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E-PrinceLast month, hundreds of seniors and recent graduates applied to four postgraduate fellowships that support a year of public service work after Princeton: Princeton in Africa, Princeton in Asia, Princeton in Latin America and Princeton Project 55. Though affiliated with ...(back to the article)
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As much as these programs want to encourage students to enter service-related fields, it's also important for the students themselves to be willing to make that commitment and think seriously about service. You know the saying, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Do you really think at the margin there are students who choose not to apply to these programs because of the financial obstacle?
If we take the weaker claim and say that this financial difficulty is a "contributing factor" to students' decision to not apply or not even consider these service careers more seriously, then I'm inclined to say that it's good we're screening those non-interested students out. Yes, we want to encourage students to think about careers in service, but the application fee doesn't affect that part of the organizations' missions.
Anyway, this just sounds ilke the ed board trying to find a "righteous" issue. This isn't a problem. The bigger problem is that these fellowship programs have a monopoly on postgraduate service opportunities. It's not their fault, and those programs do a great for their fellows. But, if you go to any job fair, you see (though less than past years) i-banks, consulting firms, TFA, and these fellowships. There are a lot of other possible service opportunities out there, and the university could do a much better job connecting students with those opportunities.
It's not about money. It's also about the time needed to review these applications. Paying a fee winnows the pool to those who are serious, otherwise, there would be a lot more applications to review, and it's possible that the quality of the selection process would suffer.
Perhaps the opportunities are more appropriate for those who already have the financial backing or ingenuity to apply for them?
If an undergrad applied for ALL of the opportunities listed, it would cost around $200 -- about a week or two worth of work at an outside job. This is hardly prohibitive, especially since PU almost-grads should command a market premium over McDonalds workers.
Quit whining about small amounts of money -- life gets much nastier once you get out.
Why should PU almost-grads command a market premium over McDonalds workers, precisely? Many people who work in low-paying jobs are just as intelligent as Princeton students. My first true love could not afford to stay in school as a teenager, and he had to drop out to help support his family. However, he is more intellectually gifted than the smartest of my Princeton graduate student boyfriends, and that is no insult to either man. One of them is now a professor at an Ivy League University, and the the other is a Fellow at a prestigious think-tank, and I am in awe of their natural intelligences and work-ethics.
While he lacks so much as a high-school diploma, my most brilliant ex-boyfriend is not uneducated by any means. He took community college courses when he needed formal instruction, but he largely taught himself the skills that have finally landed him the great career in the technology field that he had to fight so hard for. I find pleasure in the fact that he earns far more than my my friends of the same age who majored in Computer Science at Princeton make. If he has children, though, I hope he does not spoil them and instill them with the obnoxious and undeserved sense of entitlement that so many Princeton students display.
However, my now-wealthy ex is an exception rather than the rule. Furthermore, compared to, say, an average native of Haiti, he had a privileged childhood.
"$200" is not a small amount of money at all to most of the world's population. It's a great deal of money, in fact.
My life got less "nasty" after graduation simply because I am no-longer surrounded by spoiled brats who think attending an Ivy League University makes them better than the rest of the world.
@PU Alum
> I find pleasure in the fact that he earns far more than
> my my friends of the same age who majored in Computer
> Science at Princeton make.
They probably aren't your friends.
wow, feel self-righteous much? Hope that smugness and contempt for the "brats" you went to college with gets you far in life.
Yes, exactly, an editorial calling for lowered barriers so more students can pursue their passion for public service definitely suggests a sense of entitlement and superiority.
How many freaking boyfriends have you had? It seems like one a month. And the fact that each one is wealthy makes you a total gold digger. Have some self-respect, woman!
Way to respect the alums who make possible the entitled lives we live on this campus. S/he (who never stated their gender) was *replying* to crotchety, who put down the editorial in a rather narrowminded fashion. I imagine s/he APPROVED of the editorial. And, seriously, boys and girls, name calling? Have you moved beyond middle school yet?