Steven Dubner posts a must-read interview with the authors of Getting the Best Out of College. The piece starts with a great quote: “Your choices in college matter more than your choices ofcollege, so choose wisely,” but there is much more wisdom shared in the interview. The author wades into the value of liberal arts, career training, and choices of majors.
Relevant to our current C2C discussions, I am adding the book to my dishearteningly long reading list.
Don's Desk 
I love the list of eight bullets, especially bullet one and five (pasted below). There is so much research that supports the impact of faculty-student interaction in both engagement and retention. This message needs to come from faculty in classrooms, advisors, transfer coordinators, leaders of student groups, PTK and administration. We need to support and grow these opportunities at HWC. Together we can do it!
Bullets one and five from the article:
•Since professors are the heartbeat of the university, invest as much time in those relationships as possible, especially early on in the semester when there are fewer demands on a professor’s time than there are later in the semester.
•Attend functions where there is a high ratio of faculty and alums so that you can expose yourself to the wide world outside campus.
This book seems to me to be essential for a student completing secondary education. I started college immediately after high school, but dropped out prior to completing the third quarter of my freshman year at a small state school. After twelve plus years of living in Europe for a year, having two children and working in both factory and restaurant positions, I returned to the same college which had quintupled in size, gained university status and became a leader in the special education area. I was so ready for learning that I invited a friend to attend particularly interesting lecture classes. I had gained the life experiences and maturity to benefit from a fine education in a ‘Mickey Mouse” university which lead to a productive career in a field which was just developing across the country. If I had read a book like this prior to reentering school, I would have had much more confidence in my ability to gain a good education from a small school with just fair status.