Benefits of socializing

Learning to handle yourself in social situations gives you problem-solving skills, the ability to compromise
and work together and the chance to make responsible choices.

If you know how to socialize, it will be easier in your career to talk to different types of people, share
information and close business deals.

Keeping a list of social contacts helps you network with peers and colleagues, learn about advances in your
field of study and give you friends you can rely on.
Dont overdo the socializing

Too much of a good thing is sometimes bad. Recent publications have said this generations college students
prioritize socializing over studying in the academic spectrumspending 75 percent of their time sleeping or
socializing and only 16 percent in class or studying. Students spend their remaining time eating and participating
in extracurricular activities, the study reported, wrote Chinmayi Sharma in College students focus on
socializing over studying, report says, posted on Duke Chronicle January 26, 2011. Getting along with others is
an important skill, but not at the expense of learning and studying. The primary purpose of collegethat very
expensive college youre attendingis to get an education.

Tips for socializing

Get out there and get involved. Meet peoplejoin a club, join the gym, volunteer, go to a party, get an oncampus job, join a church, act in a play or join a debate or foreign language club.

Live in the dorm rather than off-campus housing or at home. Youll get to experience college social life
outside of academics.

Smile. Just looking like youre interested in other people and projecting a confident demeanor make you
open to new friendships and new experiences. People will be drawn to you.

Other tips: Say hello! Make eye contact, lighten up (laugh!), pay attention to your hygiene, be a good
listener, introduce yourself, dont be defensive and put a positive light on things. Talk to people in different
ethnic, racial, religious and age groups and people in different fields of study than you.
Dont overdo the socializing

Too much of a good thing is sometimes bad. Recent publications have said this generations college students
prioritize socializing over studying in the academic spectrumspending 75 percent of their time sleeping or
socializing and only 16 percent in class or studying. Students spend their remaining time eating and participating
in extracurricular activities, the study reported, wrote Chinmayi Sharma in College students focus on
socializing over studying, report says, posted on Duke Chronicle January 26, 2011. Getting along with others is
an important skill, but not at the expense of learning and studying. The primary purpose of collegethat very
expensive college youre attendingis to get an education.

Forbes

Grades are increasingly meaningless. Academia is not immune to the same vanity sizing that is rampant among
clothing retailers. In 2009, in a survey of over 200 schools, researchers found that 43% of college grades
handed out are As, which represents a 28% increase over the number awarded in 1960. The days when a C meant
average are long gone. If everyone is getting an A, an A communicates almost nothing about an
individuals aptitude . With a growing consumer- based approach to higher education, expect
letters to lose even more relevance.
As well, unless youre doing a PhD or trying to get in to law or medical school, there are few instances in which
anyone in your post-college life is going to care about how you did in Intro to Anthropology. And, in the case of
law or medicine, if you got straight As, but crashed and burned on the LSAT or MCAT or dont have anything to
offer the admissions committee other than a stellar academic track record, youre probably not getting an
acceptance letter anyway. Think your grades are going to be the clincher on landing a prestigious internship?
Not only can you likely not afford to work unpaid, internships are often a dead end in terms of upping your
employability. Research shows interning leads to a less than 2% increase in the likelihood of receiving a job offer
upon graduation.

But theres a powerful argument for self development over academic striving that has nothing to do with making
yourself more attractive to future pay check signers. In fact, it argues that pursuing opportunities on that basis is
exactly whats wrong with todays students. An orientation to your education and your career in which you seek
out experiences (volunteering, joining clubs, learning Mandarin) for the extrinsic rewards that come from being
able to list these assets in a bullet list for the validation of an authority figure is a pretty hollow one. You might
get the job, but you never get yourself .
William Deresiewicz writes in The New Republic:
I taught many wonderful young people during my years in the Ivy Leaguebright, thoughtful, creative kids
whom it was a pleasure to talk with and learn from. But most of them seemed content to color within the lines
that their education had marked out for them. Very few were passionate about ideas. Very few saw college as part
of a larger project of intellectual discovery and development. Everyone dressed as if they were ready to be
interviewed at a moments notice.
The most valuable knowledge in a knowledge-driven culture is self knowledge. Knowing what drives
you, inspires you and fulfills you in the absence of the approval or oversight of others (your dance like nobodys
watching moment) and figuring out how to balance these interests with the need to keep a roof over your head is
what a happy life looks like. College is a prime time to start the work of figuring this out and often that learning
comes from peer interaction, not professorial lectures.
College is not the only chance to learn to think, but it is the best. One thing is certain: If you havent started by
the time you finish your B.A., theres little likelihood youll do it later. That is why an undergraduate experience
devoted exclusively to career preparation is four years largely wasted, Deresiewicz argues.

They might graduate, but they are failing to develop the higher-order cognitive skills that it is widely assumed
college students should master, the pair write in Academically Adrift.
The

U.S. higher-education system has in recent years arguably been living off its reputation, the two sociologists
write.
Americas academic system is broken, they say, citing that in many large lecture halls the attendance rarely
reaches just 55 per cent.
Good

students tend to be smart, hardworking and conformistthree crucial traits for almost any job, said Dr
Caplan, according to the Wall Street Journal.
When a student excels in school, then, employers correctly infer that he's likely to be a good worker.
Dr Caplan argues that employers choose their job candidates based solely on the rigorous application process of
different schools, rather than the candidate's individual performance in the classroom.