Richard J. Light

Richard J. Light, Gale professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is the author of Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds. FM’s Seth H. Robinson talked to Light about living life at college to the fullest and graduating without regrets (hint: think a capella).

1. You point out that the week has 168 hours. Out of those 168 hours, how many should be spent between being in class, doing homework and then general non-sobriety?

The average student spends about 30 hours a week outside class studying and 15 to18 hours on extracurricular activities. I think one of the neatest things about being a Harvard undergrad is the spectacular pleasure that students get here from chitchatting with other students. I would encourage students to spend as much time as possible with their fellow students.

2. In the movie Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon tells a Harvard student: “You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for a buck fifty in late charges at the public library.” Please evaluate the validity of this statement.

I couldn’t imagine anything I disagree with more (though I did love the movie). One of the great pleasures of being at a place like Harvard is the mixing and mingling with other students, chatting late at night about the meaning of life…you can’t get that at the library.

3. You explain that “the single biggest trouble with time use for nearly all students who struggle is their pattern of studying in a series of short bursts” and that students should “dig in and engage one piece of work for hours at a time.” Are you really talking about hitting the books? Or is this a metaphor for something else…

I know that sounds an awful like a sexual metaphor, but that truly was not my intent.

4. In your research, you draw a lot from the experiences of Harvard undergrads. Where else did you visit, and how did other college kids compare to those at Harvard?

I have visited 142 different colleges in the last 6 years, and 3 in the last 3 weeks! With the exception of places like Yale and Princeton, I have found that Harvard students are profoundly different than just about every other college kid in one fundamental way: they are so driven. They work like dogs.

5. You note that writing is one of the focal points of the college experience, and that those who struggle with prose have a much harder time adapting to the challenges of college. What can the average Harvard student do to rectify such a situation?

Form a writing group, and assuming a professor allowed it, share papers in advance. If Sandel gives you a two page paper, get four of your peers to do a group editing that evaluates the quality of structure and content of each other’s papers.

6. You note that one change students should make in writing is to step back and understand the “big picture.” If one were to do this about the formative college years, what should he see?

I think the biggest picture is to try to not lose track of the wholeness of your person. I am stunned at the number of people who are so into their academic work that they let their emotional wellbeing go, or even let themselves go physically. That’s crazy. Don’t forget to call your mother every so often and always remember to wish your roommate a happy birthday.

7. You stress the importance of learning in group activities. But what if sexual energy is flowing so intensely between you and “the hot girl” that concentration is difficult? How does one, if at all, approach the sultry temptress?

Very cautiously! In all seriousness, people of my age should be very careful of giving advice to energetic undergrads who are barely going to sleep at the time I’m waking up. When it comes to sex lives, it may be that undergrads know just as much if not more than we professors!

8. Your book addresses both students and professors. What could both groups do better to enhance the students collegiate experience?

One of the things that every student and professor should ideally do in the morning is to remember that we’re ultimately all here because it’s a human enterprise. Waking up and running to the lab without saying hi to anyone is the wrong way to go about college. The guy who sits in the bowels of Widener…I don’t know why they’re here. He’s missing the whole pleasure of being here. That goes for students and professors.

9. Would you say that you shed “light” on the college experience?

I not only shed light, I brighten it.

10. What do Harvard kids complain the most about? Would you call us more whiny intellectuals or self-aggrandizing crybabies?

One thing that Harvard students always say is that they wish they had more time with professors. Yet I am always surprised that when I press student to know if they went and knocked on the professor’s door, they never took the initiative. However, I couldn’t classify Harvard students as either because I respect Harvard kids so much.

11. In your book, you delve into diversity, counsel academic advisors and suggest student activity. Yet you pay little attention to two of the most important aspects of college: alcohol and sex. Please comment on the role both of these play in the overall college experience.

I think that both of these in moderation are very good (with the one constraint of being of age to drink alcohol). I’m in favor of both in moderation.

12. Can you offer a mantra to get jaded upperclassmen through the day?

Just say to yourselves: I’m going to be very sad when I leave this place, so I better enjoy every second of it. It’s too good to be true.

13. If you were to board the FM time machine and head back to your own college days, what would you change?

I would definitely take more risks and sing in an a capella group. I have two unfulfilled dreams: singing, which I would have done in college, and I always wanted to fly an airplane. If there were a flying club, I would give anything to join it.

14. What’s the strangest thing you heard about in your interviews?

I interviewed a young woman who said she had a ritual before every final exam. There was a tree near Lowell House and she would run circles around it… alone. She thought that brought her good luck. I asked her if she had considered going to Health Services for OCD treatments, but she told me she was comfortable with who she was.

15. What was the most memorable thing that happened to you in college?

I learned a very important lesson about romance: I started college young and went to my first mixer the second week of school. I met a sweet woman who said she was a high school senior. She said her name was Karen Wolf and she gave me her phone number. I screwed up my courage and phoned her 3 days later. The person answering the phone said “Good morning, Philadelphia Zoo.” I said can I please speak to Karen Wolf. There was silence for a moment, and then the operator said, “I think Karen Wolf might be out of her cage, would you like to speak to Sally the Fox?”

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