Light and his colleagues have been interviewing Harvard students for over 10 years to identify the factors that make for a successful undergraduate career:

College is a holistic learning environment.  The experiences that affect students most profoundly typically occur outside of class.  Students appreciate connections between in-class and out-of-class activities, and effective instruction helps them make these connections.  Learning is most powerful when students can apply what they learn in class to their own lives.

Classes oriented to collaborative learning or team projects extend coursework outside of the classroom, establish learning as more of a social endeavor, and train students to appreciate their intellectual community.  Collaborative learning is often a hard sell to faculty who were explicitly prohibited from collaborating with classmates when they were students.  Light suggests classes scheduled before dinner so that the conversation from the class can carry over into the dinner discussion.  (Free dining hall meals for faculty as guests of students?)

Students generally prefer course that are highly structured, with quizzes and short assignments that yield quick feedback from the professor; they get frustrated when denied guidance on how to improve their academic performance.  The “one-minute write” at the end of each class has students (1) define the main point of the lecture and (2) articulate an unanswered question.  These exercises can be particularly helpful in getting students into focused writing.  They also promote better attention to lectures, identify areas of confusion to the instructor, and document that students are learning what they are supposed to learn.

When the university fosters a truly inclusive environment, diversity brings new perspectives to the academic dialog and greatly enriches the learning environment.  The necessary precondition for this is an atmosphere of goodwill and “civility” that accommodates all rational points of view in the discussion.  Civil discourse requires learning how to express disagreement without alienating people, and how to accept their disagreement without feeling alienated. True diversity brings great practical benefits: students develop better critical and analytical skills when then are exposed to different perspectives on issues.

Ironically, true diversity is undermined by confrontational debate, moral posturing, sanctimonious platitudes, bureaucratic enforcement of political correctness.  The university needs to engage students in teaching each other diversity: sharing culturally significant literature or arts.  It should encourage co-sponsorship of campus events by multiple student groups.

Students thrive academically when they have regular contacts with individual faculty members and/or small groups of other students in the context of substantive academic work.  A collaborative environment fosters sustained focus on a topic.  Students who do poorly are typically more isolated and less able to maintain focus for sustained periods of study.  They may compensate by dropping all extracurricular activities and becoming even more isolated. Unfortunately, these students are less likely to simply seek help from an advisor or professor.  Students who breezed through easy high school programs and never developed efficient study skills are at particular risk.  The first few weeks of college are critical for establishing a positive learning atmosphere.

Students value good writing and are more eager to improve their writing skills than most instructors realize.  Students will write more conscientiously for their peers in class than for the professor alone.  Students tend to engage much more strongly in classes with extensive writing requirements than classes lacking such requirements.  Student appreciation for good writing increases gradually: juniors and seniors are more receptive to editing, more sensitive to style, and more eager to find their writing “voice,” particularly when they are developing senior thesis or long research papers.  Students may be encouraged to critique each others’ writing.  Writing criticism teaches precision in choice of language.  Teaching good writing requires that students read good writing and develop an ability to imitate various writing styles.

Advisement is a critical student resource for guidance on study habits, time management, course selection, access to campus resources, etc.  Students who study in groups learn more efficiently and perform better than students who study alone.  They are also happier.

The freshman year is critical for establishing effective study habits, social skills and extracurricular interests. Most incoming freshmen are unaccustomed to thinking about how they should spend their time, but time budgeting is a critical prerequisite for success.  Light recommends a time-log exercise, recording how each half hour is spent for a week or two, then a de-briefing with an advisor.  Plan each day in separate parts: morning, afternoon, evening.

Course selection should consider student interests as well as curriculum requirements.  Freshmen often feel alienated when they only take large, impersonal intro courses to “get their requirements out of the way,” and don’t get to pursue their own interests in smaller, more personalized classes.  Students should be encouraged to start developing their own interests as soon as possible.

Light advises his own students: “Your job is to get to know one faculty member reasonably well this semester, and also to have that faculty member get to know you reasonably well.” One practical benefit is future reference letters.  But such relationships can also lead to enriching independent study and directed research opportunities specifically tailored for the individual student.  The advisor may challenge students to think about their fundamental goals, the real reasons they are going to college.

Students that develop one-on-one mentoring relationships with faculty in independent projects often report these are the most rewarding educational experiences of their college careers.  Small classes generate higher student satisfaction and higher GPA’s than large classes.  One-on-one classes (independent study, supervised reading/research) and small seminars are the most “intense” learning experiences, particularly when focused on some controversial issue.  Many colleges now encourage undergraduates to engage in one-on-one learning experiences with faculty, in which a directed reading or independent research program becomes a learning collaboration between student and faculty member.  These opportunities develop professionalism: for example, the student learns to “think like an economist,” develop the critical reasoning skills necessary to debate issues with the professor.

Extracurricular activities, volunteer community service and paid work all require students to develop effective time management strategies.  These activities also provide a social context for developing relationships with other students.  Students involved in one or more extracurricular activities (other than some varsity sports) have as good or better GPA’s than students who are more exclusively focused on coursework.  There is no correlation between hours of paid work or community volunteer work and GPA or student satisfaction with college.

Foreign languages elicit particular enthusiasm.  So do extracurricular performance arts.  Light doesn’t analyze this much, but both provide opportunities for self-discovery by affording students new means of self-expression.   Language classes are typically small, affording students good opportunity for close interaction with each other and the instructor.