It's the end of Summer term and for fellow sophomores like myself, the halfway point in our Dartmouth careers. With graduation less than two years away, it feels as if we are headed towards a cliff, over which we will fall from our ivory tower into the real world. Once we graduate from college, we will no longer be children but supposedly full-fledged adults. Is Dartmouth supposed to teach me how to be an adult? I certainly don't feel like I am learning how to be one. Can't I just be a college student for a little longer?
A recent New York Times Magazine article described this new life stage as "emerging adulthood." As sociologists say, the transition to adulthood is marked by five milestones: finishing school, leaving home, becoming financially independent, getting married and having a child. In 1960, 77 percent of women and 65 percent of men had reached these five milestones before turning 30. In 2000, however, less than one-half of women and one-third of men had done so, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
It seems that adulthood is occurring later than ever. This "changing timetable for adulthood" is the result of many factors. Compared to our parents' generation, our generation does not expect to get married and have kids until much later. We also do not expect to start our careers right out of college. Instead, most young people jump around jobs for the first few years out of college or complete temporary programs like Teach for America or the Peace Corps. More schooling is yet another option, as many students choose to enter into graduate school programs after college immediately. All of these factors forestall the beginning of adult life.
Institutions of higher education like Dartmouth also play a role in delaying adulthood. Like other graduates of liberal arts colleges, Dartmouth students graduate with a degree in a subject that will likely have little to do with their future career path. This is certainly not a bad thing; in fact, it opens up a number of opportunities and career paths after college. With such a diversity of options available it is not surprising that it takes longer for students to decide which career path to take.
Dartmouth students enjoy dormitories, dining halls, an extremely supportive alumni network the list goes on and on. And whether we realize it or not, we enjoy substantial financial support from our parents support that will not continue indefinitely. "Helicopter parents" a term describing parents who remain heavily involved in their children's lives, hovering long after they should be are not uncommon at Dartmouth. With all this coddling, Dartmouth students are pseudo-independent and sheltered from the real world. Delaying adulthood is not necessarily a bad thing; however, it should not be put off for too long. While our college years are meant to be a time of self-discovery, they are also meant to prepare us for life after college. Thus far most of us have successfully managed to perform all the expected roles. What happens after graduation when these expected roles disappear? Thus, the College should seek to strike a balance between teaching students how to write a research paper and how to live independently.
There are several things that the College could do to advance its students on the path to adulthood. A functional advising system would go far to create self-driven students no longer bound to the expectations of their parents. Advisors could identify students' interests and provide a balancing force in the face of parental opposition. In addition, Career Services should steer students towards jobs that they want on their own, and not just because of their parents. Dartmouth should only allow students to take gap years before college with caution and only if there is a clear benefit. If nothing else, the College should work on increasing its four-year graduation rate, which currently stands at 85 percent according to U.S. News and World Report.
Four years of college should be long enough for most people to figure out what they want to do in life. But because young people are not expected to grow up right away after finishing school, the self-discovery period that was once reserved for college now extends well into our 20s. While a longer road to adulthood perhaps establishes a stronger foundation for adulthood, it cannot and should not be delayed forever. A well-honed, self-driven generation of adults is something worth striving for, while an overeducated, non-independent one is not.
