College Education Overkill?

Most timely connection! Ok so tonight taking a break from my paper I turned on the TV and it happened to be on CNBC. The even more exciting coincidence was that they were airing a special about the Harvard Business School. This aired special did not excite me because I am a Harvard Business School fiend but because the show highlighted controversial arguments that are similar to the motifs in Into the Wild and our transcendentalism unit. 

In Into The Wild, Christopher McCandless questions the worth of a college education, deeming it "as four years of preparing and fulling absurd and onerous duties for the one task of graduating from college" (Krakauer 22). As a graduate of Emory University with a 3.72 GPA McCandless' opinions of a college education are qualified with his high intellect and his college experience. Although his opinions are not universal, some might argue that McCandless believed the social norm of a college education is a superlative motive and unnecessary to success in life. As a vivid reader it is no surprise that McCandless' outlooks were similar to transcendentalist,  Ralph Waldo Emerson, who believed age did not merit intelligence. 

Similar to McCandless and Emerson I have started to question our societies emphasis on "good grades", a "great college" and "a life changing education." In the stress and unstoppable momentum of junior year I sometimes wonder what am I really working towards? Is college really my goal? Is getting into my top choice school a "great" school really the reward? After our talks in class I started to bring these thoughts back to reality and look at my education in a new light.

In class debating McCandless' views on a college education the topic of a "great school" education arouse. People debated the pro's and con's to getting a "great school" education. Some concluded that it would be easier to get your first job with the resume of a "great school" such as Harvard, Princeton, Yale, but does that mean the the high elite intellectuals and those that are going to make an impact in our society are only going to come from a span of eight of nine schools?

This is where the Harvard Business School Episode pulled these swirling opinions together. The President of Harvard Business School in an interview said that when Warren Buffet applied for their school the did decline him, and that has been one of their biggest regrets in the last 50 years. Schools want to accept students that the think have a high chance or bringing them a good name in the future but look how that deny played out. In another interview a alumni said "the Harvard ticket gave her chance to make a change in the world and  wanting to leave this world thinking she had made a difference in the world" (the motto of Harvard Business School). So there are some positive affects of a "great school" but is not the be all end all of success in life. 

The extremist attitudes of Mc Candless' wishes to deem a college education is unnecessary and high school students who glorify a college education as exclusive success to worth in the wolrd, need to reach a midpoint. There are faults in both mentalities. Both of these divide education into a dichotomy of black and white. Education is a broad rainbow of colors and each individual in expanding their mind should remember intellect is an individual matter.  Those that believe acceptance to Harvard Business School is a determining success or failure point in their life are extremist because what would Warren Buffett have become if he had given up basing his self-worth off of the Harvard Admissions Office? On the other hand the belief that education is unnecessary could be argued that someone who is uneducated might not be able to make this claim unless they have experienced the system of education and then under that condition it must be necessary to have a education. Some might say it all comes back to self-reliance, be who you are and nothing else, believe in yourself, and keep an open mind. Confidence in yourself and your own ideals is the only satisfaction and acceptance you need in life.