<p>Oh, definitely. I will be the first to criticize someone who cites the book as a literary accomplishment.</p>
<p>Put in context though--it's a darn good kids' book. It's a literary accomplishment for its genre.</p>
<p>I would have to agree with Bloom. Harry Potter is the McDonalds of literature. Taste good? Yes. Is it good for you. Of course not.</p>
<p>I disagree... McDonald's tastes like crap.</p>
<p>47 million customers can't be wrong. :D
I personally haven't eaten there after I read fast food nation three years ago, but millions swear by it.</p>
<p>Bloom looked like an idiot even reviewing the thing. Not only is it a children's book; it's also a very trite piece of formula fiction designed for consumption that never once claimed to be any sort of literature. Why did a Yale professor even waste his time with it? To masturbate his intellectual sophistry all over the newspaper page?</p>
<p>Well, because reading is supposed to be a stimulating activity ("read to succeed") and Bloom writes out of concern that what has replaced much better literature is a simple, unchallening, unstimulating children's book. He's not criticizing children's book per se, he's just concerned that people (children and adults alike) are doing "real" reading with HP and that perhaps HP is setting the standard for success.
?</p>
<p>Not everything needs to present profound philosophical questions after reading...some media is designed for "consumption."</p>
<p>so...back to Yale!</p>
<p>i liked yale a lot... visited twice, almost applied early. but i'm just wondering--there are a few other universities with the residential college system. what makes yale's better than harvard's, or wash u's, or [insert other university name here]'s?</p>
<p>Probably the fact that it's the only one that truly integrates you to the smaller community that is your college right from the get-go. Before you walk through Phelp's Gate for the first time you already know what college you will be in and as soon as you start your first semester, it is inevitable that many of the people you will meet will be from your residential college. You will have a senior student from your college as counselor (and you will most likely know a few of the other councelors as they share responsibilities), you will get to know your dean, and master, etc.</p>
<p>Just as there is a fair amount of pride for Yale, each of the residential colleges forms its own character and everyone feels that even though they have the option of transferring to another college, rarely anyone does because they feel an attachment to the residential college and the community.</p>
<p>Add to that the different inter-college competitions and IM sports and you get a very Hogswart-esque/Hogswartsy environment (to bring Harry Potter back to the discussion =)... HP and the Yale college systems were both inspired on the same source.</p>
<p>======================================= From other thread
Residential colleges are really the core or essence of Yale. When you arrive and meet new people, you will often be asking "what college are you in?" and you immediately begin to have somewhat of a sense of pride for your college--but not overboard, it's not an insane rivalry or anything.</p>
<h1>I really like the college system because it breaks up the class into manageable little clusters with someone you can always turn to--the Master and the Dean. Both the Master and the Dean will be extremely welcoming and part of your family. They will eat with you on occaison, and you will always see them around. They are good advisors and resources.</h1>
<p>Harry Potter started my love for reading. I have read and enjoyed many of the classics, but I still love to go back to my "frosted flakes" of Harry Potter. Each book has matured since the first. Mensa even has a group specifically dedicated to those who love Harry Potter. It's a much deeper series of books than most people give them credit for. My love for HP probably means I'm not Yale material. I have found that most of the critics haven't even read the series. Just curious, how many Yale applicants are willing to admit they like Harry Potter?</p>
<p>Try mixing your plain cheerios with a little frosted flakes on top. Have some fun and don't take everything so seriously.</p>
<p>A lot of people are into HP I guess. I'm in a facebook group called "I chose Yale because It's like Hogwart's".</p>
<p>I was just following Bloom's argument which is reasonable: by itself Harry Potter is not the best thing to read for "intellectual growth". It can be good "just for fun", then again there's other better things to do "just for fun". What Bloom would like to say though, is that he wishes that somehow people would find other, more challenging reading, just as fun and engaging as so many people find HP. "Fun" and "interesting" doesn't have to go hand in hand with "dumbed down" and "repetitive"? Anyways, it's more Bloom's argument... I'm rather indifferent to be honest. Read whatever fulfills you most.</p>
<p>Other colleges might say they have residential colleges, but they don't. This is just a marketing ploy to make them seem more like Yale's system, which is pretty much universally acknowledged as the strongest residential system in the country. In fact, Princeton renamed some of their dorms "colleges" in the 1980s specifically as a response to Yale's popularity. </p>
<p>Of course, marketing ploys are never the same as the real thing. Spend a few days at each college you're looking at, and compare to a few days Yale, and you'll see a day and night difference - even between Harvard and Yale, which are probably the most similar.</p>
<p>As an old Yalie, I can tell you that people who know Yale will ask you for the rest of your life - when you tell them you went there - "What college were you in?" Also, that question is probably the best way of unearthing a fraud who only claims to have gone to Yale but really knows little about it. When I was at Yale, the fraternities were more of a factor. With their demise (and then rebirth as a lesser factor in campus life), the colleges are that much stronger. I.e., the fraternities are not so strong in drawing people away from the social life at the colleges.
The College System is Yale's thing; the beautiful old buildings are Yale's thing; most of all, though, Yale's thing is the extraordinary quality of Yale's students and the professors who teach them. Just being there surrounded by and interacting with those people is a great education.</p>
<p>posting here so i can find it again in the stats section of my profile</p>
<p>The residential college system is definitely one of the main reasons I’m applying to Yale.</p>
<p>And one of the main reasons I love the residential college system so much is because a Yale admissions officer at an info session I went to compared it to the four Hogwarts houses. </p>
<p>Yes, I love Harry Potter and I applied to Yale. :D</p>
<p>So people only go to Yale for residential colleges? What other opportunities are available at Yale that make it such an attractive, well known school?</p>
<p>Yale has a lot of things</p>
<p>I would say the residential colleges are more of a “bonus” than anything else. Yale’s main attraction, for me, is the caliber of opportunity available there. People/professors/organizations have connections available that are not available at many schools, like a friend I have got to interview someone (high-ranking) from the UN for the Globalist.</p>