Involvement with student societies and extra-curricular activities plays a critical role in
helping students adjusts to their college environment and feel integrated into their college
community. It helps them develop valuable social support structures, friendships and
connections and experience a more satisfying undergraduate education.
Following are excerpts from Dr. Richard J. Light's Book, Making the Most of College:
"Students speak their minds (Harvard University Press, 2002). These passages quote
studies and findings from Dr. Light's own interviews of Harvard undergraduates that
confirm the great importance of involvement in extra-curricular and campus activities
outside the classroom.
Urge students to get involved in-group activities. For other students, the single biggest
contribution an adviser can make is not about academics. It is to encourage them to join a
campus organization or group that will give them social and personal support.
In interviews some students from minority groups stress this point. So do students who
are the first in their families to go to college. And so do students who are leaving behind
crucial support networks they had in high school - with parents, supportive high-school
teachers or advisers, religious counselors, athletic coaches.
Such students may not integrate quickly or easily into their new community. For many,
their academic work as well as their social life and sense of being grounded will sutler.
When this happens, it illustrates how strong the connections are between academic
performance and extracurricular activities.
What is the policy implication of this finding? That advisers should encourage students
from their very first days on campus to find a group to join.
Each year when new students come to me for advice, I pass on some of what I have
learned from their predecessors: I encourage them to take full advantage of the university
community. Above all, I urge them to get involved in depth in at least one activity other
than courses. It can be paid employment if they need to earn money.
It can be an activity with other students, or perhaps athletics or volunteer work. Many
of my advisees want to do well, and some are nervous when they first arrive. For a few
students, there idea of life at college is to sit in classes for twelve to fifteen hours each
week and spend the rest of the time studying alone in their homes.
Some of these students are not very happy. There is a risk they will spend too much time
j alone. Whenever I see this pattern developing, I raise the issue. Their response is nearly
always the same: "My academic work is my priority, and doing other things will hurt my
academic work."
Thanks to findings from an extensive survey of Harvard undergraduates directed by
Thomas Angelo, I and other advisers now know how to answer such students. We now
have concrete data on how outside-of-class activities relate to academic success. The big
finding is that a substantial commitment to one or two activities other then course work
- for as much as twenty hours a week - has little or no relationship to grades. But such
commitments do have a strong relationship to overall satisfaction with college life. More
involvement is strongly co-related with higher satisfaction.
How do undergraduates view these extracurricular opportunities? As a chance to have
fun. As a chance to learn new skills. As a chance to give something back to a community,
or even a country, that has been good to them. As a chance to perform or direct or
produce. As a chance to learn leadership skills. Even at a college as academically focused
and intense as Harvard, most graduates have far clearer memories of their singing, or
writing, or volunteer tutoring of recent immigrants, than of the details of the class on
American history they took in sophomore year.
A week has 168 hours. A full-time student on most campuses, taking four courses during
an academic term, spends between twelve and eighteen hours sitting in actual classrooms,
taking classes. Those who major in humanities and social sciences tend to spend about
twelve. Those majoring in a physical science spend some extra hours each week in labs,
which can easily bring the total to about eighteen. So the bulk of students' lives are spent
outside of the classroom.
That leads to a simple but enormously powerful finding that shines through interview
after interview with graduating seniors. Those students who make connections between
what goes on inside and outside the classroom report a more satisfying college
experience. The students who find some way to connect their interest in music, for
example, either with coursework or with an extracurricular volunteer activity or both,
report a qualitatively different overall experience.
Do all students succeed in doing this? Of course not. Does it come automatically, or
easily, even to those who end up doing it? Sometimes. But many don't think of it at first.
Sometimes they figure it out because they are exceptionally thoughtful. Sometimes it
happens because J they are stumble into it thanks to good fortune. But now, more and
more often, advisers I (including me) consciously encourage students to do this. We
tell first-year students that I their fellow undergraduates report that making connections
between what they do inside and I outside of classes can have a profound and positive
impact on their precious years at college.
Incoming students seem to be taking this advice extraordinarily seriously. Perhaps this
illustrates the power of gathering data directly from students. Telling newcomers on
campus that people just three and four years older have something to suggest catches
their attention quickly.
Get involved in activities outside the classroom. Involvement in student activities
enhances a sense of belonging to the institution, and accomplishment in such activities
improves self-esteem, leadership ability and teamwork in students. Furthermore, you will
develop valuable social support structures at LUMS by interacting with peers (possibly
upperclassmen who can guide and mentor you) through involvement in societies, and in
situations where you are working towards a common goal with other students in a non-
academic setting.
helping students adjusts to their college environment and feel integrated into their college
community. It helps them develop valuable social support structures, friendships and
connections and experience a more satisfying undergraduate education.
Following are excerpts from Dr. Richard J. Light's Book, Making the Most of College:
"Students speak their minds (Harvard University Press, 2002). These passages quote
studies and findings from Dr. Light's own interviews of Harvard undergraduates that
confirm the great importance of involvement in extra-curricular and campus activities
outside the classroom.
Urge students to get involved in-group activities. For other students, the single biggest
contribution an adviser can make is not about academics. It is to encourage them to join a
campus organization or group that will give them social and personal support.
In interviews some students from minority groups stress this point. So do students who
are the first in their families to go to college. And so do students who are leaving behind
crucial support networks they had in high school - with parents, supportive high-school
teachers or advisers, religious counselors, athletic coaches.
Such students may not integrate quickly or easily into their new community. For many,
their academic work as well as their social life and sense of being grounded will sutler.
When this happens, it illustrates how strong the connections are between academic
performance and extracurricular activities.
What is the policy implication of this finding? That advisers should encourage students
from their very first days on campus to find a group to join.
Each year when new students come to me for advice, I pass on some of what I have
learned from their predecessors: I encourage them to take full advantage of the university
community. Above all, I urge them to get involved in depth in at least one activity other
than courses. It can be paid employment if they need to earn money.
It can be an activity with other students, or perhaps athletics or volunteer work. Many
of my advisees want to do well, and some are nervous when they first arrive. For a few
students, there idea of life at college is to sit in classes for twelve to fifteen hours each
week and spend the rest of the time studying alone in their homes.
Some of these students are not very happy. There is a risk they will spend too much time
j alone. Whenever I see this pattern developing, I raise the issue. Their response is nearly
always the same: "My academic work is my priority, and doing other things will hurt my
academic work."
Thanks to findings from an extensive survey of Harvard undergraduates directed by
Thomas Angelo, I and other advisers now know how to answer such students. We now
have concrete data on how outside-of-class activities relate to academic success. The big
finding is that a substantial commitment to one or two activities other then course work
- for as much as twenty hours a week - has little or no relationship to grades. But such
commitments do have a strong relationship to overall satisfaction with college life. More
involvement is strongly co-related with higher satisfaction.
How do undergraduates view these extracurricular opportunities? As a chance to have
fun. As a chance to learn new skills. As a chance to give something back to a community,
or even a country, that has been good to them. As a chance to perform or direct or
produce. As a chance to learn leadership skills. Even at a college as academically focused
and intense as Harvard, most graduates have far clearer memories of their singing, or
writing, or volunteer tutoring of recent immigrants, than of the details of the class on
American history they took in sophomore year.
A week has 168 hours. A full-time student on most campuses, taking four courses during
an academic term, spends between twelve and eighteen hours sitting in actual classrooms,
taking classes. Those who major in humanities and social sciences tend to spend about
twelve. Those majoring in a physical science spend some extra hours each week in labs,
which can easily bring the total to about eighteen. So the bulk of students' lives are spent
outside of the classroom.
That leads to a simple but enormously powerful finding that shines through interview
after interview with graduating seniors. Those students who make connections between
what goes on inside and outside the classroom report a more satisfying college
experience. The students who find some way to connect their interest in music, for
example, either with coursework or with an extracurricular volunteer activity or both,
report a qualitatively different overall experience.
Do all students succeed in doing this? Of course not. Does it come automatically, or
easily, even to those who end up doing it? Sometimes. But many don't think of it at first.
Sometimes they figure it out because they are exceptionally thoughtful. Sometimes it
happens because J they are stumble into it thanks to good fortune. But now, more and
more often, advisers I (including me) consciously encourage students to do this. We
tell first-year students that I their fellow undergraduates report that making connections
between what they do inside and I outside of classes can have a profound and positive
impact on their precious years at college.
Incoming students seem to be taking this advice extraordinarily seriously. Perhaps this
illustrates the power of gathering data directly from students. Telling newcomers on
campus that people just three and four years older have something to suggest catches
their attention quickly.
Get involved in activities outside the classroom. Involvement in student activities
enhances a sense of belonging to the institution, and accomplishment in such activities
improves self-esteem, leadership ability and teamwork in students. Furthermore, you will
develop valuable social support structures at LUMS by interacting with peers (possibly
upperclassmen who can guide and mentor you) through involvement in societies, and in
situations where you are working towards a common goal with other students in a non-
academic setting.
