by Ruth Bruno
Whether you’re a freshman who’s still looking for a fake ID or a senior who was supposed to graduate last year, I sincerely hope your finding the time to plan out your entire life while simultaneously acting like these are the best years of your life.
Perhaps you’re starting your first year here, fresh-faced, optimistic and snappily-dressed. If that sounds like you, don’t worry. You’ll fit in soon enough.
And with those greetings, I would like to welcome you to Good ole’ CCSU. I will be joining you along your academic ride this semester through the opinion pages of your campus newspaper.
And as cliché as it sounds, I want to use this very first opportunity to urge you to get involved on campus.
A year ago, I couldn’t have wrote you this message because I felt trapped by the walls of my various classrooms, swearing to myself that I had returned to nothing more than a campus reeking of uncertainty, naivety and Sodexo’s chicken nuggets.
However, that school year was far different than the ones I have now. Like most classmates I know now, I was a cookie-cutter student. And it was great. I scheduled my time appropriately, said “no” to friends or club activities when I had homework and met with professors to ask for extra-credit assignments.
I even somehow managed to end up with a rather decent GPA. Looking back at the semester I expected to be proud, but instead realized I wasn’t happy with where I invested my time.
I was so busy getting an education that I hadn’t taken the time to learn anything.
I have since tried to change my ways, becoming more involved with The Recorder, taking on an internship, several jobs and making efforts to meet new people and explore foreign countries. These experiences have made me more confident, more interested as a journalist and, although it’s probably not showing in my writing, less cynical towards my education.
And now it worries me when I see a fellow student lean back happily with a grin on their face assuring me that they have a good GPA.“ I have like a B average, so I’m good to go,” they tell me.
A quick look at statistics would indicate otherwise.
An article published in The Atlantic last year showed a graph indicating which traits or accomplishments employers take into account when looking at recently graduated college students as potential employees.
College GPA was ranked nearly last, second only to college reputation. Instead the categories that stole the top spots were “internships” and “Employment during College”
It’s not that grades don’t matter– because they do. It’s just that, in most cases, they simply don’t matter enough for you to get a job based off of them.
So do yourself a favor. After you’ve finished cracking open your over-priced textbooks, visit CCSU’s collegiate link and join a club, read those flyers around campus that use buzzwords like “networking,” and save those dollars for a study-abroad course.
Just keep in mind that your time here is only as valuable as you make it. There’s only so much that can be learned from a classroom.