The Dean’s Blog

Last week at Class Day, I gave seniors a “quiz,” their final quiz as Columbia College “current” students. I tasked them with figuring out why I was offering Juan-Manuel Fangio as source of inspiration “when the brains in your head seem not powerful enough, and the shoes on your feet are slipping, and you are facing what seem like impossible odds.” Fangio was a race car driver and the story of his win on August 4, 1957 is related to advice I gave to the Columbia College Class of 2013: work hard, try hard, play hard.

As graduation approaches, a lot of seniors have one more plunge to take: the swim test. The infamous test – three lengths of the Uris Pool in Dodge using any stroke – has been a requirement at Columbia College since the turn of the 20th century. It is held three times a week throughout the year – Fridays 12-2 p.m., Sundays 3-4 p.m. and Wednesdays 8:30-9:30 p.m., and you can take it over and over again until you pass – but most of you wait until the last minute to take it. And the last minute for seniors is right now.

Those of you who are sophomores are about to declare your majors. Major declaration is an important part of the Columbia experience: the choosing of the intellectual area you want to develop expertise in. Your choice will set a significant part of your curriculum in the next two years. In many respects though, it’s not really THAT big a decision—it will propel your future, but it will not pre-determine your future. A Columbia College liberal arts education, with the Core at its center, is preparing you to do just about anything, as our former students can tell you.

Next week, donors of Columbia College named scholarships will meet their recipients at the annual Dean’s Scholarship Reception. Named scholarships are central to our financial aid program. Each year, nearly 1,200 of you receive named scholarships at the College. Students are matched with scholarships based on intellectual pursuits, extracurricular achievements, hometown, and plans for the future, among other factors. And a responsibility of all scholarship recipients is to thank our scholarship benefactors at the annual reception.

When I talk with students individually about their coursework, I don’t tell them not to undertake double majors. But if they do have two majors, I ask them to explain why they have two, and if the reasons don’t strike me as valid, I recommend that they reconsider. Why do I question double majors and heavy course loads? Because college was genuinely fun for me, and I would like you to have the same experience. I was excited to be able to concentrate on three areas — physics, philosophy, and of course, chemistry, even though chemistry was my one single major.