Where do you think Malia Obama will enroll?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It will probably be Columbia or Yale. But I want it to be UChicago.

Then she could live at home to save money.

The Obamas are not moving back to Chicago.

Even better. She gets a big house to herself.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't be surprised if she chose a classic - like Princeton (her mother's undergrad alma mater). I know she is interested in film production but I seriously doubt if she would attend a school like NYU or USC. It would be cool if she did.

I read somewhere that Michelle Obama did not like her time at Princeton and has been an estranged alum.

In the 80s, Princeton was a very weird place for African Americans. The whole diversification exercise always felt a bit forced. I am sure that it is much better now.

Let's be clear. It may have been awkward, but it was not forced. It was a voluntary initiative to admit minority students like MO who objectively were usually less qualified than other students in order to enhance their future opportunities and the opportunities of their children. And, by and large, that is exactly what it has achieved.

No, I meant what I said. During that same period, both Harvard and Yale had much better success attracting and assimilating a diverse student body. At Princeton, the AA students often felt like they were "others". Social life at Princeton centered around the eating clubs, which had only recently been integrated and only on a superficial level. Princeton had not yet worked past its legacy as a school for southern gentlemen. Further, it had nothing to do with any of the students being objectively less qualified, but everything to do with being less welcome. Nice try. Blame it on affirmative action and not the attitude of the school.

I was at Princeton at the time and your recollection (if it is that, rather than pure speculation) bears little relation to the reality.

It was no different at the other Ivies in this period. It's crazy how people want to bash the Ivies for some of the issues associated with affirmative action, when they could have sat back, admitted fewer minority students, and waited until the minority candidates coming from both private and public high schools were stronger academically. If you think a white or Asian applicant to Princeton with Michelle Obama's credentials would have been admitted, you are nuts. They made a conscious decision to diversify, knowing that it would not be a cake-walk for students who arrived with fewer academic skills.

I was the original person characterizing Princeton as less than accepting of AA students in the 80s. Sorry to derail your narrative, but I was an AA private school kid with 1500 SATs, two professional parents, a varsity athlete, who graduated with honors in biochemistry. So, I don't fit your thesis of being less qualified...and that certainly wasn't the reason that I was treated as an other. Again, blaming affirmative action for an unwelcoming environment just doesn't cut it.

I was there at the time as well. Not AA but had close friends who are. Some of them had grown up in very upper middle class/professional and integrated communities before coming to Princeton. Once they were there, however, they felt subject to a lot of pressure from upper classmen AA self-styled "activists" who lectured them that she should be feeling alienation and hostility in college (which they did not feel), to hang out largelywith AAs rather than whites and other students, to avoid joining any eating clubs and try to live instead in their upper class years in a particular residential college which had a strong AA presence. They found this peer pressure very weird, and standing up to it was met with a rather negative response from some other AAs.

[Anonymous]

She'll go back to Chicago and attend one of the top schools there.

[Anonymous]

9/21 18:50

Do you mean Dr. Nickle? Wink wink

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't be surprised if she chose a classic - like Princeton (her mother's undergrad alma mater). I know she is interested in film production but I seriously doubt if she would attend a school like NYU or USC. It would be cool if she did.

I read somewhere that Michelle Obama did not like her time at Princeton and has been an estranged alum.

In the 80s, Princeton was a very weird place for African Americans. The whole diversification exercise always felt a bit forced. I am sure that it is much better now.

Let's be clear. It may have been awkward, but it was not forced. It was a voluntary initiative to admit minority students like MO who objectively were usually less qualified than other students in order to enhance their future opportunities and the opportunities of their children. And, by and large, that is exactly what it has achieved.

No, I meant what I said. During that same period, both Harvard and Yale had much better success attracting and assimilating a diverse student body. At Princeton, the AA students often felt like they were "others". Social life at Princeton centered around the eating clubs, which had only recently been integrated and only on a superficial level. Princeton had not yet worked past its legacy as a school for southern gentlemen. Further, it had nothing to do with any of the students being objectively less qualified, but everything to do with being less welcome. Nice try. Blame it on affirmative action and not the attitude of the school.

I was at Princeton at the time and your recollection (if it is that, rather than pure speculation) bears little relation to the reality.

It was no different at the other Ivies in this period. It's crazy how people want to bash the Ivies for some of the issues associated with affirmative action, when they could have sat back, admitted fewer minority students, and waited until the minority candidates coming from both private and public high schools were stronger academically. If you think a white or Asian applicant to Princeton with Michelle Obama's credentials would have been admitted, you are nuts. They made a conscious decision to diversify, knowing that it would not be a cake-walk for students who arrived with fewer academic skills.

I was the original person characterizing Princeton as less than accepting of AA students in the 80s. Sorry to derail your narrative, but I was an AA private school kid with 1500 SATs, two professional parents, a varsity athlete, who graduated with honors in biochemistry. So, I don't fit your thesis of being less qualified...and that certainly wasn't the reason that I was treated as an other. Again, blaming affirmative action for an unwelcoming environment just doesn't cut it.

I was there at the time as well. Not AA but had close friends who are. Some of them had grown up in very upper middle class/professional and integrated communities before coming to Princeton. Once they were there, however, they felt subject to a lot of pressure from upper classmen AA self-styled "activists" who lectured them that she should be feeling alienation and hostility in college (which they did not feel), to hang out largelywith AAs rather than whites and other students, to avoid joining any eating clubs and try to live instead in their upper class years in a particular residential college which had a strong AA presence. They found this peer pressure very weird, and standing up to it was met with a rather negative response from some other AAs.

Many of those AAs who had a hard time in the 80s and self-segregated to some degree nevertheless enjoyed considerable professional success and also encouraged their children to attend Princeton and other Ivies. With time most were able to put their experiences into perspective and recognized how fortunate they had been.

[Anonymous]

I didn't read the thread. I think Malia will choose a NESCAC school, or maybe Northwestern or U of Chicago if she's lonesome for the Midwest. She strikes me as a Middlebury or Williams sort of kid, or maybe Wesleyan. She can go anywhere she wants to go, but I doubt she'll limit herself to an Ivy or Stanford.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let's see who wins the prediction prize.

My guess: she will join Bill Gates' daughter @ Stanford.

Who cares?

[Anonymous]

It is my most fervent hope that she goes to a school where people know enough not to use phrases like "enroll at."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is my most fervent hope that she goes to a school where people know enough not to use phrases like "enroll at."

+1!

[Anonymous]

I see her going to a small liberal arts school rather than a big university. Williams, Amherst, et al.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is my most fervent hope that she goes to a school where people know enough not to use phrases like "enroll at."

+1!

I bet you she does use it, considering she's a hip-hop fan.

[Anonymous]

Clearly Stanford. Because (1) she can go anywhere she wants; and (2) doesn't every kid want to go as far away from their parents as possible for college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clearly Stanford. Because (1) she can go anywhere she wants; and (2) doesn't every kid want to go as far away from their parents as possible for college?

then why wouldn't she go to oxbridge or a grand ecole?

[Anonymous]

12:30 Michelle Obama was salutation of a highly competitive selective admissions magnet school. I see no reason to assume she was unqualified for admission at Princeton.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So funny how you worded it "enroll at" rather than "apply to"

i never do this, but how about just "enroll" or "apply."