Are any of you students a little disappointed you’re ?going to IU?
It’s not a bad school. It’s got a beautiful campus, a pretty good teacher-to-student ratio and a great basketball team.
Still, it’s a large, research-based state college in the middle of the Midwest. Its admission rate is 74.4 percent. The average SAT score is around 1175.
IU is not special. It’s not Ivy League.
But that’s a good thing.
William Deresiewicz, a former teacher at Yale, wrote an article about how the Ivy League schools are ruining education.
In it, he talks about what these prestigious schools do wrong.
While these schools take in only the most intelligent, gifted students, they leave them lost and unfulfilled. The Ivy League produces young adults who are successful, but don’t know what to do with that success.
Students are taught how to be leaders, but not what leaders should be.
Those who graduate get great jobs, but always the same jobs in a narrow ?spectrum.
It is so difficult to get in that students who do are focused on getting good grades, and they don’t take any risks in their education. They don’t follow their ?passions.
Deresiewicz also said the Ivy League schools pander to the rich and elite. They’re not interested in innovation; they benefit from ?maintaining the status quo.
Ivy League degrees are considered a return on an ?investment, but Deresiewicz argued that return should be more than just a job.
What we end up with is greater inequality and an elite class unfulfilled and disconnected from the rest of the nation. There are ?exceptions, but the pattern is clear.
The solution, then, is to avoid Ivy League schools. That’s where IU comes in.
IU benefits from its large population and high admission rate. Students from anywhere and any background can study here. You can take a class where you can meet and interact with many new people. You can learn about your peers and other walks of life.
One of the most important things is learning how to think well.
This is so much easier when you can study something that interests you. IU has so many class choices, you’re bound to find something you enjoy.
And without the pressures of an Ivy League school, you can take a risk in your education and come out better.
IU is a great place to learn how to be a fulfilled person. But the school is only the mechanism. The drive has to come from within.
As the new semester starts, ask yourself what you really want to get out of your time here. Then go do it.
Take a class you love, join a club, eat on the other side of campus. Just do something, because your time in college is short. And remember, it can be great no matter where you go.
You’re a Hoosier. Make that count.
