Moving On Up

Although Expos complaints echo annually throughAnnenberg Hall, the first-year dining hall, thestudy showed that most were "satisfied with theiroverall academic experience." Many cited Expos asa valuable class that taught them to read and edittheir own work critically.

Preliminary results from the sophomore yearshow that students who have completed thetransition from high school to college-levelwriting are now refining the writing tools neededfor their particular academic concentrations.

Students who are happy with their choice ofconcentration and who are enrolled in a sophomoretutorial generally express a "sense ofexcitement."

Students without a concentration or a sophomoretutorial usually characterize themselves in theinterview as "just taking the course without asense of belonging," Sommers says.

The study has also shown, she says, that theprocess of writing is directly related tolearning.

Students "don't just learn the material betterby writing; they also begin to take the materialon, to make connections that they hadn't seenbefore, to bring their own ideas to bear on whatthey're reading" Walk says.

"Doing this kind of critical, independentthinking is what a liberal arts educations is allabout," she adds.

Sommers says that she was surprised withstudents' passion for writing and its importanceto them--and with just how much students write.

She also says she was intrigued to note thatstudents' responses to new ways of writing wasrelated to the ways students resist and adjust tocollege life.

Students who tended to balk at changing theirwriting styles also tended to have a moredifficult transition to other aspects of collegelife. "They want to hold on to the methods thatgot them [to Harvard]," she says.

She adds that perhaps the biggest surprise camein realizing "how large a transition it is" tocollege and "how many new things students juggle.