In new book on college life, Jay Hamilton says students have more freedom than they know

When the late Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, ’50, LLB ’52, was a Stanford student focused on a law career, her parents were more concerned about her marriage prospects. Businesswoman, politician, and Stanford undergraduate alum Carly Fiorina, ’76, followed in her father’s footsteps and enrolled in law school, but dropped out when she discovered she was more interested in business.

“Both followed their interests rather than the expectations of their parents or society, and both were spectacularly successful,” said Jay Hamilton, Stanford’s vice provost for undergraduate education and the Hearst Professor of Communication in the School of Humanities and Sciences.

Hamilton said the lesson here is: Don’t live another’s script.

It’s one of many pieces of wisdom offered in his new book, You Got In! Now What? 100 Insights into Finding Your Best Life in College, in which he shares the aha moments that helped successful people, including many Stanford alumni and faculty, navigate their college years and set them up for fulfilling lives.

Released in March, You Got In! Now What? is Hamilton’s 11th book and the first written for students attending or pursuing college. Each insight serves as a single chapter title, followed by a brief essay – a format inspired by The Art of Simple Living, by Shunmyo Masuno.

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Hamilton said, “A key theme of this book is that you have more freedom than you know,” as illustrated in Chapter 13: Choosing your major is not choosing your career. He explained that students often feel extreme pressure to choose a major that will correlate with an occupation. But Federal Reserve data show that only about a quarter of Americans are in careers that directly relate to their undergraduate majors. In other words, a major does not lock a student into a single path forever.

“That link between major and career isn’t as strong as people believe,” he said. “In fact, 93% of employers say that what they care about is your ability to think critically and communicate ideas, rather than what your particular major was.”

In Chapter 30, Develop critical thinking skills, Hamilton writes that “The best classes teach you how to think, not what to think.” He cites former Yale University President Richard Levin, ’68, who defined a liberal education, in part, as “the ability to think independently, to regard the world with curiosity and ask interesting questions, to subject the world to sustained and rigorous analysis …” adding that this skill can free a person “from prejudice, superstition, and dogma.”

One of Hamilton’s favorite insights came from the mother of U.S. Senator Cory Booker, ’91, MA ’92. In his first year of law school, Booker struggled to define the next step of his life, so she asked him What would you do if you could not fail? (Chapter 35).

“That question unstuck him,” Hamilton said. “It helps you think about what’s important to you. Even if you do end up failing, you’re going to be stronger and wiser because of it.”

Hamilton also writes about the experiences and advice of Stanford faculty, including engineer Bernard Roth, legal scholar Pamela Karlan, and biologist Robert Sapolsky. Stanford psychology professor Carol Dweck’s scholarship is the basis for insight No. 23, Grow a growth mindset, which is about “realizing that when you’re facing a challenge, it’s not a referendum on your abilities. It’s a chance for you to stretch and grow,” Hamilton said.

That link between major and career isn’t as strong as people believe.”

Jay Hamilton

In Chapter 94, Don’t … pursue perfection, Hamilton writes that Gretchen Carlson, ’90 – the author, journalist, and former Miss America – received her first C grade in college. The experience taught her “that life wasn’t a series of perfect moves, that working hard was important, but that sometimes it didn’t create the desired result.”

Nike founder Phil Knight, MBA ’62, and actor Sterling K. Brown, ’98, are among the other notable alumni cited in the book.

Hamilton said the idea for the book was born during Stanford’s long-range vision planning process and continued to evolve during the creation of the COLLEGE program, at a time when he was thinking deeply about the value of a liberal education and how to help students thrive in college and beyond. Stanford faculty and alumni, he realized, had valuable perspectives to share.

In researching You Got In! Now What?, Hamilton read more than 300 books by Stanford affiliates and studied 40 years of Stanford Commencement addresses, Baccalaureate and Convocation speeches, as well as senior reflections published in the Stanford Daily. He partnered with cartoonist Jim Toomey, MLA ’97, who created the illustrations for each chapter.

“One of the most inspiring things about being at Stanford is helping students see that they really are the next generation of leaders in their fields,” Hamilton said. “If students read this book, and five of the lessons land with them, I’ll be really happy.”

“Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies 8,180 acres, among the largest in the United States, and enrols over 17,000 students.”

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