R.J. Moeller: Choosing a College vs. Choosing an Education

R.J. Moeller

I suppose I was lucky when it came time to apply and select a college.  I knew I wanted a smaller, private, liberal arts, religiously-affiliated institution to spend four years of my life at.  After sending a handful of applications to the universities I was most interested in – any of which I would have been pleased to end up at – I was, thankfully, accepted to each and every one of them.  I knew what I wanted.  I knew my limitations in terms of schools that were unrealistic for me to get in to.  I chose the one that gave me an opportunity to get out of the Chicago-land area for a while, and loved every minute of it.

But not everyone is as fortunate.  For a variety of different reasons, the process for selecting a university can be arduous, stressful, and taxing for students and their parents.  The Washington Post’s nationally syndicated columnist George Will wrote about the trials and travails of college-hunting in a recent column.

For many families, this is March madness — the moment of high anxiety concerning higher education as many colleges announce their admittance decisions. It is the culmination of a protracted mating dance between selective institutions and anxious students. Part agony, part situation comedy, it has provoked Andrew Ferguson to write a laugh-until-your-ribs-squeak book — “Crazy U: One Dad’s Crash Course in Getting His Kid into College.”

He begins in Greenwich, Conn. — a hedge fund habitat — watching Katherine Cohen, an “independent college admissions counselor,” market her $40,000 “platinum package” of strategies for bewitching Ivy League admissions officers. “Everyone in the room,” writes Ferguson, “was on full alert, with that feral look of parental ambition. They swiveled their tail-gunning eyes toward Kat when she was introduced.” Kat introduced them to terror:

“There are 36,000 high schools in this country. That means there are at least 36,000 valedictorians. They can’t all go to Brown. You could take the ‘deny pile’ of applications and make two more classes that were every bit as solid as the class that gets in.”

Your son’s gazillion extracurricular activities? Kat sniffs: “He’s a serial joiner . . . just running up the score.” He was “invited” to participate in a “leadership” program in Washington? Kat’s lip curls: “The invitation came in the mail, I guess. It said he was ‘selected.’ Do you know why he was selected? Your ZIP code. They knew you could pay.”

The mere fact that there are such books for parents should tell us everything we need to know about modern American society.  Parents are more obsessed with where their kids go to college than the students themselves.  I saw this among my friends and their parents growing up.  I’ve seen this among my relatives.  I see this in the churches I’ve worked as a pastor in.

Certainly it is appropriate for any concerned, involved parent to want the very best for their student, but the insanity that surrounds choosing a school has reached a fever pitch.

And all the while, as parents jockey for their child’s academic position, and put hundreds of thousands of dollars aside for the exponentially-increasing tuition costs, the actual intellectual standards continue to diminish at even the most prestigious of universities.

Will continues:

Ferguson goes on campus tours conducted by backward-walking students armed with Harry Potter references — the dining hall looks like Hogwarts, there are Quidditch matches, a sociology seminar explores “Voldemort and Differentiation in Imperialist Identities.” Kat says that in his son’s application essays he must “talk about his innermost thoughts,” Ferguson shudders at this “compulsive self-exposure”:

“He’s a 17-year-old boy! I wanted to tell her: Seventeen-year-old boys do not have innermost thoughts — and if they did, neither you nor I would want to know what they are.”

This complicates writing the essays, which some people say should be liberally flecked with the word “diversity.”

Harry Potter instead of Dostoyevsky?  The innermost thoughts of a teenage boy instead of the analysis of the thoughts of prolific writers and thinkers who have already accomplished something?  Politically-correct essays that show admissions counselors just how willing a student is to fall in-line with the (mindless) status quo?

If the children really are “our future,” we may be in trouble.

It is nice to know there is $143 billion for student aid — but worrisome that $143 billion is needed. Ferguson’s history of the SAT confirms the assessment that it is “impossible to find a measure of academic achievement that is unrelated to family income.” It has been well-observed that America’s least diverse classes are SAT prep classes.

Still, the college admission process occasions too much angst. America is thickly planted with 1,400 four-year institutions. Motivated, selective students can get a fine education at any of them — unmotivated, undiscerning students at none. Most students love the schools they attend.  And the admissions quest can have splendid moments.

Last year, Wake Forest, a wonderful university with a stimulating application form, asked applicants what they would title their autobiographies. One, obviously a golfer, answered: “Mulligan.” Wouldn’t we all?

The most important point that Will (and Ferguson) make is this: motivated students can get a good education anywhere.  Lazy, un-focused students will never find satisfaction in their studies until they find the self-discipline that resides in all of us but doesn’t manifest itself in all people at the same time (if ever).

Parents should know their individual child’s character and capabilities more than their own desire for praise and adulation from fellow parents.  Not everyone can or should go to Harvard.  Not every family must spend a small fortune on college.

Wisdom, knowledge and success don’t only grow on Ivy.     

R.J. Moeller graduated from Taylor University with a degree in Business in 2005 and is currently a graduate student in the Masters of Divinity program at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School while also serving as a youth pastor in the Chicago-land area. R.J. blogs for both American Enterprise Institute and Americans For Prosperity. In addition, he is also the writer, editor, and procurer of his own website “A Voice in the Wilderness” (rjmoeller.com) where he discusses the intersection of theology, culture, education and free market economics. R.J. has been published in World Magazine, and is actively involved with The Acton Institute in Grand Rapids, MI. R.J. loves to fish and play tennis, be disappointed by the Cubs, and hang with his Rottweiler, Rudy. He lists among his influences GK Chesterton, Thomas Sowell, Dennis Prager, Francis Schaeffer, and Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Other Education Debate articles by R.J. Moeller:

• Describing the Madison, Wisconsin Protests and Rallies
• R.J. Moeller’s Firsthand Account of the Wisconsin Union Protests [with video]
• Howard Zinn and Paul Johnson: History Matters, But So Do Its Sources
• Why Teaching and Studying History Matters