<p>Duke is VERY similar, essentially identical, to the other first tier national universities (and their liberal arts college counterparts). All are the domaines of exceptionally talented and driven kids (and, crucially, of their possibly even more driven parents). Utilizing approximate '18 Duke undergraduate application numbers to illustrate: 30+K candidates, 10 percent aggregate acceptance rates, and VERY few applicants who are not entirely qualified and would not do a fine job if admitted. This paradigm is equally true for the other “you fill in the numbers” elite national universities and LACs.</p>
<p>Because the students and their parents have such lofty expectations and because of legitimate financial considerations, undergraduates clearly are drawn to majors – and to immediate post-bachelors professions/professional schools – that meet both their objectives and their ego-desires: Wall Street, JDs/MDs/MBAs, consulting at the top firms, and so forth. There’s little “place for poets” is this pattern.</p>
<p>Is this the only option? Of course not; however, it is clear that admission to the best post-graduate programs and lifelong employment opportunities by the best, most lucrative firms/institutions favors individuals with at least one degree from an elite university. Therefore, teenagers and their parents have an important decision to consider: if that “dear son or daughter” wants a viable chance to clerk for a USSC justice or to attend Hopkins Med (etc.), then the many fine “non prestige” institutions have definite drawbacks. The real issue here is that very few kids and parents want to forego the “ultimate” career, affluence, and influence options when a child is only in his teens. While most Yale Law and Harvard Med graduates practice their professions precisely as those with JDs or MDs from the Ohio States and the Syracuses do, how many of us want to foreclose any potential possibility for our children while they are still in secondary school?</p>
<p>Finally, concerning Chasing Zeroes (which I have not yet read), the whole “elite education” paradigm is “wonderful fodder” for journalists. It sells, it’s controversial, it leads to television face-time, it includes key societal issues (class, affluence, race/gender, elitism/entitlement, and so forth), and it appeals to a wide audiences (those attending/aspiring to elite higher educational institutions identify, while the ire of those who affiliate with the MANY fine, but not necessarily prestigious, colleges/universities is stoked).</p>
<p>Isn’t it interesting – and extremely revealing – that Chasing Zeroes is being released near-simultaneously with this year’s undergraduate admissions decisions by many of the elite universities and colleges (late-Match). What better time to encourage sales, when parents and children are particularly self-satisfied, or angry, or disgusted, or disquieted? </p>
<p>Thus, Linda:, to summarize:
- It’s not Duke alone, it’s the entire genre of first-tier, highly prestigious college and universities.
- EVEN MORE IMPORTANT, it’s the children and their parents, who ardently aspire to attend them, that create this situation.
- There are legitimate reasons to seek advanced education within the VERY SMALL group of higher educational institutions.
- However, for many individuals, I suspect it may be more ego-gratification than actual advantage (remembering, for example, all those fine attorneys and physicians whose undergraduate and/or professional degrees are not from the Ivies, MIT, Stanford, Duke, UVA, Michigan, Northwestern, et al). </p>