infryq: Kitchen scene at dawn, post-processed to appear as if painted (Default)
infryq ([personal profile] infryq) wrote2012-02-01 02:23 pm

Something about caterpillars

My much-beloved undergrad, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, is working on its next strategic plan. One of the principles they have proposed is:
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)

[identity profile] nanoplane.livejournal.com 2012-02-01 08:35 pm (UTC)(link)
I think they should base their mantra more along the lines of the Apple "think different" campaign. Best in the context of brilliant, innovative, compassionate, not only outside the box but changing the shape of the box.

(Anonymous) 2012-02-03 04:00 am (UTC)(link)
Amen, Katie. I've heard similar thoughts from other Olin alumni, but this is the most eloquent version I've heard yet. Please make sure this gets sent to the strategic planning committee - maybe even send it to Thinktank? It's well worth hearing.

(Anonymous) 2012-04-03 01:14 pm (UTC)(link)
That was me, sorry. I'd forgotten my (antiquated and unused) livejournal login. --Mel Chua '07
cos: (Default)

[personal profile] cos 2012-02-03 07:18 am (UTC)(link)
For ideas, find some Marlboro College alumni and ask them how that school kept up its ability to attract quirky brilliantly exceptional individuals.
cos: (Default)

[personal profile] cos 2012-02-05 06:39 pm (UTC)(link)
I haven't spent as much time at Oberlin or Harvey Mudd as at Marlboro (amusingly, I've dated people at all three), but from what I know of Olin second-hand from you and a few other students/alumni, I can see Harvey Mudd and would include Marlboro, but Oberlin doesn't seem like it belongs. My impression of Oberlin was that it was much more of your typical high quality but conventional upper tier liberal arts school. Even compared to Hampshire, Oberlin is large, structured, and normal ... all of which are adjectives one might apply to Hampshire when comparing it to Marlboro :) It's all relative, of course.

Marlboro is not a technically-oriented school, and is mostly best known among rural New Englander academic high-achiever weirdos, but it's definitely the sort of school that attracts the kinds of students you seem to be after. It is also one of the most demanding undergrad experiences I've observed anywhere*, while also being the most flexible/individualized.

* And by that I mean, if someone has successfully completed their Marbloro undergrad, consider that the equivalent of a masters degree. They did equivalent work, they just packed it all into the same 4 years as their bachelors.
Edited 2012-02-05 18:40 (UTC)

[identity profile] sofarfromcaring.livejournal.com 2012-02-04 06:52 am (UTC)(link)
Seconded, or possibly thirded. Me and my ~3.5 GPA and tenuous relationship with half my high school teachers weren't a problem when I applied (probably helped that I started my own math class senior year), but if I were graduating now I'd probably be even more convinced that there was no way on earth I'd ever get in.

That said, I do believe that Admissions does a good job sifting through the applications they get, and I trust the people that the OVAL torch has been passed to. It's a tricky tightrope to walk, and I've got my fair share of complaints, but I do think that the people on the ground do a good job of it.