Mental Health, Happiness, and College Choice

Here are a couple things I’m thinking about this week in the world of higher education, and the additional reading that goes with these thoughts. 

Mental Health and Education          

Yesterday, an impressive guest spoke to our juniors and seniors about mental health and addiction.  Among many powerful themes, she touched on achievement pressure in private schools.  This is an increasingly anxious generation of students.  High-achieving kids and affluent communities aren’t immune; in fact, they suffer higher levels of anxiety, depression, and substance abuse.  And it’s too easy to just blame smart phones, or social media, or safe spaces.  Maybe it’s the way kids are taught to “do school.”  If there are ways to improve the lives of our high school students, we should take them seriously.  And that needs to go beyond teaching coping skills and symptom management.  Shouldn’t we examine our systems, structures, and educational models so that engagement doesn’t so dramatically plummet over high school?  These are timely questions considering our school-wide theme of mental health this year.  There’s no magic bullet, but I especially like the work of Stanford’s Denise Pope and Madeline Levine as a starting point for the conversation. 

Behavioral Economics and College Choice

People tend to discount long-term satisfaction in favor of short-term happiness.  We’re just not very good at predicting what’s likely to bring us sustaining contentment and meaning, which is something different than momentary, fleeting pleasure.  Economist Tyler Cowen suggests that it’s becoming easier and easier to choose the short-term dopamine burst over the more meaningful long-term investment.  I’d extend his discussion to wonder if this impacts how students choose colleges.  If kids are more likely to choose short-term pleasure in other parts of their lives, are they also more likely to look for the most fun freshman year instead of an intellectually stimulating (and more challenging, though perhaps more rewarding) four-year experience?  Could that type of thinking correlate with the debate over college as a time of thoughtful growth and exploration (long-term satisfaction via personal development) versus a return-producing investment (short-term happiness via higher income)?  And in the end, is the highest return on your investment (with return measured by future income, status, power, or some combination of those) really a recipe for a life well-lived?  Or, at least, a satisfying and fulfilling life?  Maybe not.  In short, what, if anything, does our relatively poor ability to predict future happiness mean for college choice?