Get involved
It's that bit of advice students have continuously heard since orientation.
And as a new class of students enters CMU, new sets of ears will hear the message and hopefully not ignore it.
Attending classes is well and good, but a full collegiate experience does not begin and end at the classroom door.
From social fraternities and sororities to religious organizations to political groups to organizations who put on events, campus offers ample opportunities to meet any student's tastes.
The standard argument for campus involvement proceeds roughly as follows: Students should do stuff so that they are not bored all the time, and so that they develop a more intimate relationship with their university and the community. It's an apt way to explore their interests, too.
Underlying this advice is a concern with a threat present especially among freshmen: student apathy.
With the burden of coursework and other newfound worries hoisted on their shoulders, it may seem all too tempting to seclude themselves when class is done.
This, of course, can lead to depression and other more severe problems. But even if it doesn't, an apathetic disposition is far from beneficial. It cuts short a student's personal development.
People change during college. It's expected. But whether a student's change is significant or helpful - whether the person matures or feels more confident - depends largely on his or her decisions, which are severely limited by only attending class.
Students are here to learn, but unless they are engaged, they do not learn in that rich, formative sense. Being involved is a way to make college a time to remember rather than a time during which one earned a degree and had little money.
