In a recent podcast, a famous writer, podcaster, and reporter, Malcolm Gladwell, explains how “…I’m astonished at the way American’s agonize about their college decisions. There’s an assumption that the thing that makes an education good or bad is knowable beforehand. I would have thought that ingredients of a good education are largely unknowable.”
Galdwell goes on to explain that “…the most important thing about his college experience was due to someone he met.” The most important part of his experience wasn’t due to the reputation, history, or price-tag of his school. Gladwell’s millions of interactions, conversations, and research with this friend he met made his experience one to remember. Fascinating to think about. Malcolm became a wiser and more interesting person because of this one friend. Gladwell had no idea he would meet his friend Tom when he was applying to schools or doing his research in High SChool.
I tell this story because it’s so important for families going through the recruiting process to understand what’s knowable about your college experience and what’s not. The type of dorms on campus, the location, the price-tag, those are all facts, those are the knowns. Your children’s college experiences, the people they meet, the connections they make, those are not. Just because you go to a school with name ‘X’ on the sweatshirt, doesn’t mean your son or daughter will experience ‘Y.’
This thought process flips the script. Instead of viewing college based on reputation, history, brand, price, and prestige, view your son or daughter’s college decision based on potential experiences, interactions, and interests. At FLG, we do this, so it’s more likely your son or daughter’s college choice will be the right one.
