Hacking College: Why the Major Doesn't Matter-and What Really Does

by Ned Scott Laff, Scott Carlson

Overview

How college faculty and staff can help students "hack" their college experience through a proactive, personalized approach to success.

College is a complex, high-stakes game, according to authors Ned Scott Laff and Scott Carlson, but students can learn how to win it. Hacking College offers college advisors, faculty, and staff in student and academic affairs a groundbreaking guide to rethinking higher education so that students can succeed in an increasingly complex world. Drawing from extensive research and real student experiences, this essential book exposes the hidden challenges and bureaucratic traps that undermine student success, from convoluted transfer processes to a single-minded emphasis on majors.

Each chapter provides actionable strategies to help advisors lead students to tailor their education to their aspirations. Through vivid case studies, Laff and Carlson advocate for a proactive approach to education—encouraging students to "hack" their college experience by crafting a personalized field of study. This method challenges the traditional focus on declaring a major and empowers students to link their personal interests with academic pursuits so that their education aligns with future career and life goals.

Enriched with insights on how to find underutilized institutional resources and foster meaningful mentor relationships, Hacking College encourages students, educators, and institutions to transform passive educational experiences into dynamic journeys of discovery and self-fulfillment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421450766
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	02/25/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Ned Scott Laff spent 35 years in academic affairs at a range of public and private institutions, working toward curriculum development and student success. Scott Carlson is a senior writer for the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Ned Scott Laff spent 35 years working in academic affairs at a range of public and private institutions toward curriculum development and student success.
Scott Carlson is a senior writer for the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Table of Contents

Introduction, by Scott Carlson
1. The Blank Spaces
2. The Curricular Maze
3. The Wicked Problem
4. The Hidden Job Market
5. The Liberal Arts and Field of Study
6. Hacking College
7. Visible Students and Agile Institutions
Acknowledgements
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

People come to college eager to be treated like humans, not numbers. Hacking College explains how to do that while helping students craft meaningful learning experiences that will propel the rest of their lives. Every professor, provost, and advisor should read it.
—Sara Goldrick-Rab, author of Paying the Price: College Costs, Financial Aid, and the Betrayal of the American Dream

Hacking College is a must-read for anyone in and around higher education who seeks to empower students to craft their own, more meaningful college-to-career pathways. Academic and career advising are both in dire need of an overhaul. Laff and Carlson show us the way forward. An excellent read, timely and important, as higher ed seeks to rebuild trust, confidence, and perceived relevance.
—David Rosowsky, Senior Advisor to the President, Arizona State University

With fresh thinking and compelling stories, Carlson and Laff show how colleges can empower students to secure meaningful work opportunities and careers. Hacking College offers the student-centered change agenda that higher education needs now.
—Daniel R. Porterfield, author of Mindset Matters: The Power of College to Activate Lifelong Growth

College degrees must represent more than jumping over a series of hurdles on the way to getting a credential for employment. Unfortunately, for too many students, the experience of college as a place to develop their intellectual, emotional, and, yes, economic potential is missing. Hacking College shows the way to ending the era of 'empty' college degrees.
—John Warner, author of Why They Can't Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities

The authors introduce us to a method they call 'Field of Study'—focusing on a wicked multidisciplinary problem of deep interest to the student—and argue that it should center the student's college experience. There is so much in this innovative book that needs to be heeded by students, faculty, administrators, and policymakers. Anyone doubting the value of a college degree will have their mind changed.
—David J. Staley, author of Alternative Universities: Speculative Design for Innovation in Higher Education and Knowledge Towns: Colleges and Universities as Talent Magnets

Editorial Reviews

The authors, a veteran college adviser and a reporter for the Chronicle of Higher Education, deploy compelling anecdotes of students (mostly from marginalized backgrounds and attending noneliteschools) finding pathways through college into productive and rewarding lives by pursuing goals that emerge from their genuine concerns.
—David Perry, Washington Post

From the Publisher