<p>Lousy article, badly researched and poorly written. A lazy effort done for the paycheck if you ask me. </p>
<p>And it’s too bad, because it’s an interesting topic: what is college life like for this generation of students, who’ve had to work so hard to get into the elite colleges. Is it more of the same high pressure and overscheduling with no time for contemplation or is it still possible simply explore and discover oneself? Does it depend on the individual student or the college environment they select? This could have been a compelling, insightful article detailing an honest debate about where we are in American higher education. Alas, it was not. </p>
<p>First, I don’t see how students who choose the pursuits that interest them — the young woman researching ethnic foods in Chicago for example — are supposed to be unknowing victims of “infantilization.” Someone will have to explain that to me a lot better than this author did. That there are some students at Chicago, as at all the top colleges, who are working toward the next step — grad school, business school, law school, medical school — rather than being purely devoted to intellectual growth and the life of the mind is not a surprise, not noteworthy enough to wrap a magazine article around. </p>
<p>BTW, I’ve been coming on the Chicago forum trying to determine if it would be a good fit for S2, a chemistry buff who plays jazz saxophone, loves cities and is sick of sunny CA (boring!) He is, though, one of those boys who hasn’t quite bought into the notion that AP English should be as high a priority for him as windsurfing. Have to wait and see.</p>