Money or meaning?

Evelyn Rodriguez points to a post on The Melheimian Sabbatiblog spotlighting an annual study of college freshman. This year, making lots of money is more important to college freshman than it has been in years, and the perceived importance of developing a meaningful philosophy is low.

....American Freshman Survey, an annual study released today by UCLA. The survey, which has been conducted for 38 years, is the longest-running assessment of student attitudes and plans. .....interest in being "very well off financially" was at 73.8%, the highest level in 13 years.

Fewer than 40% of current college freshmen believe it is important to develop a meaningful philosophy. The absence of introspection is a far cry from the peak year of 1967, when 86% of freshmen said it was important to find a meaningful life philosophy.

Evelyn's take on it is that there is no cause for alarm - that's just the stage in life where college students tend to be. She would have answered the same at that age.

When I think back to myself as a college freshman, I would most definitely have answered with a focus on being "very well off financially," and next to zero interest in developing a meaningful life philosophy. Funny how things change.

I call the first ten years out of college the incubation period. When people come out of college, there is a bit of a rose colored glasses effect on what they think that career is all about. It generally takes a few years of work world experience for people to start to realize, "Wait a minute...there has to be more than this."

I once gave a passion talk to a group at my old school, Pacific Lutheran University. It was made up of both students and alumni. As I made various points, I saw heads in the audience bobbing up and down in agreement. It wasn't until later that I realized that every single head that had been bobbing belonged to an alum. The students just didn't have the frame of reference yet to really get the full impact of what I was saying.

So while I would be delighted to see the statistics above flip-flopped, it doesn't worry me much. People have a funny way of growing into who they will become, and it happens when they're ready.

Curt Rosengren
Passion Catalyst ^SM

Comments

[Abhishek]

As a recent college grad I completely agree with you. Two years out of grad school and I am right in the middle of this phase of finding a meaningful life. Corporate America just doesn't cut it. There's gotta be something more!

I have been lurking on your blog for a while and its been a valuable introspection and search (for meaning) tool. Please keep up the good work.