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A review by sde
Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life by William Deresiewicz
3.0
This is a difficult book for me to rate. I think he has some excellent points that we as a society should be thinking more about, but I don't think he backed up his points very well. He made a lot of pronouncements and used a lot of anecdotes. I think it would have worked better if he wrote it in a more traditional "argumentative writing" style - gave us his hypothesis then argued why based on his research and discussion with students.
He is absolutely correct that to get into an Ivy League school you usually need to be an "excellent sheep" - one small blemish on your record due to not giving your teachers exactly what they want, experimenting, and taking courses outside of your skill or comfort zone, and you aren't getting in. I would have liked a little more explanation of why that is and how we got here.
I also would have liked more discussion on why so many people WANT to go to Ivy League schools, beyond the prestige. From lots of reading I have done, they seem to be not the greatest places for undergraduate education. People in academia advise parents to think carefully before sending your kids there - there are many better options for academically talented kids. Yet the applications keep pouring in. Is it because students figure the crappy supports and teaching are worth it because you are surrounded by so many smart people, and you will learn most things from your peers anyway?
The last part of the book was my favorite. It seemed more organized, and it included some pretty damning stats about the makeup of elite schools. It was fascinating/horrifying to me to learn about the different ways students are treated at different sorts of schools. At the elite schools, it is easy to get extentions (this was even true back in my day), but at public schools and lower tier schools you are much less likely to be given slack even though your excuses are likely to be much more legitimate.
The brief section about how something like a quarter of Harvard's students come from 100 schools and only 6 of those schools are public hit me. The son of a friend of mine is at Harvard. When he got to orientation, he asked his parents to stay for dinner for the first night before hitting the road because "everyone here already knows each other." His mother thought that was ridiculous at the time - people come from every corner of the country to attend Harvard. As time went on though, she realized that there was some truth to what he was saying, and this book explains why.
He is absolutely correct that to get into an Ivy League school you usually need to be an "excellent sheep" - one small blemish on your record due to not giving your teachers exactly what they want, experimenting, and taking courses outside of your skill or comfort zone, and you aren't getting in. I would have liked a little more explanation of why that is and how we got here.
I also would have liked more discussion on why so many people WANT to go to Ivy League schools, beyond the prestige. From lots of reading I have done, they seem to be not the greatest places for undergraduate education. People in academia advise parents to think carefully before sending your kids there - there are many better options for academically talented kids. Yet the applications keep pouring in. Is it because students figure the crappy supports and teaching are worth it because you are surrounded by so many smart people, and you will learn most things from your peers anyway?
The last part of the book was my favorite. It seemed more organized, and it included some pretty damning stats about the makeup of elite schools. It was fascinating/horrifying to me to learn about the different ways students are treated at different sorts of schools. At the elite schools, it is easy to get extentions (this was even true back in my day), but at public schools and lower tier schools you are much less likely to be given slack even though your excuses are likely to be much more legitimate.
The brief section about how something like a quarter of Harvard's students come from 100 schools and only 6 of those schools are public hit me. The son of a friend of mine is at Harvard. When he got to orientation, he asked his parents to stay for dinner for the first night before hitting the road because "everyone here already knows each other." His mother thought that was ridiculous at the time - people come from every corner of the country to attend Harvard. As time went on though, she realized that there was some truth to what he was saying, and this book explains why.