I found this really interesting article about a current Columbia University student. He documents his negative experience at an Ivy League college. However, it applies to similarly elite schools. I think it’s a good read for students and for parents of students considering going the ivy (or elite) school route. Lots of stuff for me to consider and think about as I will be entering school in the fall. Enjoy!
http://www.vice.com/read/going-to-an-ivy-league-school-sucks-400
Thanks for sharing the link. The article is very interesting. It makes me sad to read about the unhappy students.
Except for the “Middle East royalty” part, the same can be said of any competitive, selective school.
(Although in my school – not an Ivy, but a top 20 uni – I did get to know a Rothschild. A most enlightening [for me] experience.)
This student seems very lost, even before he entered Columbia. From his starting point, my guess is that any college would have been a disaster. It’s easier to sensationalize the problem and demonize the school, rather than look at why he feels this way.
Yikes! Not very good advertising for the school. Really makes you step back and re-think those parental Ivy-dreams…
But, as to his claim that his article describes all Ivy League schools, a poster in the comments section of the article had a good rebuttal:
“As a student of an Ivy league school, I don’t agree with this at. all… Though the ivy league experience can be like this for some, this isn’t what I’ve experienced at all. Frankly this article describes something closer to what I experienced as a high school student. There’s a price that you have to pay for everything, that’s the whole point of making a choice. Maybe some of the people who end up at ivy league schools aren’t cut out for it, but there are a lot of people who are. … I’m happier here than I’ve probably been anywhere. So it’s no joyride, but I feel authentic and happy. And I feel like I am accepted here, that I fit, which is something I’ve never experienced. I’ve found more friends in just a year at brown than I’ve accumulated in the years before coming here. And yes I have met fake people and have experienced some competition, maybe it has to do with my major, but it’s generally good vibes and cooperation over competition here because we are all in the same boat. so yes, everyone is a high achiever, but that doesn’t necessarily lead to competitiveness…it can lead to constructive discourse and the confidence that comes from knowing one’s worth, having nothing to prove leads to more realness. And I’ve experienced more realness here in the ivy league than in the “real world.” And frankly I’d much rather discuss belief in God than gossiping about who’s hooking up with whom.”
I think his last sentence was perhaps the most meaningful. Some students thrive in the environment of Ivies and other selective/competitive schools. Being surrounded by accomplished, ambitions students inspires them to work harder themselves. For others, such an environment would be a terrible fit. It sounds like the author falls into the second group.
I would like to add that it is unfair to characterize this as something unique among the Ivies. I’m sure the author would have run into the same issues at many other top colleges.
My D just graduated from Brown and I have a son at Harvard. No Adderall, Percocet, or weed to keep them sane. Sheesh. Both are normal kids who found compatible friends and figured out how to deal with life at their respective schools. Any competitive environment requires hard work and the ability to find ways to stay healthy and balanced. The author of this article does not seem to know how to do just that. He seems overwhelmed or overly impressed with what is going on around him, and perhaps he’s focused on the wrong things. For every wealthy scion snorting coke, there are a hundred kids who know perfectly well what they want from their education.
one thing about ivies is that especially if you have a tough major, you need a really strong academic foundation. Most high schools simply do not offer students the knowledge to succeed at top colleges. So bunches of super super bright kids from large public high schools who didn’t learn enough in high school have to cram an unreasonable amount of info in college, leading to no sleep and lots of stress. I have friends who did math/science olympiad in high school and already learned a lot of the stem info taught in ivy colleges. One girl who went to princeton slept at 10:30 every night. The problem is that lots of really smart kids never got the right opportunities. They weren’t exposed to competition and really difficult math/sciences material. Even AP classes aren’t enough. self-studying or special classes are necessary for students to succeed in ivies without being super stressed.
Wall Street preying on students by offering them money, stability, and prestige? Oh no, please don’t throw me into that briar patch! Poor kid sounds like he should’ve transferred to a school that was a better fit for him personally.
When I got my first job after college I shared a house with a couple of Harvard grads who were perfectly normal, wonderful people. Talking to them, it actually sounded like they had a lot easier time academically at Harvard than I did at my school.
This article is much more revealing of the person who wrote it than it is of Columbia and any other Ivy League school in general. He does not present himself well.
Deep, Zach.
Ivies and other top schools definitely aren’t for everyone. There is a lot of competitive pressure, and some people react to it differently than others.
It seems clear to me that the hates it at Columbia. That is fine. Some students are going to hate every school. What I don’t understand is why is he still there? If his grades are decent, he could transfer almost anywhere. Why stay and continue to talk about how everyone sucks?
“This article is much more revealing of the person who wrote it than it is of Columbia and any other Ivy League school in general.”
This, yes!!
I attended Stanford. They had courses of a variety of levels in math, sciences, and other fields to accommodate students with different educational backgrounds. I expect the same would be true at most ivies. For example, a summary of the math sequence options is at http://mathematics.stanford.edu/academics/undergraduate/math-placement/ . It includes resources for students who have “no or little precalculus”, rather than expecting everyone to have aced AP calculus. It would obviously be a longer math sequence than skipping ahead to multivaraible calculus, but there are options to support students with weaker academic backgrounds.
Similarly there are many students who do not deprive themselves of sleep, regardless of academic background. I averaged ~9 hours of sleep per night while in college. I can’t recall ever having stayed up very late studying in my life. I did problem sets or studied early on, rather than try to cram everything in on the night before. It was my experience that the students who spent the most time studying were more often students with stronger academic backgrounds, rather than weaker ones. It was my experience that students from strong academic backgrounds in competitive high schools were more likely to be the type would freak out if they got an A- and retake the course because they didn’t want to have an A- on their record for getting in to the top med/grad/… school. I believe this group was a small minority. At the other extreme, there were also students who often stayed up all night partying, rather than studying. When I’d wake up for crew practice in the early hours, I’d occasionally run into a partiers winding down, but I’d never see anyone studying in the common areas.
My Ivy experience was wonderful–some of the descriptions in the article are on point, but many of them are just those of a dissatisfied, miserable young adult. I feel sympathy for him.
Two of my kids went to (different) Ivies after attending a low quality high school. They had great experiences and found the schools to be amazingly supportive, and their fellow students more collaborative than competitive. That said, they had never idealized these schools before attending and didn’t have the high expectations that this writer had. They knew their college was “just a school.”
As others have said, unfortunately this piece says more about the author than about Columbia. I hope it does not affect anyone contemplating attending: though it is good to know the workload can be tough at times. If you do get in, avail yourself of supports and enjoy as much as you can.
Both of my kids have felt overwhelmed in college, high school, and now at work for D1. I have received calls over the years from them sobbing on the phone saying, “I can’t take it. If I don’t get an A on this prelim my GPA will be ruined.”
Recently I received a call from D2 crying, “I just finished the hardest prelim ahead of scheduled. The professor said most people will fail this test, but I thought it was easy. I checked over everything I wrote and I couldn’t think of anything else to write. I think I must have missed something.” I spent half an hour talking her off the ledge. She felt a lot calmer after our call. Few weeks later she found out that she indeed aced the test.
D2 is a lot more high strung than D1. As a parent, I am constantly telling her to find ways to cope with her anxiety. A lot of our conversations often with me saying, “What’s the worst thing that could happen?” She copes with her internal pressure by exercising a lot and getting very involved with few ECs she does on campus. I talk to her often to make sure she is in a good place. She views me as a safe place for her to have her melt down.
I don’t think what this young man is going through is limited to top tier schools. Every person handles stress differently. It is important for parents to be tuned in with what their young adults are going through and watch out for any emotional warning signs.
This article couldn’t be further from my experience at Brown.
It really is a shame the author only figured this out after he spent so much time and what not on getting admitted there. Kids should really do their homework better before committing to spend a quarter million dollars of someone’s money over four years.
DS is at Columbia and hangs out with kids who have fun, are active politically and like to talk ideas. The Core Curriculum was a big draw for him. I think the author of the article didn’t find the right bunch of friends. He should consider why that happened, and not put it on the college.