two colleges. It is the best gift I could have given them. I say emotional because if only I had known some of the simple ideas and suggestions that Light offers in this book, I myself would have done lots of things differently many years ago when I was a student. Well, too late for me now.

Since I now do some teaching, I have followed Light's work on improving college life for many years. In fact, his two publications that he distributes for free that were written in the early 1990s give all the statistical and scientific technical back-up for his findings in this, his new book.

Yet I am a lot less interested in the details of his survey and interview response rates, and stratified random samples, and other such technical back-up, all of which are in his earlier reports that he mailed to me for free when I requested them, than in his substantive findings and suggestions.

That is why both of my nephews love this book and have made active choices at their colleges already, by using it.

Light offers an enormous number of actionable suggestions in this book. Some are for students. Others are for faculty. Here are those that my nephews, as the current students (I am the old guy in the family) found most useful and actually acted upon this term:

1. Choose courses that at least try to link rigorous and abstract ideas, say in economics or political science or history, with something the kids personally care about. One of my nephews changed the economics course he chose at his college. He found a new one that deals with labor issues, and that is what happens to interest him.

2. Find courses that require some writing. Yet where the professor doesn't assign a long, final paper - - rather he or she assigns a series of shorter papers so that my nephew is able to make, in Light's terms, "some mid-course corrections" that actually lead to improvement and substantive learning. My other nephew did just that when choosing a world history course. It requires him to write just a two page paper to hand in each week. My nephew was a bit stunned when the professor mentioned Light's book, and said he found the suggestion for many short papers with some feedback to the students a compelling idea, which he had decided to implement.

3. The third point is my own, not from my nephews. At a time of political correctness that often drives me crazy, the author obviously made herculean efforts in preparing this book to strike a fair-minded balance in his three chapters about "how students can make the most of the new racial and ethnic diversity on so many campuses." It is not left wing or right wing - - just thoughtful. It sure made me thing hard. And the students' anecdotes about the good and the not so good about diversity, are riveting

When I started the first chapter, I expected to see some left wing drivel. I was wrong. I honestly couldn't even figure out Light's own, personal politics as I read through his suggestions and dozens of anecdotes about racial and ethnic diversity. What I did figure out is that there are a handful of very specific things that my nephews could do, and that hopefully their campus leaders WILL do, to benefit from the diversity on their campuses. Whether it is a summer mailing that brings students from different backgrounds together to discuss a common reading (I wish that common reading were the common sense ideas in THIS BOOK), or implementing a policy of "inclusion" wherever it is possible, or several others in the book, I just hope my nephews' Deans get and read this.

One last thought. I express admiration whether it is to Light or to his editors for the quality of the writing. It is stunningly crisp and clear. Lots of active verbs. Crisp, short, easy to understand sentences. Fun to read. Having seen his earlier, more statistically based work on this same area, I would not have guessed he could pull this off. This book is just unlike any other, and my nephews have both benefited big time.