Reply to What do people think of this essay? “Stanford Isn’t Fun Aanymore.”

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If kids want to have fun in college now, apparently they should go to the University of Chicago, not Stanford.  Sounds like the overbearing Stanford administrators have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and made it a substantially less happy and interesting place for students. [/quote]

University of Chicago isn’t fun either. Actually none of the top 20 or so schools have students that are quirky, creative, or fun anymore, for the most part. The way admissions now works has largely eliminated the quirky smart applicants. The result is exceptionally boring and rigid college campuses. [/quote]

The comment about kids at the top 20 schools being boring is an overstatement and not every top school has gone as far as Stanford in apparently trying to regulate social interactions among students.

I do understand where you’re coming from.  The big pushes among admissions departments were (1) diversity and (2) admitting students with a demonstrated “passion” for some activity that aligned with the communities the schools were trying to construct. So many ended up with students who were more racially and economically diverse, but more maniacally focused on building the types of resumes that would demonstrate their “passions.”  In trying to reward the quirky and the creative, they unintentionally incentivized students to be even greater people-pleasers at a rather young age.  It’s no surprise more of them end up suffering from “imposter syndrome” on campus because the admissions departments have sent the message that their true, less curated  selves might be less welcome. [/quote]

They don’t reward the quirky and creative very much in admissions any more. I don’t think even top 20 admissions committees value creativity much at all any more. What they select for is essentially just some smarts combined with unusually high levels of executive function. The kid who is organized enough from a young age to extensively resume-build and keep up high grades is the kid who gets in. That leaves very, very little space for quirkiness and creativity.

I guess if that’s what universities now want, and colleges were still happy places full of motivated learners having fun, that would be one thing. It would be a different population than Stanford used to have (as a former refuge for the quirky brilliant dreamers), but it would be okay. But that level of rigid resume-building also leads to depression and mental health struggles. If a bright kid can’t be a dreamer any more, can’t make a single mistake, can’t take a risk, they will eventually feel crushed in their life, devoid of any joy. And that’s why the campuses have become so dreary, with such sharp increases in mental health issues. Of course the universities themselves are, as the article points out, taking the opportunity to reign in student free thought and fun as well, for complex reasons of their own. But the problem is more foundational than university policies. It’s that these schools are now filled with kids who have never learned how to have fun, to relax, to idly dream, to “waste” time, to meander a bit. This group of students would never think about building a contraband island. They won’t even play their music too loudly in their carefully organized dorms. [/quote]

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