Reframing the Well-Rounded ~ Spiky Continuum as the Dabbler ~ Devoted Continuum

Each admissions cycle, undergraduate admissions officers craft an incoming class of individuals whose diverse backgrounds, experiences, and interests meet the institution’s needs, ensuring that its programs can run and its budgetary priorities are met. An additional benefit of enrolling such a diverse group is that, through daily interactions students learn from one another and grow and develop as learners and people. Therefore, it is reasonable to surmise that each class should be well-rounded so that the campus community will be well-rounded as well, benefiting all stakeholder groups: the faculty, the staff, and the students.

Before exploring how admissions officers assemble a well-rounded class and campus community, it is important to note that the vast majority of colleges and universities implement general education or distribution requirements to expose students to a broad and diverse array of subjects thereby helping them become well-rounded learners, thinkers, and communicators. Despite the long lists of specific majors, minors, and certificate programs, colleges and universities are in the “well-rounded” business and always have been.

Since its nascent beginnings in antiquity and further refinement in the Middle Ages, the Liberal Arts Curriculum has sought to free the minds of students by exposing them to a broad yet well-defined set of disciplines:

• The Language Arts: thinking and communicating

  • Grammar—reading, writing, and the working structure of language

  • Logic—reasoning and evaluating arguments

  • Rhetoric—writing and speaking effectively and persuasively

• The Mathematical Arts: quantity and the physical world

  • Arithmetic (pure numbers)—the essence of numbers and how they relate to and interact with each other

  • Geometry (numbers in space)—measuring and defining space by establishing dimensions and shapes

  • Music (numbers in time)—melody, harmony, and the mathematical relationships of acoustics that serve to distinguish sound from noise

  • Astronomy (numbers in space and time)—the mechanics of stars, planets, moons, comets, and other celestial bodies

Whether the earliest college students went on to become members of the clergy, teachers, or merchants—the advent of training farmers, ranchers, miners, and engineers came later during the Civil War with the passage of the Morrill Land Grant College Act of 1862—the purpose of the Liberal Arts, and therefore college itself, was, and arguably continues to be, to prepare graduates to become life-long learners who participate in civic life as informed citizens capable of navigating complexity and change. That students should also develop the tools and skills necessary to earn a living and prosper economically was not the goal; rather, it was a byproduct. The current focus on career preparation and return on investment often ignores the self-discovery and increased understanding and greater acceptance of those different from us that occur in, but especially outside the classroom, when college students live and learn alongside one another.

Today, the myriad array of subjects and disciplines that comprise a college education has expanded considerably—a natural consequence of Charles Eliot’s institution of the “Elective System” as President of Harvard in the late 19^th century—but continues to be organized into discrete categories that trace their origins to the Liberal Arts:

• The Humanities: human experience and creative expression

  • History—past events and the context in which they occurred

  • Literature & Language—reading, writing, classical and modern languages, and linguistics

  • Philosophy & Theology—Ethics, logic, historical and modern religions, and classical and modern philosophy

  • Visual & Performing Arts—drawing, painting, ceramics, sculpture, music, theatre, and dance

• The Social Sciences: human behavior, relationships, and institutions

  • Thought & Behavior—psychology, economics, business, and finance

  • Culture & Society—archeology, anthropology, ethnic and gender studies, geography, and sociology

  • Law & Politics—political science, international relations, and legal studies.

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math)

• Physical and Natural Sciences: scientific inquiry (observation and experimentation), the natural world, and physical laws

  • Biology—the study of life and the environment

  • Chemistry—the composition and structure of substances and how they change and interact

  • Physics—the fundamental forces that govern the motion and energy of objects

  • Earth Science—the Earth, its atmosphere, oceans, and interior

  • Astronomy & Cosmology—space, stars, planets, galaxies, and the universe

• Technology: computers, systems, networks, and software

  • Computer Science—creating, developing, and designing computational theories, algorithms, programming languages, artificial intelligence, and computer software

  • Information Technology—the maintenance and administration of computer hardware and software, networks, and systems

  • Cybersecurity—protecting IT infrastructure from unauthorized access

• Engineering: applying scientific and mathematical principles to design, build, and maintain structures, machines, devices, and systems

  • Civil—built environments, including buildings and transportation infrastructure

  • Mechanical—the forces and energy of objects, machines, and systems capable of movement

  • Electrical—electricity generation and distribution, computer hardware, electronic devices, and telecommunication hardware and networks

  • Chemical—converts raw materials into usable products: pharmaceuticals, solvents, detergents, herbicides, pesticides, and petroleum-based materials and products like plastics, and synthetic fibers and fabrics

  • Industrial—supply chain and manufacturing optimization and management

• Mathematics—the language of scientific inquiry to formulate, quantify, and test theories, laws, and principles, and to analyze data

  • Calculus—modeling continuous change

  • Discrete Math—distinct and separate whole values

  • Statistics—describing and displaying data to identify patterns to make predictions, informed decisions, and solve real-world problems

Regardless of how the academic disciplines are delineated and classified, and whether or not a college has a core curriculum with a set of experiences all students participate in and have in common, or general education requirements with some degree of choice, or an open curriculum that allows students to set their own academic paths, the sheer diversity of academic departments and programs, not to mention athletics and student clubs and organizations, all but ensures the campus community will be well-rounded.

A prevailing description of how to create a well-rounded campus community is the Well-Rounded~Spiky Continuum. At the Well-Rounded end, the class is composed of students whose various, yet balanced experiences complement each other. This method is akin to a collection of differently shaped river rocks with rounded edges, nooks, and crannies that interlock and fit together perfectly to form a circle. At the Spiky end, the class comprises specialized students who have distinguished themselves in a particular area. This approach is like a pizza or pie, cut into lots of little, tiny, narrow slices. In practice, most institutions operate somewhere along this spectrum, admitting a mix of well-rounded and spiky students.

In recent admissions cycles, an increasing number of undergraduate admissions offices have evaluated applicants based on their “fit to major.” That is, how well a prospective student’s academic coursework and extracurricular activities in high school align with what they intend to study and do in college. Looking at this trend, one might naturally infer that colleges and universities prefer “spiky” applicants. However, this conclusion is wrong. Despite the talent and expertise it conveys, a spiky application it is limited in scope; it hits one note rather than composing a harmonious melody.

Colleges want well-rounded applicants with diverse experiences who are committed to their passions. For example, the poet who relishes the physicality of playing linebacker on the football team and loves tweaking his meatloaf recipe in anticipation of cooking dinner at the local charity kitchen on the first Friday evening each month. Or the lead coder on the robotics team, who has danced ballet since she could walk, and enjoys knitting the dozens of wool socks she distributes to people experiencing homelessness each December. These fascinating and compelling young people demonstrate why a reframing of the Well-Rounded~Spiky Continuum as the Dabbler~Devoted Continuum is necessary.

Yes, college admissions process, particularly at highly rejective institutions, asks a lot of teenagers. Namely, to excel at just about everything they do. A demand, so unlike adult life and how economies work, where skilled experts provide the services that people lack the knowledge and ability to perform themselves, that it is patently unfair. Until the system changes, becoming a competent and capable generalist is the challenge college-bound students must face. Therefore, when families consider how the high school experience prepares students for college, it is better to facilitate the discovery and development of interests and passions than to focus on identifying the one thing that could set them apart. A practically futile task analogous to finding Waldo® in an image spanning six football fields.

The familiar phrase, “Jack of all trades, master of none,” which dates back to the late 18^th century, is typically used derisively to criticize someone who has not persisted long enough with something to become an expert. However, as explained above, the antidote is not to develop proficiency in one thing only and become a spiky one-trick pony. As a caution against drawing this conclusion, the phrase received a modern addendum, “but oftentimes better than a master of one.” The full phrase now reads, “Jack of all trades, master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one,” highlighting the costs and benefits of the Well-Rounded~Spiky Continuum when applied to the individual, where each extreme has its trade-offs. Such a comparative analysis becomes unnecessary when utilizing the Dabbler~Devoted Continuum, which is better understood as a developmental progression.

Constructing a plan to maximize the high school years is wise, not just for a successful college admissions process but to make going to school more enjoyable and meaningful for the student. 9^th and 10^th grade should be about exploration and trying many different new things, in and out of the classroom. The goal is to cultivate a better understanding of their learning style and identify what pursuits they want to invest their time and energy in. It is during these first two years that students should prioritize developing time management and study skills to enable their academic and extracurricular success in high school and beyond.

With good habits well established, 11^th and 12^th grade can be about honing one’s knowledge and skills in subjects and extracurriculars that resonate with the student, preparing them to assume leadership positions. Thus, dabbling is appropriate and encouraged early on, but must progress into devotion so that the student’s college application reflects a genuine commitment to their chosen activities.

Though the Well-Rounded~Spiky Continuum is likely to remain the best way to conceptualize how undergraduate admissions offices craft a class, the Dabbler~

Devoted Continuum is how students and their families should view the maturation toward being college-ready that happens as students advance through high school.