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Where You Go Is Not Who You'll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania / Frank Bruni

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Several conversations with friends and family members about the ultra-competitive high-stakes college admissions process that seems to have become the norm today, have often ended with the sentiment, “It’s so different than it used to be.” 

The enormous emphasis on test scores, GPAs, private tutors and consultants, taking the "right" courses, padding your teenage resume with charitable and entrepreneurial experiences, US News & World Report’s rather infamous rankings-- all these things have contributed to the single-minded push to gain admission to the most elite colleges and universities.  Is it all part of our obsession with name brands?  And does it really matter in the larger context?

In this book New York Times contributor Frank Bruni gives compelling evidence that suggests that students who attend off-brand state universities and “foundation” schools are oftentimes equally, if not more successful, as those who graduate from the ivies and their ilk.  Students thrive at these “other” schools, pursuing plentiful opportunities and readily realizing their potential when they’re not surrounded by a monochromatic culture of standardized test score overachievers resting on their laurels.  There's really a lot of food for thought in this book. 

Here are some memorable passages:

We live in a country of sharpening divisions, pronounced tribalism, corrosive polarization.  We live in the era of the internet, which has had a counterintuitive impact:  While it opens up an infinite universe of information for exploration, people use it to stand still, bookmarking the websites that cater to their existing hobbies… and customizing their social media feeds so that their judgments are constantly reinforced, their opinions forever affirmed.  p 95

..[T]oo many kids get to college and try to collapse it, to make it as comfortable and recognizable as possible.  They replicate the friends and friendships they’ve previously enjoyed.  They join groups that perpetuate their high school cliques.  Concerned with establishing a “network,” they seek out peers with aspirations identical to their own.  In doing so, they frequently default to a clannishness that too easily becomes a lifelong habit.  p 95

“It’s not necessary to get into a highly selective school in order to be successful,”… “What’s necessary is to understand what you want to do and how to do it well, and to be a self-starter.” p 155

“If you are extremely smart but you’re only partially engaged, you will be outperformed, and you should be, by people who are sufficiently smart but fully engaged.”  Britt Harris, the former chief executive of the Bridgewater Associates fund and a 1980 graduate of Texas A&M p 161

We know [...] that many people hit their strides late in life—later than college, sometimes by decades—and that who they are when an admissions office evaluates them and even who they are when they finish their higher education isn’t who they’ll be years later.  We know that extrapolating too far from the present into the future is a fool’s game:  At different times, we’re different versions of ourselves.  One version exists on the cusp of college.  There will be other versions down the road.  And they’ll be dealing with circumstances, professionally and personally, that we can’t begin to imagine.  p 168


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