<p>You’re perpetuating the misuse of a word. There was a time when elitism was a GOOD thing and something to be striven for. Unfortunately, for some reason people now use the word as a pejorative term calling people elitist because they want to be better than others which, again, is something you should try to do throughout your life. After all, dont you want to make more money/be an authority on something/etc?</p>
<p>A more appropriate term would have been calling his post discriminatory (against people who he views as unable to control their spending).</p>
<p>Not to mention that non-legacy/athletes need to be in the top 50% just to be admitted into the top 20 national universities and LACs.</p>
<p>I certainly agree with the idea of growing and trying to surround yourself with accomplished peers, but choosing Duke or Georgetown over Yale based on a better fit isn’t exactly going to hurt you at all. Aside from it being much tougher to go into investment banking or strategy consulting straight out of UG, I don’t really seeing how choosing UMaryland over Yale is necessarily wrong. People have lots of reasons for living and achieving at your optimal potential (whatever that may mean) is not and should not necessarily be one of them.</p>
<p>Sorry, missed this part of your post earlier:</p>
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<p>First of all, I don’t think he is arguing for success. I’d say he is arguing that no one should be limited by upbringing to grow into a role their parents/guardians dictate for them. I’m not even going to touch how being diversified and cultured actually DOES have some relevance to being “successful” (look at the majority of CEO’s/Ibankers/even distinguished scientists/writers out there) but I will argue that those 2 things do lead to growth as a person. Understanding different viewpoints can lead to an array of knowledge you will never get otherwise. Feel free to argue this but I don’t expect anyone will really be able to offer any substantive claims against it.</p>
<p>Second, but relating to the first, I again don’t think he’s arguing that wanting to own a garage or work on a farm is necessarily a bad thing. There was a time that one’s only options available in life were to continue on in the same fashion as his or her father did. Thankfully, that time has passed. Growing up in rural Kansas does not bar you from exploring the world anymore and all he is saying is that it shouldn’t! I know some very smart people (grew up in central VA) that were not able to go to the best schools not because of money issues or anything like that but because of being told their whole life that they were only going to get enough schooling to be marginally better than their parents at whatever they did.</p>
<p>In the end, shouldn’t you always want your kids to be able to do anything? If they choose to stay on the farm, great, but why not tell them that they can do whatever they want?</p>
<p>Also, “knowing about arts and orchestras are generally feminine things”. No. Not in any time in history has this been true. Yes there were times where women were ONLY educated in these subjects but that is not to say that men of the victorian era did not know them just as well. It’s called being well educated.</p>
<p>The thing that I feel is so ironic about this whole thread is that collegehelp attempts to justify his flawed reasoning by citing a very well-known passage by the incredibly gifted writer Langston Hughes–a man who initially enrolled at Columbia University in New York City because he felt that it would help provide him with the skills that he would need to be successfull. Even though he did very well there, he was very disillusioned with the place and it’s policies and left before graduation because he was so disappointed with the education he was receiving. He ended up at a very small “unprestigious” school in Pennsylvania-Lincoln University-where he was able to complete his education and go on to become one of the greatest authors of our time. If there ever was an example that the OP could have used to disprove his theory, Langston Hughes would be it.</p>
<p>I would add that Cornell educates the best farmers on earth. And that you can find automotive technology programs and auto engineering programs out there.</p>
<p>How blind you are. Have you ever farmed? Going to college, whether it’s cornell or stateU isn’t going to help you farm one bit…growing up and a farm and, (gasp), actually farming tends to work the best.</p>
<p>So I guess that what you’re saying is that even though his father agreed to foot the bill only on the condition that his son attend this elite Ivy League institution, Langston Hughes decided that this environment was not the best place for him to achieve his dreams, and that it would be better for him to seek out a school where he would feel more comfortable and would be more conducive to his career goals–how short-sighted and ignorant of him to leave a place where he was surrounded by the “very best” to attend a much lesser university–no wonder he never achieved any success. It doesn’t matter the Major he was in, Columbia prides itself in insisting that every student receive a wholistic education.</p>
<p>Aside from the money issue, I think only one person so far has disagreed with the idea that you will grow more at a school where you are in the bottom half of the admitted class. So, I think I can safely reiterate that you should go where you are most challenged, and that means going where most students have better credentials than you. Don’t be afraid to do it.</p>
<p>Langston Hughes decided to attend an historically Black college because of racial prejudice, I think. Perhaps Columbia was his “dream deferred” but I don’t know. I think the poem refers to life in Harlem and failing to reach your potential.</p>
<p>What are you talking about? The core does provide that everyone getting an education there be well-rounded and able to speak on any subject but a holistic education does not equate with studying, in depth, one particular subject. This is such ridiculous reasoning to say that he left because he felt a smaller university would provide him a better education! And really, racial prejudice in the 1920’s at an ivy league school? You’re really surprised about that? Look at yale’s jew quota of the time! All minorities at these institutions at this time would have felt similar.</p>
<p>That post is so unreasonable that I can’t even form a coherent thought, it’s that upsetting. Basically, no. You’re wrong. Hughes left because he was unable to study what he wanted, not because the school did not allow him to but because his father did not allow him to (see my second post on page 3 of this same thread for why this is bad). You can in no way infer that just because he left the school that it means he thought he could find something better.</p>
<p>Are you a farmer? I’m going to guess that by your name and your post that you’re not. (I play lax and I dont know many people in the bread basket that play it). Farming is not exactly the small farmer enterprise it used to be. For better or for worse, big agribusinesses like Archer-Daniels are putting small farmers out of business and, not surprisingly, getting a job running a big farm (not driving the combines or tractors) does actually get easier if you have a college degree.</p>
<p>In post #35, taxguy’s mistake number 3 was picking a school that doesn’t have your major. I agree. But, that may be a big mistake in terms of magnitude but not in terms of frequency. I don’t think that happens very often. At least, I hope it doesn’t.</p>
<p>All I meant is that there are MANY reasons why a student may feel uncomfortable at a particular school–racism, elitism, expense, conservative attidtudes, etc, etc, etc–and if that student decides that they would be better served at another school–evan though it may not be as prestigious or as diificult to get into, or even if it means that they will be attending school by people who are not of equal or higher intelligence–that is their right and their decision, and they shouldn’t be judged or criticized for making that personal choice. There are WAY too many examples of people who have achieved great success from the lowliest of backgrounds and people who are sitting in jail today who attended the “very best” schools to give any creedance to the posters theory.</p>
<p>Most of my cousins who are farmers (which is the majority of my cousins) apply their college educations to farm management issues. They grew up on the farm and then went to college to learn how to be more efficient farmers. They are intellectually alive people who never stop reading and learning. </p>
<p>And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.</p>
<p>This happened to an acquaintance of mine. Her two older siblings graduated from NW and she was also planning to attend. Her family was well-off, upper middle class, and could afford such an institution, but in her senior year of high school her parents bought a new mini-mansion in a wealthy suburb forfeiting her chance to attend. She elected to attend a state school, which compared to NW is a JUCO. Coming out of high school she was considered a goody two-shoe, but that all changed once she set foot on campus - partied and bit too much and really lost a lot of respect from her peers and parents.</p>
<p>I went to the Lilac Festival in Rochester, NY last weekend (Mother’s Day). The park conservatory had a pool with goldfish that were two feet long. The pool was about 40 feet long. When I kept goldfish as a kid they never grew more than about two inches. Put them in a larger pool and they increase in size 1200%.</p>
<p>That’s what I am talking about: the effect of big ponds on small fish.</p>
<p>Whatever happened to going to the college you want to go to?</p>
<p>I’m going to a safety State U in the fall because I LOVE it. The number of students (~8,000, one of the smallest CSUs around), the weather (NorCal…I was born and raised in SoCal and I really don’t like it much anymore), the dorms…everything fit me perfectly.</p>
<p>I think the biggest mistake you can make is going to a college you’re not absolutely in love with. Remember that you’re going to spend anywhere from the next 4 to 8 years there (if they offer grad school).</p>