I added this comment.
Good article – but the title should be:
“Getting into a college that CLAIMS that it is good – maybe even “elite” – is not as hard as you think. Finding a college that IS good is much harder than you think.”
As David Riesman warned,
“…the “wants” of students to which competing institutions…cater are quite different from the “needs” of students…the student estate often does not grasp its own interests, and those who speak in its name are not always its friends…” (from “On Higher Education: The Academic Enterprise in an Era of Rising Student Consumerism” 1980)
I spent years as a professor observing just how prescient Riesman’s observation was. It is much truer today than in 1980.
It is no accident that today’s graduates are far less prepared for work and citizenship. It’s not your grandmother’s college president anymore.
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