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Something about caterpillars
Feb. 1st, 2012 02:23 pmMy much-beloved undergrad, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, is working on its next strategic plan. One of the principles they have proposed is:
If we want graduates to be exceptional, they must be exceptions. They must be surprising. Unexpected. Certainly, Olin is entitled to use whatever definition of "best" they choose -- my class, the inaugural class, was not made up of folks with 4.0 high school records, it was made up of people who moved and shaked and had their own companies or invented a new variety of baseball that leveraged quantum physics. Some of us also had very good grades, but I thought it was fairly well-understood among us that the grades were not particularly good evidence of the kind of student we were looking for; they were evidence that a particular instance of the kind of student we were looking for also just happened to be curious about the same sorts of things that were being graded. Most teachers aren't idiots; if there's a way you can give a brilliant kid credit for something amazing she did in earnest of her own volition, you make it happen.
As Olin develops its reputation however, we're gaining public awareness, and the attention of people who see things the opposite way: that grades are the point, and if you can also be an Eagle Scout or start a community garden run by the neighborhood kids then that's just a good way to stand out.
I'm afraid that if we publicize ourselves as seeking to select the "best" students for admission, we will get more of the latter students, and fewer of the former students. More box-tickers. Fewer lifelong learners. More obedient queuers. Fewer spontaneous beekeepers. More people aiming to graduate and be named "exceptional" for doing so. Fewer people aiming to shape the school that will (sometimes just barely) graduate them, and who actually do all the revolutionary rule-breaking that "exceptional" implies.
I'm afraid we will lose our ability to tell the difference. Or if not the ability, then the opportunity: if a student who should be at Olin chooses not to apply because their GPA and SAT clearly indicate they are not the sort of "best" that we are looking for... then Olin simply loses.
So what is a better way for Olin to frame its desires? How should we describe the sort of student we want to see, and the sort of person we hope to effectuate? ('cause man, "produce" gives me the willies)
Attract the best; Produce the exceptional...and I'm not sure I agree.
If we want graduates to be exceptional, they must be exceptions. They must be surprising. Unexpected. Certainly, Olin is entitled to use whatever definition of "best" they choose -- my class, the inaugural class, was not made up of folks with 4.0 high school records, it was made up of people who moved and shaked and had their own companies or invented a new variety of baseball that leveraged quantum physics. Some of us also had very good grades, but I thought it was fairly well-understood among us that the grades were not particularly good evidence of the kind of student we were looking for; they were evidence that a particular instance of the kind of student we were looking for also just happened to be curious about the same sorts of things that were being graded. Most teachers aren't idiots; if there's a way you can give a brilliant kid credit for something amazing she did in earnest of her own volition, you make it happen.
As Olin develops its reputation however, we're gaining public awareness, and the attention of people who see things the opposite way: that grades are the point, and if you can also be an Eagle Scout or start a community garden run by the neighborhood kids then that's just a good way to stand out.
I'm afraid that if we publicize ourselves as seeking to select the "best" students for admission, we will get more of the latter students, and fewer of the former students. More box-tickers. Fewer lifelong learners. More obedient queuers. Fewer spontaneous beekeepers. More people aiming to graduate and be named "exceptional" for doing so. Fewer people aiming to shape the school that will (sometimes just barely) graduate them, and who actually do all the revolutionary rule-breaking that "exceptional" implies.
I'm afraid we will lose our ability to tell the difference. Or if not the ability, then the opportunity: if a student who should be at Olin chooses not to apply because their GPA and SAT clearly indicate they are not the sort of "best" that we are looking for... then Olin simply loses.
So what is a better way for Olin to frame its desires? How should we describe the sort of student we want to see, and the sort of person we hope to effectuate? ('cause man, "produce" gives me the willies)
