Four years at RPI earns each of us the right to walk across a stage and get handed a small piece of paper, which is supposed to represent all those years of hard work. To those who are just starting this long journey, that day seems too far away to imagine. Along this journey there are a lot of challenges and the biggest success of all is the ability to balance the work, activities, finances, future planning, and downtime.
The one thing that most people easily forget is a part of attending college is politics. It is easy to get so consumed by the daily tasks of homework and meetings that you forget to look at the bigger picture and realize that your interests are not at the heart of the school’s programs. Soon after this realization, which is not an easy one to come by, if you do achieve it before you leave, you start to learn that even the professors have ulterior motives. In the end, the biggest lesson taught at Rensselaer is that only you can take care of yourself, and politics abound in any environment that you will encounter.
Now most will come up with one example, possibly two, showing a professor who did go out of their way to help them out along the way. I will not say that these occurrences are impossibilities or that they cannot occur. I just feel that these are far outnumbered by those occasions where students are left by the wayside so professors can accomplish their specific intentions. These intentions may be worthwhile, but in a college setting it brings the question to mind of: Whose interests should we really be promoting?
If this problem can actually be solved I do not know, and how to go about solving it is beyond me. After recognizing it, though, I feel the community should be given at least a hint that it does exist. Most think that they are immune to such politics but it reaches everybody in the smallest of ways.
These realizations probably sound absurd to many, but hopefully there are a few out there nodding their heads in agreement. This then leaves students with one more task in their already overburdened baskets: to keep an eye out for the underlying politics.
I leave Rensselaer with these lessons and the many good memories that were formed outside of the political arena of RPI. The long journey does leave you with good friends and that lovely piece of paper that employers will want to see. So to those entering RPI this semester, be excited, but also be aware.
