Perhaps the greatest myth told about university is that success is measured by grades alone.
Even before students arrive on campus, they have already been taught that academic achievement is the ultimate goal. They are encouraged to pursue degrees that are seen as practical, warned about studying the humanities, and reminded that every assignment, exam, and their ultimate GPA will determine their future career. In reality, university is about much more than that.
The first year of university already marks a time of pressure and change. For the first time in many students’ lives, they are on their own. Students are considered adults who have to make decisions about all the details in their day-to-day lives, while also needing to make new friends out of the strangers they just happen to be placed in the same orientation group or class with.
There are so many new things to think about, and on top of all of that, school is likely harder than it has ever been before. Lecture halls are a new style of learning, labs can last upwards of three hours, and professors, as well as their TAs, can be harder to approach than high school teachers ever were. On top of having to absorb academic content, first-year university students must also learn a new style of education.
The system is designed to create stress and pressure and to push students outside of their comfort zones, but all of that makes it hard to succeed academically; sometimes, it feels as though the system is designed for them to fail.
So, instead of looking at your first year and measuring how well you are doing by how many A’s you receive, success should be measured by your willingness to put yourself out there and make yourself uncomfortable. The opportunities you create for yourself and the experiences that come out of them will be the ones you remember, the ones that will shape you — not your grades.
By putting yourself out there and joining a club, getting a job, volunteering, or otherwise making yourself uncomfortable and taking a risk, you will learn so much more than what you can be taught in a classroom. It is already a massive achievement that you chose to come to university in the first place, and being here is a learning experience in itself.
There will be applicable skills that come out of university whether that be time management, writing proficiency, the ability to interview in different settings, and much more. But you will also meet people who could become some of your closest friends — people you would never have met if you had not put yourself out there. These people will teach you things about yourself that you cannot learn from reading a textbook.
Academic success has been elevated to this pristine ideal that you must strive to achieve, as though it is necessary for any sort of success in the rest of your life. But all of the things I listed — all of the things your friends and the people you interact with can teach you about yourself — are not graded and are more practical and widely applicable to life than an arbitrary number on a piece of paper.
Campus involvement also expands a student’s world in ways that academics alone cannot. Some of the most meaningful friendships are formed not because two people might happen to sit together in class, but because they shared a late-night volunteer shift or worked together on an event. These communities give students a sense of belonging during a period of immense transition. They remind students that university is not something to survive, but an experience to share with others.
That said, taking risks also means accepting the possibility of failure. Not every student will get the position they applied for. Not every election can be won. Not every club will be the right fit. There will be disappointing grades and unsuccessful interviews. Yet these moments are often the ones that teach the most. Failure builds resilience and teaches students how to adapt and persevere. Those lessons cannot be measured by a GPA, but they are still among the most valuable lessons university has to offer.
Of course, this is not an argument against academics. Students come to university to learn, and earning a degree should always be a top priority. Good grades do matter, and there are opportunities that depend on your academic performance. But academics should not become so consuming that they prevent students from experiencing everything else university has to offer. A transcript reflects what happened in the classroom but says very little about the person a student became outside of it.
Years from now, very few graduates will remember the mark they earned on the first-year midterm or the percentage they received on an introductory essay. Rather, they will remember the club they joined, the professor who inspired them, the campus job that gave them experience, the volunteer position that taught them to lead, or the exchange that changed the way they saw the world. Those are the experiences that shape people long after they have forgotten the content they once memorized for an exam.
Tags
Academics, Extracurriculars, student involvement
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