News

Pro-Palestine Encampment Represents First Major Test for Harvard President Alan Garber

News

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu Condemns Antisemitism at U.S. Colleges Amid Encampment at Harvard

News

‘A Joke’: Nikole Hannah-Jones Says Harvard Should Spend More on Legacy of Slavery Initiative

News

Massachusetts ACLU Demands Harvard Reinstate PSC in Letter

News

LIVE UPDATES: Pro-Palestine Protesters Begin Encampment in Harvard Yard

SOPHOMORE ENNUI

NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED

During the latter part of their Sophomore year a large percentage of serious-thinking undergraduates become dissatisfied with college. Into the student's mind comes the question: "Just what am I proving here?" From this he argues that after all, the superiority of the college man is greatly over-rated. Life in the world calls to him and, like a horse restless to begin the race, he becomes impatient. At this period the student looks in retrospect over his first two years as an undergraduate, seeing in them either a failure to make of himself what school-day ambition carved or a disillusionment regarding the value of his activities, social or athletic. At this period, too, the Sophomore feels that it is time to "find himself." He discards his views on what constitutes a "good fellow"--judges men less from the clothes they wear and courses less from the "sure C" attitude. In a word, the Sophomore begins to grow up. He considers himself a man. For, in truth, the youth of twenty feels as old as he thinks he ever will. In this "maturity" the mind's balancing scale weighs heavily toward business, toward--as we have heard many undergraduates say--"life".

For the Sophomore who thus finds a university career not worth continuing, it would be well to consider carefully both sides of the question. His older friends, now in business, will tell him what he has heard countless times, namely, "to stick!" This brings only a yawn from the tired college man. For the student feels that his case is different. He is young in years and, because he is young knows everything. If he disregards this advice, realization must come sooner or later that he is a quitter. He entered college for the fundamental purpose of getting a degree. If he leaves now the fact that he lay down on the job will follow him through life. He will be forced to admit that he left college--not because he lacked brains but because he didn't, have the "stick-to-it-iveness" to finish what he began.

Some men feel that leaving college would not affect their later success. For them there is but one thing to do,--go to work this summer. Let them show that desire for work is not all talk. And, after coming in contact with non-collegiate trained men, let them reconsider the worth of a degree. At the end of the summer they will come back, realizing that one gets out of life exactly what he puts into it. And they will come back secure in the knowledge that what they give to the college just so much will the college give to them.

Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.

Tags