What Matters Is What You Do, Not Where You Go

Since college admissions decisions have come out, I’ve been talking with high school seniors about their choices. Most people have great options, although they don’t always feel that way if they have been waitlisted or did not get into the college they really wanted to go to. That’s when I emphasize that it’s not so much where you go, but what you do in whatever college you attend, findings from the project I was lead researcher on for Gallup: The Gallup-Purdue Index.

When I am asked what is important to do in college I fall back on the BIG SIX as well called them. These are the college experiences that are most likely to lead to what we called the Great Job and Great Life, based on Gallup’s outcomes measures in wellbeing and employee engagement.

Here are the BIG SIX, and people who strongly agreed with these statements were more likely to have the Great Job and Great Life:

• I had at least one professor at college who made me excited about learning.

• My professors at college cared about me as a person.

• I had a mentor who encouraged me to pursue my goals and dreams.

• I worked on a project that took a semester or more to complete.

• I had an internship or job that allowed me to apply what I was learning in the classroom.

• I was extremely active in extracurricular activities and organizations while attending college.

The key is to get involved. We saw this in the survey program I ran at UCLA as well. Involvement is what matters. If you get involved, wherever you go to college, that is the differnce.