Is College Doomed Summary

Improved Essays
College is about getting a degree, but staying in a library or a dorm all day is going to make a miserable four years. College is about allowing students to feel independent and to get involved, which results in living in a stable environment, in addition to community engagement. Of course, getting an education is prominent, but there are other essential components of a college lifestyle, such as going to a school event or interacting with classmates. In Graeme Wood’s essay, “Is College Doomed?”, he explains the diverse dynamics of the online school, Minerva. The founder of Minerva, Ben Nelson, explained to Wood that, students yearly, “attend university in a different place, so that after four years they’ll have the kind of international experience …show more content…
It is obvious that college is about furthering one’s education, but learning is more than reading a textbook; it is about the experiences and opportunities that cultivate a student. O’Connell’s claim is valid, because I am a college student and I focus more on the analytics of college instead of working on my personal growth and development. Personally, joining a jumpstart community has helped me balance the social aspect of college and finding stability as well as continuing to remain on task with my meticulous courses, since it has shown all aspects of college in addition to maintaining equilibrium. Contrary, Minerva focuses on the statistics and analytics intensely instead of the students learning observational because “there are no buildings, students move yearly, and there are no clubs, organizations, or athletic teams”, so it is detrimental to a student trying to balance stability and learn experientially (LaFlore 1). Since Minerva does not have a traditional campus, interaction between students is limited because they cannot attend club meetings or sporting events. Attending an athletic game or joining an organization …show more content…
Engaging with other students is inevitable and getting involved on campus is the greatest way to learn experientially. Mentioned earlier, students that attend Minerva travel yearly, which sounds exciting, but there is not any communication between other students that attend Minerva as well. “Traveling internationally does exhibit an experience that colleges and universities cannot compare to, but that still does not allow students to get engaged with their colleagues in the community around them” (LaFlore 2). Another aspect of college is to network and for students to familiarize themselves with their home, for example, “I am glad traditional college campuses have dorms because that is a way for me to interact with people in the same year as me and I can befriend my roommate and suitemates. Usually, there are floor meetings that allow students to introduce themselves to their peers and that is a great way to interact with the community” (LaFlore 2). Befriending other students allows students to learn pragmatically since there is interaction between other students. Community engagement goes beyond joining a club or an organization; it is building personal relationships with professors; Lynn F. Jacobs and Jeremy S. Hymans advised that students “should plan to visit each professor at least once during the semester. The office hours can be

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