College Knowledge for the Jewish Student: 101 Tips

3. Milk and Honey: Getting the Most Out of College

51 Milk and Honey: Getting the Most Out of College 21 Make Yourself a Part of the Scholarly Community College connotes different things to different people. I hope you’ll be one of those students who thinks of college as a community—or, more specifically, a scholarly community—in which you get to spend four years of your life with a group of people who are deeply engaged with ideas, exploration, questioning, discovery, analysis, and problem solving. To do so will most definitely put you in the right mind-set for a successful college experience. Consider for a moment some other ideas about college. For some Jewish students, college is like an extended summer camp or Hollywood movie where the primary goal is to make great friends, party, and have as much fun as possible while you pick up a degree along the way. For others, it is a professional training ground where you are preparing for a lucrative career. Still others think of it as a place of competition and endless judgment, with tests and exams and grades. 3 COLLEGE KNOWLEDGE fOr THE JEWiSH STuDENT 52 Why do I encourage you to approach your college experience as a scholarly community? Let’s take the community aspect first. It’s important to surround yourself with good people. As you grow and develop personally, socially, and intellectually, it’s so much healthier to do so in a supportive environment of thinking, caring people. It is in this sense of community that college is far more than a set of requirements or courses or credits to complete. You have the unique opportunity to think, study, and grow surrounded by and engaged with other bright, thinking people. In terms of the scholarly aspect of college, it’s important that you begin to self-identify as a young scholar or a scholar apprentice. This piece of advice is not intended to pigeonhole you or limit you socially—in fact, it will probably do just the opposite. It will prevent you from becoming overly parochial by allowing you to grow and expand exponentially. Personal and social growth is, of course, essential, but what makes college unique is the attention to analytic thinking, books, lectures, discussions, critical insights, discoveries, and information. You have the opportunity to be a part of and contribute to a collection of people, faculty, and students who are focused on learning, exploring, and thinking deeply about all sorts of issues, topics, and inquiries. Once you’ve received your letter of admission to college, it’s actually very easy to become a part of the scholarly community. The hardest part is to make a shift in your mind-set. Instead of thinking of course work as a series of assignments, tests, and homework, you need to think of it as a great opportunity for learning. Instead of thinking of your teachers as people who judge you and have control of grading, imagine them as mentors, fellow thinkers, senior colleagues , and scholarly friends and allies. Check your social network sites or the school newspaper and attend the daily guest lectures and talks on campus. Go to theater productions, art exhibits, and classi- Milk and Honey: Getting the Most Out of College 53 cal concerts. Read national and global newspapers and blogs. Peruse scientific and popular magazines that address intellectual issues. Visit faculty in their offices. Go to receptions, book signings, and poetry readings. Hang out with your friends in your residence hall late at night, and talk about an exciting or controversial idea from a class that day. 22 Think Critically So you know what it means to think, and you’ve been doing a lot of hard work throughout high school that required you to think. So why would this be one of this book’s tips, and why would you need to be concerned about thinking critically in college? Consider what sets apart those who are college educated from those who are not. It is the expectation that a college-educated person will think insightfully and analytically about issues and can get to the root of the complex questions and challenges that face us personally and as a society. Thinking critically is one of the most essential lessons of college. And, unfortunately, in high school, too few students are asked to think critically—even those who score very well on standardized tests, write well-organized essays on exams, and quickly...