Too many students (or their parents) view the Ivy League as an opportunity to accumulate status rather than embrace a life-changing experience. Many young people have come to integrally link their identity to the composite of others’ views–i.e., their status. And an Ivy League school is a tremendous status symbol. The result is a deluge of status-focused behaviors like some of those mentioned in William Deresiewicz’s essay. But that a greater proportion of students at Ivy Leagues might be overly focused on status does not negate the advantages of these universities–namely, intellectual, social, and financial resources.
I only applied to one school–The Ohio State University– and ended up obtaining both an BA and MA from them (with some work in DC and Taiwan in-between). Estimating that OSU had what I needed for academic enrichment, I didn’t consider or apply to other schools. Through OSU, I enjoyed great academic and moral support from faculty that fostered my passion for sociological research, participated in philosophical discussion groups, gained fluency in Chinese, and performed a year of field research around a grassroots Chinese NGO. My hunch was confirmed: OSU could provide almost limitless possibilities for a student if that person decided to utilize the opportunities. Attending a university in general is a blessing, and as older, more resource-rich versions of most universities in the U.S., the chance to attend an Ivy League is perhaps a greater blessing, one that is unobtainable for most people in the world. For a student to focus primarily on status accumulation at university is to squander their blessing. We should amend Deresiewicz’s thesis: before you send your kid to the Ivy League, make sure that this person’s values are straight.