Disadvantages of an Elite Education

So Chris sent the link to this article, which I found really interesting even though I disagreed with parts of it...I'll share it here in case anyone wants to discuss it. http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-disadvantages-of-an-elite-education/

My take: I thought the bulk of the article was really interesting, but I did feel it romanticized the idea of the liberal arts education while simultaneously treating the pre-professional approach with derision. I feel that ultimately the point of education at any university is as a means of exploration, but the liberal arts approach isn't the only way to achieve this, and that the author's bias as an English professor factors into his unilateral praise of liberal arts. I definitely agree with the author in that I don't feel that the college admissions process is necessarily indicative of intelligence, just the ability to "play the game", so to speak. I also agree that the elitism associated with university education is off-putting to say the least, and though I feel it is less prevalent at Stanford than in the Ivy League, it still exists. For those of you who went to Admit Weekend, there was a good dose of "You are the chosen ones" ego-stroking. In Egypt I eat a large slice of humble pie almost every day, and it's refreshing in many ways to have my ego diminished. One of my non-academic goals for this gap year is to explore my interests because I am passionate about them, not because they were assigned to me (someone said something to that effect in an earlier post). After "playing the game" for so long, it's nice to be in a place where I'm still learning the rules.

Hope that was coherent! Ramadan is altering my circadian rhythm...I'm not really sure what time/day this is anymore.