The College Experience

      I am a college student. That is to say, I live in a dormitory and attend classes on a college campus. But there is more to the definition of college student than simply paying tuition to a particular institution; being a college student implies that one is taking away from the university much more than the capital invested in it. A college student branches out into all fields of knowledge in order to grasp the whole of things. And while I believe it is easy at a large university like the University of Texas at Austin to overlook the larger picture that Newman describes, we as Plan II students have the unique opportunity to partake in Newman’s “Liberal Education,” or “this process of training, by which the intellect, instead of being formed or sacrificed to some particular or accidental purpose, some specific trade or profession, or study or science, is disciplined for its own sake, for the perception of its own proper object, and for its own highest culture” (Newman 312).

      I am also in the Business Honors Program. The business classes I will take in the future narrow in one particular study or profession: business. In Business Administration 101, we do not spend time knowing ourselves or getting in tune with nature. Therefore the education received from such classes is narrow-minded and do not properly train the intellect to see the world as a whole. The Liberal Arts schools of the Northeast like Vassar College and the Ivies (excluding U of Penn) do not offer schools of business because business does not offer in its curriculum the greater understanding of society. I count myself lucky to be able to be a Plan II student and grasp this concept in addition to focusing in on one single field in the business school. Notice the difference between action within the Business school (below) and our Plan II class (above).

Yet the University of Texas offers a special blend of programs like Plan II and the Liberal Arts in addition to Business and Medicine. The university offers programs to fulfill Peter T. Flawn’s idea that “public universities exist to serve society” (Flawn 306). While Newman’s Liberal Education is of utmost importance for the college experience in what a student takes away from his or her time there, fields like business and medicine are extremely important and beneficial to society. Advances in medicine promote the general welfare and health of the society, and business prosperity greatly increases the economy of the society’s state of being. Thus, I feel that I am adequately prepared to enter the world with a broad mindset of things after my four or five years here at the University of Texas. Plan II will have disciplined and trained my intellect according to Newman’s theories, and my time in the Business School will prepare me for a successful career. But the question remains: which education will I use more. While I will use my business knowledge in my role as a businessperson, I will use my Plan II knowledge as a human being. That is why I am a student at the University of Texas at Austin. To hone this knowledge.