Christopher B. Nelson, president of St. John’s University and an outspoken proponent of the liberal arts, thinks that we are looking at the value of college all wrong and that “the lens of economics distorts our judgment about the true value of education.” In that article, he also references the May 2014 Gallup study (which I’ve mentioned here before) that showed, as they put it, “It’s not ‘where’ you go to college, but ‘how’ you go to college.”

Much discussion of the “value” of college involves arguments from one of two camps. One group views college as a means to an end, an investment that can be measured with an appropriate financial return in the form of lucrative post-college employment. Another group sees college as an opportunity for learning, growth, and self-discovery that can’t and shouldn’t be measured by financial instruments alone.

But I think it’s interesting to find where those two camps might have common ground. The aforementioned Gallup study found “six crucial factors linking the college experience to success at work and overall well-being in the long term:”

1. at least one teacher who made learning exciting
2. personal concern of teachers for students
3. finding a mentor
4. working on a long-term project for at least one semester
5. opportunities to put classroom learning into practice through internships or jobs
6. rich extracurricular activities

The area of commonality? A student has enormous influence over whether or not he or she experiences those things while in college.

Items 3-6 are entirely in a student’s control. If you’re willing to knock on doors, seek out opportunities, and secure those things for yourself, you’ll almost certainly be able to do so no matter where you go to college.

And while you don’t get to control the collective teaching quality at your college, you still have influence over #1 and #2. Talk to fellow students and get their opinions about professors. Talk to your academic advisor and get advice. Make it a priority to seek out teachers with a reputation for #1 and #2, then do the work to extract the most out of your time with them.

Every family who sends a student to college wants the experience to be worth it. But no matter how you measure the return on your college investment, don’t expect any college to just hand that value to you. To get the maximum bang for your college bucks, you need to do more than just get accepted to a prestigious school. You need to do more than just passively observe, like a passenger on a roller coaster with no ability to change or influence the experience. You need to do more than just graduate with a degree and no skills to speak of. You need to make the most of your time while you’re there.

The student attending the school is the most important component of any college value equation.