The Only Time It Will Pay To Think at Harvard

While you spend days slaving away at that Ec 10 problem set or miss your third Thirsty Thursday in a row because you’re swamped with Life Sciences reading, do you ever wonder what your time is really worth? According to Interim President Derek C. Bok, $33.33 an hour is a good guess.

Forget working for dorm crew or Harvard Student Agencies. The College is offering freshmen a sweet $50 to participate in a one and a half hour “Critical Thinking Test.” Bok hopes to sign up 400 freshmen this October and 400 seniors this spring. According to an email to the class of 2010 that Bok sent on September 5th, the test aims “to measure our

contribution to students’ abilities to think critically, reason analytically, and communicate clearly.”

The college may have the lofty goal of discovering if our high tuition costs are actually accomplishing anything. But money seems to be the only motive for those who have signed up for the test.

“I took the exam this Wednesday because I just bought a pair of new shoes that I couldn’t afford and making $50 this week will make me feel better about it,” says Alison E. Occhialini ’10. “Plus, easy money makes me happy.”

But even with the $50 compensation, many students are still uninterested in participating. They claim they’re too bogged down with actual classwork or that they just aren’t motivated to leave their rooms.

“I would have done it if the test was offered online or had been delivered to my door,” says Koning Shen ’10.

So even after emails from both Bok and Dean of Freshmen Thomas A. Dingman ’67, test administrators are still looking for more students to participate. Maybe they will use their critical thinking skills to attribute 2010’s disinterest to a) apathy b) laziness c) agoraphobia d) bad timing or e) all of the above.