The more I work with data about college student success, the more I am convinced about the integral role of student affairs in all facets of helping students succeed.
We often hear about the economic returns of college. They’re high for Illinois State University (ISU) graduates. The returns are high for almost everyone. Most of the literature, however, focuses on the returns to academic programs.
I was curious about the association between student involvement and earnings for ISU graduates. Lo and behold – there’s a compelling association.
So what’s going on? A few months ago, I ran an analysis of GPA and post-graduate earnings. There isn’t a strong association. High GPA ISU graduates – the blue dots – start their career with higher earnings. The C and B graduates – the yellow dots – overtake their higher GPA colleagues in earnings around year seven (the vertical grey bar).
One hypothesis is that students who spend a lot of time in co-curricular activities learn interaction skills that are highly valued by employers in the long term. And as the second chart demonstrates, high GPA students do spend less time in co-curricular activities.
Translating into action, I would reinforce to students the importance of involvement and learning how to interact with others through co-curricular programs. Get involved. Find your people.
This isn’t about being extraverted. Introverts can learn collaboration and interaction skills as well. It will just be with less frequency and they’ll be more selective. I fear introverted college students get the message there’s some value in being alone and being isolated. There isn’t. It’s terrible for student success. Time for solitude is good, though.
