How do some students make the most of their college years while others struggle and muddle through? And what can campus leaders do to help students make the most of college? Richard Light, professor of education at the Kennedy School of Government and Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, headed a ten-year project to answer those questions through in-depth interviews with 1,600 Harvard undergraduates. The book he wrote based on the results, Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds,has been very well-received by the higher education community.
    Light presented highlights of findings from his work on Sunday, November 4 during a plenary address at CIC's Institute for Chief Academic Officers in Palm Springs (CA). He discussed what his research shows about strengthening teaching, learning, advising, and the campus experience, as well as some of the ways campus leaders can enhance students' positive learning from racial and ethnic diversity.
    The book and Light are in great demand. Since it was published in April, he has been invited to speak on more than 300 campuses. By October 11, he had spoken at 98 institutions, generally to the entire freshman class. Two schools, the University of Washington and the College of Wooster, have made the book required reading for freshmen. At the former, freshmen meet weekly in small groups to discuss different chapters.
    Among the findings for students:

• Learn time management skills. The first and most important skill at college is time management. Light suggests freshmen keep a log for a while of how they spend their time. Harvard is asking all freshmen to do so voluntarily this year.
• Spread required courses over time. The least satisfied students concentrated on getting required courses out of the way first, often taking all requirements their freshman year. The most satisfied students took courses from the start that excited them and spread the required ones over four years.
• Get to know faculty members. Making a point of getting to know faculty members well not only helps students grow intellectually but is advantageous when they need references for graduate school, fellowships, or jobs.
• Study in groups. Studying in pairs or groups can be more productive than studying alone.

   Light's book also includes suggestions by the students on how faculty and administrators can improve student life on campus and help students get more out of college. Examples include:

• Get in students' way. "Deans should make a thoughtful, evidence-based, purposeful effort to get in each student's way," Light says. "Learning in classes can be enhanced, sometimes dramatically, by activities outside of classes.... So a critical role for campus leaders is to...help students evaluate and reevaluate his or her choices, always in the spirit of trying to do just a bit better next time."
• Encourage a climate of inclusion. Learning from people of different backgrounds does not always happen naturally—campus atmosphere and living arrangements are crucial. Students recommend a policy of inclusion because it "sends a message...it sets a tone...and it stimulates other, unplanned actions by students." In his visits to scores of campuses, Light found that the best predictor of the quality of campus race relations is living arrangements. Campuses with separate dorms by race have the worst relations, he maintains, while those that mix students randomly tend to have the best. "Where the heck do you expect them to talk to one another if they're living apart?" he asks.

    Light emphasizes that his findings apply not just to Harvard but to most colleges and universities. "Almost everywhere I go," he says, "when I present my findings, people say 'Just about everything applies here too.'"

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Last updated: November 26, 2001
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