An aesthetic experience

I have always argued that our Princeton education amounts to much more than just an elegant sheet of paper on graduation day. I truly believe that my education at Princeton has come as much from my experiences inside the classroom as it has from time spent talking with professors, preceptors and friends. But these days, as the job market occupies an increasing amount of my time, I often find myself questioning the significance of having Princeton University at the top of my resume. Shouldn't I get a job simply because I got into such a good school?

A recently published book entitled "The Chosen" — which details the genesis of the admissions process at Harvard, Yale and our very own Princeton — is ruffling feathers both in and out of the Ivy League for tackling this type of question. In a very unflattering expose of our admissions system history, the book takes a deconstructive look at the entire process and discusses, among other things, the "Jewish crisis," the allegiance to Massachusetts' boarding schools and the academic leniency these institutions have historically shown to athletes. In the Oct. 10 New Yorker magazine, literary critic Malcolm Gladwell addressed some of the issues raised by this book and in doing so tried to tackle what he argues is an undeserved Ivy League ego.

Gladwell focuses on a study done by Alan Kreuger and Stacy Dale, which compares a student who got into both schools but chooses Penn State over U-Penn for financial reasons and does equally well in the long term. Using this example, Gladwell argues that Ivy League schools are trapped in their egotistical misconception that their educational experience "provide[s] the social and intellectual equivalent of Marine corps basic training — that being taught by all those brilliant professors and meeting all those motivated students and getting a degree with that powerful name on it will confer advantages that no local state university can provide." Gladwell's larger point, in accordance with Kreuger, is that smart students will succeed no matter where they go and that "elite schools, like any luxury brand, are an aesthetic experience — an exquisitely constructed fantasy of what it means to belong to an elite — and they have always been mindful of what must be done to maintain that experience."

I agree with Gladwell's point that "if you are sick and a hospital shuts its doors to you, you are harmed. But a selective school is not a hospital, and those turned away are not sick." Failure to get into an Ivy League school will not spell the death of anyone's career, nor will admission guarantee a person's future success. But to deride the educational experience of schools like Harvard, Yale and Princeton, and to argue that they confer no added benefits that cannot be achieved at a good state school, is simply asinine. What Gladwell fails to understand is that no one would even begin to compare the Princeton experience to the basic training of Paris Island. Yes, Harvard, Yale and Princeton have egos and strive to maintain their image as what U.S. News and World Report described as the undisputed "badasses of higher education," but one must not overlook the fact that the image is hard-earned and often well-deserved. To call an Ivy League education merely an aesthetic experience belittles our exceptional faculty, unrivaled resources and extraordinary student body. Ultimately, Gladwell, by looking at the undergraduate education as a means to an end — a gateway to a future well-paying career — overlooks what an undergraduate education is all about. By ascribing to the philosophy that Princeton is a mere steppingstone on the road to a high-powered law school and an even higher-powered job, Gladwell misses the real point of a Princeton education.

As I look forward to life with a degree, I feel that many of my friends are now facing the reality that the University, while it may open doors, will not get you a job. Princeton will educate us from the acme of academia and prepare our minds for any challenges the world may throw at us, but it will not secure a successful career; as Gladwell correctly states, only hard work and natural intelligence can do that. That being said, Gladwell begins his criticism by mocking a friend who proudly spoke of Harvard as if he could "not have accomplished anything of greater importance in the intervening thirty years" and that our society has fostered a misconstrued "obsession with the Ivy League." My college days at Princeton have been some of the happiest, most informative and rewarding years of my life. In the years from now, I will speak with pride, not of the system that let me in, but of the experience that I was lucky enough to be offered. Chris Berger is a history major from New York City. He can be reached at cberger@princeton.edu.