What should college be about?

As I write this, our seniors are immersed in the college application process and their teachers are being inundated with requests for recommendations. Conversations about whether a particular college is a “Common Application” school and “Do you want me to submit the recommendation through Naviance?” opens up the brave new world of technology as it applies to the college admissions process. The bulk of their recommendations will be written by their teachers and college counselors; but every year, two or three seniors will, for a variety of reasons, want a recommendation from the School’s President. I don’t mind; it keeps me involved in their lives as students and aware of how their high school career has prepared them for college and beyond.  Plus, having taught English in a previous life - two or three recommendations a year is a light load!

The college application process is probably the most intellectually and emotionally draining experience of the four years teenagers will spend in high school. It is so stressful that, just shy of ten years ago, La Salle launched “Camp College,” a week-long program during the summer between junior and senior year in which students devote their time to the identification of colleges that represent a good “fit” for them (along with, what our College Counselors call, “safety” and “stretch” schools) and drafting the all-important college essay. Needless to say, Camp College fills up fast.

With nearly a third of our students earning a 4.0 GPA each semester of attendance (with similarly impressive performances at the 3.5 and 3.0 marks), I know our graduates will enroll in selective and competitive colleges and universities.  The performance of the Class of 2014 illustrates my point: 30 students matriculated at a UC campus (six students headed off to UCLA) with another 24 attending CSU. Private colleges and universities enrolling members of the Class of 2014 included: Brown, Carnegie Mellon, NYU, University of Chicago and Notre Dame. The University of Michigan, Ohio State, Purdue, VPI, Oregon, Indiana (Bloomington) and LSU represented some of the competitive out-of-state public institutions who received members of the Class of 2014. I’m not surprised by these results; over 60% of the Class of 2014 earned Honors at Commencement - the highest it’s been in five years.

We are particularly proud of Renaissance Forster ‘14 and Elizabeth Lynch ’14 who achieved the rare accomplishment of being admitted to West Point - from the same school (less than 30% of military academy nominations will be admitted). I can’t resist the temptation to make the point that Renaissance and Elizabeth highlight my firm conviction that La Salle, a coeducational school, can nurture leadership skills in young women as successfully as our single-gender counterparts assert.

Still, these impressive results beg the central question about higher education in the 21^st Century: to what end? Is a college or university education meant to be the capstone of 16 years of formal education, rounding out a student’s knowledge and honing in on a particular area of study called a “major?” Or is its purpose to ground a student in the rigors of a professional discipline that will provide access to employment after graduation?

Like many educators, I would argue for both outcomes. Higher education has always concerned itself with the education of both the mind and the person.  It is a false dichotomy to argue that one should take precedence over the other. I favor the perspective of Harvard Professor and cultural critic, Louis Menand (he hails from my home town in upstate New York), who captured the problem of confusing higher education with employability when he recently asserted:

“Education is about personal and intellectual growth, not about winning some race to the top.”

And yet, college students today are “voting with their feet;” they are choosing majors and concentrations that align themselves with the utilitarian end of higher education. The Pew Survey (2013) of higher education reports that 60% of college students are not liberal arts majors; the #1 major is business and more than twice as many degrees are awarded in parks, recreation, leisure and fitness than in philosophy and religion. This isn’t to suggest that these trends are misguided, just that they are incomplete with respect to what college preparatory schools like La Salle aspire for their graduates.

            The quality of college placements earned by the Class of 2014 suggests that our students leave La Salle knowing that both the mind and the person must be stretched over the course of the next four years. I believe their four years at La Salle have prepared them for what the Pew survey also reports - which is that the vast majority of graduates from a four-year institution say their college education helped them grow intellectually and to mature as a person. In other words, college may teach students as much about getting along with people as it does about analyzing Shakespeare’s sonnets (or mastering a spreadsheet).

            Our recent Annual Report highlights our successful Advanced Placement program - a critical element in providing our most talented students with a college-level academic program which nurtures their ability to interpret, synthesize, and use evidence found within a wide range of sources. This is the essence of a college-preparatory education and our AP and Honors curriculum is available to any student willing to challenge his/her ability to stretch their minds under the tutelage of extraordinarily talented educators.

            This is why I look forward to the opportunity to write letters of recommendation for those seniors who request it. I know that their academic preparation, active involvement in and out of the classroom, on and off the field has enabled them to approach the college application process with confidence that they will successfully meet the challenges they will face in the next chapter of their academic career.