College that won't inundate my kids with white guilt?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At the the same time, I don't want my children to be indoctrinated into the current white-christian-men-are-to-blame-for-EVERYTHING culture that is so rampant on many school campuses.

It's been some time since I went to college. I don't know what you're talking about. Could you elaborate? If you know this is happening, why don't you know on which campuses it's happening too?

It actually begins before college. My son is in high school and just came home with a paper on white privilege/white guilt. The paper states that if he and his family drive to the grocery store without being pulled over or "targeted" by police, he should chalk that up to the fact that he is white and should have white guilt over it because a minority would not be as fortunate and must fear this every time they go to the store. There were many more examples on the paper of how he is sooo privileged in everyday little things because he is white, should feel guilty about it, and he should understand how white privilege has given his family everything they have.

I bet you've twisted that paper and it's actually about teaching empathy, not guilt. Does it actually specify feeling guilty? I doubt it. But prove me wrong - quote it.

I'm sorry but my kid is Latino at BASIS DC (majority AA) and had a white English teacher who basically assigned them an essay where they needed to conclude that the American Dream (of coming from nothing and rising to everything) is basically dead because of racism. This in a school founded by an (albeit white) equal opportunity person who concluded that education is the ticket out of anywhere. Of course he is not on a mission to educate poor minority kids, he started in AZ where there are not very many AA folks, but he did found a school here, where lottery admissions mean there are a fair number of them.

Anyway, a lot of the parents were beyond pissed. And maybe we only got away with it because we are not white, but to tell inner city kids who are trying to use education as a ticket out and trying hard (still at BASIS DC in 7th grade) that they have no chance because the American Dream is dead when my husband and my grandfather are both examples of it was ridiculous. When there ain't enough white kids to sell that shit to to them, some of the rest of us fight back.

PS I went to Princeton in the early 90s and found a fairly active conservative community, whom I debated all the time. I think we still have Peter Singer there, although he came after my time. I went to UVA Law School and became much more conservative if you can call it that (think Federalist Society) than I ever could have possibly imagined.

In both institutions, we had professors who identified themselves as "liberal" or "conservative" and others whose course assignments let us figure it out for ourselves.

But I will never forget the course I took by Cornell West or the seminar I was in taught by Maya Angelou. The one thing Princeton really taught me was that I had to respect other points of view and if I could not address them on equally educated intellectual terms, I was done for.

But Princeton was also the most diverse community I have ever been in - internationally, economically, ethnically, racially, sexually, you name it. I learned a hell of a lot by making friends from East LA and Ghana, and realizing that some people came to Princeton intellectually and socially unprepared and needed a 9th semester of financial aid because so many of them had to leave either because they had to deal with family issues or because they had trouble dealing with Princeton. I also had a friend in the reserves who was pulled out for the Gulf War.

I studied the "internalization" of institutional racism/discrimination/superiority complexes and the "symbolization of subordinaton" but wrote my thesis in Anthropology about an indigenous group in a foreign country who called their own shots and risked their lives for it, and refused to integrate themselves into the dominant culture, and got an A from two advisors who were at opposite ends of the political spectrum.

I vote for Princeton.

[Anonymous]

I also went to Princeton but I fear the current Princeton is not the same. Sure, I could also rattle off a list of students from very different backgrounds and I'm sure current students could as well. But there are plenty of other schools that can boast the same thing. My concern about Princeton is that the students I see there now are being funneled into careers in finance. Some of that is fine and I had some friends who went that route. But they were definitely in the minority and I saw classmates go into journalism, academia, public service and teaching. That has become more rare as the student body has become more preprofessional. I would counsel an applicant who wants the kind of rich intellectual atmosphere you describe (and I would only quibble with your description of Peter Singer as conservative) to look at SLACs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I also went to Princeton but I fear the current Princeton is not the same. Sure, I could also rattle off a list of students from very different backgrounds and I'm sure current students could as well. But there are plenty of other schools that can boast the same thing. My concern about Princeton is that the students I see there now are being funneled into careers in finance. Some of that is fine and I had some friends who went that route. But they were definitely in the minority and I saw classmates go into journalism, academia, public service and teaching. That has become more rare as the student body has become more preprofessional. I would counsel an applicant who wants the kind of rich intellectual atmosphere you describe (and I would only quibble with your description of Peter Singer as conservative) to look at SLACs.

The rich academic environment and an ultimate career that earns a good income are not necessarily mutually exclusive. At Yale -- which has an intellectually curious academic and artistically rich atmosphere -- there is an ongoing debate as to whether too many kids go into finance. An often missing piece of the debate relates directly to the socio-economic diversity of these schools. Sure, if you are Thurston Howell IVth you might go Wall Street, but you don't need to. But if you are the kid on financial aid whose parents still had to kick in money they could have used for vacations or retirement savings, you may think Journalism is noble but when you find out the bleak job prospects, starting out with a good paying job may not sound so bad. Economic independence, pay back student loans, treat your parents to nice birthday and holiday gifts -- these may be givens for most of the kids who attended ivies 30 years ago but they are not givens for many of the students today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also went to Princeton but I fear the current Princeton is not the same. Sure, I could also rattle off a list of students from very different backgrounds and I'm sure current students could as well. But there are plenty of other schools that can boast the same thing. My concern about Princeton is that the students I see there now are being funneled into careers in finance. Some of that is fine and I had some friends who went that route. But they were definitely in the minority and I saw classmates go into journalism, academia, public service and teaching. That has become more rare as the student body has become more preprofessional. I would counsel an applicant who wants the kind of rich intellectual atmosphere you describe (and I would only quibble with your description of Peter Singer as conservative) to look at SLACs.

The rich academic environment and an ultimate career that earns a good income are not necessarily mutually exclusive. At Yale -- which has an intellectually curious academic and artistically rich atmosphere -- there is an ongoing debate as to whether too many kids go into finance. An often missing piece of the debate relates directly to the socio-economic diversity of these schools. Sure, if you are Thurston Howell IVth you might go Wall Street, but you don't need to. But if you are the kid on financial aid whose parents still had to kick in money they could have used for vacations or retirement savings, you may think Journalism is noble but when you find out the bleak job prospects, starting out with a good paying job may not sound so bad. Economic independence, pay back student loans, treat your parents to nice birthday and holiday gifts -- these may be givens for most of the kids who attended ivies 30 years ago but they are not givens for many of the students today.

Most of my friends from East La ended up on Wall Street, paying loans, then pulling their immediate and extended family out of poverty. I thought one was dead because he established a scholarship in his name for kids like him. Their kids can go to Princeton with no debt, paying full freight, and fight for social justice. Reminds me of the hypothesis that having more AA docs in medical school would mean they would go back to minister to their "own communities." Hell no. Doesn't make them any less smart or less diverse just having less options upon graduation - and seeing how the other half lives on the Street, understanding rich white people, gives their kids an advantage and they will have the option to do anything they want............

[Anonymous]

To the pp who doubted my statement re: UK unis, please think again. I never had a tutor who did not identify as Tory and I read PPE. I was told that "[i] had a fashionable concern for marginalized groups" on my third-year Economics of the Third World revision.

[Anonymous]

Regent University.

[Anonymous]

The University of Chicago, or any College's Business or Economic Department. Milton Friedman's spirit is with them all.

[Anonymous]

Washington and Lee?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It cracks me up that everyone is advising to go to religious schools.. Most catholic schools have this whole social justice line of BS that it is just as bad as a liberal campus. I think the OP is asking for colleges where ALL ideas are welcomed and open debate is encouraged ( not just liberal debate but a true exchange of ideas).. Sorry OP just completed the college search with DD .. Can't even name one. Good luck- seriously I hope you can find one.. We didnt

Social justice bs at Catholic schools? Maybe cuz Jesus preached social justice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about Vanderbilt, Emory, and Rice?

Emory is seriously liberal. - the freshman dorms are named for social justice causes.

And you think that's a bad thing? But okay with dorms named after klan leaders (UT, Texas)?

Duke recently renamed their dorm which was named after the architect of Jim Crow laws, literacy tests for blacks, and poll taxes.

My kid is a libertarian. She doesn't want this shit shoved down her throat. That is all.

Lehigh, Lafayette, Bucknell, Colgate

[Anonymous]

Just so everyone knows White Women and Gay men were and are the biggest beneficiaries of Affirmative Action. Also I love how you can blame blacks for taking Asians spots at Ivy League schools yet say that blacks are lazy and aren't achieving? LOL So were not going to college yet somehow taking up all the spaces at Harvard?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just so everyone knows White Women and Gay men were and are the biggest beneficiaries of Affirmative Action. Also I love how you can blame blacks for taking Asians spots at Ivy League schools yet say that blacks are lazy and aren't achieving? LOL So were not going to college yet somehow taking up all the spaces at Harvard?

White woman are most certainly not the biggest beneficiaries of affirmative action when it comes to college admissions. Are you the person who repeatedly posts this canard? Stop posting this nonsense unless you can back it up.