<p>ucbalumnus, I don’t see your point?</p>
<p>I do think there is some truth that they may not have enough contact with most of society and thus do not know how to interact with them. It depends on the person if this makes any difference.</p>
<p>LOL Stats21.
One word of comfort: your son will cease being a commie the minute he graduates and starts working on Wall Street. Then, I promise, he will become a vocal capitalist.</p>
<p>I first read the linked article years ago; I’m now rereading it on the verge of sending off D1 to a college where the parent information sheet includes a space for noting your summer house address, and the dates when you’ll be in residence there. 
The author still sounds like someone who has no social graces, and who’s made no effort to figure out how to acquire them. </p>
<p>It’s not hard. I’m thinking back fondly to a family trip where we toured the state capitol. D1, who was then around 10, would go up to random people in the building–aides in suits, security guards, receptionists, what have you–and ask them “What kind of work do you do here?” This summer, she’s been working at a local nonprofit. She’s had no problem talking to other volunteers, who include a just-out-of-prison ex-con trying to earn money to get his gang tattoos erased, curmudgeonly senior citizens, and 20-somethings struggling to find employment. </p>
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<p>Absolutely agree. D1 graduated from an elite entry-by-test public magnet program. The socioeconomic background was incredibly diverse. There were students living in multimillion dollar homes and other students getting housing vouchers; parents were minimum wage workers and politicians, college professors and house cleaners. Several of her classmates were illegal aliens. Pretty much every student in the graduating class is heading off to a school that could be considered elite; the most socioeconomically diverse college where students are matricuating is Berkeley.</p>
<p>The opening paragraph talks about social graces. The rest of the article goes far deeper into the problem and focuses attention on the anti-intellectualism of the elite colleges.</p>
<p>There are two sides to students in Ivy league these days. They are either extremely rich and follow the Kennedy example - we always need to help the common man without knowing what the common man should have since they have grown up in boarding schools and know the common man who only serves them. OTOH, ivies admit a bunch of poor kids and teach them about getting rich. So not sure all of them can be labelled as homogeneous.</p>
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<p>The author makes this point, although he uses Al Gore and John Kerry as his examples.</p>
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<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/wesleyan-university/1173963-ask-current-student-3.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/wesleyan-university/1173963-ask-current-student-3.html</a></p>
<p>But, what’s even more remarkable is how many of them learn to respect, even appreciate the town by the end of four years.</p>
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<p>That I didn’t have to go to NIU to see and interact with people of varying socioeconomic backgrounds (contrary to the implication of your post that I replied to). (And Berkeley students when I attended were nowhere near the academic near-elite level they are today – back then, more than half of freshmen were placed in remedial English, 4 and 6 year graduation rates were much lower, school was much less expensive, so it was more accessible to the lower income, etc.)</p>
<p>Truth be told, we don’t need much of our personal staff anymore. We simply keep them around to keep our children grounded. It is well worth the modest investment.</p>
<p>I really don’t understand this. If you don’t care about “elite” colleges, then why all the bashing? If someone had posted a thread titled “Why I’m glad my kid’s not a community college candidate”, most people would have denounced the OP for hastily judging an entire group of very diverse students (and they would have been right). This is no different.</p>
<p>If you tell me you’re going to go to NIU (or any other school X), I’m not going to try to think of negative things about it. I’m going to assume that you chose a university where you think you’ll be happy and be excited for you. I think this is a courtesy that should be extended to everyone, regardless of whether they’re going to NIU or and Ivy League (your examples).</p>
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I agree … </p>
<p>For me the best thing, by far, of visiting about a zillion schools (OK, really about 50) with my two oldest was visiting school after school and thinking … wow, I like this school more than I thought I would; the students here really like their school; and I could see why someone would really want go go here (if it was a good fit for them). Seriously I’ve seen about 50 schools and there probably have only been a couple where I thought … yikes why would anyone want to go to school here? I do not understand the need/desire to put down whole groups of schools relying on some stereotyping.</p>
<p>Stats21 is CC’s iowahawk. My compliments, sir!</p>
<p>I didn’t intend to “bash” anything and I don’t think the article I posted qualifies as bashing. It is critical, yes, but the author certainly comes with the qualifications to be knowledgeably critical.</p>
<p>There’s an assumption among many people here that an elite colleges provides an education worth paying an insane amount of money for, an education that will best prepare one for a good life. The article presents a contrary view. Maybe somebody reading it will think twice about putting HYPSM and their near relatives at the top of the pyramid of desire and will instead choose a different, better path.</p>
<p>IMO, the article is flawed because the author attempts to generalize a group of eight schools (and around fifty thousand students) based solely on his own experiences and misgivings. It’s ridiculous to blame one’s education for one’s inability to relate to people from different backgrounds.</p>
<p>For an extreme example, white supremacists who attend rural schools don’t relate to other races because their personal prejudices prevent that - not because it was something they learned in school. If this man can’t relate to people who aren’t exactly like him and make basic small talk, it’s certainly not because of where he went to school. It’s because of how he views himself and how he views others. While it is possible these attitudes may be influenced by the college one attends, they are in no way defined by it.</p>
<p>Also,
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<p>Just as it is pointless to say that certain schools are assuredly the best life path, stating the converse is equally pointless. I think that choosing a college is an incredibly complex and personal decision. Fixating on, or ruling out, colleges because of superficial (and likely incorrect) stereotypes like the ones mentioned in the cited article simply does not make sense to me.</p>
<p>And, on a side note, I personally think that stereotyping in itself amounts to “bashing”.</p>
<p>Some now say that the term “little people” is offensive. Where will it end? The point, obviously, is not that they are small in a physical sense, in fact some are quite large; rather the term refers to a lack of social and economic standing. It is not personal, and certainly not intended to offend; as such, I will continue to use it freely and without regret or apology.</p>
<p>Where have you gone Leona Helmsley? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.</p>
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<p>You’d have a hard time selling that to the OPs in all the “chance me for the Ivies” threads.</p>
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<p>The author is focusing on the problem not only of elite schools, but also on the “the mechanisms that get you there in the first place: the private and affluent public ‘feeder’ schools, the ever-growing parastructure of tutors and test-prep courses and enrichment programs, the whole admissions frenzy and everything that leads up to and away from it.”</p>
<p>The getting-ready-to-apply process is the same at all the schools; the population they draw from is largely the same. The jobs graduates from these schools tend to go into are the same. He’s taught at two schools and (evidently) found the same problem. That’s good enough for me.</p>
<p>The OP is a grown man trying to pick a fight with high school students, the target audience of College Search & Selection. I don’t think his opinion can be taken too seriously.</p>
<p>Nope, not trying to pick a fight with them, trying to help educate them. Which is the function of the older generation.</p>
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<p>By hanging around a message board targeted towards teenagers underneath a moniker based on what is presumably your daughter’s name. Oookay.</p>
<p>I mean, is it really such a big deal that a kid wants to go to an Ivy League school? I mean, there’s always money, which is a big issue in itself, but lots of their parents could afford it anyways and feel happy about their kid and themselves instead of buying a new car or whatever. So you don’t get to learn how to interact with working class people? I would find it more helpful to go and meaningfully interact with them in some way instead of go to school with their soon to be not working class anymore children. Or you could go to community college or something and not bother starting out at a 4-year college. There you go.</p>
<p>I’m sure with all the intellectual faults you’d find at somewhere like Yale, it isn’t much better anywhere else. As for the students who actually got accepted into Yale, most of them are probably quite happy, like most college students, and wouldn’t rather be anywhere else.</p>