I want to write this down clearly before I go any further, because this question is the reason this project exists.
Over the last few months, I kept noticing something that did not sit right with me. I would hear college students talk about their schools, and the stories did not line up the way I expected them to. Two students could attend the same college, take similar classes, and arrive with similar preparation, yet describe their experience in completely different ways. One would talk about feeling supported, challenged in a good way, and excited to learn. Another would describe the same place as stressful, overwhelming, or quietly discouraging.
At first, I assumed the explanation was simple. Maybe one student worked harder. Maybe one was more motivated. Maybe one was just better prepared. But the more I listened, the less convincing that explanation felt. In many cases, the differences were not about effort or ability. They were about how the environment interacted with the person inside it.
That observation became more concrete after watching the movie Trading Places with my family. The movie exaggerates the idea that if you change someone’s environment, the person changes too. It is meant to be funny, but the idea underneath it stayed with me. College is almost the opposite situation. The environment stays fixed. Students are carefully selected. On paper, the match should work. And yet, people experience the same system very differently.
This led me to the question I am trying to understand:
When the environment stays the same, why does it affect people differently?
I am not asking this to criticize colleges or to argue that some students are doing things wrong. I am asking it because I think we talk about college in a very outcome focused way. Rankings, admissions chances, and prestige dominate the conversation. Those things matter, but they do not explain what daily learning actually feels like. They do not explain why the same structure can quietly help some students thrive while placing strain on others.
This project does not start with answers. It starts with listening.
My plan is simple. I will talk to college students and ask the same set of questions each time. I will pay attention to what feels easy for them, what feels hard, and where they feel supported or on their own. When I speak with more than one student from the same college, I will compare their experiences to see what stays consistent and what changes.
Right now, nothing has been proven. No data has been collected. No patterns have been confirmed. This is only the framing of the question and the decision to take it seriously.
Writing this down matters because it keeps me honest. If I lose sight of the question, this post is here to remind me why I started. If the question changes over time, I want to be able to see how and why it changed.
The next step is to move from noticing to observing. That means designing the questions I will ask, deciding how to record what I hear, and beginning the first conversations that will eventually give this question something solid to rest on.