Reply to Are elite schools for excellent sheep?

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Are elite schools for excellent sheep?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]Ok, I will be candid ( the whole point of anonymous forum). I don't like the way society is shaping out to be. Less folks going into teaching, non-profits, academics. That said, I have always told my kids to be money minded (and they are). Still in middle and high school, but I personally have seen that there are so many things I don't have to compromise on just because I can spend a bit to make the problem go away. I truly admire folks who don't need money to be happy, but unfortunately, in our South asian family and friends that is not the case.  I wish we were wired the other way, and chose non-profit jobs and saving the world over travelling to Europe, nice restaurants and good tutors, EC for our kids. But we absolutely are not. Our kids have gotten used to the lifestyle and certainly need to be money minded if they want to continue with similar lifestyle. Whether that involves going to Ivy or not, I do not care. We are immigrants and remember the days when we were paying off our grad school loans and had to refuse invitations to weekend dinners because we had to make choices between saving and enjoying. That said, we do not live large for our income, save 30% of gross (plus a bit of company 401K match) and are not uber rich (~$3M NW at mid 40's) outside of DC area in tech.

Once we have enough to retire, who knows what that number will be, and if the kids turn out okay (not much help needed for downpayments, wedding etc). I do want to use my skills and contribute to the society in a more meaningful way.

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don’t like the sheep part either, but I think what the author was implying was more that many of these students just achieve because it is what is expected and it gets them rewards. So they keep just reaching for the next ring. It isn’t necessarily because they actually love any of it. They just do it. And sure, the elite schools might get them networks and access to well paying jobs, but do they actually WANT to be investment bankers or consultants, etc etc? Is that what they love? Is it what truly motivates them?[/quote]

I think that you are trying to be reasonable, but it is clear to me that you are unfamiliar with the realities of students at elite undergraduate National Universities. [b]These are highly intelligent, genuinely motivated young adults who strive for the best in themselves and in their professional endeavors.[/b] Some want to become investment bankers and consultants, while others want to be [b]educators, doctors, lawyers, engineers, non-profit organizers and administrators, researchers, and a number of other professions and occupations.[/b]

I think that the description might be more apt for students at SLACs who are trying to find & refine their interests and locate a path to a future career. These are excellent students who continue the high school or prep school experience at a higher level. And there is nothing wrong with any of this. But, slamming SLACs does not sell books. In order to sell books you need to slam Harvard or the Ivies. Bring the privileged elite down to our level type of silliness.[/quote]

Interesting. In my HYPS class, there were a lot of doctors, lawyers, and engineers. Not too many teachers, NPO workers, academics, or scientists. Lots went into consulting and finance as well. But then again, I graduated a couple years after '08, so I think my class was more financially-minded than earlier classes. It's probably only gotten worse.

The PP who said that it's not a good advertisement of HYPS that their alumni can't handle minor criticism of the schools is on point. I agree with the OP and with Deresiewicz, and I do think it took me a couple of years to unlearn the relentless perfectionism and status-seeking behavior of my college years.

Also, I think being highly intelligent in and of itself is not particularly valuable. What's more valuable is intellectual curiosity (different from innate smarts) and a sense of internal motivation. Those two traits I do find lacking in a lot of my classmates. [/quote][/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