In his recent publishing, the Paradox of Choice, Professor Barry Schwartz strongly suggests that the increase of choices in modern day society is contributing to the decrease of well-being among Americans. His work inspired me to pursue this research topic, focusing on a smaller group of Americans whom I can relate to: the college students of the country. Schwartz pointed out in his work that there is a great increase in depression among Americans of all ages. However, the age group affected the most by this increase is those of ages 18-24. According to several sources, including the National Mental Health Association, the statistics for college mental health is as follows:

·         In 2000, 10% of college students were diagnosed with depression

·         In 2004, 15% of college students met the criteria for clinical depression

·         In 2006, more than 30% of the nation’s college students reported that they have been so depressed at one point they could not function

Even more concerning, suicide has moved from being the third leading cause of death among college students in 2002 to being the second leading cause of death in 2008, right behind traffic accidents. Naturally, the question arises: what is the cause of this dramatic increase?

                The cause of depression is very complex, mainly because depression is almost always a result of a combination of causes, not a single one. In answering the question above, a great number of researchers agree that the increase in social pressure is among the main causes. Today’s students face greater academic demands and higher expectations than before. Thus pressure from teachers, peers, and parents add a great deal of stress, which contributes to the perilous downward slope toward depression. Other factors have also been mentioned, including the increase of information and higher exposure to different people, ideas, and temptations. However, very few give recognition to the underlying cause of these factors: the increase of options and opportunities. Here I use the term “opportunities” to reflect the common perception that college students are better off with more options that will lead them to the various different paths of success.

With the improvement of communicative technology, many new resources and opportunities that are now available to students surely surpasses the number of choices that previous generations had. In 1980, there was 3241 colleges in America; 10 years later in 1990, this number has risen to 3559; at the beginning of the 21st century in 2000, the U.S. had a total of 4084; and by 2005, there are more than 4200 higher education institutions and this number is still rising continuously[2]. As you can see, even the first step to higher education – choosing a college – has become much more rigorous for students today than students 30 years ago. But that is not all, this process repeats many times in our students’ educational careers – choosing a college, choosing an essay topic to write for each of their applications, choosing classes, choosing extra-curricular and volunteer opportunities, choosing a major, choosing an internship, etc…. In short, a typical, modern-day college student is bombarded with choices every single day, a concept known as “choice overload”.

A well-known experiment regarding choice overload was conducted at Stanford University by Mark Lepper and Sheena Iyengar[3]. In this study, 193 Stanford students in a social psychology class were selected as the study group. There were five teaching assistants in the class who lead two sections each. The class was given an extra credit assignment where they can watch the movie “Twelve Angry Men” and then write a two-page essay on it based on one of the given topics on their assignment sheet. Because the TAs of the course had two sections each, every TA would give one of their sections an assignment sheet with six essay topics and then give their other section an assignment sheet with thirty essay topics. These topics were carefully chosen so that they are all comparable in difficulty. A total of 70 students received the six-topics assignment – let’s call this group A; and 123 students received the thirty-topics assignment – let’s call this group B.

The results reveal that extensive-choice has a demotivating effect on these college students. In group A, 74% of the students completed the assignment. In group B, only 65% of the students completed the assignment. In addition, the average score that group A students received on their assignment was 10% higher than that of group B students. In other words, the students with extensive choice assignment were less likely to complete their work; and even if they do, they are less likely to perform well compared to those with more limited choice. When a student does not do his work in class, he will not perform as well, and that will result in self-dissatisfaction. This tells us that such large increase in options can harm the students, rather than benefit them.

Aside from demotivation, the abundance of choices can also scare people away from making a decision or completing certain tasks. This is because when we have so many options to choose from, we are more hesitant to make a decision because we are less certain which option would be best. Uncertainty can affect our reasons for acting. We may be reluctant to act without some clear reasons. So the result is, as Professor Baron at Pennsylvania State University put it: “If we are uncertain about the reasons, we may defer the decision”[4]. Here, we are talking about putting off decisions that are difficult to make, which can equate to procrastination, which can then lead to stress and anxiety as the decision deadline approaches.

One study shows that people have this tendency to defer decisions or to do nothing as a result of conflict from not having reasons to choose or reject more than one option. In this experiment by Tversky and Shafir [5], subjects had filled out a questionnaire and expected to be paid $1.50. Half of the subjects were offered a metal pen worth about $2 instead of their payment, and only 25% of these subjects took the $1.50, the rest took the pen. The other half of the subjects were offered a choice of the same pen or two plastic pens. Here 53% of these subjects took the money instead of either of the other options.

From this, we can analyze that when subjects are presented with more options of pen to choose from, they found the decision more difficult to make, and therefore prefer to stick to the default option of taking the money. In doing this, the subjects that took the money have successfully avoided having to make a decision about the pen. The pen study illustrates how having more options, which is supposed to be good, backfires and instead scare people away from choosing in general. When people postpone their decisions due to personal uncertainty, that can be deem as a form of procrastination. Of course, many people are well aware of the consequences of procrastinations such as tardiness, lack of preparedness, missed opportunities, poor performance, etc… It is safe to say that none of these results make people happy.

So then, if procrastination is a result of choice overload, it would make sense why college students are affected the most by this. First off, we know that 90% of students procrastinate, and that 25% are chronic procrastinators[6]. If adding another option of pen as reward has caused the subjects in the above study to regress back to the default option of taking the money, and thus not having to choose between the pens; then maybe adding more opportunities and choices for college students has the same effect. That is to say: students procrastinate more in their decision-making because having to select between so many options can be time-consuming, frustrating, and overall difficult. And we know that procrastination can lead to feelings of guilt, inadequacy, depression and self-doubt among students. It interferes with the academic and personal success of students. Hence, if choice overload is contributing to the increased depression in America, then we should expect students to be the group most affected by this factor because of their tendency to procrastinate. Unfortunately, our problem does not stop here. Up to this point, I have discussed how choice overload can affect students negatively prior to the decision being made. Sadly, choice overload will continue to haunt our youth, even after they have overcome all the troubles of the decision-making process.

The emotional responses to the outcomes of a decision can have a great effect on our mood and well-being, especially when the response is a negative one. The famous philosopher once said: “The perceived better attracts more than the perceived worse” and that “No one voluntarily acts against his or her current perceived interests”. The key word here is “perceived”: what something appears to be. When a student makes a decision, he chooses what appears to be the better option. But what appears to be the better option might not be the better option. Naturally, if the decision indeed turns out to be the better option, this person will feel joy and relief. Meanwhile, if the decision turns out to not be the better option, this person will feel disappointment and regret. According to several regret model theories, “regret is defined as the difference between the value of the obtained outcome and that of the alternative not chosen”[7]. Our moods do not simply reflect that fact that we regret the decision, but also by how much we regret it. By this definition, the value of regret is larger when we compare the “best alternative” to the current outcome than when we compare “an alternative” to the current outcome.

I bring up the concept of “the best” because it leads to a shocking discovery that not only is college students affected most by depression via choice overload; but more specifically, it is the overachieving students – the most talented youth of the country, who are suffering its consequences.

                One fact that stood out to me as I was doing my research was the fact that student bodies of this nation’s top universities have depression rate much higher than the national average of 30%. At Harvard, it is estimated that 47% of its students have become depressed at some point during their time there. The number is 44% and 40% for Cornell and Berkeley, respectively. Yale reported that roughly 30% of its students seek counseling services for stress-related issues, but some findings have suggested that the number can be as high as 65% because only a portion of depressed students actually seek help. There is very few exceptions to this trend, one being Stanford University, where only 23% of its students reported being depressed at some point in a survey. One of the theories that can explain this finding is the “maximize vs. satisficer” concept that views happiness as a personality outcome.

                In relation to our topic regarding choice and happiness, a maximizer is defined as someone who always opts for “the best choice” and a satisficer is someone who will settle with “a good enough choice”. By default, maximizers are your classic overachievers and perfectionists. A maximizer is not happy unless his decision brings the best possible outcome in comparison to the alternatives. Whereas the satisficer is happy as long as the outcome of his decision meets the criteria that he set to achieve. As regret is defined in this paper, the maximizer will always compare his outcome with the best possible outcome, which can only yield a relative value smaller than or equal to 0; and the satisficer will only compare his outcome with criteria for the outcome, which can be negative or positive. In 2000, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology published a study which indicates that 70% of college students tend to be maximizers[8]. The study also shows that maximizers are significantly less happy than a satisficer.

                It is reasonable to assume that there are many overachievers at prestigious universities so it would only make sense that if choice overload is indeed a great burden, then our overachieving students are carrying the heaviest burdens of all – perhaps that is why our top universities have the highest rates of depression. Many of the most talented youth are maximizers. For maxmizers, there can only be one best choice. So if a maximizer has two options, then he has a 50% chance of picking the best choice; if a maxmizer has 100 options, then he has a 1% chance of picking the best choice. In other words, an overachieving student has a 50% chance of being happy with his decision when he has two options; and only a 1% chance of being happy with his decision when he has 100 options. As you can see, by giving students with high performance an abundance of opportunities, it is far more likely that we are risking their well-being rather than helping them. Not only will our top students have a difficult time gather information so they can decide on the optimal selection; but they run a much greater chance of regretting their decision later on when there are an overwhelming number of alternatives.

                Ironically, colleges and universities nowadays are trying to make themselves appear more attractive to prospective students by advertising the numerous opportunities they have available on campuses. The underlying assumption of this action is that students want and need a large number of options to choose from; that having more choices will reinforce their autonomy and thus increase their well-being. However, this practice holds many contradictions and perhaps it is time that our scholarly community gives the relationship between choice and happiness the attention it deserves. The more we know about a certain problem, the easier it is to fix it.

[1] Paradox of Choice – Pg 99

[2] http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d06/tables/dt06_005.asp

[3] Lepper, Mark R., and Sheena S. Iyengar. “When Choice is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing?” (1999): Web. 5 Oct. 2009. .

[4] Baron, Jonathan. “Thinking and Deciding” Pg 273

[5] Tversky, A., & Shafir, E. (1992). The disjunction effect in choice under uncertainty. Psychological science, 3, 305-309.

[6] http://ub-counseling.buffalo.edu/stressprocrast.shtml

[7] Landman, Janet. “Regret: the persistence of the possible” Pg 151

[8] Volume 83 Pg. 1182

A very interesting conversation came up today. We had noticed the proposal to raise the student fee’s to £7,000.00. This raised one question in my mind, with the amount of money loaned out to students every year, where is the incentive to make them go out and get a job? Any town/city with a university will be aware of the student population and how it appears to have it’s own economy.

This ensures that there are normally jobs for students should they want to take them. The towns/cities with universities tend to have more clubs and pubs, because students have a tendancy to spend more and more time out and in the pubs/clubs consuming alcohol than in most other towns/cities. This creates more jobs, and in addition to this, more takeaways spring up, along with other smaller shops and 24 hour retailers to give students access to the facilities they need when they need them.

Suprising though, when you look at the student population in these places, and the substaintal amount of them that do not seek any form of employment, it makes you think that should student loans be allowed at all? Should we not be encouraging sensibility within our student population, and give them the opportunity to behave as adults, which is of course what most students feel the experience will bring! If the loans were reduced to just half of what they are at present the national debt would significently fall, and students would leave with half as much debt. On the downside however, students would be forced to get jobs, which would in turn stimulate the economy into helping itself out of the recession.

Instead of raising the fee’s reduce the amount of credit available to students, this would force them to start to make the transition into adulthood in a more focused and stimulated way. This will ultimate provide a much better class of person coming out of university, one that is hard working, and knows what it feels like to work in the real world, rather than going out partying constantly.

Just my thoughts, what do you think?

Revise as you go along

When I was at school, I learnt that the more work you do at the time of first learning it, the less you generally need to do later. If there is ever anything that you don’t understand, it is important that you ask. If you don’t understand it at the beginning, you’re certainly not going to understand it when it comes to revising for the actual exam.

Everyday when you get home from school, you should take half an hour to read over everything you have done that day. You should do this before your homework, while the work is still fairly fresh in your mind. The way you mind works means that the more times you read through something, the more you will remember when you have to go back to it. The more that you remember at the beginning, the less stressful revision will be when you come to it at the end of the year.

When you reach the end of a topic, you should make a poster including all the information from that topic. You can use different colours and pictures, or just write in words; whichever you think may work best for you. Once you’ve made the poster, you should file it away for you to look at nearer exam time.

Don’t leave it until the last minute

As much as you think you might be okay if you just read over your notes the night before, chances are you won’t be. I would recommend that you start revision three months before the exam. If you can’t put in the amount of time that I recommend, just do as much as you can. I would warn you to be careful however, as it’s easy to be lazy about revision and end up having to cram in the very last week. I will break down the time for you below to show how much you should be doing:

3 months before the exam:

-Spend half an hour per week revising each subject (or if you are doing A Levels, each module.)

-Begin by going through your notes and summarising them into shorter notes. Make sure that you understand what you’re writing as you go along, and go and see a teacher if you have any questions. It is a lot easier to revise from shorter notes, so if you spend a little time doing this now, you won’t have endless sheets of paper when you finally get to the exam.

-While you’re revising for each subject, you should display the posters that you made (at the end of each topic, as described above) in your bedroom, and read through them each night before you go to bed. It might only take you five minutes, but will make a big difference in the long term, as you will remember the information a lot more easily.

2 months before the exam:

-At this point, you should be increasing your revision to about 45 minutes for each subject/module per week. Even though this might not seem like a lot, you will get everything done, as you started revision very early.

-If you are still at the stage of summarising your notes, you should use the time to complete this before moving onto the next stage.

-When you’ve summarised all of your notes, you are ready to begin the next stage of revision. For this stage, you will need a way of recording your voice. You can either use a dictophone or just your mobile phone to do this. You should start recording the notes that you have written onto the dictophone. You can either just read the notes, or read the point that you have made and then say a few things about that point. Once you’ve done this for all of your notes, you will be able to listen to it whenever you want to, meaning that you can revise on the bus, while you’re shopping or even while you’re in the bath! Because you have used your voice to read the notes, it allows your brain to process the information in a different way, so more of the information has been stored.

4 weeks before the exam:

-At this point, you should be trying out some sample exam questions. If you go onto the website of your exam board (ask your school/college if you’re not sure what this is) there will be all of the past questions from the past few years. You should print as many of these off as you can, and do one paper per subject/module during this week. You do not need to time yourself doing them- the point of doing this is to see what you do and don’t know. If there is a question that you don’t know, use your notes to answer it, and this will help the information to stay in your brain. You should find that you know quite a lot, as you will have revised in detail by this time.

-You should still be listening to the voice recordings that you made in the previous month whenever you have a bit of spare time, and you should be reading over your topic posters before you go to bed every night.

3 weeks before the exam:

-This week, you should be doing more exam questions, but this time giving yourself the amount of time actually allowed by the exam board. If you need to, you can still use your notes to answer the questions, but you shouldn’t have to do this very much by this point.

-Get together with some of your friends and test each other. By this, I mean that you should pick a topic, and have a debate about that topic. You should do this in the style of a television show, or just as a debate. This will help you to get facts into your head, as it will be a fun activity.

2 weeks before the exam:

-During this week, you should try to have a go at every single paper that you will have to attempt during exam time. You should do these under timed conditions with no distractions, and you should no longer have to use your notes. If you can’t answer a question by now, you should leave it out, and find the answer to it when you’ve completed the exam paper.

-You should download the mark schemes from the exam board websites and use them to see what grades you would have got. You should aim to get a grade above your predicted grades in all exams that you attempt, then you know that you have a little bit of breathing space should something go wrong in the actual exam.

1 week before the exam:

-This week, you should gather all of your notes together and simply read over and over them as much as you can. You should read a couple of points and cover them up, then try to repeat them to yourself and see how many you can remember. If you don’t remember one, you should repeat the process until you can remember everything.

The day before the exam:

-Today, you should read through your notes, but not panic. What you don’t know now, you most likely won’t know in the actual exam either. If you’ve followed my tips, you should have learned pretty much everything that you need to, meaning that by this point you should be feeling confident about what you will be able to do in the exam.

The day of the exam:

-No matter how tempting it might seem at the time, you shouldn’t revise before an exam. The important thing is to relax and not overload your brain before you actually go in. If you spend the couple of hours before an exam relaxing, you will feel a lot better when you get in there.

Get enough sleep

You might think that you’re being a good student by staying up for hours on end at night doing revision, but sometimes it’s more important that you’re awake and alert during the day, so there’s really no point in staying up for too long. You should get at least 8 hours sleep per night, and ensure that you have at least a couple of extra hours at the weekends, leaving you refreshed and able to cope with the week ahead of you.

Improve your diet

If you don’t have your 5 a day at the moment, then around exam time is the best time that you could pick. A lot of people eat whilst revising, so you should try to eat fruit rather than chocolate. While chocolate might make you feel awake and alert, it might actually slow your brain down and prevent it from storing information as effectively. If you eat healthily, your brain will keep hold of more information.

Try to save up a little before you get to university. If you can even save up a couple of hundred pounds, it will help towards food and things while you’re there. The whole of your loan will be taken up with your rent, so don’t be under any illusion that you’ll be ‘rich’ while you’re at university.

You will get homesick, but it won’t be for long.

If this is the first time that you’ve ever lived away from your home, then it’s inevitable that you will get a little homesick. Don’t worry if you do, but until you start to feel better, avoid home visits, as they will make you feel worse when you get back after them. You should throw yourself into all of the activities that are available to you, and you will find that the homesickness will wear off as soon as you realise just how amazing your next three years are going to be!

Your first week of lectures will be a complete let down.

You have to be prepared for this one. They will all be the same, and make the course sound much less interesting than you ever thought it would be. You may feel as though you want to drop out and not waste your money, as it wasn’t what you thought it would be, but hold on for a couple of weeks and you’ll find that things do get a lot more interesting.

The first time you go out with your flatmates, there will be a lot of awkward silences.

When I first started, I found that a lot of the time, there wasn’t really that much to say, as we didn’t know each other that well. You might feel as though you want to leave the halls as you don’t feel like you’re having as much fun as everyone else, but I promise you that things will get better. You should make a list in your head about possible conversations that you could have with people in case things get a little awkward while you’re trying to talk to them. Not many people think of doing this, but it’s the ones who do who get on better at the beginning. You will only have to act like this for a day or two, and then you’ll feel as though you’ve known each other for years.

All of your assignments will be due in on the same day.

The thing is with university, they want to have the assignments in to mark during the holidays, and it’s the same for all modules, so every single one will be due in at the same time. It doesn’t really matter though, as you have a lot of time to complete them. You just have to make sure that you do actually do the work that you need to do as you go along, and then you won’t have to waste very much time cramming for assessments, as you will have learnt it already, leaving you able to concentrate on assignments and essays at crucial times in the term.

You don’t get taught.

In your lectures, which are normally one per module per week, you will get given a lot of information on which you have to make notes. Apart from this, you will be expected to do a lot of reading around the subject to do your assignments, with very little help from your tutors. As soon as you get used to this approach, you will find everything a lot easier. The problem is just that it is a lot different to school and college, so some people will panic when they realise that they have to do a lot for themselves. You will get used to this.

Your old friends will change.

If you’re all going to different places in the country, it stands to reason that you’re going to pick up different accents, attitudes and interests than the ones you had when you were back home. It’s often the people who move the least distance who are hit hardest by this, as they feel that their friends have all changed, and they haven’t changed at all. You will have made a lot of new friends at university though, so you shouldn’t worry too much about this. It’s unlikely that they will have changed to the extent of you no longer having anything in common at all, so you should be able to meet up with them during the holiday times and still have a fair bit of fun in their company!

Your relationships will need a lot more effort.

If you have a boyfriend or a girlfriend, going to university can put your relationship under a lot of strain. They may get jealous if you’re moving and they’re not, leading to them behaving a little differently, and maybe even talking about ending the relationship. It may be hard to accept this now, but if your relationship can’t stand the distance, then you might as well end it, as you will no doubt encounter larger problems than this. If you can stand the distance then you have to trust your partner, as it is vital that you know they’re not going to betray you whilst you’re away at university. For some people, the distance can strengthen the relationship, and everyone is different, so just be prepared for whatever may happen.

People will steal your food

No matter how many times you write your name on your food in permanent marker and capital letters, people will still steal your food. Usually, it will be things like milk, bread and cereal, and they can often go missing without you even noticing it, which is how they get away with doing it. To help stop this from happening, you should try to keep cereal, crisps, biscuits and teabags (basically anything that doesn’t absolutely have to be in the fridge) in your room where only you can get hold of them. Even if you become close friends with those in your flat, there will still be someone who is stealing your food sometimes without you even knowing it.

Don’t agree to share food.

Sharing milk, bread and cereal may seem like a good idea at the time, but it might actually not be. The thing is, if you share them, the same person or couple of people will buy them every time, and some will never have to buy anything. And, believe it or not, they will actually get away with it for the whole year! I will admit that it makes sense to share milk, as it goes sour quickly, but certainly for every other food I would advise that you kept to buying your own.

There will be one person in your flat that makes things awkward for everyone else.

If you’re lucky enough to get on with even a couple of your flatmates then it’s really good. If you think about it, the likelihood of you getting on with them is very slim, as you are put into flats with people doing different subjects with very different interests to yourself. Often, there will one person who is very different to the rest and will cause a lot of problems and maybe even make things awkward. What you should do in this situation is basically grin and bear it. You only have to put up with them for one year, so it isn’t really that much of a problem. Plus, you’ll be at lectures at different times, and you’ll only have to put up with them during the evenings anyway. You could always make your excuses and go to visit a friend in another flat.

University will be the best time of your life

I know that I have pointed out all of the negative aspects of university life above, but it will be the best time of your life. You will enjoy going out partying, quiet nights in, a lot of shopping, independence, your new friends and your course. If you manage your time and money, university can really be amazing, and you can get an awful lot from it.

In-class time versus preparing-for-class time

In higher education, a fairly standard formula is applied to time in class versus class preparation:  For every hour a student spends in class, he is expected to spend two to three hours studying and preparing for that class.  So, if your child is taking a full load, he may be in the classroom only 12-15 hours a week. Under the formula, your child should also be spending a minimum of 24 to 30 hours preparing for class and studying.  On the high side of the formula, that would go up to 36 to 45 hours in preparation.

Maybe your child has too little free time? 

Consider the freshman who plans a pre-med course of study.  At most schools, this will require that he take two pre-med related courses per semester.  If he enrolls in both a Biology and a Chemistry course, he will be in class three hours a week, with at least two hours in labs and possibly yet another several hours in a study group. Each science/lab class consumes about 14 hours in class; multiply that by two and then add in additional study time.  Those two science classes are almost a full time job…yet he still needs to take two other classes. 

Time mangement skills are critical

Most schools offer workshops, seminars and other materials designed to help students adjust to their new calendar.  George Mason University offers “Academic Skills Workshops” in study strategies, exam strategies, concentration and motivation.  Virginia Tech offers similar workshops online. Wake Forest University’s  Learning Assistance Center (LAC) offers similar training, including increasing reading speed.  James Madison University’s online Learning Toolbox offers help with organization and advanced thinking in addition to test taking, note taking and writing.  In the next week alone, The College of William and Mary has five strategic learning workshops scheduled.

Is your child reading and writing effectively?

Academic success is tied to directly to the ability to read and write effectively.  Amherst College offers students The Writing Center where they can review a specific assignment with a mentor, attend workshops, and receive instruction on writing skills.  Graduate and undergraduate students trained in writing will meet with students for up to an hour at Georgetown’s Writing Center.  There are three writing workshops scheduled in the upcoming week at Christopher Newport University’s Alice Randall Writing Center.

Help is out there

Managing all that “free” time is a challenge for college students and one that doesn’t always come naturally.  Colleges and universities commit resources to providing help for students.  If your child is finding the adjustment challenging, encourage him to take advantage of the services available on campus.

If you consider entering your submission, the principal information may be found here together with useful links. You should be aware that there are no exceptions made to the rules. If you are not a postgraduate student, don’t even bother to apply. It is also stipulated that the study chosen must be in the interest of Indonesian development, and certain types of studies are completely excluded, e.g. hotel management or fine arts.

To tick off the main points on the fast: You must be an Indonesian citizen, under 35, hold an university degree, and speak one of the national languages German, French, or Italian. The choice of your university in Switzerland is dependent on the national language you are proficient in. Within the language groups, different universities have different specialities; studying the individual information on each university homepage is therefore a necessary task to do first, as you must be accepted by the university of your choice before applying for the grant.

If your proficient language is Italian, you should study at the ‘Università della Svizzera Italiana’. If you know German, you have the choice of universities at Basel, Bern, Luzern, St. Gall, Zurich, and the Federal Technical University in Zurich. And for the French speaking, the universities of Fribourg, Geneva, Lausanne, Neuchatel, and the Federal Technical University in Lausanne are part of the choice open to students. There are specialized courses in English only, if you don’t know any of the languages, but you will be required to take part in a language course in preparation. This course is also covered by the grant.

Some universities have specialities that even I know of, e.g. St. Gall is leading for studies in economics, Fribourg is leading in Catholic Theology, and Basel is leading in Orthopaedic Medicine; Basel is also a Papal university where the studies in Catholic Church Law is possible. The Federal Technical University in Zurich in turn is involved in many avant-garde technical projects such as Solar Impulse or the Monte Rosa Hut.

If you want to know a bit about the university cities, I have submitted several articles in Triond’s Trifter on Basel, Bern, Geneva, Lausanne, St. Gall, and Zurich. For information on Fribourg, Lugano, Luzern, and Neuchatel I’ll have to do some work first, but I promise to post on them soon. Rest assured that they are just as lovely and exotic places as any of the others.

Many jobs that will be available in five years have not yet been thought of! A number of jobs that are available now will disappear over the next five years. We live in a world of ever accelerating change where opportunity is presented often. Having said that, it is not wise to jump at every opportunity. A wise man once said “the opportunity of a lifetime is presented every two weeks”. Careful thought and planning and a good dose of self reflection will help to identify opportunities suitable to pursue.

How often do your hear people say “I should have done….”? Well as the saying goes – Just Do IT! If it means taking a course or going back to school or evening college there is no time like the present to make that decision!

1. Choose the subjects you like because they challenge you and you are interested in them.

   Preparation to undertake that first university course starts some years before the last year of school. The subjects chosen in the last few years of school are an influence, though not always critical, on what you will go on to study at university. For readers who are reading this article in advance of subject choices at school keep this in mind. Choose subjects that you like because this increases your chances of being interested, motivated and successful at school, and this in turn increases your choice of universities and courses that you will find interesting.

   If you are returning to study as a mature aged student do not concern yourself with what you did at high school – focus on what you are interested in NOW!

2. Try not to think of a particular job, rather think of a field of interest to aim for.

   If you have an idea of what you like and are interested in and can apply that to a career field you are stepping in the right direction. Look around you and watch what people are doing in their work, and think about whether you would like to do the same or similar. Visit places where you can see yourself working, places you are interested in. Ask the people who work there what they do every day. Most jobs will have a mundane element to them, the bookwork, the routines, the systems. Find out how much time people spend on these things. Movies and television tend to focus on the dramatic and exciting and neglect to show the routine tasks. Speak to people about their work; your friends who are working, your family, parents of friends, people you come across.

3. Vocational versus academic courses.

   Most universities will offer both options. The vocational options are designed to move you directly into a career on graduation. Examples are teaching, nursing, engineering. Other courses will provide you with a broad range of skills that might be applied across a number of careers. Examples are Communications, Arts, Computing. Studying these may mean you are prepared for more than one job – you will have choices available.

4. Combined Courses

   If you are not sure exactly what you are interested in but have narrowed the field to a couple of options it may be possible to combine your courses. Examples may be Industrial Relations and Law, Economics and Finance, Geology and Engineering. Once you have studied at university level in two areas of interest you generate several more employment options.

5. Work experience

   Many young people will delay their entry to university so they can go out and experience the world of work, earn some money and gain some independence. Often in this period of time people will come across an area of employment they may never have considered previously – something they knew nothing about. It is a good idea to try out your area of interest. Liking pictures of horses and riding them all day is vastly different to performing operations on them as vets do. And yet some people have decided they would like to be a vet simply because they like animals. Vets often see the saddest side of animal life and need to have more than an infatuation with things cuddly and cute!

And the last little tip is not to put too much pressure on yourself. People under pressure make some very strange decisions and then feel they need to ride them out. This often leads to a disappointing result – So relax – the rest of your life lays ahead of you, allow it to flex around you and sculpt you to what you will be best at.

Look up the different clubs and societies available in your university / college and join the ones you would be interested in. It is a great way to meet people with similar interests as you.

Don’t Sit By Yourself

Sitting by yourself can give the impression that you don’t want anyone to talk to you. Try to sit next to people during lectures and strike up a conversation about the lecture/ the course / the class, it is something that you would definitely have in common and makes it easy to break the ice.

The Clothes Make the Man/Woman

We can normally tell if we are going to like or dislike people by how they look, we don’t mean too, it’s just something people do.

Don’t Try to Be Something You’re Not

Try to wear items that reflect you’re inner self. If you like a band wear a t-shirt with your favourite band logo on it. Don’t be frightened to express yourself, you could be surprised who else likes the same things as you.

Some students can not travel back home for the holidays. This should not be considered something so terrible, and can be turned into something great with the right frame of mind. Canada celebrates Thanksgiving in October, then Christmas two months later, many families can not afford to fly them back twice in a limited amount of time.

Some suggestions for the student who might not be able to make it home for the holidays;

Contact a Local Church

Many churches offer these Thanksgiving meals at no cost. You can come as a guest, or try something different and express your thanks this year by volunteering to serve the meal, or another job they might have for you to do. You still get fed when volunteering, and you will meet a wonderful bunch of people.

Guidance Counselor

Speak to the guidance counselor at your school first. Ask them if they know of any local families hosting students for the meal. Ask them for suggestions and leads.

Bulletin Boards on Campus

Most Colleges have a bulletin board, check to see what is posted. If nothing is placed up, why not walk on the wild side and host your own idea? Meeting with other students in a restaurant, or ask your college of the rooms that can be used on campus. Keep it clean, no alcohol, and keep it down to a dull roar.

A Quiet Night

Another idea is to have a quiet night instead. Treat yourself to a nice take in Chinese meal, a long hot bath, and a good book or movie. A phone call to your family afterwards will work to cure the blues. Once you become older you get to realize that a quiet night is hard to come by.

As a student you can make your time away from home on Thanksgiving to be frugal minded and better for the environment in the long run. Planes are toxic on earth, and to expensive to use when you are saving for education.

Consider making a change this year and getting creative with your Thanksgiving without the blues, and contributing to the environment by parking your car and plane for that weekend.