Reply to Are students outside of the top 20 or so universities more interesting people?

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Are students outside of the top 20 or so universities more interesting people? "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]After many years of dealing with artists, I can say that I've never personally known a truly outstanding  musician (or painter, sculpture, etc.) who didn't periodically falter in some serious way in terms of criteria viewed as a necessity for admission at top universities. ALL of the Ivies, plus Stanford, and Duke will certainly accept a B+/1200 SAT student who is truly a top international talent.  But they view that as a major concession for a seriously "lopsided" talent like this.  Try getting a B-/C student who is barely willing to prep and take the SAT and has an issue with authority that causes them to periodically have unexcused absences and speak rudely to the teacher into these same schools.  I know everyone has some anecdotal counterexample, but just understand that this is what real talent looks like, and these are the kinds of people that just can't be admitted.  Everyone doesn't have to be a part of every institution, and Ivies/Duke/Stanford are fabulous institutions, but let's just be clear about what kinds of talents are actually being admitted into these schools.    [/quote]

You focused on musicians and sculptors because you knew people would immediately be more familiar with talented writers and actors who’ve attended elite schools.  So transparent. [/quote]

I focused on them because they are artists who I spend a lot of time around!  But I don't see any reason why outstanding writers are any more able to fit into the structure of these universities.[/quote]

And for that matter, I don't know how you would study this, but I'm pretty sure that the "best" writers are significantly less likely to attend "elite" colleges, at least in the last 50 years.  [/quote]

As long as you’re “pretty sure” it must be true, right?  Do you really have no idea how silly you sound?  [/quote]

Why is this silly?  Because it makes you feel bad?[/quote]

NP here. It is pretty silly. I’m very familiar with today’s literary fiction world and the authors are disproportionately elite grads, for better and for worse. [/quote]

"for better and for worse" -- but that's precisely the point.  If you are familiar with today's literary fiction world, I doubt you actually believe that its inhabitants are the best that society has to offer.   I don't dispute that elite colleges have an outsize effect on the attributes of the art world, but they only attract people with a certain mindset.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics