A Schoolwide Conversation About College

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

I got involved in research as an undergraduate for the same noble reason all undergraduates do—I needed the credits to round out my schedule. It turned out to be a real game changer: I did the work at my own pace, on my own schedule, in a semester when Michigan State’s campus was at its most beautiful, and its least populated. It was one of the two or three experiences that defined college for me.

The topic also turned out to be a game changer. A Psychology professor was looking into language acquisition—how children learn to speak, and what factors shape that experience. After a summer’s worth of listening to and decoding tapes of households talking with babies present, a pattern was emerging. Babies learned language sooner, and better, if they were exposed to more adults. Not adults who were related to them, and not to English scholars. Just more adults.

High schools seem to understand this when it comes to talking with students about college. For the past 15 years or so, many schools have had a College Awareness Week, a kind of Spirit Week that focuses on what college is, why people go to college, and how students can explore and apply to college. Some high schools even have pep rallies for college awareness, even though Pomp and Circumstance doesn’t quite inspire the masses as much as the school fight song.

One element that seems to resonate with students is College Conversation Day. All of the adults are encouraged to wear their college gear that day, and the teachers are strongly urged to spend the first five minutes or so of class talking to students about their college experience—where they went to high school, what they thought about college when they were 16, how they ended up going to the college they attended, and what they think about the experience. Many also offer advice on how students should go about picking their college experience, including the factors that should and shouldn’t matter.

Now that spring is here, it’s time to start building next year’s presentation calendar, and I hope you’ll consider adding a College Conversation Day if you don’t already have one. Putting this together doesn’t require all that much; a presentation at a faculty meeting, an email reiterating the main points, a couple of trays of bagels or donuts in the faculty room on the big day (Parent Council), and a thank you email the day after.

If you’re worried you’re asking untrained adults to talk about college, don’t be. For starters, untrained adults do this all the time; besides, this actually gives you the chance to offer some gentle training. If you’re worried a couple of adults might go overboard—and you already know who those might be—that’s the teacher whose classroom you “stop by” the day of the event, ready to steer the presentation if need be.

On the other hand, if you’re worried this might lead to more students coming down to your office and asking about college, I’m just wondering why that would be a worry. More college conversations means more college awareness (“I’d never even heard of that college!” “Mr. Jones went there? Maybe I can too!”), and better understanding of the language and world of college. You know your stuff, and you have time to prepare the next steps for all kinds of terrific questions that will feed their inner college beast. You’re just widening the funnel, increasing the chances your students will have their own life-changing college campus summer of research and wonder. What a deal.