It is not a rebuttal to the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue but the cover story on the ever-controversial university rankings issue of U.S. News and World Report. Published earlier this month, the rankings are a source of derision for many universities and colleges and, yet, the unofficial rule book for every high school junior. (The University of Michigan, incidentally, is in a four-way tie for 25th.)
The article says the number of men attending college is slowly declining, noticeably tipping the gender balance at some smaller schools toward women. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is 60 percent female; Seattle Pacific University is 65 percent women.
Men, the article says, head for the more immediate rewards of the job market.
This trend is not as evident at the University - the Fall 1997 entering class was 50 percent female - and men outnumber women in Ivy League schools. But it points to an emotion many students can identify with.
Higher education means working for Someday to come and relying on it being a better world. It means having the ultimate faith that hard work still means something substantial.
We sit through classes that have no obvious relation to our planned future because we are told that a liberal arts education will make us well rounded and prepared for anything. We take ancient history courses in the same afternoon as computer science because we are told that thought patterns of old are still applicable today. We regard the odd story of a zillionaire genius without a college degree as the exception to the rule - because the rule is that a solid education leads to a solid job and a solid life.
This rings particularly true for students in a professional or graduate school, who retain their amateur status while old roommates and friends work regular jobs with regular paychecks in the regular world. Paychecks, benefits and weekends off replace new clothes as enviable objects. Sure, more time now means more in the long run - but suddenly the run looks longer and longer.
All the while, we wait for Someday.
As in, "Someday I'll have time for this." "Someday I'll have nice things." Or, "Someday I won't have to worry about applying for anything." "Someday I'll be able to afford that." And, "Someday I'll leave work at work and just relax at home."
In many ways, we spend most of our education wishing it were over - wishing finals were done, wishing it were time to get on that spring break plane or wishing it could be summer already. It is only at the very pinnacle of wishing to graduate do we look back and wonder where the time went.
They went to writing term papers while on a caffeine binge, scrounging money for the phone bill, complaining about landlords who lie more than politicians, playing the internship-applications-interview game, taking exams that are tricky and long, walking through snow and rain because there's no place to park, buying books that were never opened, and dodging rules, laws and codes along the way.
All this makes Someday look like the promised land.
But those years also went to late-night soul searchings with friends forged by common experiences, the occasional dressy night out, the freedom of living on our own (with those friends), landing the big job or opportunity, meeting the world's expert who inspires you, getting wrapped up in something that changes your life, working hard and getting the grade to prove it, or discovering a new truth. They were filled by times with the closest friends of our lives, going to parties unlike any we ever will again, winning national championships, getting in the car and taking a road trip, working together to achieve changgs are a source of derision for many universities and colleges and, yet, the unofficial rule book for every high school junior. (The University of Michigan, incidentally, is in a four-way tie for 25th.)
The article says the number of men attending college is slowly declining, noticeably tipping the gender balance at some smaller schools toward women. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is 60 percent female; Seattle Pacific University is 65 percent women.
Men, the article says, head for the more immediate rewards of the job market.
This trend is not as evident at the University - the Fall 1997 entering class was 50 percent female - and men outnumber women in Ivy League schools. But it points to an emotion many students can identify with.
Higher education means working for Someday to come and relying on it being a better world. It means having the ultimate faith that hard work still means something substantial.
We sit through classes that have no obvious relation to our planned future because we are told that a liberal arts education will make us well rounded and prepared for anything. We take ancient history courses in the same afternoon as computer science because we are told that thought patterns of old are still applicable today. We regard the odd story of a zillionaire genius without a college degree as the exception to the rule - because the rule is that a solid education leads to a solid job and a solid life.
This rings particularly true for students in a professional or graduate school, who retain their amateur status while old roommates and friends work regular jobs with regular paychecks in the regular world. Paychecks, benefits and weekends off replace new clothes as enviable objects. Sure, more time now means more in the long run - but suddenly the run looks longer and longer.
All the while, we wait for Someday.
As in, "Someday I'll have time for this." "Someday I'll have nice things." Or, "Someday I won't have to worry about applying for anything." "Someday I'll be able to afford that." And, "Someday I'll leave work at work and just relax at home."
In many ways, we spend most of our education wishing it were over - wishing finals were done, wishing it were time to get on that spring break plane or wishing it could be summer already. It is only at the very pinnacle of wishing to graduate do we look back and wonder where the time went.
They went to writing term papers while on a caffeine binge, scrounging money for the phone bill, complaining about landlords who lie more than politicians, playing the internship-applications-interview game, taking exams that are tricky and long, walking through snow and rain because there's no place to park, buying books that were never opened, and dodging rules, laws and codes along the way.
All this makes Someday look like the promised land.
But those years also went to late-night soul searchings with friends forged by common experiences, the occasional dressy night out, the freedom of living on our own (with those friends), landing the big job or opportunity, meeting the world's expert who inspires you, getting wrapped up in something that changes your life, working hard and getting the grade to prove it, or discovering a new truth. They were filled by times with the closest friends of our lives, going to parties unlike any we ever will again, winning national championships, getting in the car and taking a road trip, working together to achieve change, making a few forgivable mistakes, falling in and out of love, doing things on a whim, sleeping in on a weekday, and dodging rules, laws and Codes along the way.
When Someday is still a time for dreams to happen - eventually.
The boys who aren't in college miss this magical chance to have grown-up privileges without grown-up responsibilities. They miss that part of a liberal arts education, all to find Someday right now. They miss the paradoxical chance to live for instant gratification while working for delayed gratification.
Someday is a time closely associated with the
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Megan Schimpf Prescriptions |
02-19-99
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