<p>I do understand that my suggestion is not going to happen in the US–at any rate, not until the next event that is comparable to the Sputnik scare of my childhood.</p>
<p>With regard to identifying the “top” prospective philosophy major, the top pre-med (or in the British case, medical student, since it’s an undergrad degree), and the top prospective engineer, Oxford and Cambridge assess the applicants individually, by field, on academic grounds. Students are admitted to a particular degree course. I realize that this is also kind of “un-American,” since changing majors is common here and extraordinarily rare there. History of Art exists as a field of study at Oxbridge. I am not sure about Studio Art.</p>
<p>I was not suggesting that a student needs to develop talents across all fields.</p>
<p>I do think that there are some differences in the qualities that Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale look for. For example, among the graduates I know, there are fewer idealists per capita coming from Harvard than from the other colleges. I think this is probably true of the admitted students as well. This is not to say that no idealists graduate from Harvard–I know a few–but that a few more Harvard grads seem adept at working the status quo.</p>
<p>MitchKreyben, you seem to agree with calmom that there are differences among the colleges. I am curious about your take on that.</p>