To Turn the Tide

There have been a lot of cheers, murmurs and shuffling around in the college admissions world since Frank Bruni’s NYT article last week, “Rethinking College Admissions.” The article is basically a spotlight for Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Making Caring Common Project, which has released a report called “Turning the Tide: Inspiring Concern for Others and the Common Good through College Admissions.”

It’s a nice moment of acknowledgment about the flaws in competitive college admissions—particularly in terms of the negative impact on teenagers’ mental and emotional well being, as well as on their outlook for the future. The argument: the American system of elite college admissions, as it has evolved to this moment in time, reinforces individual applicants placing their own self-interested advancement well above working for the betterment of the people around them. Therefore, American colleges and universities—especially those that attract the most interest among high school applicants—have the opportunity to shift the focus of future generations' effort from themselves to the greater good. 

Getting the message into broader public is a clear and crucial first step, and there is plenty of evidence that it's already happening. For one, there has been a significant rise in test-optional admissions policies over the past few years. Also, when I read through the actual report, I observed that much of the language in MCC’s recommendations already exists in many colleges’ supplemental writing prompts. At conferences and in the emails on college counseling listserves, the messages of leveling the playing field and promoting equal access are ever resounding. 

As with all widespread, systemic problems, though, the message by itself is not enough. Sweeping change—a true turning of the tide—is incumbent on everyone involved in the admissions process: parents, students, high school counselors, teachers, IECs, and, of course, the colleges themselves. If there’s one thing that everyone needs to examine, it’s the driving force behind the ugliness: cynicism, fear of loss, and total aversion to taking risks. 

No matter what messages about the betterment of society are out there, without the courage and the integrity to follow through, both colleges and applicants will stay stuck in the pattern of saying one thing but doing another when the water gets hot enough. Numbers reign supreme here because we demand results, and data is the best evidence we have for mitigating risk. The risk of financing a college education is often looked at by parents as a necessary evil in attaining future security for their children; the return on investment comes down squarely to dollars and cents. The risk of admitting these students over those students based on probabilities of these students actually attending (and paying most, if not all, of their tuition) is a central job hazard for admissions officials. Numbers influence rankings (because rankings ARE numbers), rankings influence perception, perception influences reputation, reputation influences application numbers, which are factored back into rankings. And the cycle continues.

College counselors—at public and especially private high schools—risk their jobs if they don’t get the acceptance numbers demanded of them. For independent counselors, maintaining numbers correlates directly to the existential issue of making enough income to support themselves. 

When Frank Bruni revels about his “thrilling sense that something bigger is about to give,” I’m not so sure of what that is. Collectively, we’ve got to dig down and find an awful lot of courage to acknowledge that taking these risks is part of living life fully and making the world better for all of us in the long run. 

As author Susan Jeffers said, “We cannot escape fear. We can only transform it into a companion that accompanies us on all our exciting adventures.”

Response: Coopting the Creative & Reflective

I recently came across an article on the Harvard Admissions website, titled "Valuing the Creative & Reflective." Naturally, a guy like me was ecstatic to see this particular title in this particular context. I should have known better.

Helen Vendler, a veteran professor of British and American poetry, writes that Harvard is "eager to harbor the next Homer, the next Kant, or the next Dickinson," and proceeds to enumerate many of the literary titans among the ranks of Harvard alumni. What follows—rather than a piece articulating the actual value of creativity and reflection to a community and, by extension, to society at large—is a treatise on the expansion of an institution’s legacy, the singular importance of longevity of life’s work in the public consciousness, and bolstering national prestige throughout the ages.

Before reading, I should have reminded myself that this is Harvard. What do they have if not a reputation for producing the best of the best of the best? (Hopefully it’s an educational offering to match.) Vendler’s proposition is basically to coopt students’ capacity for creativity and reflection to burnish Harvard’s name in the world. She makes cultivating individuals' talents and sensibilities out to be akin to mixing the perfect cocktail: have your instructors swirl together a few doctrines like "excellence in an art," "unsociability," and "indifference to money," and you, too, might someday add the next generation’s Wallace Stevens to an illustrious list of alumni.

The article even goes so far as to suggest a hierarchy among these various fields of study, as measured by their contents' duration in the memory of the masses: "But science, the law, and even ethics are moving fields, constantly surpassing themselves. To future generations our medicine will seem primitive, our laws backward, even our ethical convictions narrow." I agree that the human experience is central to every endeavor, but what's the use in diminishing other fields to make the humanities number one?

What if, instead, all students were taught to use the practice of reflection to look fully inward—not just the ones showing promise as future thought leaders? There they could connect with intuition (for, as W.H. Auden put it in “The Labyrinth,” “The centre I cannot find / Is known to my unconscious Mind”), come face to face with their most essential self, and bring into focus their own core values. It’s the return to the world with those contents—which are at once unique to the individual in fragrance and flavor, and universal in their reflection of the human experience—that constitutes the basis of any creative act. Then they would learn to layer on the application of the intellect, which is no less important and must be well honed. 

The point? Reflection is a wholly internal process; keeping one eye turned outward in the expectation of recognition distorts or kills creativity at the source. How can any young person be expected to find solitude when the rest of the environment is filled with clamoring for accomplishment?

Furthermore, what if, rather than goading teens and twenty somethings ever onward to greatness (or, in its absence, the misery of having lost at the game of life), college students, while learning the skills of self-reflection, were given tools to contextualize the downs as well as the ups of their experience, coming to understand the relativity of both success and failure over the course of a lifetime? Imagine all the various gradients of good that could enter into the world if all students—not just the ones deemed most gifted or artistic—could learn, genuinely, to work firstly in service of the ideals of fulfillment and happiness, both for themselves and for those in the world around them? I'd gladly welcome those college graduates to the working world over those whose aegis is the cult of prestige, whether they're working on Wall Street or handwriting the next great American novel by candlelight in some hovel upstate.

I do appreciate the questions that Professor Vendler raises about the admissions process. Introverts often struggle with groups, and therefore come up short in applicant pools by the metrics of leadership, commitment to team activities, and volunteering in circumstances that might be uncomfortable for even the most outgoing teenagers. Individuals wired to process their experiences in a highly distinctive way very often struggle to keep up with classmates in certain subjects. But places like Harvard, the author suggests, in order to convince the more creative and reflective reflective students to stick with their passions at the expense of remuneration, should "mute our praise for achievement and leadership at least to the extent that we pronounce equal praise for inner happiness, reflectiveness, and creativity." While the sentiment, on the surface, is admirable, how could any observant mind (not to mention one with the potential for legendary brilliance), after having witnessed firsthand the self-aggrandizing culture of Harvard or any other institution riding high on its elite status, perceive that praise as anything other than hollow?

I am not suggesting that there is anything intrinsically wrong with achieving acclaim, fame, or the utmost proficiency as a thinker or artist. Nor is there anything inherently wrong with carrying an institutional reputation for producing thinkers, artists, and other scholars who are historically among the most visible and influential in their fields. What is troubling is the act of throwing the yoke onto creativity/reflection for the sake of greatness, rather than striving—and cultivating the ability and desire in the next generation—for the greatness of fully experiencing the creative/reflective act itself. On the institutional level, it’s self-defeating; and on the individual level, it can be devastating. As Adrienne Rich puts it,

I can't write a poem to manipulate you; it will not succeed. Perhaps you have read such poems and decided you don't care for poetry; something turned you away. I can't write a poem from dishonest motives; it will betray its shoddy provenance, like an ill-made tool, a scissors, a drill, it will not serve its purpose, it will come apart in your hands at the point of stress.

It’s true. As a graduate of another elite university’s creative writing program, I could barely write a word after college. I’ve spent many years now reclaiming and building confidence in my creative agency; in recalibrating the balance between my intellect and intuition; in forming and strengthening my true sense of self by clarifying what I value in myself and in others; and in finding the courage to speak from my heart and my guts. While there were occasional glimmers of these things in the poetry program at Northwestern, they were infrequent and nearly always subordinate to the perfection of technique and the loftiness of thought. The pressure to write great things felt predominantly self-applied, although in retrospect it was certainly part of the ambience on campus.

Can the next generation of gifted artists and thinkers find their way through the elite institutions of higher education and prevent “the matrix of culture [from becoming] impoverished”? The headlines couldn’t be clearer that what we so desperately need are contributors to culture—from every quarter—to counteract the effects of those who seek to destroy it. In the Harvards of the world, students will likely encounter frequently overwhelming rigor, sharp competition, the doctrine of intellectual supremacy. But I don’t see those institutions actually assisting introspective young minds in igniting their brilliance by paying lip service to creativity and reflection. “Art is born out of humiliation,” Auden advised Stephen Spender—a condition rarely borne gracefully by the gifted few.

Guest Blog: Why High School Study Abroad is An Amazing Pre-College Experience

This week's blog is courtesy of Justine Harrington from SPI Study Abroad. For more about the author, scroll to the end of the article. 

It’s no surprise to anyone that studying abroad during your high school years is guaranteed to be a life-changing, amazing experience. But, did you know that this is also exactly the kind of experience that will help prepare you for college?

In addition to honing a student’s foreign language expertise, high school study abroad programs offer the perfect opportunity to fine-tune the kinds of skills critical to success in college – before even stepping foot on campus! 

On Your Own

Before heading off to college, it can be so helpful for teens to have had practice with living independently. Study abroad programs for high school students provide the kind of real-world experience that students need when living on their own for the first time. When living abroad, you learn how to logically solve your own problems. Negotiating skills and self-advocacy move to the forefront as you navigate new situations and relationships. As most programs bridge the parental gap with teachers, advisors, or host families, students also get the advantage of honing their “adult survival skills” under the supervision of other adults. In essence, you get to practice being in charge of your own life – with the safety net of others’ support and guidance around you.

Out of Your Box

International programs also offer the unique opportunity to be confronted face-to-face with difference. Let’s face it, we’re creatures of habit: we all hunker down in our comfortable routines, eat at the same places, and hang out with the same people. And while this practice bodes well for developing solid relationships and familiarity, it doesn’t exactly aid in broadening our minds or our ways of thinking. 

Taking part in high school travel programs allows students to experience variety, diversity, and change. This experience helps build a frame of reference for other new encounters. Deeply engaging with a brand-new culture and language helps enable students analyze their experiences and better understand how things that are different can be beneficial – not frightening. Learning to embrace the unfamiliar with a scaffold of support is crucial in adapting to the challenges and changes of living on a college campus.

In Your Head

The college experience truly shapes and changes our lives – you’d be hard-pressed to find a student who hadn’t grown and fundamentally shifted after four years at school.  Through facing challenges, living independently, and learning about relationships while living closely with others, students are able to grow and develop in essential ways. 

But, imagine if you could do that before choosing a college.

International programs for teenagers offer character-shaping experiences that truly emotionally prepare them for independent living. Students, self-assured in their abilities to handle adversity and problem-solve on their own, are thus able to approach college with confidence. They are better equipped to tackle new challenges and make responsible decisions for themselves. Through these experiences, they are already turning into who they want to be.

In The End

Traveling overseas before college is undeniably one of the closest things you can get to experiencing college itself – students are able to independently navigate their day-to-day survival, develop key problem-solving skills, negotiate new cultures and people, and begin to form the foundations of who they truly are.  

About the Author: Justine is an equal parts travel junkie, intercultural education advocate, yoga-loving foodie, and writer. She's the Admissions Director for SPI Study Abroad, a leading provider of language immersion and global leadership programs for high school students, and is the main contributor for the SPI Blog. When not leading programs in France, you can find Justine on her yoga mat, exploring new restaurants in her neighborhood in Austin, or on Twitter at @Justine_Travels.

An Epic Example of Additional Info

Oh man. This is exciting. A high school senior recently shared with me the content she's including in the Additional Information section of her Common App. She has her eye on a career in creating and marketing digital content, and she's applying to some stellar communications programs with amazing opportunities in film & media production.

If you have three or so minutes to watch, the video below speaks for itself. She has taken the initiative to explore her interests and expand her skills independently, to question her own personal views, and to take the risk of putting her work out into the world. For the colleges that can really follow through on a fully holistic review, this will be her application's icing on the cake. 

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This past summer, I created a short film called “The F-Word,” using six of my close friends to spread a message about feminism. I always thought the word itself sounded negative, like some sort of cult. But I researched the true definition of this word and learned that feminism was a movement for equality—the basic idea that women are people, deserving of rights.  But I encountered too many instances in which people my age were certain that being a feminist meant trying to bring men down and make women the superior sex.

My original idea was to make an observational study, choosing people of all different backgrounds to answer simple questions about gender roles in society, but then I realized that I didn’t want to simply observe the flaws of some people’s views; I wanted to shed light upon the views that I believed to be most important for girls my age. I spent weeks coming up with questions, taping all the interviews, and editing the clips together.  I struggled a lot, and was unsure at some points whether it was truly delivering what I wanted it to. But in the end, I am happy with the way it turned out, and I felt that it was important to mention it in my application.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMc6UXzO0Lc

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Many thanks to Ella Bell for her permission to post,  and for having the courage to share her work and views freely!

Bryant. (I think I'm in love.)

I came back from the HECA tour in Rhode Island with a new college crush: Bryant University in Smithfield. Here are some highlights.

Thou shalt not pass through if ye still be undergrad.

While touring, I was informed that Bryant is one of the "three B's" -- colleges with big reputations for schooling kids in business. (The others are Bentley and Babson, not too far from Bryant.)

The magic of Bryant, though, starts very simply: student are required to have a major AND at least a minor, if not a second major. One must be in the liberal arts, the other in business. 

Come on. That's brilliant. Business is a lens through which one views the world -- not the world itself; it's the means and not the end. That's baked into the philosophy there: successful people in the business world are precisely that because they know how to conduct business around something -- a product, a service, an experience. Something they care about, other than the bottom line.

The students there were sharp. Poised. Articulate. Absolutely in love with their school. Classes are capped at 35. Stories abound of professors giving out their personal cell numbers to students, and even Skype tutoring students feeling adrift the night before a big exam. ThinkPads are included in the tuition so that every undergraduate can work on the go. Everything on this campus is BRAND NEW.

Can't bear the thought of leaving Bryant for a full semester? Try the Sophomore International Experience: 10-12 days between semesters or in summer, conducting business in another country.
It's available to all second years, including transfers. The best part? It counts as class credit.

There's also the Bryant Idea Program during freshman year, when, after getting through various personality and skill assessments, students are assigned to a group with a research question to address collaboratively. It's a three-day course, also for credit. And during second semester of the first year, students take a class in which they develop a business plan. It culminates in a 25-minute presentation, pitching the plan to actual execs from companies like Target. 

Our guide, temporarily playing professor.

87% of students live on campus, because there's really no housing nearby; seniors live in cushy on-campus townhouses. Everyone can have cars on campus, for free. They believe in going big or going home: take Big B bingo, for instance, during which students mark those cards to compete for prizes like an Xbox One. Daaaaaanng. 

The report was a 98% job placement after graduation. Really, with that sort of approach to the business realm and the rest of the world, I'm not surprised.

The Manhattan Campus Blast: Day 2

Fordham: the new lesson here? They have two campuses! I'll have to make it up to the Bronx on my next trip to NYC, but here were the big bits from the Lincoln Center campus.

First, it's in the middle of EVERYTHING, and students have the option to matriculate to either campus for studies within the liberal arts. This time around, however, learned about the theater and dance conservatory programs. Even on the smaller Lincoln Center campus -- known primarily for its programs in the arts -- there's no shortage of academic options. Fordham prides its programs on the interplay between arts and academic, creating scholar-artists, who produce art in conversation with the world.

In the performing arts, theater majors can choose from performance, playwrighting, design and production. During their foundation year, they are required to get a taste of each of the concentrations. More recently the school has added coursework on acting for camera, helping students understand how to translate theater training to on-screen technique. Yes.

On the dance side, Fordham's partnership with the Ailey School ensures that aspiring dancers have professional training on par with that other conservatory down the street. There is a plethora of internship opportunities, at places like Blue Man Group, in big casting offices, at the Lincoln Center itself. A name like Alvin Ailey doesn't hurt. There are two senior showcases each year: one for performers, one for design and production.

It's just the dance and theater programs that are direct admit; otherwise, students have the option of either campus. And up at the Rose Hill campus, Fordham competes in DI athletics, for the student looking for more of the traditional rah-rah experience.

Columbia: another gorgeous walking tour. 

And last, but certainly not least, Barnard:

Netiquette Lessons

For the past few years, I’ve run an annual morning workshop on email etiquette for a medical device sales company. Every time I've run the workshop, I'm astonished by the need that I feel in the room for it: the thirst for having a discussion about all the little ins and outs of writing something so seemingly simple as an email. There are no rules, very few absolutes, to govern how we write professional emails, which is probably why there is no formal “curriculum,” but then without an explicitly defined set of guidelines, these professionals who have developed all their practices on the fly seem to write with that slightly nagging bit of uncertainty in the back of their mind.

It make sense. So much depends on the details, the subtlest decisions they make about how they craft their outreach to their potential clientele. I'm dubbed an expert because I know how to name, organize, and facilitate discussions on those most basic components. I think about my own experience, how central the skill of written communication has been to my working life, how so many of my job opportunities would never have been available without these skills. There's no way I'd be able to make it on my own without writing and without a certain level of emotional intelligence. So much of it feels so intuitive, but then, in reality, I've acquired and developed those skills piece by piece according to all the different environments I’ve worked in.

Going into the corporate sales environment is great for me—in short spurts. I enjoy looking in as the outsider, riding the respect that I receive for my status as communications expert, having conversations with people whose vocational orientation has been defined by a highly competitive, hierarchical, achievement-centric culture. I wouldn’t last a month in that environment. I feel like I'd shrivel up and turn into dust. And not because I don't get along with the people (I like them a lot), and not because I disagree wholesale with the way business is conducted and the culture is curated (this particular training program is pinned around soft skills, emotional intelligence, and opening salespeople's minds to a less conventional career path with the company). So then what?

I rise to the occasion when something feels like my own—like I've poured my heart and soul into it, and as it’s my creative work, I can stand behind it wholeheartedly. I’m not ego-driven enough to place importance on leaving my mark as much as I am by the feeling that my work has purpose. It has meaning to me in that it aligns with the principles that I believe make the world a better, healthier, more constructive place for its inhabitants. In that sense, if it leaves a mark, great, but it feels like work should never expressly be about the act of leaving a mark. 

But how could corporate culture function without demonstrable results—with out measurable impact? That’s where I couldn’t hack it, personally. But for the young people whose future is corporate-bound, how do we orient them according to internal motivation while maintaining awareness of the external demands of their work environment?

The Manhattan Campus Blast: Day 1

The piggyback maneuver: on my way back from a friend's wedding in rural Pennsylvania, I showed up at six campuses in two days. Just the quick self-tour for some of the NYC usual suspects on students' lists. Some quick notes:

Parsons (The New School): 
Hard to beat living in the Village, if city life and a smaller, less traditional school is for you.

The Strategic Design and Management BBA program is an fascinating option for creative types who are business-minded, and looking to work specifically with artists. Major focus on branding and entrepreneurship in the digital age. 

The Integrated Design program: sounds most prominently like a mashup of fashion and technology, with the freedom to create your own major. Great alternative to the Gallatin School at NYU.

Get a feel for what happens here at the Man Repeller blog. 

NYU:
Just walked around to get the feel of the non-campus campus. Next trip I'll start the formal touring. Can't IMAGINE why so many LA city kids apply here!

Pace: one I see on lots of performers' lists. Mostly for those convinced that their destiny lies on the stage in NYC, who are focused and know what they want from their education and are willing to follow through. (Red flag: only a 53% graduation rate with a $60k+ sticker price!)

What I didn't know was that there are two discreet campuses: this one and another in Westchester, where the cinema and broadcast journalism programs are housed. The big plug the folks I met with was for the internship program, touted as the biggest in the city. For those studying at the NYC campus, the whole thing is contained in 5 - 7 walking blocks and housing is guaranteed for four years. 

Programs of note:
For actors, there is no generalized theater degree. Instead, there are BA and BFA tracks specifically in acting, a portion of which is geared toward on-screen technique.
BA Acting, International Performance Ensemble (IPE): this is a travel ensemble that devises its own work (YES!). They bring in a teacher actively working in the devised theater world to work with the cohort through the first year, and develop a show that is refined over the years and eventually showcased.
The BFA Acting program requires about 80 credits of 120 to be geared toward developing craft. It has movement, speech and screen-based acting.

Part II to follow.