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Intimate Classroom Setting

Submitted by ED on Mon, 11/16/2009 - 8:07am.

          I researched the psychological/intuitive aspect of choosing a college. What I found included: a report on Harvard that looked extensively into what aspects of a school make its students happy, the website of Whitman College (which reportedly has the happiest student body), and I read a few advice pages directed at students to help them change their habits to become happier/to make the most of their experience. The overarching quality I found was a small student to teacher ratio, which fosters meaningful relationships with professors and encourages students to be more invested in their work, and leads to their being happier doing it. A lot of the advice I read mentioned Barry Schwartz. This advice insisted that finding happiness is the job of each student more than the job of the college/university. Social relationships, being extroverted, and pushing yourself outside your comfort zone were all bits of advice that all of the sources I found held in common—but again, the strongest advice in each had something to do with having a close relationship with professors.

 Annotated Bibliography
1.) Alderman, Lesley. “What Makes a College Great?” Money Magazine. 5 Sept. 1995. 15 Nov. 2009. <http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/moneymag_archive/1995/09/05/206695/index.htm>
               The Alderman piece really plugs the small school setting. The piece has a biased tone to it, and it is from 1995, but its claim is backed up with significant empirical evidence/stats. Lastly, it is useful because I consider CNN to be a trustworthy source. Here are some sections from it:
“[Parents look for] a school that delivers top-quality education at reasonable cost, … To students, however, a truly terrific college offers a small-community atmosphere as well as professors committed both to teaching--not research--and to giving students lots of individual attention, both in and out of the classroom.” “…think small. Kids at colleges with 2,000 or fewer students say they are more satisfied with their education, have less difficulty enrolling in courses and feel safer on campus than those at larger schools. Likewise students at private schools, which are generally smaller than the publics, give higher marks to their teachers and their overall education.”
 
2.) http://www.whitman.edu/content/
                The Whitman website makes an impression; its layout is impeccable, inviting, and interactive—and not so progressive/new age that it becomes overwhelming or corny. In the academics pages, each area of study has a clear and concise description. The Whitman student must be passionate about learning and eager to work in real-life situations. It seems as though the respect and real-life action that Whitman asks of/provides for its students makes people there feel fulfilled. Another interesting aspect of what I believe makes students at Whitman so happy (whether they realize it or not—though I suspect they do) is how amazingly environmentally sustainable the whole institution is. Whitman is powered by wind energy, and even has a Conservation Committee staff.
 
3.) Zernike, Kate. "BOOKS; The Harvard Guide to Happiness." Rev. of The Harvard Guide to Happiness, by Richard J. Light. www.nytimes.com. The New York Times Company, 8 Apr. 2001. Web. 15 Nov. 2009.
                Zernike writes about the specific observations and ensuing decisions made by Richard Light on how to make students “happier” (more engaged, invested, more social etc) at Harvard. There are a number of very simple, specific tactics mentioned that the school itself, not the students, could take, such as holding classes right before dinnertime to foster continued conversation between students after class. This is a useful resource (I think we may have even already seen this in class?) for the reason that it gives schools, not students, advice on how to make students happy. It does give some advice to students, however, but the type of school Harvard would have to be for its students to be able to adhere to this advice is implicit in the advice itself… It’s number-one recommendation is to “Meet the staff” and “become very close with at least one professor each semester.”
 
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