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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]So many students and parents seem to be chasing trends and the affirmation of others' opinions (veneer of prestige, silly categorizations like "Ivy Plus" or "little ivy" or "T20", arguing about how to create categories within categories: like breaking down small LACS into wasp or +B). Enough. This is too much. College isn't a fashion object or handbag du jour, it's a retreat of learning, period. The professors and their teaching style "rate my prof", course calendars, curriculum core, etc. should be scrutinized instead.

People are focused on impressing each other not on growing.

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From a foreigner who has been here for 25 years married to an American with American born kids…..
In most of the world, university is a place you go to get a credential to start a career. In America, college is a four year identity construction project. When grown adults wear college sweatshirts in their 40s, they aren't celebrating an alma mater. They are signaling their tribe, their socio-economic bracket, and their perceived intellectual tier. W re to blame.   For a German or a Frenchman, wearing your university hoodie at 45 is as weird as wearing a high school jersey to a board meeting……it simply signals that your period of greatest personal significance ended in your early 20’s………..Americans turned universities into lifestyle brands. All of you, all of us are to blame. This has been a slow process…Since we don't have titles of nobility, "Princeton" or "Stanford" serves as a modern version of a coat of arms. We treat these names like handbags because they are portable markers of status that tell everyone in the room you belong to the "managed class." This is why "Greek life" and massive sports stadiums exist. They provide the social glue and the "experience" that justifies a $400,000 price tag. You aren't paying for the lecture; you're paying for the right to belong to a specific caste.
we use these "silly categorizations" like Ivy Plus or Little Ivy as a form of shorthand for what Pierre Bourdieu called "symbolic capital"…… It’s a way to vet people without actually knowing their character or competence.

Let’s be honest, The idea of universities in 2026 as a "retreat of learning" died when we began funding it through massive individual debt. When a student is a "customer" paying six figures, they don't want to be challenged….they want a return on investment. The professors become service providers. The "Rate My Prof" culture prevalent in today’s campuses is the Yelp-ification of academia. It prioritizes ease and entertainment over rigorous intellectual friction. While we argue over whether a school is "WASP-y" or "T20," the actual quality of instruction is often declining. More classes are taught by underpaid adjuncts. 
‘We” DCUMers…and most of Americans have traded the "ivory tower" for a "prestige mall." We obsess over the "veneer" because, in a society with diminishing social mobility, that veneer is one of the few things people believe can protect their class status….[/quote]

Curious if you are the same person who thrifted the designer bag à la PhD? If not, you should become friends. And I’d like to hang out with both of you.

Shame this place is anonymous. In addition to being low brow entertainment, it occasionally tosses out a gem that makes me wish we not all anonymous here.

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