What *not* to do in your college application

MBP
Mon, 11 Feb 2008 18:31:59 +0000

I’m sorry, but I still disagree

then we disagree (and on many levels). first off, I was talking about more than just applying to the university of chicago.
thirty years down the road, you may be running for president (extreme example, but it can be applyed to many things). those pictures of you that you put on the internet doing something that, at the time, was just silly and fun (maybe only slightly illegal) get dug back out. You’re no longer that person, but when you were a teenager, that’s who you were. However, people would attach that picture of you doing something that people are now saying is dumb to the presidential candidate you. It could very easily cost you the election/ whatever the example is that you want to use.
Things that you put on the internet last a LONG time.

Second, I don’t think the purpose of “formal education” is to conform everyone into the same product. I would argue that that’s more of religions job, but I can see how you would say that. I do think that in many ways formal education may force people to conform (people with different learning styles have to figure out how to get by, people with different interests get by, etc.) However, and this may just be sematics, but I don’t think that’s it’s the PURPOSE of “formal education” to make everybody to conform.

Thirdly (and somewhat related to my second point), I don’t think that Chicago stands for the opposite of “formal education.” Again, this may just be how I look at the wording, but when I think of a formal education, I think getting an education across many disciplenes, and I think that that is in many ways exactly what Chicago’s goal is. To promote thinking individuals that can formulate their own opinions should be the goal of formal education. You may call me naive (i may be), but then again, we do disagree. ;)